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 Post subject: The Return of the Queen - Hikaru Shindo meets another legend
Post #1 Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:57 pm 
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DISCLAIMER

I don't own the characters of Hikaru Shindou, Shinichiro Isumi, Akira Touya and Honda. However, everybody else belongs to me! (With two or three, hopefully not-too-difficult-to-see exceptions)

I haven't edited this extensively yet, but I thought you might enjoy being the first crowd to read it, before I post to an outside fanfic forum. I know I'm not a great writer, but I have enjoyed reading other people`s go fiction, so wanted to do my best to contribute something. At least, this time, it's a completed story!

The Return of the Queen
by Tamsin Jones

It was early summer, 2012. A young man stepped out of a taxi, accompanied by an older man and a woman in her mid-thirties.

Hikaru Shindou was only 25, but he already held the coveted title of Meijin, and had recently narrowly failed to take the Kisei away from his friend Akira Touya. The bleached hair was long gone, and now he sported the elegantly choppy style of a footballer or J-pop idol. With his Rolex and expensive suit, he looked every bit the co-emperor of the Japanese go scene. And Eric Taylor, chairman of the British Go Association, was extremely pleased to welcome this superstar to the new European Go Institute, which was being opened this day.

"EGI ni, yokosou, Shindou-sensei", Mr Taylor said, in carefully rehearsed, if awkward Japanese.
"San-kyuu", Hikaru responded, with a grin. He had been fond of that pun since the twelfth grade. He added, "Thank you very much. I have been looking forward to today for a long time."
The woman translated, and Mr Taylor smiled broadly.

Although go still had not really taken off in a large way in Europe, it had come far enough that professional tournaments were beginning to be held, and the top players around the continent were able to support themselves in various ways. For the BGA, getting the EGI to be built in Manchester was a huge coup, and securing a visit from Hikaru Shindou to play a special exhibition was a wonderful way to crown it.

The day would consist of two main events. First, Hikaru would tour the facilities and sign copies of his first book, Ultradeep: Going Back to Go Forward, which had already raised many eyebrows for its hugely original synthesis of ancient and modern go knowledge, and for the surprisingly accesible way in which Hikaru had described it. After lunch, Hikaru would play a special simultaneous match against three of the best players from Europe, plus the winner of a lottery open to all players ranked below 3-dan.

It would be hard, even for somebody like Hikaru, to take on several of the new Europros simultaneously, even if they were a few pegs below the strength of their Asian counterparts. He felt privately somewhat relieved that his fourth opponent would be an amateur, just in case the burden of playing several professionals at the same time proved heavier than expected. Little did he suspect what he was in for from the amateur!

The European Go Institute was an all-new, purpose-built facility in the Ecological style. That is, it was carefully designed so as to make full use of the Sun's light and energy, and it sported trees and lawns on its roof. There were courtyards with Zen gardens and waterways, and inside there were study rooms, several large function rooms, offices, two computer networks and even its own Yugen-no-ma. The Yugen-no-ma was modelled on the one in Tokyo, although in certain touches it subtly acknowledged its European setting. The EGI was magnificent, astounding even when you considered that it was built in a time of recession, and when the British were burdened by a particularly incompetent government.

Hikaru was impressed by the EGI, and expressed his hope that one day soon the top Asian professionals might do battle in the Euroyugen-no-ma with Western professionals. His companion, Masashi Koyama, 9-dan, and former Gosei-Honinbo, and now a committee member of the Nihon Kiin made a mental note to attempt to propose its use for the first game in one of the future Kisei or Honinbo matches. Eric Taylor gushed with pride.

"Our very own Yugen-no-ma," he said, "It's just like the original, but with a European flavour!".
The woman translated, and Hikaru and Koyama laughed pleasantly, and agreed that it would be a fine place for high-class go. Of course, they both had known from the momemnt they saw it that there was one crucial difference, and that was in its lack of atmosphere. It would only acquire the real character of its name once a number of desperate battles had been fought within; but for the time being, its air was peaceful and clear.

The party continued its tour of the EGI. Hikaru was surprised to see a school of Koi in the waterways, and was impressed by the size and facilities of the library and study rooms. He posed for a photograph beside the statue of Dr Herbert Runsworth, who had, Mr Taylor enthusiastically told him, been of enormous help and inspiration in the early days of the BGA. Hikaru scanned his mind, and wondered if this Dr Runsworth might have been the same person as Ranusuwosu-hakase, whose victory at a handicap of five stones against Kitani Minoru in the late 1940s was often reprinted in go magazines, as an example of teaching go in its subtlest form. That is, Kitani-sensei had carefully measured his play so as to reveal his opponent`s weaknesses gently, while allowing the amateur to appear to win a hard-fought contest by one point. Hikaru wondered if he might be able to contrive something similar against one or all of his professional opponents later in the day. After that, Hikaru was led to a table in the largest function room, and settled down to sign several hundred copies of Ultradeep. While he enjoyed meeting many of the Western go fans, he was beginning to feel decidedly weary after nearly three hours of hearing compliments in English and occasionally heavily accented Japanese. He was thankful when Mr Taylor announced that lunch was ready.

