Go on Go: The Analyzed Games of Go Seigen

481 Pages·2007·17.74 MB·English

Go on Go:
The Analyzed Games of Go Seigen
GoSeigen
TranslationandAdditionalMaterialbyJimZ.Yu
ii
Contents
Preface v
1 AFan’sIntroductiontoGoSeigen 1
2 GoSeigen-KitaniMinoru 3
3 GoSeigen-Fujisawa 63
4 GoSeigen-SakataEio1 121
5 GoSeigen-HoninboShukaku(Takagawa)1 175
6 GoSeigen-HoninboShukaku(Takagawa)2 229
7 GoSeigen-Hashimoto 279
8 GoSeigen-SakataEio2 339
9 GoSeigen-Shimamura 397
A AShortBiographyofWuQingYuan(GoSeigen) 447
B Japan’sStrongestDecidingMatches 453
C HoninboShusaiRetirementMatch 455
D “GreedySakata” 459
E Sakata’sMyoshu 463
F RazorSakata 467
G Sakata-Shuko 471
H PossibleContinuationofKoRuleDispute 473
iii
iv CONTENTS
Preface
This book is a collection of stories and commented games published by Jim Z. Yu on the
rec.games.gonewsgroupinlate1993. Mr.YutranslatedthegamesfromChinesefromthebook
“DetailedAnalysisofWu’sFamousGames.” (WuisGoSeigen’sChinesename.) BecauseIenjoyed
theinformationsomuch,Iwantedtoputtheminaformatthatwouldbeeasytousealongwithareal
boardtoreplaythegames,andeasytogivetofriends. TheoriginalgamesweredistributedasMGT
computerfiles,andtheoriginalstoriesastextfiles.
Virtually all of the remaninder of the text is Wu’s or Yu’s, with a few exceptions. With the
exception of the biographical appendix, all introductory material is by Mr. Yu. The biographical
appendixismainlybyWu’s brother. Thegamecommentaries aregenerallybyWu. However, they
containnotesmadebytheoriginalJapaneseeditor, Mr. KatsumotoTesshuu. Mr. Katsumotooften
introducessomebackgroundinformationatthebeginningofagame, andsomecommentaryonthe
moves towards the end, when Go Seigen 9 dan tends to comment less. His comments during the
games aregiveninitalics. SomeadditionalnotesforthesakeofclarrificationandmadebyMr.Yu
andareenclosedinsquarebrackets,“[”and“].”
IhaveusedbothJanvanderSteen’ssgf2miscutilityandDanielBump’ssgf2textotypeset
thegames,andItypesetthestoriesbyhandusingLATEX.Theoriginalsourceforthegamesandstories
canbefoundontheInternetGoArchives,whicharecurrentlyfoundatftp.joyjoy.net/Go.The
completeURLfortheoriginalsourcecodeis:
ftp://ftp.joyjoy.net/Go/games/goseigen.sh.Z
LinkstotheLATEXsourcecodeforthisbook,aswellpremadepostscriptandPDFversionareavailable
at:
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/bridges/go/gobook.html
One note regarding copyright: All of the text here included here was pulled off of the Internet
GoArchive,andtranslatedfromuncopyrightedChinesebooksbyJimZ.Yu. Mr.Yuholdscopyright
on the translations and stories in this book, and has granted the right to reproduce his material for
personal(non-commercial)reference. Typesettingandeditingwasdonebyme,PatrickBridges. My
changes are available under the GNU Documentation License, v 1.0 or later, when that becomes
available. Until then, I assert copyright over my changes, but grant permission for reproduction or
editingforpersonal,non-commercialuse.
Patrick Bridges, Fall 1999
[email protected]
bridges 8k* on NNGS
v
vi PREFACE
Chapter 1
A Fan’s Introduction to Go Seigen
He played like the birds fly: swift and light. Suddenly the position could get frozen
though,andthenonewouldgetaglimpseoftheuniverseofvariationshiddenbelowthe
skythatWuhadspannedintheearlierstages.
—Afriend(JanvanderSteen)onGoSeigen’s(Wu)game
GoSeigenismyidol.Fortwosimplereasons:
1. Hewongames
2. Hewongamesinhisuniquemanner.Always.
Maybe a few other professional players can qualify the above criteria. “Ancients” like Kitani
MinoruandSakataEio,andthe“superplayers”ofthe80’s: RinKaiho,OtakeHideo,KatoMasao,
TakemiyaMasaki,ChoChikun,andKobayashiKoichi. Anddon’tforgetthebigmaninChina: Nie
Weiping.
These are all big winners. But none of them is as big a winner as Go Seigen. Go Seigen once
ruledJapaneseGoprofessionforonethird ofacentury! Andthatwasa1/3ofcenturywhenJapan
wastheonlylandwhereGowasblooming. I(JimYu)thinkit’sfairtosaythatanewgenerationof
professionalscomeoutabouteverytenyears.Then,GoSeigenwouldhavetoholdoffthechallenges
from three generations of best Go players in Go history. And that he did: First there was Kitani
Minoru, who, perhaps, would have been rated as great as Go Seigen had he not faded after World
WarII. Thenthere was Fujisawa Kuranosuke (who later changedhis name to Fujisawa Hosai), the
first ever professional 9 dan (Go Seigen was the second) after the death of the last Meijin, Shusai.
