The 1971 Honinbo Tournament

by Kaoru Iwamoto 9 dan
in collaboration with
James C. Davies

Kiseido Publishing Company
Chigasaki, Japan

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In November 1970, an unheralded 21-year-old 7-dan won his way into the Honinbo league. There, over the next 6 months, he beat some of the strongest go players in the world to earn the right to challenge Rin Kaiho for the Honinbo title.

At that time, Rin was the undisputed king of the go world. He had convincingly stripped the great Sakata Eio of his Meijin and Honinbo titles, and he had rebuffed him in his challenges to get them back. Rin was being billed as Go Seigen’s successor and no one gave Ishida Yoshio much of a chance.

But Ishida was one of a new breed of players from that hot-house of go prodigies known as the Kitani Dojo. He was almost invincible and rarely lost a game — he had run up a string of 30 straight victories in the ranking tournament; he was a calm player, especially under pressure; he possessed superb positional judgment; and his endgame calculation was so accurate that he earned the nickname ‘the computer’. Rin was also noted for these same abilities, but Ishida was a level higher.

The 1971 Honinbo Tournament chronicles Ishida’s first major triumph. It starts with his win in the final preliminary tournament which earned him the right to play in the Honinbo league. It then analyzes all seven of his games in the league, and the six games in the title match. Every game is analyzed in great detail, with easy-to-follow figures for each game.

This book was written by James Davies, based on the commentaries of Iwamoto Kaoru 9-dan who had held the Honinbo title for two terms from 1945 to 1950. Out of print for more than 20 years, it will be a welcome addition to the libraries of those players who are looking for in-depth game commentaries.

Ishida (left) and Rin survey the board at the end of the 6th and last game. By winning this game Ishida became the 26th Honinbo.

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Copyright Page

The 1971 Honinbo Tournament

by Kaoru Iwamoto 9 dan

Copyright © 1972 and 1999 by Iwamoto Kaoru and James C. Davies

All rights reserved according to international law. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use without the written permission from Kiseido Publishing Company.

Published by
Kiseido Publishing Company
Kagawa 4–48–32
Chigasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken
Japan 253–0082

ISBN of the printed version: 978–4–906574–07–6

Converted for SmartGo Books by John Mifsud.

Contents

The 1971 Honinbo Tournament

Copyright Page

Introduction

Preface

Chapter One: Ishida vs. Oeda

Chapter Two: Kato vs. Ishida

Chapter Three: Hoshino vs. Ishida

Chapter Four: Sakata vs. Ishida

Chapter Five: Fujisawa Hosai vs. Ishida

Chapter Six: Chino vs. Ishida

Chapter Seven: Kano vs. Ishida

Chapter Eight: Fujisawa Shuko vs. Ishida

Chapter Nine: The Title Match, Game One

Chapter Ten: The Title Match, Game Two

Chapter Eleven: The Title Match, Game Three

Chapter Twelve: The Title Match, Game Four

Chapter Thirteen: The Title Match, Game Five

Chapter Fourteen: The Title Match, Game Six

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Introduction
to the 1999 Edition

The 1971 Honinbo Tournament marked the point at which the pupils of Kitani Minor began a long-lasting dynasty in Japanese go. From that year to the present, seven of them, Ishida, Otake, Takemiya, Kato, Cho, and the two Kobayashi’s, have collectively won three-fourths of the major Japanese title matches. Together with Rin and Fujisawa Shuko, who also appear in this book, they have completely monopolized the three most important titles: the Honinbo, Meijin, and Kisei.

Ishida’s reign as Honinbo lasted from 1971 through 1975, eventually earning him a permanent place as 24th on the official list of Honinbos that goes back four centuries to Sansa. Rin, the opponent Ishida defeated in 1971, regained the Honinbo title for two years in 1983 and 1984, making him also a five-time Honinbo, not to mention the thirty other titles he has won in his career so far.

