Photo/Illutration Sumire Nakamura, right, 11, and Risa Ueno, 14, after an official pro go match where the players' combined age was the youngest ever recorded in Tokyo’s Ichigaya district on Oct. 8. (Provided by the Nihon Ki-in)

Eleven-year-old Sumire Nakamura on Oct. 8 defeated a 14-year-old opponent in an official match, adding up to the youngest combined age in the history of the traditional board game in Japan.

Nakamura, the nation's youngest professional go player, beat Risa Ueno, a second-year junior high school student, in the eighth-final match for the 24th Docomo Cup Women’s Kisei Title in Tokyo’s Ichigaya district.

The players' combined age was 25 years and 10 months.

“I think I was able to play well,” Nakamura said after the match. “I didn’t get particularly nervous. I want to do my best in playing in my style at the next match as well.”

Among all the professional go players in Japan, Ueno is the second youngest after Nakamura, a sixth-grader, who went pro in April 2019 at the age of 10 years and less than a month, the youngest on record in the country.

The 1-dan players, who are both in the second year in their professional career, were facing off in an official match for the first time.

Nakamura is a member of the Kansai branch of the Nihon Ki-in (Japan Go Association) while Ueno belongs to the association’s Tokyo branch.

Since they are based in different regions, they had not played each other until Nakamura won joint preliminary matches that covered Osaka and Nagoya and Ueno got through qualifying rounds in Tokyo to reach the eighth-final.

Nakamura played with white stones at the match. It was her third eighth-final match in her professional career and the first in which she claimed victory.

Her win, at 11 years and 7 months of age, made Nakamura the youngest go player to win an eighth-final match. The previous record was 13 years and 1 month, set by 9-dan player Daisuke Murakawa in the 2004 Shinjin-o up-and-coming players tournament, when he was a 1-dan.

With her latest win, Nakamura advanced to the quarterfinals and needs to win three more matches to earn the right to challenge Ayumi Suzuki, 37, for the women’s Kisei title.

If Nakamura beats Suzuki, she would become the youngest female title holder, breaking the record of 15 years and 9 months set by Rina Fujisawa, 22, the Tachiaoi title holder.

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