Tungalag Ravjir and Sansar Tsolmon, who have represented Mongolia separately in several World Go Amateur Championships, teamed up this morning to provide one of the biggest surprises yet in the go competition at the World Mind Sports Games: they defeated Wang Yu-chi and Lin Ching-chia of Chinese Taipei in the third preliminary round of the pair go event. On paper, the duo from Chinese Taipei should have had an easy win.

Mongolian Mixed Pair

They are both ranked at 6 dan, while the Mongolian pair is ranked at 3 dan (Ravjir) and 4 dan (Tsolmon). On the board, however, it was the Mongolians who prevailed, by seven and a half points. “I think we won in the endgame,” said Tsolmon. They now take an unbeaten record into the fourth round, in which they face the Canadian pair.

The last pre-knockout round of the women’s team event produced no such surprises. In block A, the Republic of Korea finished with seven wins, Japan with six wins, and DPR Korea with five wins. Germany, Czechia, and the USA all recorded four wins, but the German team’s victory over the USA in the second round stood them in good stead; they outpointed their two rivals on SOS to finish fourth and earn a place in the knockout. Also getting into the knockout by SOS was the team from the UK, who took fourth place with 4-3 in block B, following China (7-0), Chinese Taipei (6-1), and Australia (5-2) and edging past Russia and Hong Kong China, who likewise finished 4-3. The knockout begins this afternoon.

The last women’s matches to end were the ones between Australia and France and between Mongolia and Spain. In the former, the Australians won 3-0 to make sure of their third-place finish in block B. The latter match was the battle for ninth place in block A, and it was the Spaniards who carried the day 3-0, relegating the young Mongolian team to tenth place.

In the men’s team event the pairings are starting to tighten up. In this morning’s Korean clash the Republic of Korea scored a decisive 5-0 win over the DPR Korean team. China, Chinese Taipei, and Japan also maintained their perfect records, defeating Finland, Israel, and Canada 5-0, and the Polish team handed the team from New Zealand a 5-0 shellacking. In two closely fought European matches, the Russian team beat the Ukranian team and the German team beat the UK team by 3-2 scores. The Russians will try their luck against Chinese Taipei this afternoon while the Germans take on DPR Korea and Romania challenges China.

– James Davies