Famous Go Games

    Keywords: Culture & History

Some of the more famous games in Go history:

  • Triple Ko Game - Honinbo Sansa vs Kashio Rigen, 1582. This game was played in the presence of Warlord Nobunaga at a monastery. A triple ko arose and the game ended in no result. The next night, Nobunaga's ally Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled, surrounded the temple, and killed Nobunaga. After this, a triple ko was considered bad luck.
  • Dosaku's [ext] Masterpiece - Honinbo Dosaku vs Yasui Shunchi, 11/19/1683. A two stone handicap was given by Dosaku in this castle game. In the middle game Shunchi played a series of excellent moves, and yet Dosaku was still able to catch up and lose by only one point in the end.
  • Blood Vomiting Game - Honinbo Jowa vs Akaboshi Intetsu, 7/27/1835. One of the most famous games in Japanese Go history, from the Edo period. It is famous both because of three brilliant moves by Jowa and the fact that Akaboshi Intetsu vomited blood and died shortly after the match. Detailed commentary and historical description is available in the book Brilliance by John Fairbairn, Slate and Shell, 2012 (SSJF007)
  • Ear Reddening Game - Gennan Inseki vs Honinbo Shusaku, 7/25/1846. At the time of the game, Shusaku was only 17 years old and facing the established head of House Inoue here. Everybody thought Shusaku would lose the game except for one doctor observing the match who noticed how Gennan's ears suddenly became red after Black 127, a natural response from the human body when one is in panic. Shusaku went on to win the game by two points.
  • Famous Killing Game - Honinbo Shusai vs Karigane Junichi, 9/27/1926. A spectacular semeai starts on move 43 and continues almost until the end of the game. Shusai eventually wins on time, despite a time allowance of sixteen hours per player. Detailed commentary and historical description is available in the book Power by John Fairbairn, Slate and Shell, 2012 (SSJF008)
  • Manego - Kitani Minoru vs Go Seigen, 6/3/1929. For Go Seigen's first game against Kitani, he opens on tengen and plays mirror go through move 63 before finally breaking symmetry. Kitani eventually won by three points.
  • Sixteen Soldiers Game - Go Seigen vs Kosugi Tei, 10/10/1933. This game has a consistently unconventional opening, one of the most striking of the shin fuseki period.
  • Game of the Century - Honinbo Shusai vs Go Seigen, 10/16/1933 - 1/29/1934. This game lasted over three months with fourteen adjournments (and weeks of analysis in between), in which Go Seigen is widely regarded to have been playing the entire Honinbo House since sealed moves were not yet in use at this time. So after each adjournment, Shusai was free to confer and study the position with his students. One important tesuji in particular is reputed to have been a brilliant discovery by Maeda Nobuaki. Shusai eventually won the game by two points.
  • Meijin Retirement Game - Honinbo Shusai vs Kitani Minoru, 6/26/1938. The 21st Honinbo Shusai Meijin's retirement game, at which time he was already 64 years old. Although Shusai lost in by five points in the end, he managed to play brilliantly and this game is regarded as one of his masterpieces. Kawabata's Master of Go novel describes this game.
  • Kamakura Jubango Game One - Go Seigen vs Kitani Minoru, 9/1939. The first game of probably the most celebrated match of the century, between the authors of shin fuseki. Go Seigen won this game by two points and eventually the series 6-4.
  • Atomic Bomb Game - Hashimoto Utaro vs Iwamoto Kaoru, 8/4-6/1945. The second game of the 3rd Honinbo match was played in an outer suburb of Hiroshima. On the third day of this game the atomic bomb fell, the windows shattered, and the stones were blown off the board by the blast. The players replaced the stones and resumed after lunch though, with Hashimoto Utaro winning the game but not the match.

some of these games can be found in SGF at [ext] http://www.usgo.org/CD2004/SGF/p_games.htm#

Post your own favorite Go games for discussion:


See also:


This is a copy of the living page "Famous Go Games" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2014 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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