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Feng Yun and Jie Li

The final round of the mixed doubles competition featured the same pairings as in the crucial third round of the mixed team event: China against Korea, Chinese Taipei against Japan, Europe against the USA. Somewhat surprisingly, eight of the twelve mixed doubles contestants, including all but one of the men, had lost in round three of the team event. None of the men had played each other. Three of the six women had, of course, played other women and lost. Korea’s Kim Hyemin, Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham, and Europe’s Vanessa Wong were hoping to avenge these losses with their partners’ assistance.

Today’s fashion statement was made by Jie Li, who arrived just before the starting time wearing black trousers, a black shirt, a black leather jacket, and a gray striped necktie. His partner Feng Yun was also wearing black, as was Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham, and the Japanese pair was dressed in black suits as always.

Vanessa Wong

The formal atmosphere was lightened by Li He, who was again wearing bluejeans. Yesterday’s joking was gone, but Catalin Taranu, seated next to Vanessa Wong, was beaming smiles around the room. Winless so far, he and his partner could only improve on their results of the past week.

Seated at the front of the room under the television cameras, the Chinese pair, Li He and Piao Wenyao, drew the black stones. This game started with yet another low Chinese opening, but this time the low Chinese formation was played from the white side of the board by the Korean pair, Kim Hyemin and Choi Chulhan.

While the six pairs were competing for medals played and final standings in the playing room, an impromptu match between was being played three of the players from Chinese Taipei and three Japanese players in the adjoining research room: Chen against Yamashiro, Hsiao against Ogata, Wang against Sakai. Clocks were being used. Chinese Taipei won this strictly informal mini-event 2-1. The winners were Yamashiro, Hsiao, and Wang, who reversed their individual outcomes in the formal match three days ago.

Mixed Doubles: Medal Ceremony

The Europe-USA mixed doubles game ended before noon, and as in the mixed teams competition, it was the Americans who prevailed. Ranka asked Vanessa Wong for her comments about the pair competition. “It was much different from the individual competition,” she said. “You have to play by instinct and trust your partner. The connection between you and your partner is more important than the individual strengths.”

The other two games ended a little past noon, and in them too, the results mirrored the mixed team results, China defeating Korea and Japan defeating Chinese Taipei. The prizes are smaller than for the team event: 12,000 U.S. dollars for first place, 6,000 for second place, 4,000 third and fourth places, 2,000 for fifth and sixth places.

Xia He vs Hidaka Masahiro

The mixed doubles medals were awarded at an after-lunch ceremony that started with the awards for the draughts competition. Russian and Ukrainian draughts players mounted the dais to receive gold, silver, and bronze medals, and the audience stood for the national anthem of the Russian Federation, followed by music from the Nutcracker Suite. Then came the go pairs. Bronze medals were draped around the necks of Mukai Chiaki and Yamashita Keigo, silver medals around the necks of Kim Hyemin and Choi Chulhan, and gold medals around the necks of Li He and Piao Wenyao, followed by the Chinese national anthem and some modern-style traditional Chinese music. Ms Taki Hiroko of the Japan Pair Go Association, which had launched mixed doubles go some two decades ago, was on hand to congratulate the winners.

The go competition was not quite over. Hidaka Masahiro, three-time Japanese amateur champion and winner of the online go tournament that preceded the World Mind Games, had been avidly following the mixed team and mixed doubles competition for the past week from the research room.

Vladislav Artemyev

Now he found himself seated at a go board in the center of the playing room. His opponent: Xia He, China’s number three team member and number one gentleman. The handicap: at the request of the organizers, none, Mr Hidaka taking black, white receiving the standard compensation. The result: Mr Hidaka resigned after 158 moves. Mr Xia praised Mr Hidaka’s vision and strategic grasp of the whole board, but Mr Xia had succeeded in forming a double life inside Mr Hidaka’s lower left corner, and white was far ahead.

In the research room, the informal competition between Japan and Chinese Taipei still continued. In the hall outside, tables had been set up in a square and Vladislav Artemyev, the thirteen-year-old Russian chess master who had won the online chess tournament, was playing simultaneous games against thirty Chinese elementary schoolchildren, 21 blue-clad boys and 9 pink-clad girls.