The work of writing this book was done by several people. The main comments and most of the explanatory diagrams were supplied by Iwamoto Kaoru, 9-dan, and three of his professional pupils: Magari Reiki, 9-dan, Fukui Masaaki, 8-dan, and Noguchi Hitoshi, 5-dan. Further comments were taken from various go magazines, some routine analysis was added, and the text was written up by me. Richard Bozulich provided the original idea for this book, and has made a much-needed revision of the text in this new edition.

Fourteen games are analyzed, including the six games of the title match and the seven games Ishida played in the Honinbo league. Although three or four are treated rather lightly, the rest are gone over in considerable detail. An effort has been made to show what was happening throughout each game, and to give some idea of how much thought, and what kind of thought, went into the game. A few of the comments on opening moves now seem slightly out of date, but the games are timeless, and it is hoped that the reader will find them inspiring.

Yokohama, March 1999

James Davies

Preface

It is a great honor for me to introduce this reprint of The 1971 Honinbo Tournament by Iwamoto Kaoru 9 dan. In the early 1980s it was the first go book that I studied thoroughly. The efforts and the skill that are required to become Honinbo impressed me. The 1971 Honinbo Tournament clearly describes the qualification stages Ishida Yoshio, at that time 7-dan, had to conquer before earning the right to challenge Rin Kaiho for the Honinbo title. He then went on to win the best-of-seven match and become the youngest Honinbo ever at the age of 22.

I will always remember moves 89, 91 and 93 by Ishida in the second game of the match. Iwamoto writes: ‘It may seem that these moves are played at random, but in fact they were well related to one another’. The way in which Iwamoto shows with great clarity how professionals think and the way in which they consider the whole board is the main achievement of this book.

Looking back I feel that this global view is typical of Iwamoto. It is not limited only to the go board, but it is safe to say that Iwamoto has been one of the more important among those persons who have contributed to the internationalization of the game of go.

After becoming a professional player in 1917, he left for Brazil in 1929 where he stayed for two years. In the 1960s and 70s he made numerous trips to Europe, the USA and South America. In his professional career of 66 years he won the Honinbo title twice in 1945 and 1947. After retiring in 1983, he continued to pursue his life’s aim, namely to promote the game of go throughout the world. To this end he has financed the establishment of go centers on three continents: in Sao Paolo, Brazil (South America), in Seattle and New York (North America), and in Amstelveen, Holland (Europe).

As manager of the European Go Center I am honored to continue his tradition. Together with the European Go Federation and their member national go associations, the European Go Center has developed and produced promotional and educational material in 17 languages which are now used in 24 countries in Europe. In the six years of our existence, we organized 25 European tournaments and one World Championship.

Being one of the most impressive books on go that has ever appeared, I am sure that The 1971 Honinbo Tournament by Iwamoto will change your perspective on the game. To work ones way through this book is almost a guarantee that your game will improve. It is a happy day for the go community that it will be once more available. I know that you will enjoy the book and after having read it will agree with what I have said.

Erik Puyt, Manager European Go Center.

Chapter One: Ishida vs. Oeda

Late in the evening of June 11, 1971, two young men were sitting on the tatami mat floor of the Ginrin So in Otaru. Between them was a go board, almost half covered with black and white stones. For two days, for nearly 20 hours, they had been concentrating their powers onto this wooden battlefield. The 26th Honinbo title was at stake.

The older of the two was Rin Kaiho, thrice Honinbo and generally considered the strongest go player in the world. He was playing black, and after a successful attack in the middle game he seemed to be leading by about ten points. His opponent was Ishida Yoshio, 22 years old and already holder of the Nihon Ki-in Championship title. This was the fifth game of the Honinbo match, each player having won two of the previous four games.

The younger man picked up a white stone and placed it on the board. At the same time the scorekeeper announced, ‘Ten minutes, Rin sensei, before you enter byo-yomi. Rin had used up 9 hours and 49 minutes of his allotted 10 hours, and in ten minutes he would be held to one minute per move. White’s last play was a strange one, apparently causing White to lose another point or two. It threatened to break into Rin’s large territory on the right side, but he could easily defend against that. Did it perhaps threaten his weak center group, too? Rin settled down to think. ’Nine minutes‘, the scorekeeper announced, and then, ’Eight minutes'. Rin took a black stone and made his move. It was a mistake. Forty-one moves later his center group was cut adrift, helpless. Another 26 moves and he gave up. Twelve days later Ishida defeated him again, by half a point, to become the youngest Honinbo in history and the sensation of the go world.

