On a chilly Sunday afternoon in January in downtown Osaka, a group of young Japanese women in kimono were drinking green tea and eating chocolate cake while excitedly chattering away. The topic was their respective rankings in the ancient Asian mind sport of go. Later, when the talk died down, six of them formed three pairs who sat facing one another at small tables lined up in rows. And then — silence. The only sounds were soft classical music playing in the background, punctuated by the clinking of polished black and white stones when one of the women dipped her hand into a bowl to pick one up and place it on the board with a gentle tap.
Although most people in Japan associate go with elderly men and smoke-filled salons, the strategy board game has been catching on recently among young women, and events that cater to women have been springing up around the country. Though the number of participants is still small, there has also been a parallel uptick in female players worldwide since the emergence of "pair go," a mixed doubles version of the game, in the late 1980s..
At the elite amateur level, however, female participation still has a long way to go. At the 33rd World Amateur Go Championships taking place this week from May 13- to16 in Guangzhou, China, just one of the 59 players (from 59 countries) is female.