Go on Go: The Analyzed Games of Go Seigen GoSeigen Translation and Additional Material by JimZ. Yu ii Contents Preface v 1 AFan’sIntroductiontoGoSeigen 1 2 GoSeigen-KitaniMinoru 5 3 GoSeigen-Fujisawa 69 4 GoSeigen-SakataEio1 133 5 GoSeigen-HoninboShukaku(Takagawa)1 189 6 GoSeigen-HoninboShukaku(Takagawa)2 249 7 GoSeigen-Hashimoto 305 8 GoSeigen-SakataEio2 375 9 GoSeigen-Shimamura 443 A AShortBiographyofWuQingYuan(GoSeigen) 497 B Japan’sStrongestDecidingMatches 505 C HoninboShusaiRetirementMatch 507 D “GreedySakata” 513 E Sakata’sMyoshu 517 F RazorSakata 521 G Sakata-Shuko 527 H PossibleContinuationofKoRuleDispute 529 iii iv CONTENTS Preface ThisbookisacollectionofstoriesandcommentedgamespublishedbyJimZ.Yuon therec.games.gonewsgroupinlate1993. Mr.YutranslatedthegamesfromChi- nesefromthebook“DetailedAnalysisofWu’sFamousGames.” (WuisGoSeigen’s Chinesename.) BecauseIenjoyedtheinformationsomuch,Iwantedtoputthemina formatthatwouldbeeasytousealongwitharealboardtoreplaythegames,andeasy togivetofriends. TheoriginalgamesweredistributedasMGTcomputerfiles,andthe originalstoriesastextfiles. Virtually allof the remaninder of thetextis Wu’s or Yu’s, witha few exceptions. With the exception of the biographical appendix, all introductory material is by M- r.Yu. ThebiographicalappendixismainlybyWu’sbrother. Thegamecommentaries aregenerallybyWu. However,theycontainnotesmadebytheoriginalJapaneseeditor, Mr. KatsumotoTesshuu. Mr. Katsumotooftenintroducessomebackgroundinforma- tionatthebeginningofagame,andsomecommentaryonthemovestowardstheend, whenGoSeigen9dantendstocommentless. Hiscommentsduringthegamesaregiv- eninitalics. Someadditionalnotesforthesakeofclarrificationandmade byMr.Yu andareenclosedinsquarebrackets,“[”and“].” I have used both Jan van der Steen’s sgf2misc utility and Daniel Bump’s s- gf2tex to typeset the games, and I typeset the stories by hand using LATEX. The original source for the games and stories can be found on the Internet Go Archives, which are currently found at ftp.joyjoy.net/Go. The complete URL for the originalsourcecodeis: ftp://ftp.joyjoy.net/Go/games/goseigen.sh.Z LinkstotheLATEXsourcecodeforthisbook,aswellpremadepostscriptandPDFver- sionareavailableat: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/bridges/go/gobook.html One note regarding copyright: All of the text here included here was pulled off ofthe InternetGo Archive, andtranslatedfromuncopyrightedChinesebooksbyJim Z. Yu. Mr. Yu holds copyright on the translations and stories in this book, and has granted the right to reproduce his material for personal (non-commercial) reference. Typesetting and editing was done by me, Patrick Bridges. My changes are available under the GNU Documentation License, v 1.0 or later, when that becomes available. Untilthen, Iassertcopyrightovermychanges, butgrantpermissionfor reproduction oreditingforpersonal,non-commercialuse. v vi PREFACE Patrick Bridges, Fall 1999 [email protected] bridges 8k* on NNGS Chapter 1 A Fan’s Introduction to Go Seigen Heplayedlikethebirdsfly: swiftandlight. Suddenlythepositioncould get frozen though, and then one would get a glimpse of the universe of variationshiddenbelowtheskythatWuhadspannedintheearlierstages.“ —Afriend(JanvanderSteen)onGoSeigen’s(Wu)game GoSeigenismyidol. Fortwosimplereasons: 1. Hewongames 2. Hewongamesinhisuniquemanner. Always. Maybeafewotherprofessionalplayerscanqualifytheabovecriteria. “Ancients” like Kitani Minoru and Sakata Eio, and the “super players” of the 80’s: Rin Kaiho, Otake Hideo, Kato Masao, Takemiya Masaki, Cho Chikun, and Kobayashi Koichi. Anddon’tforgetthebigmaninChina: NieWeiping. Theseareallbigwinners. ButnoneofthemisasbigawinnerasGoSeigen. Go Seigenonceruled JapaneseGoprofessionforonethird ofacentury! Andthatwasa 1/3ofcenturywhenJapanwastheonlylandwhereGowasblooming. I(JimYu)think it’sfair tosaythata new generation ofprofessionalscomeoutabouteverytenyears. Then,GoSeigenwouldhavetoholdoffthechallengesfromthreegenerationsofbest GoplayersinGohistory.Andthathedid:FirsttherewasKitaniMinoru,who,perhaps, wouldhavebeenratedasgreatasGoSeigenhadhenotfadedafterWorldWarII.Then therewasFujisawaKuranosuke (wholaterchangedhisnametoFujisawa Hosai), the first ever professional 9 dan (Go Seigen was the second) after the death of the last Meijin,Shusai. Finally,inthe50’s,SakataEioandTakagawaShukakuemergedasthe