Game Of The Century

    Keywords: Culture & History

See the wikipedia page: [ext] game of the century. SL also mentions the game on both the Shusai page, and the Go Seigen page.

Go Seigen, in his recent book, Now I Would Play This Way, makes no reference to the game being known as such, but it is referred to in Pieter Mioch's [ext] interview with Go Seigen. John Fairbairn presents a thorough analysis of this game and the surrounding situation in his book ''Old Fuseki vs New Fuseki: Honinbo Shusai plays Go Seigen'', published by Slate and Shell.

Analysis

The game plays out as shown below. Here we will examine and discuss each set of moves forming a unique Go problem to work out the process of the game.

Opening

[Diagram]
First 10 moves  

Go Seigen played his third move (Black 5) on the Tengen in this game. Already in the top-right we can see some aggression. (Joseki?)

Bob McGuigan: W6 is not "aggression", it's a probe and at the same time is a joseki move. Go Seigen called W6 and W8 "splendid moves". Go Seigen said regarding W10 that it might have been better to finish the joseki in the upper right corner.

Bass: B3 and B5 emphasize overall influence over territorial gain. B1 on the other hand is extremely territorial. White points out black's inconsistent strategy by playing W6, which negates B5's central influence to some extent. (Or more accurately, would have negated, if white had finished the joseki.)

Bass: W10, on the other hand, is a very aggressive move. White seems to be saying: "I just plonked down a couple of stones in the center, and left them there without settling them. Let's see if I cannot make more profit by taking territory than you can by attacking them." W10 also makes one of black's attack directions less interesting (a wall facing the right side would also be facing a strong, low white position, which is bad for a wall), and black has already answered the white moves by playing on the second line, so white feels that he can weather any attack without losing more than he gained by securing the corner territory. This is often a plausible strategy, but it will be very difficult to pull off when the opponent has already invested an entire move (B5) for the sole purpose of building attacking power.

External Links


Game Of The Century last edited by 91.192.20.57 on January 10, 2022 - 15:27
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