The genius of the greatest blunderer

As BobMcGuigan pointed out, Fujisawa Shuko, one of the greatest players of the last century, although talented, brilliant and creative, was also cursed with a fatal tendency to make terrible Blunders.
In his younger days he used to say that if he were allowed to take back a move every now and then he would be the strongest player in Japan... which he became later, in his fifties, when he held the Kisei title for six straight years since its inception.

The diagram below shows one of his Pokas: it is his game against Nie Weiping (Black) in the semifinals of the first Ing Cup (1988). and lost one point: by pros' standards this was a silly mistake. Alas, Shuko went on and only four moves later made another one-point mistake: Nie thus won this game by half a point...

White should have first descended at in the diagram below, forcing Black to add a stone at .

To compensate for having shown Shuko's mistakes, I will also show two of his incredible brilliancies...
Both are from the defence of his 4th Kisei title against Rin (1980): the diagram below is the first game. Shuko is Black: an unusual variation of the Taisha happened in the upper left corner and Shuko let the incredible fly... Rin had to answer passively at .

The pro following the game, Kudo Norio 9d, the Yomiuri commentator, and Yamabe Toshiro 9d, the referee, were astonished and said that "an ordinary 9d would only think of setting black+circle in motion"...
White had to answer passively: a more determined answer as in the diagram below was exactly what Black was hoping for. He sacrifices one stone and shuts White in.

Another brilliancy came in the fifth game: Shuko is again Black and came up with an unorthodox attack at in the diagram below.

Rin again answered patiently at because he wanted Sente to play first on the left side. In the ensuing fight White fixed his position there, but Black captured white+circle in a ponnuki. This, and the territory Black got on the right side put him in the lead.

Shuko commented that no one else could play such a move. A few days later he interrupted his celebrating (i.e. drinking) over the successful defense of the title to say in a TV interview: "Dosaku and Shusaku, Sakata and Takagawa could all get together and think about it - they'd never come up with this move!"

kmr - I know this is page about Fujisawa Hideyuki, but as a great fan of Dosaku, i cannot stay silent!

Black attack at is not so good. White played well at 2, however after , white should play this way to make game close :

Now black must play "a" which allows white to push at "b". Difference is big since black defended at 7 which is small compared to "a" thanks to excellent move brought by Dosaku "ghost". Best way to attack white group was playing at 2 instead of .

After this simple but very efficient sequence, black weakness at "a" is well covered, and white is steal from his right side territory. Now he must seek to reinforce his wall by move like "b".

White may kill and enter corner, however loss of 3 stones is big and black increase his lead.

The genius of the greatest blunderer last edited by kmr on March 23, 2023 - 02:12

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