Finally,inthe50’s,SakataEioandTakagawaShukakuemergedasthetopchallengerstoGoSeigen.
ButnoneofthemwasabletotakeawaytheNo.1seatthatbelongedtoGoSeigen.
Andwecan’tsaythesechallengerswereweak.Infact,anyofthemwasadefinitionoftheopposite
of“weak.” Kitani,alongwithGoSeigen,discoveredtherevolutionary“NewOpenings.” Hemight
havebeenmorefamousofhismagnificentdisciples(5ofthe6“superplayersofthe80’s”mentioned
above, except Rin, were his pupils), but as a player, according to Go Seigen, he was “first of [Go
Seigen’s]toughestopponents.”Theytwotogetherwrotethehistoricalperiodcalled“Go-KitaniEra,”
aspanofaboutadecadebeforeWWII.
FujisawaprobablyspenthisentireplayingcareerinGoSeigen’sprime,andthatproducedanother
memorable rivalry. There was only one player who was strong enough and being strong *long*
enoughtoplaythree10-gameserieswithGoSeigen,andhisnamewasFujisawaKuranosuke(later
Hosai). And let us not forget: Go Seigen lost only one 10-game series in his life, and that was to
Fujisawa(ithappenedduringWWII;GoSeigenwasunbeatablein10-gameseriesthereafter).
1
2 CHAPTER1. AFAN’SINTRODUCTIONTOGOSEIGEN
Sakata Eio. Weknowhis stories –themanhas wonmoremajor championships thananyother
JapaneseplayersinmodernGohistory.Idon’tremembertheexactnumber,butit’scloseto“70titles
whenhewas70yearsold.” Howcouldhewinsomany?! Onehastowonder.
Takagawa Shukaku, whose first name originally was “Kaku”, without “Shu.” In Japan, only
Honinbo title holders would add a “Shu” in their names, and Takagawa certainly deserved this
honorable character – he once won 9 straight Honinbo titles. And that was the time he started
to challenge Go Seigen. There were total of seven 3-game series, or 21 games, between the two.
Takagawalostthefirst11,andwhathedid? Hewon7outofthenext10.Thatspelled“tough.”
Soherewehavethepicture: Kitani,Fujisawa,Sakata,andTakagawa–anyofthemwasagreat
playerwhowastalentedenoughtodominatehisera.Yetitdidnothappen. Itdidnothappenbecause
ofoneman:GoSeigen.GoSeigenwasthewinnerofwinners;GoSeigenwasthegeniusofgeniuses.
WatchingGoSeigen’sgamealwaysbringsmepleasure. It’snotthatIfullyunderstoodhismoves
andwasthusappreciated(that, infact, isstillalongwaytogo); rather, theshapeofhisstonesand
thetempoofhismovesseemtoalwayslightenmeup.
Go Seigen seemed to have an extraordinary ability to simplify local (on the board) conflicts.
Especiallyinopenings. Oftenhewouldplay“tenuki”moves–movesthatlocallyignoreopponent’s
previous move – although that would lead to some local loss, globally speaking, he would gain.
Becausehepreferredtoplayfewer movesat the openingcorners, his games were usuallyonafast
pace.Quickly,middle-gamefightsstarted.That’sthekindofgameIwouldenjoytowatch(andplay,
ofcourse,ifI*can*).
Goingtomiddlegame,GoSeigenwasagainshowingextraordinarypower. Hesettledhisweak
groupsquickly;hestartedtoattackhisopponentquickly. By“quickly”Idon’tmeanheplayedtwice
orthriceasfastashisopponent(althoughheindeedoftendid),butImeanhecoulduseonlyafew
simplemovestostartorend,again,alocalconflict.Gradually,sincehisopponentwasunabletocatch
upwithhishighefficiency,GoSeigenstartedtolead–aleadthathe,inhisprimetime,wouldnever
surrender.
ThusGoSeigen’sendgameveryoftenbecameexceptionallysimple. Well,endgameseemstobe
aphasethatonecannotreallysimplify.Ifthereare,say,suchmanyunsettledboundaries,bothplayers
have tofinishthemoff, unless –unless it’s likein many of GoSeigen’s games, the game was over
beforetheendgamestarted.
That’sallIcanseefromGoSeigen’sgame.Iamunabletovisualizehislocalorglobal“feelings”,
andIamunabletocarryouthisdeepcalculations. AllIcanseeisasurfaceofhisgame–yet,it’sa
surfacethat’sclearenoughtoreflecthismanners. Goisagamefullofconflicts,andifamancould
handlealltheseconflictsinasimplemanner*and*win–Iwouldsay,heisagenius.Thisgeniuswas
GoSeigen.