Mind games forever!

- James Davies

Mixed Doubles: China vs Ch. Taipei

After a three-hour lunch break, the pairs from Chinese Taipei and Japan returned to the playing room to take on the pairs from China and Korea. The game between China and Chinese Taipei would be televised, so Li He, Joanne Missingham, Piao Wenyao, and Chou Chun-hsun took their seats beneath the crane-like boom of the overhead TV camera. Li was wearing bluejeans. Piao, like Chou, was wearing a black suit and white shirt, open at the collar. The four started out by chatting and joking across the board, but as the starting time approached they fell silent.
At the other board Mukai Chiaki, Yamashita Keigo, Kim Hyemin, and Choi Chulhan were also silently awaiting the start of the game. The Koreans were in uniform. Ms Mukai had lost to Ms Kim in the team match yesterday, and her face wore a look that spoke eloquently of revenge.

The starting instructions were given by executive chief referee Wang Yi, and the games began. The pairs from Chinese Taipei and Japan played black. The Japanese pair again deployed the low Chinese opening. On both boards, the pace of play was much slower than in the morning round.

Kim Hyemin and Choi Chulhan

The game between China and Chinese Taipei finished first, before six o’clock. China’s Li He and Piao Wenyao were the victors, winning by two-and-a-fraction stones by Chinese counting. As in all the games, the counting was done by the referee.

In the game between Japan and Korea, the Korean pair captured the Japanese pair’s top left corner group, not a large capture but critical because it saved the surrounding white stones. From there, the Korean pair coasted to victory by five-and-a-fraction stones. Revenge was not to be had.

Tomorrow morning the Chinese and Korean pairs will play for the gold medal, while the pairs from Chinese Taipei and Japan battle for the bronze and the American and European pairs contest fifth place.

- James Davies

Chou Chun-hsun and Joanne Missingham

After the bustle of the mixed team event, the playing room seemed unnaturally empty in anticipation of the mixed doubles competition. Only three tables were set up, in the middle of the room, and one of them was empty. The crew of schoolboy and schoolgirl game recorders was reduced to just two, one boy and one girl, befitting a mixed doubles event.

The girls from London and Taipei, Vanessa Wong and Joanne Missingham, were the first two players to take their seats. Ms Missingham wearing the same pink outfit she had worn on the first day of the team event. Ms Wong was wearing a black sweater and black slacks with a purple shawl. The four men all arrived wearing white shirts with black coats and trousers. Yamashita Keigo and Jie Li also sported neckties; Chou Chun-hsun and Catalin Taranu left their shirts open at the neck. Mukai Chiaki wore the same black suit in which she had received her bronze medal the evening before. Feng Yun wore white. Chief referee Hua Yigang stood joking in Chinese with the players from the USA and Chinese Taipei, then proceeded to the front of the room to give the starting instructions. Play started on the dot at 9:30 a.m.

Vanessa Wong and Catalin Taranu

For the first time, the players chose colors by guessing even and odd. At the Europe-Japan table Vanessa Wong guessed wrong and the European pair got white. At the USA-Chinese Taipei table Joanne Missingham guessed right and the American pair also got white. The atmosphere was relaxed. Neither game would be televised.

As gold and silver medalists in the mixed team event, the Chinese and Korean pairs had a bye in round one. In the afternoon, the winner of the Europe-Japan game would face the Korean pair and the winner of the USA-Chinese Taipei game would face the Chinese pair. Tomorrow all six pairs compete in the final round to decide the full order of finish.

Mukai Chiaki

The Japanese pair, Mukai Chiaki and Yamashita Keigo, started with another low Chinese opening. Their game lasted until noon. Vanessa Wong and Catalin Taranu put up valiant resistance, even turning one of their opponent’s groups into a double life. This earned them an extra point because Chinese rules recognize territory in double life, but in the end they lost by 4-3/4 stones (9.5 points). The other game ended a little earlier, the American pair (Feng Yun and Jie Li) resigning in the face of a monstrous black territory that included a lifeless white group.

Afterward both pairs stayed to discuss the games in true mixed doubles style, all smiles on both sides, no trace of any anguish or ill feeling. The pairs from Chinese Taipei and Japan move on to the afternoon round.

- James Davies