© 2011 John Fairbairn

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Go Seigen’s Ten-Game Matches, Volume 1

Selections from Matches with Fujisawa Kuranosuke

John Fairbairn

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

From the GoGoD Archives
(GoGoD site).

“Go Seigen’s Ten-Game Matches, volume 1” contains four thoroughly commented games from Go’s matches with Fujisawa Kuranosuke. Because Fairbairn draws on numerous sources not available in English, the discussion is unusually illuminating.

These four games are selected from the print book 9-Dan Showdown, published by Slate & Shell (www.slateandshell.com). The print book contains thirty games with extensive commentary as well as a great deal of historical and biographical material. In the e-book version, only the game commentary, with colour notes (slightly abridged), is included. Fairbairn draws the commentary from multiple sources.

About the Author

John Fairbairn is a member of the GoGoD team and a well-known and prolific go writer.

Contents

Go Seigen’s Ten-Game Matches, Volume 1: Selections from Matches with Fujisawa Kuranosuke

Game One:
Go Seigen 9-dan – Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan

The chapters in gray are included only in the full book.

Game Two:
Go Seigen 9-dan – Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan

Game Three:
Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan – Go Seigen 9-dan

Game Four:
Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan – Go Seigen 9-dan

Appendix: Books by John Fairbairn

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About SmartGo Books

Game One

White: Go Seigen 9-dan
Black: Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan
Komi: 4½ points
Time: 13 hours each
Date: 1951–10–01,2,3,4
Place: Tokyo, Japan
Event: 4 Game 9-Dan Match
Round: First Game

This is the first game ever played between 9-dan pros. Go Seigen and Fujisawa Kuranosuke had played a ten-game match when Go was 8-dan and Fujisawa was 7-dan. Go took White in every game without komi and Fujisawa won the match 6–4. This time, both had recently been named the first ever 9-dans and this was their first match, alternating Black and White in a four game event played with komi of 4.5 points. These two also played a ten-game match, without komi, that overlapped this one.

Moves 1–4

＞＜

The early stages of the game progressed fairly swiftly, Go slipping straight into his then usual facing komokus White 2 and 4, and it was not until Black 17 that the first long ponder occurred.

Moves 5–6

＞＜

White 6 seemed to surprise Sakata Eio a little. It was Go who introduced it in this fuseki in 1940, but after that it was generally played against Go. Sakata suggested that Go chose this rather than the usual attachment underneath at A because he didn’t like having the avalanche joseki played against him.

Move 7

＞＜

Fujisawa took his time over his reply, Black 7: twenty-nine minutes.

Moves 8–11

＞＜

For 11, Black has the option of cutting on either side, but Sakata revealed that Suzuki Tamejiro disliked the outside cut as here. Kitani, Suzuki’s pupil, added that most other people then also followed that policy. The problem lies in the ladder situation. In this case a possible development would be Diagram 1.

Diagram 1

＞＜

Moves 12–15

＞＜

Move 16

＞＜

A couple of young 4-dans, Kaji Kazutame and Kuwahara Munehisa, diffidently asked Sakata what would happen if White shifted White 16 to White 1 in Diagram 2.

Diagram 2

＞＜

Sakata then laid out the rest of the moves in Diagram 2 and said this position had occurred in one of his games with Maeda Nobuaki. Oddly, though, no such game survives in Sakata’s Collected Games and, more to the point, there is no game by anyone in the GoGoD database with this White 1 in this fuseki. Even in other fusekis it is extremely rare. This suggests there may be something fundamentally wrong with White 1 for a top pro.

Kuwahara pressed the point and asked why Black would not answer this White 1 as in Diagram 3.

Diagram 3

＞＜

Sakata simply said White would play something like White 3, and just pointed out that pushing on at White 16 as in the game solved these problems and almost forced Black (in his view, not Suzuki’s) to challenge White to a fighting game with Black 17.

Move 17

＞＜

As already mentioned, Black 17 was the first place the game slowed down—17 took fifty-eight minutes. Go’s eyes lit up when he saw it. Sakata said that Suzuki would certainly not approve of it (the usual joseki move is the diagonal play at A), but he rather liked the idea of playing a fast-paced game here, that is, getting round to the various parts of the board early, even though it means playing Go at his own game. And of course Black probably felt the weight of the komi. The drawback is that this leaves Black thin in the upper left. Maybe that’s why Go’s eyes lit up.

