9-dan Showdown

John F. The book covers the three ten-game no-komi matches and the four-game match between Go Seigen and Fujisawa Kuranosuke. The latter match was actually the first showdown between the first two 9-dans in go. Two of the ten-game matches were also played under the banner of being between the only two 9-dans. All the games have detailed commentaries, and there is also much biographical and historical detail. In other words, the format is similar to Kamakura and Final Summit.

The book is available from Slate & Shell. It is large - both in format and in pagination.

Part of this book is available in an ebook version for the iPad as "Go Seigen's Ten-Game Matches".

The next book planned in the series is the match with Iwamoto.

Table of Contents

Preface v

The Players 1

Go Seigen 1

Fujisawa Kuranosuke 3

Mirror go 7

First ten-game match, Game 1: The one with the takamokus 12

First ten-game match, Game 2: The one with the clash of horns 20

First ten-game match, Game 3: The one with the unfinished josekis 25

First ten-game match, Game 4: The one that defied common sense 30

First ten-game match, Game 5: The one with the unusual ponnukis 35

First ten-game match, Game 6: The one with the Shusaku watershed 42

First ten-game match, Game 7: The one with Go Kiburi 46

First ten-game match, Game 8: The one with the puttees 54

First ten-game match, Game 9: The one with Hayashi Genbi’s move 57

First ten-game match, Game 10: The one with integrated go 61

Prelude to the 9-dan matches 72

Four-game match, Game 1: The one that made history 79

Four-game match, Game 2: The one with the heirlooms 95

Four-game match, Game 3: The one with the bent four in the corner 110

Four-game match, Game 4: The one that was mirror go at last 120

Interlude 1 126

Second ten-game match, Game 1: The one with the double blunder 127

Second ten-game match, Game 2: The one with the nylons 140

Second ten-game match, Game 3: The one with the real quality 153

Second ten-game match, Game 4: The one that was grumpy Fujisawa’s masterpiece 73

Second ten-game match, Game 5: The one with the mystery voice and magic sword 91

Second ten-game match, Game 6: The one with the excessive patience 207

Second ten-game match, Game 7: The one with the three brilliancies 217

Second ten-game match, Game 8: The one with the damsel in distress 234

Second ten-game match, Game 9: The one with the fateful lapse 240

Second ten-game match, Game 10: The one with the squabble 253

Interlude 2 261

Third ten-game match, Game 1: The one with the thick and thin 263

Third ten-game match, Game 2: The one that got them to a nunnery 273

Third ten-game match, Game 3: The one with White 8 is bad 280

Third ten-game match, Game 4: The one with the guffaws 289

Third ten-game match, Game 5: The one at the historic inn 296

Third ten-game match, Game 6: The one with the away-day 308

Postlude 321

Appendix 1: Complete list of surviving games between Go and Fujisawa 325

Appendix 2: Technical notes and Bibliography 327

Index 328

Reviews

• crux's review

• DanielTom's review

• Errata