Ishida Yoshio, who is the main character of this book, was born on August 15, 1948, in Nishiharu, a small city on the outskirts of Nagoya. His father made him learn go at the age of eight, trying to keep the boy out of mischief on rainy days. He must have shown some talent, for at the age of nine he was sent to live in the Kitani Dojo in Tokyo.

Kitani Minoru was, in his day, one of the top go players in Japan. He died in 1975, but the fame of his go school, the Kitani Dojo, continues to this day. Kitani’s pupils studied go with fanatical devotion, and the combined strength of those who have reached the professional level adds up to several hundred dan. Many of them lived in the dojo and treated Kitani as their father. In this hothouse of go the young Ishida made rapid progress, and in 1963 he became shodan and began to play in professional tournaments. His success in the Oteai games, which determine a player’s ranking, was remarkable. He was promoted almost as rapidly as the rules of the Oteai allow, which is about one dan per year. Going into the Honinbo title match he had a thirty-game winning streak in Oteai, and had reached 7-dan. He was promoted from 6-to 7-dan even faster than the rules officially allow. Normally a player is required to achieve a 75% score over a stretch of 18 consecutive games but Ishida was promoted after only 14 games. He had won them all and he pointed out to the Nihon Ki-in that even if he lost his next four games, he would still qualify for 7-dan.

In 1968 Ishida won the Kodansha tournament, a competition among 5- to 7-dan players. Next year, to everyone’s surprise, he became the challenger in the Nihon Ki-in Championship match and took the title away from Ohira 9-dan, who had held it for four straight years. At 21 he was the youngest player ever to win a major go tournament. The Honinbo title was to come next.

The name Honinbo originally belonged to one of the four go schools which were established in 1612 by the Tokugawa government of Japan. For more than three centuries the name was handed down by the head of this school to his strongest pupil until in 1939 Shusai, the 21st Honinbo, retired and gave his title to the Nihon Ki-in, the 15-year-old organization that had established itself on top of the go world. It was his desire that the Nihon Ki-in award the title on the basis of a regularly held tournament. The Mainichi Newspaper took on sponsorship of this tournament and the first new Honinbo was crowned in 1941.

This is the place to describe the organization of the Honinbo tournament. Each year the current Honinbo must defend his title in a seven-game title match. The challenger is selected by a round-robin tournament among eight players known as the Honinbo league. Of these eight players, four are the top-four finishers in the previous year’s league and the other four are selected by an elaborate preliminary tournament. The preliminary tournament, which is open to all professional go players in Japan, is conducted in three rounds on a strict elimination basis. The first round is for players from shodan to 4-dan. Six survivors join the second round along with all players 5-dan and above who care to enter.

Sixteen players survive the second round to enter the third round, where they are joined by the sixteen players who won their first games in the last year’s third round. These 32 compete for the four open places in the league.

The Mainichi Newspaper pays a fee to every player for each game he plays in the tournament. The game fees are small in the early rounds, but are large in the league and the title match, and in addition there is a prize of 3 million yen for the winner. Thus the Mainichi Newspaper took on quite a burden when it agreed to sponsor the tournament, but it prints serialized records of the games with commentaries, and in a country where go is taken as seriously as it is in Japan this helps its circulation considerably.

Ishida’s progress towards the 26th Honinbo title began in May 1970, almost a year before the title match itself. Being then a 6-dan, he came in at the second round of the preliminary tournament and had to win six straight games to reach the league. He defeated, in order: Tanimiya 6-dan; Suzuki 7-dan; Ishigure 7-dan; Isogawa 7-dan; Kitani Reiko 6-dan (the daughter of Kitani Minoru); and Oeda 7-dan. The reader may be interested in seeing the last game of this series, which we herewith present.

