Upper Valley Go Club/ Pro Game Studyand Memorization

Goal

Studying pro games as a group and adding a fun competitive aspect to memorizing them.

Date started

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

Pro Games studied

Go Seigen 9d (W) vs Shimamura Toshihiro 8d (B)

Studied first 58 moves on January 2nd in UVGC room on KGS.

The 1st Japan's Strongest Deciding Matches Played on December 21, 1957 in Japan

Link to game record on Gobase.org (alternatively, ask for game record from water or Nanny)

As usual, the winner of the Nihon Keizai Newspaper-sponsored Oza title of each year got to play Go Seigen 9d for a special match.

The 3-game title matches of 1956 Oza were played between Shimamura Toshihiro 8d and Kansai Ki-in's Handa Dogen 8d. Shimamura 8d defeated Handa 8d two straight, winning the Oza title, and as pre-arranged, he earned the chance to play a special game with Go Seigen.

This is an interesting game, in that Black has a dead group pretty early in the game, which usually would mean game over. But in this case, Black plays a nice attachment move and the game is not clearly favorable for White for a long time.

Goal: Memorize this game by Friday, January 5th, 2006
Motivation: Honorable mention on this page. And the satisfaction of a fun Go Seigen games to add to your memorized games repository.