Japan duo prevail in Pair Go tournament | NHK WORLD

Japan duo prevail in Pair Go tournament

Players of the traditional board game Go have converged in the Japanese city of Nagoya to take part in international competitions for teams of male and female contestants.

The Pair Go events are part of a cultural program of the Asian Games, which are underway in Japan.

Top Go professionals from Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan competed in a tournament. The final match was held on Sunday at the Honmaru Palace in Nagoya Castle.

The showdown pitted Taiwan's team of Yang Tzu-hsuan and Hsu Hao-hung against Japan's Fujisawa Rina and Ichiriki Ryo. The Japanese pair clinched the championship when their opponents conceded defeat.

Fujisawa and Ichiriki then played in an exhibition match at a Nagoya hotel. They faced the duo of Japan's human player Iyama Yuta and the AI-powered Go program called KataGo. The hard-fought battle ended up with the Iyama-AI duo scoring a victory.

Fujisawa said the appeal of Pair Go is the need to predict what moves the other three players will make and that she and Ichiriki were able to collaborate successfully. She added that she is very happy to win the tournament.

Iyama noted that his AI partner employed some techniques human players could hardly have imagined. But he said the KataGo system still seems to make mistakes. He added that humans will always have to consider whether they can completely trust AI.