Move 18

＞＜

White 18 could conceivably be an approach on the other side, but Sakata rejected that because the result, in Diagram 4, is what pros call ippogo, a game where both sides boringly map out huge areas. We might perhaps call it one-dimensional go. Why he rejected that is another matter. Perhaps he was still influenced by the demands on White in no-komi go—Sakata (his comments here are contemporaneous with the game) would then have had little experience of komi go.

Diagram 4

＞＜

Moves 19–20

＞＜

Move 21

＞＜

Kitani was exercised by Black 21. He would have played the simple defence at the three-three point, as in Diagram 5.

Diagram 5

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Sakata was inclined to agree but pointed out that the tricky point came with Black 5. At first this seems the common-sense place to play, but further consideration suggested that White 10 was too strong, given Black’s thinness above. That led to the perception that the more modest extension to Black 1 in Diagram 6 might be better.

Diagram 6

＞＜

However, Sakata argued that as Black has to submit to being forced at White 2 in Diagram 6 and to make the narrow extension to Black 7 (whereas White can extend fully to White 8), White can be satisfied with this position, especially in a komi game. So all this puts Black 1 of Diagram 5 in some doubt. Similar thoughts may have raced through Fujisawa’s mind before he chose Black 21.

Moves 22–23

＞＜

Black 23 might have some appeal after the discussion next of alternatives for White 24. In other words, Black might want to pre-empt White on the right side. However, Black 1 in Diagram 7 is just plain bad, said Sakata.

Diagram 7

＞＜

Move 24

＞＜

The odd-looking move White 24 made Kaji Kazutame give a nervous laugh as he revealed that he had heard that even Go had changed his mind about it in the post mortem, and had suggested an approach move instead.

Sakata, however, was attracted by White 1 in Diagram 8.

Diagram 8

＞＜

Kitani also approved of this, remarking that it made White thick. Kaji (who was a persistent chap) couldn’t quite see that—he thought Black still had room for invasions at A or B. Sakata brusquely dismissed these as “not working well”, and added that even if Black answered White at C, there was still nothing to worry about over an invasion, as White 1 was well able to defend itself.

Sakata, no doubt for Kaji’s benefit, then demonstrated (in Diagram 9) why even immediate invasion was unwise for Black after White 1 in Diagram 8.

Diagram 9

＞＜

This analysis convinced Sakata more and more that the simple extension to White 1 in Diagram 9 was the right move, and he added that the reason it could be so far away is that White had already played at the three-three point. Kitani endorsed this by mysteriously adding that this White 1 could also be seen as a probe. This further led them back to re-considering Black 21 and to believe that Black should have played this at the three-three point after all! Black’s position at the bottom is almost predicated on building up a moyo framework, yet all the lines where he omits the three-three point defence seem to lead to a worthless moyo.

There was, incidentally, a totally different alternative for White 24, and that was White 1 in Diagram 10.

Diagram 10

＞＜

It makes sense now for Black to turn his attention to the right side with Black 2, and as White seems obliged to make the intuitively odd move of White 3, Black can extend smoothly to Black 4. This result was rated as “hard to bear” for White.

Move 25

＞＜

Kaji pointed out that Fujisawa Hideyuki had criticised Black 25 as “too common-sensical” and had suggested holding back one point at A. This astonished Sakata, who said that as there was nothing wrong with Black 25 Black might as well extend that far.

Move 26

＞＜

White 26 was Go’s first occasion for a long rumination. As he thought, his upper body swayed gently. Suddenly he stopped and a glint came into his eyes. For a while longer he gazed fixedly at the board and then eventually played, though quietly. With a look of utter relief, scorekeeper Honda Sachiko 1-dan picked up her pen to record the details, which included the time taken: sixty-six minutes! The observers were convinced this was a record for Go, most certainly for a move in the opening. Even more astonishing than that was that he had spent over an hour on what was, to most people, a pretty humdrum third-line extension. The buzz was: What on earth could he have been thinking about? Suzuki Tamejiro sagely opined that Go was probably settling his policy for the rest of the game.

Young Kaji then had the temerity to ask about White 1 in Diagram 11 instead of White 26—such a move was, after all, implicit in White 24.

Diagram 11

＞＜

Sakata scornfully pointed out that Black would not answer at A, but would attach at Black 2. White would then be in trouble (indeed, White 1 would have no nearby allies). Kitani softened the blow by telling Kaji that Sakata was a hardened tournament player, but he did agree that White 1 didn’t look likely to succeed.

