Famous Killing Game Of 1926

The Famous Killing Game of 1926 is a famous 1926 newspaper sponsored game^[1] between Honinbo Shusai and Karigane Junichi. It was billed as a grudge match between heads of both factions of the go world, Shusai representing the Nihon Kiin and Karigane representing the Kiseisha. It became the most documented go game of the 20th century. It's marked by a ferocious fight that lasts over 150-moves and ends with the capture of a large group. Black and White battle to resolve a huge capturing race with a ko on the bottom while trying to keep enough ko threats around the board to win it. It would be Shusai and Karigane's last game against each other.

Diagram 1 - Shusai (W) v Karigane (B)  

The fight begins when & declare a large moyo on the bottom and Black is induced to invade.

Diagram 2  

White plays the strongest replies, and soon Black is forced to cut with and begin a capturing race with the lower-left White group. When Black cuts with the most famous portion of the fight -- the center fight -- begins.

Diagram 3  

The final shape for the capturing race on the bottom is set with a two-move approach ko at 'a'. Both players fight for superiority in the center while maintaining enough ko threats for the capturing race at the bottom.

Diagram 4  

marks Black's last ko threat before White resolves the ko on the bottom. Black loses on time while White is 6-points ahead on the board. In this game, a time limit of 16 hours each w/ sudden death was used. Byoyomi (second-counting) would be invented soon after.

Diagram 5  

Final position. 254-moves.

Notes

[1] Sponsored by the Yomiuri Shinbun. Game 1 of the Kiseisha Win & Continue Match.

See Also

• An English book about the game: Power: Honinbo Shusai Defends the Nihon Ki-in (2012) by John Fairbairn.
• Mentioned in John Fairbairn's article, "History of Newspaper Go" (29 March 2000) from the now defunct Mindzine.
• Mentioned in The Economist's article, " Go: The Game to Beat All Games" (16 December 2004) (Paywall).
• The game was also used in the Hikaru no Go manga, vol. 2 ch. 8, Shindo v. Kaga.