Figure 1 (1–10)

＞＜ ▶︎

This game was played on November 12, 1970, at the old Nihon Ki-in headquarters in Takanawa, Tokyo. The time limit was 6 hours each and there was a 4½-point komi. Ishida played Black.

Figure 2 (11–15)

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In this game Ishida made use of a new joseki developed at the Kitani dojo. We are referring to Black 11, which replaces the older move at 15. The diagonal attachment at White 12 is one way to deal with this new move, taking the corner and allowing Black the outside.

Dia. 1

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Another way is to attack the two black stones on the right side with a move like White 1 in Dia. 1. We have borrowed this diagram from a game in the 1970 Meijin title match.

Figure 3 (16–44)

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The sequence in the lower right corner came to a reasonable conclusion with White 20, and Ishida proceeded to take territory along the lower and right sides, while Oeda, who already had territory in two corners, built up a position in the center. White 42 and 44 in particular gave him a lot of power there, and perhaps Ishida should not have provoked these two moves.

Figure 4 (45–52)

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Attention now shifted to the upper side, where Ishida extended all the way to Black 45 and Oeda attacked purposefully with 46, 48, 50, and 52.

Figure 5 (53–57)

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Ishida cut across the knight’s move with 53 to start a fight. White 54 and Black 55 followed of necessity, and now what? White would have liked to capture Black 53 by engulfing it with 1 in Dia 2.

Dia. 2

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This would allow Black to push through at 2 and 4, but White could resist at 5. Black cuts, but the open connection at White 7 is sente. It appears that White has settled his stones on the upper side and can now continue to fight in the center.

Dia. 3

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However, the white stones are not settled. If White continues with 1 and 3 in Dia. 3, then Black 4 sends him scurrying along the upper edge to live, and this is the end of the attack on Black’s center group. Therefore, White had to extend to 56 in the figure and permit Black to play 57.

Figure 6 (58–61)

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Instead of White 60, there was the crosscut tesuji shown in Dia. 4, but Oeda rejected it.

Dia. 4

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After White 1, Black would secure a large corner in sente with 2 and 4, then play 6. It would not be hard for him to make sabaki in the center, especially since sabaki is one of Ishida’s strong points. White 60 showed good judgement, but White’s next move was a mistake.

Figure 7 (62–74)

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Oeda suffered a big loss when he played 62. Dia. 5 shows the correct way.

Dia. 5

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White 1 to 9 in that diagram give the same kind of result as White 62 to 74 in the figure, but they are better by about 15 points, since the connection at ‘a’ is White’s sente.

Figure 8 (75)

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So Ishida suddenly found himself with a sizeable lead as he played 75, taking the offensive in the center.

Dia. 6

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Oeda decided that it would be fruitless to persist with 1 in Dia. 6. Black would play 2, White would have to protect with 3 and 5, and Black 6 would defend the center group.

Figure 8 (76–78)

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He played White 76, hoping for complications. Ishida played 77 to capture White’s four stones, avoiding complications, and Oeda shifted his attack to the right side with 78.

Figure 9 (79–103)

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With the sequence from 79 to 102 White successfully broke up Black’s territory on the right side and even forced him to play 103 to live there.

Unfortunately, Black 103 also threatened the lower right corner and White could not afford to defend it. Black’s territory already amounted to about 70 points. If White defended the corner, he could get about 15 points there, and he could count on about 25 points in the upper left corner, but it would be impossible for him to get the 25 more points he would need if he permitted Black to play first on the left side.

Figure 10 (104–117)

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So he defended that side with White 104 and Ishida skillfully wrecked the corner with 105 and the rest. The capturing race there is a bit hard to read out, but after Black 117, it is a ko, as shown in Dia. 7.

Dia. 7
9 at 1; ko: 12, 15

＞＜ ▶︎

Black had lots of good ko threats, starting with ‘a’ in Figure 10, and Oeda, who was in time trouble, gave up.

Time elapsed:
White: 5 hours 59 minutes
Black: 3 hours 50 minutes