This reminds me of a biography of Albert Einstein. The author convinced me that to describe
Einstein,“simplicity”wastheword. Einsteinwasamanwhohandledthingsinsimpleways. Idon’t
knowifthisbookonEinsteinhadunconsciouslyhelpedmetounderstandGoSeigen,butasoftoday,
I am convinced that, if these two geniuses of the 20th century had nothing else in common, they
sharedoneword: “simplicity.”
Isuddenlyfeel sorry for beingborn 50 years toolate. I want toplaygames with Go Seigen. I
mightloseeverygametohim,butIwouldn’tcare. Whenonegetsachancetoplaywithagenius,it’s
notjustahonor. Itcouldwellchangehislife: somethingdeepinsidehismindcouldsuddenlylight
up... Yes, that’s whyI want toplaywith GoSeigen; the more Iwouldlearnfromhim, the closerI
wouldbewiththetruthofGo.
GoSeigenismyidol.
Chapter 2
Go Seigen-Kitani Minoru
GoSeigenwassurelyoneofthegreatest,butagiantseldomstoodallbyhimself. Indeed,therewas
atleastoneothergiantofShowa 1whocouldeasilystandshoulderbyshoulderwithGoSeigen. His
namewasKitaniMinoru.
HemightnotwinasmanygamesasGoSeigen,butgreatnessisnotdeterminedbywinningalone
either. YouyiChen,afriendofmine,wrotetome:
When Greatness is measured by the influence ONandOFF the board, I amafraid that
KitaniMinoruwasasgreatasGoSeigenifnotgreater.
The “influence” Youyi mentioned here did not just mean the “New Openings” discovered by
KitaniMinoruandGoSeigen,anditdidnotjustmeanthegutperformancethestubbornKitaniput
onwhenhefacedMeijinShusaiinMeijin’sretirementmatch 2,italsomeantKitani’sinfluencetothe
future–donameslikeOtake,Ishida,Takemiya,Kato,Cho,andKobayashiallsoundfamiliar? They
wereallKitani’spupils.
That’s why, when I saw the book “Detailed Analysis on Wu’s Famous Games” (Chinese) con-
tained one game between Go Seigen (Wu) and Kitani, I decided to post it as Game 1 of this “Go
SeigenSeries.”
ThegamewasthefirstbetweenthesetwogiantsafterWorldWarII.Atthetime,GoSeigenwas
unanimouslyNo. 1afterbeatingoneopponentafteranotherin10-gameseries. Meanwhile,Kitani,
whowaspromotedto9-danjustayearbefore,waswinninggamestoo. Thusthisfirstmeetbetween
the two greats in 13 years became a big show. And it was a game in “Japan’s Strongest Deciding
Matches.”Attheend,GoSeigenonceagaincameoutasthewinner,butnoonewouldsayKitaniwas
aloser–hehadestablishedhimselfforeverasawinner.
1ShowawasJapan’slastEmperor’stitle,andShowaYearsspannedfrom1925to1989. Currently,1992isHeisei(new
Emperor’stitle)Year4.
2SeeAppendixCformoreinformationonthisgame.
3
4 CHAPTER2. GOSEIGEN-KITANIMINORU
KitaniMinoru,9dan
versus
GoSeigen,9dan
Black:KitaniMinoru,9dan
White:GoSeigen,9dan
Date:April14-15,1957
Place:Tokyo,Japan
Komi:0
Result:W Resign
(cid:0)
A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T
19 19
18 18
17 2 4 17
16 1 16
15 15
14 14
13 13
12 12
11 11
10 10
9 9
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 6 a 5
4 5 7 4
3 3 3
2 2
1 1
A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T
B1–B7
GoSeigen(Wu)vs. Kitani
(The1stJapan’sStrongestDecidingMatches)
Black: KitaniMinoru,9d
White: GoSeigen(Wu),9d
Date: April14-15,1957
Place: Tokyo
Black 1: Before WWII, in Japan, the most popular stars in sports were led by Futabayama of
sumo[Japanesewrestling],Kawakamiofbaseball,Boriguchiofboxing,andKimuraMeijinofshogi.
While in Go, the most honorable, at the top of the world, were none other than the discoverers of
”newopennings”,KitaniMinoruandGoSeigen[Wu].
[Nowit’spost-wartime.] Thosefamousstars[excludingWuandKitani],atonetimeoranother,
haveeitherretiredorfaded,andonlythehomerunkingofbaseball,Kawakami,isstillabletolive
upwithhisfame;heisararity.
ButWu,sincetravelingtoJapanin1928attheageof14,hasheldthehighesthonorinGo,never
faded in 30 years. He is truely a genius that would appear only once a few hundred years in Go
history.
White 2: Comparing with competitions in which outcome may be decided in a short burst or a
splitofsecond, aGogametakesmuchlonger battlestoyieldawinner andaloser. This mayhave
tolduswhyGoplayers’professionalcareersarelongerthanthatofothersports.
Black3:AfterWWII,KitaniMinoru’srecordsweredownforawhile,butsincehewaspromotedto
9danlastyear[1956],hisonceunbeatableformappearedagain. Recentlyhepostedanastonishing