top challengersto Go Seigen. But none ofthemwas able to take awaythe No.1 seat thatbelongedtoGoSeigen. Andwecan’tsaythesechallengerswereweak.Infact,anyofthemwasadefinition oftheoppositeof“weak.” Kitani,alongwithGoSeigen,discoveredtherevolutionary “NewOpenings.” Hemighthavebeenmorefamousofhismagnificentdisciples(5of 1 2 CHAPTER1. AFAN’SINTRODUCTIONTOGOSEIGEN the6“superplayersofthe80’s”mentionedabove,exceptRin,werehispupils),butas aplayer, accordingtoGoSeigen,hewas“firstof[GoSeigen’s]toughestopponents.” Theytwotogetherwrotethehistoricalperiodcalled“Go-KitaniEra,”aspanofabout adecadebeforeWWII. Fujisawa probably spent his entire playing career in Go Seigen’s prime, and that produced another memorable rivalry. There was only one player who was strong e- noughandbeingstrong*long* enough toplay three10-gameserieswithGoSeigen, andhisnamewasFujisawaKuranosuke(laterHosai). Andletusnotforget:GoSeigen lostonlyone10-gameseriesinhislife,andthatwastoFujisawa(ithappenedduring WWII;GoSeigenwasunbeatablein10-gameseriesthereafter). Sakata Eio. We know his stories – the man has won more major championships than any other Japanese players in modern Go history. I don’t remember the exact number, butit’sclose to “70 titles when he was70 yearsold.” How could he win so many?! 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-gameseries,or21games,betweenthetwo. Takagawalostthefirst11,andwhathe did? Hewon7outofthenext10. Thatspelled“tough.” So here we have the picture: Kitani, Fujisawa, Sakata, and Takagawa – any of them was a greatplayer who was talented enough todominate his era. Yetit did not happen. Itdidnothappenbecauseofoneman: GoSeigen. GoSeigenwasthewinner ofwinners;GoSeigenwasthegeniusofgeniuses. WatchingGoSeigen’sgamealwaysbringsmepleasure. It’snotthatIfullyunder- stoodhismovesandwasthusappreciated(that,infact,isstillalongwaytogo);rather, theshapeofhisstonesandthetempoofhismovesseemtoalwayslightenmeup. GoSeigenseemedtohaveanextraordinaryabilitytosimplifylocal(ontheboard) conflicts. Especially in openings. Often he would play “tenuki” moves – moves that locallyignoreopponent’spreviousmove–althoughthatwouldleadtosomelocalloss, globally speaking, he would gain. Because he preferred to play fewer moves at the openingcorners, hisgameswere usuallyonafastpace. Quickly, middle-game fights started. That’sthekindofgameIwouldenjoytowatch(andplay,ofcourse,ifI*can*). Going to middle game, Go Seigen was again showing extraordinary power. He settledhisweakgroupsquickly;hestartedtoattackhisopponentquickly.By“quickly” Idon’tmeanheplayedtwiceorthriceasfastashisopponent(althoughheindeedoften did), butI mean he could use only a few simple moves to start or end, again, a local conflict. Gradually,sincehisopponentwasunabletocatchupwithhishighefficiency, GoSeigenstartedtolead–aleadthathe,inhisprimetime,wouldneversurrender. ThusGoSeigen’sendgameveryoftenbecameexceptionallysimple.Well,endgame seemstobeaphasethatonecannotreallysimplify. Ifthereare,say,suchmanyunset- tledboundaries,bothplayershavetofinishthemoff,unless–unlessit’slikeinmany ofGoSeigen’sgames,thegamewasoverbeforetheendgamestarted. That’sall Ican see from Go Seigen’sgame. I am unable to visualize hislocalor global“feelings”, andIam unableto carryouthisdeepcalculations. AllIcansee is a surface of his game – yet, it’s a surface that’s clear enough to reflect his manners. 3 Goisagamefullofconflicts,andifamancouldhandlealltheseconflictsinasimple manner*and*win–Iwouldsay,heisagenius. ThisgeniuswasGoSeigen. ThisremindsmeofabiographyofAlbertEinstein.Theauthorconvincedmethatto describeEinstein,“simplicity”wastheword. Einsteinwasamanwhohandledthings insimpleways. Idon’tknowifthisbookonEinsteinhadunconsciouslyhelpedmeto understand Go Seigen, but as of today, I am convinced that, if these two geniuses of the20thcenturyhadnothingelseincommon,theysharedoneword:“simplicity.” Isuddenlyfeelsorryforbeingborn50yearstoolate. IwanttoplaygameswithGo Seigen. Imightloseeverygametohim,butIwouldn’tcare. Whenonegetsachance to play with a genius, it’s not just a honor. It could well change his life: something deepinsidehismindcouldsuddenlylightup... Yes,that’swhyIwanttoplaywithGo Seigen;themoreIwouldlearnfromhim,thecloserIwouldbewiththetruthofGo. GoSeigenismyidol. 4 CHAPTER1. AFAN’SINTRODUCTIONTOGOSEIGEN