Moves 27–28

＞＜

Sakata has an exaggerated reputation for playing forcing moves earlier than most pros, but he certainly disapproved of the press at White 28. For two reasons. One was that was too well placed against this. The other was that the result in the game on the lower side was awful for White. He looked at Kitani’s face for approval as he said this. Kitani gave his distinctive e-he-he laugh and studiously avoided answering by calling upon his teacup. Then he gave another laugh before gulping down its contents. Nobody quite knew what he meant.

Moves 29–30

＞＜

White 30 was a line too far, Go said after the game. The proof of the pudding was the sequence Black 31 to 35. Sakata agreed except that he preferred White 30 at A.

Diagram 12 is an example of simply sacrificing the stone behind the invader, this time with White 30 being shifted to the new position preferred by Go.

Diagram 12

＞＜

Black now seems forced to try something like Black 18, but, clearly, whatever he does here, White 1 is better placed than it would be at White 13.

Moves 31–35

＞＜

End of sample chapter. In the book, this game is commented to the end.

Appendix – Books by John Fairbairn

This is not a definitive list of every other go book I have written, translated or contributed to. It is merely the main ones that are available as of 2015. Those in paper form are all published by Slate & Shell.

Kamakura Extensive commentaries on the entire ten-game wartime match between Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru, with long biographical sections.

Final Summit Similar treatment for matches between Go and Takagawa Kaku.

9-dan Showdown Similar treatment for matches between Go and Fujisawa Hosai.

The Meijin’s Retirement Game: Honinbo Shusai versus Kitani Minoru Detailed commentary and background, and includes extensive discussion of the Kawabata novel Master of Go based on this game.

Old Fuseki versus New Fuseki: Honinbo Shusai plays Go Seigen Detailed commentary of a famous game, and includes extensive discussion of the famous Japanese book that formalised the New Fuseki movement.

Power/Brilliance A combined ‘flip-book’ that includes detailed commentaries and historical background on (a) The Insha Game: Honinbo Shusai versus Karigane Junichi and (b) Jowa’s Three Brilliancies: Honinbo Jowa plays Akaboshi Intetsu.

The Go Companion (with T Mark Hall) A pot pourri of articles on just about every aspect of go. A sort of bedtime book of go.

The Go Consultants (with T Mark Hall) Detailed coverage of a famous consultation game featuring the actual thoughts of the players, Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru versus Segoe Kensaku and Suzuki Tamejiro.

* * *

Also available (as of January 2015) in interactive SmartGo e-book format are:

The Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei A major treatment of the Meijin of Meijins, with a full-length biography and commentaries on almost 100 games.

The Go Consultants A version of the original Slate & Shell paper edition.

Go Seigen’s Ten-Game Matches, Volume 1 Four selected games from the original thirty games in the Slate and Shell paper edition of 9-dan Showdown.

Gateway To All Marvels A major treatment of the most influential go book ever produced, the Xuanxuan Qijing. All 466 problems from every known edition of this ancient Chinese classic are given, their names are explained, the various solutions are given and discussed (including many mistakes by pros), and the ancient accompanying texts are translated and annotated, including the Go Classic in Thirteen Chapters. The themes and key techniques of all the problems are also discussed and indexed.

Unfinished Symphony Extensive commentaries on the shortened ten-game match between Go Seigen and Karigane Junichi, with comprehensive historical background.

New Ways in Go A complete translation, with notes, of Honinbo Shuho’s classic Hoen Shinpo.

Today We Have a Splendid Feast All the surviving problems from the 17th century graduated tsumego course devised by the Meijin Inseki, Dosetsu. An introduction describing Dosetsu and the story of the book is included.

Wonders of Life and Death Honinbo Shusai’s 1910 tsumego classic, Shikatsu Myoki, with an introduction by the editor. It includes 120 problems (with solutions), most original and many taxing and ingenious.

Click here to see all the books together.

* * *

Also available in Kindle e-book editions (diagrams not interactive), via Amazon, are:

The Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei As above, but spread over several separate volumes.

Inoue Genan Inseki A short biography of Honinbo Jowa’s main rival and one of the most interesting characters in the go world.

Gateway To All Marvels Same as in the SmartGo edition.

* * *

The GoGoD Database and Encyclopaedia having been available on CD (GoGoD = Games of Go on Disc) for over ten years, was converted in January 2014 to Games of Go on Download (www.gogodonline.co.uk) but restricted now mostly to the database, currently around 83,000 games. The database is also packaged with SmartGo Kifu (along with GoGoD’s massive biographical dictionary of go players).

Buy This Book

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

© 2011 John Fairbairn

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