Go Seigen

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    Keywords: Culture & History, People

Go Seigen

Wu Qingyuan (吳清源, Wú Qīngyuán or Wu2 Qing1 yuan2), more commonly known in the west by his Japanese name Go Seigen (呉清源), is considered one of the strongest players of the Twentieth Century and, by many, one of the strongest players of all time. Takagawa said that the twentieth century produced one go genius, Go Seigen. Though retired from competition for many years, Go Seigen continues to lead study groups for professionals and his thoughts about the game remain highly influential.

Table of contents

Early life

Born 12 June 1914 (= lunar 19th of fifth month, 1914) in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, southeast China, Go Seigen started learning Go at age 9. He excelled at the game, and by the time he was 12 years old, he was already of professional strength. Between the ages of 12 and 14, he played against a number of visiting Japanese professionals, such as Iwamoto Kaoru (6 dan), Inoue Kohei (5 dan) and Hashimoto Utaro (4 dan). He managed to win several games, causing his reputation to spread to Japan.

Move to Japan

In 1928 Go Seigen moved to Japan to start a professional career with Segoe Kensaku as his teacher. His playing strength was judged sufficient to be given the rank of 3 dan immediately. His health was frail, and he did not play in the Oteai, instead playing a number of exhibition games.

In 1929, Go played against Kitani Minoru for the first time, a game which stirred some controversy because Go started on tengen and played mirror go for a long while. This upset Kitani but the two player were to become good friends and were at the forefront of a wave of changes about to sweep through Japanese go.

Ten-game match record

Go Seigen

In the early years of the Nihon Ki-in, the uchikomi ten-game match (jubango) was a popular format, though by then it had become almost a Yomiuri Shinbun patent. As komi was not yet usual, playing multiple games was the usual way to compensate for the starting advantage. Such matches used the old handicapping system of the day, and the rule was that when one player went four games ahead, the handicapping was adjusted. Sometimes the matches were abandoned as soon as this happened.

Go Seigen was extremely successful in his ten-game matches, beating all of his top rivals except in one match where he gave a handicap throughout. There were also many parallel six-game, four-game, three-game matches against top players (usually the current Honinbo) where Go was, if anything, even more successful. Here is Go's record the ten-game matches:

  1. 1933-34 - Kitani Minoru 5p (Go 5p): 3-3 (started even, abandoned after Kitani was promoted to 6p; handicap not changed)
  2. 1939-40 - Kitani Minoru 7p (Go 7p); 7p was the highest rank at the time, there were five 7p: 6-4 (started even, Kitani was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 6 games (5-1)). The book Kamakura deals with this match.
  3. 1941-42 - Karigane Junichi 8p (Go 7p): 4-1 (started even, abandoned to avoid possible embarrassment for Karigane, since one more loss would mean Karigane having to play with sen-ai-sen handicap)
  4. 1942-44 - Fujisawa Kuranosuke 6p (Go 8p): 4-6 (started with Fujisawa playing with josen handicap; handicap not changed)
  5. 1946-48 - Hashimoto Utaro 8p (Go 8p): 6-3-1 (started even, Hashimoto was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 8 games (6-2))
  6. 1948-49 - Iwamoto Kaoru Honinbo (Go 8p): 7-2-1 (started even, Iwamoto was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap handicap after 6 games (5-1))
  7. 1949-50: Go (8p) against a team of 6p, 7p players (with 6p playing with josen handicap, 7p playing with sen-ai-sen handicap): 8-1-1 (The loss was against Kubouchi Shuchi, the jigo against Sumino Takeshi)
  8. 1950-51 - Hashimoto Utaro Honinbo (Go 9p): 5-3-2 (started with Hashimoto playing with sen-ai-sen handicap, handicap not changed)
  9. 1951-52 - Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9p (Go 9p, only two 9p at the time): 7-2-1 (started even, Fujisawa was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 9 games (6-2-1))
  10. 1952-53 - Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9p (Go 9p, only two 9p at the time): 5-1 (abandoned after Fujisawa was beaten down from sen-ai-sen handicap to josen handicap)
  11. 1953-54 - Sakata Eio 8p (Go 9p): 6-2 (abandoned after Sakata was beaten down from sen-ai-sen handicap to josen handicap)
  12. 1955-56 - Takagawa Kaku Honinbo (Go 9p): 8-2 (started even, Takagawa was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 8 games (6-2)). This match is the subject of Final Summit.

After the ten-game matches

At this point, Go had defeated all other players over a period of more than twenty years. Rather than continue with the ten-game match format, the Saikyo competition started in 1958. After three titles, the Saikyo competition was made obsolete by the Meijin Title matches.

The game with Shusai

The game between Go Seigen and Honinbo Shusai to celebrate the 60th birthday of Shusai is mentioned in Magic of Go. However, the column fails to mention the controversy surrounding the match. Each player was allowed 24 hours of playing time. But, it was Shusai's decision with regards to adjourning the game. Eventually, the game was adjourned 13 times over the period of 3 months, always at Shusai's turn to play. As the players were allowed to go home during the adjournments, many suspect that Shusai adjourned the game at critical moments and studied the current game situation with his pupils. Though he was behind mostly during the game, Shusai made a myoshu at 160 and surged back to eventually win by two points. Later, Segoe Kensaku let it slip to a journalist, supposedly off the record, the widespread belief in top go circles that Maeda Nobuaki, one of Shusai's pupils, had discovered the move idea. It was certainly well known that Shusai did discuss the game with his pupils during the adjournments. The game was played without komi. Go Seigen played black.

Later life

http://www.usgo.org/EJournal/archive/20070527/2007.05.27_Go_Seigen_portrait_DSC_1258.jpg?alignright.jpg

Go Seigen at the 2007 World Amateur Go Championship

After an unfortunate collision with a motorcycle in 1961, Go Seigen gradually retired from the pro world, because when he had to play longer games he had problems with concentration due to the effect of the accident on his health. He continues to this day to write books and holds a regular study group with today's top Japanese pros. For some of his current views on the game of Go, see Tengen fuseki. His one formal pupil was Rin Kaiho. An introduction to some of his theories about the go board can be found in instalment 12 of GoGoD's New In Go, [ext] here and also in The Go Companion.

Books

Go Seigen is the author of A Way of Play for the 21st Century, Winning a won game, Go Seigens Leben und Tod Probleme 1, among many others.

Go's ten-game matches are also being covered in detail in books by John Fairbairn, published by Slate & Shell. As of March 2010, two volumes had appeared ("Kamakura", covering the ten-game match with Kitani, and "Final Summit", covering Go vs. Takagawa, including the three-game matches). "9-dan Showdown", reporting on the three Go-Fujisawa ten-game matches and their four-game match, was then being typeset.

More pages about Go Seigen at SL

External links


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