Lunch was delightful - Hakata-style Ramen accompanied with Yebisu beer. The translator had been secretly a little disappointed that it had not been sashimi or some other upscale affair, but she knew that both Hikaru and Koyama were well known for their love of hearty food, and if they were happy, then the EGI and the BGA had more than met their responsibilities. The Japanese contigent and the officials were joined by the three European pros, Oleg Kasparian, Marcel Giskard and Jim Thrax. The amateur was supposed to be there, but she hadn't been seen at any time during the morning session, and even twenty minutes after the others decided to begin eating without her, she had not appeared.

"I'm so, so, sorry," said Mr Taylor, "We have no idea where...where Ms Thomas is".
"I've already notified the reserve," another official reassured him.

At that moment, a tall, expensively dressed lady appeared.
"That won't be necessary," said the newcomer, sitting down perfunctorily.

Mr Taylor had turned red, and clearly everybody was aghast at the amateur's frankly rude manner. Koyama, 9-dan, however, turned white. He thought he recognised the woman. Surely it could not O Keitorin? O Keitorin, as Caitlin Wang had been known in Japan, had once dominated the Japanese go scene, winning many men's titles, and alienating almost the entire Asian professional go community with her cold, cruel and highly unpredictable behaviour. That was around thirty years ago, and one day she had vanished from Japan, leaving only an empty house and an empty bank account behind her. And, it should be added, several broken hearts. While decidedly insane, Caitlin Wang had also been a dangerously beautiful woman, and there were some who could not help courting her, despite the ruthless ways in which she used them, humiliated them for fun, and toyed with their minds. Indeed, many people reached the conclusion that one of her victims had finally collapsed internally, and had murdered her. Few, at any rate, were especially sorry that she was gone.

Yet, that was indeed Caitlin Wang who had joined the party.

"Well, you're late!" observed Mr Taylor. Controlling himself, he continued, "I suppose I had ought to introduce you to the others."
"Okay, get on with it," responded Caitlin, coolly.
Several mouths fell open. Even those who did not speak English could not fail to be astonished at her manners. Hikaru, for his part, was quite intrigued. He had no idea who this was, but he could tell that she would be no weakling. She was obviously rich enough not to need to care what others thought of her.
Koyama stood up, and forcing a friendly smile, began to introduce himself and his companions. He was in agony with anxiety. Could this really be O Keitorin? The fellow insei who had laughed off his fumbling romantic approaches so many years ago, and the Queen of the Go World in the late 1970s, the very one who he had endured a sickening seven game marathon for the 1979 Kisei title? The one who had finally denied him by a half-point in the deciding game, and had actually had the temerity to advise him to practice basic endgame reading during the post-game discussion? The woman he had desired with a nauseating intensity, and had yet hated with all the weight of a mountain.

"My name is Koyama Masashi. This is Shindou Hikaru, Meijin, and Miss Oshima Keiko. Please treat us kindly," he said in Japanese.
"Right. I'm Caitlin Thomas, and I don't speak Japanese," replied the woman, in perfect, although casual Japanese. Her accent, however, was a grating mix of North American and something else. That something else was Welsh, although there was no way Koyama would have known about that. Although Caitlin Wang had been regarded as Chinese, she had been born in New York. What nobody else in the go scene knew was that her mother, Marlene, had actually been of Welsh ancestry.
"I'm looking forward to playing you, lady," said Hikaru.
Caitlin looked at him. She smiled, and nodded her head in acknowledgement. There was something about this young man that impressed her. She liked his direct, brash way of speaking. She continued the pretence, however.
"Wakaran," she said, although much more softly and kindly than in her usual tone, "I don't understand."
Koyama decided, without really believing himself, that perhaps this was not O Keitorin. She looked too young and, honestly speaking, he simply did not want to believe that the bitch was still alive.

Caitlin Thomas added insult to injury by eating her lunch very slowly.
Eric Taylor and the other officials were in extreme distress, as they tried to conceal their rage toward the amateur while maintaining the most pleasant atmosphere they could.

At length, Mr Taylor announced that it was now absolutely time for the players to take the stage. As they made their way to the back stage, he took Ms Thomas's arm and attempted to speak to her privately.

"Who the hell do you think you are?", he hissed, "I don't care how rich you might be, you have embarrassed us in front of...My life, woman, I'm going to see to it that you'll never be allowed to play in any BGA event ever, not ever!" His face was red, his bald head was glittering with sweat, and he was shaking.
Caitlin shook off his hand, and slapped his face. This was noticed by Hikaru and the translator, and by Marcel Giskard.
"I know who I am, dork," said Caitlin sweetly, "And do I look like I have any desire to play in your little tourneys?"

Eric Taylor was crying as he stepped on to the stage. Fortunately, it was not possible to see the imprint of Caitin Wang Thomas's hand on his face, as it had turned to a princely shade of purple. He tried to disguise his discomfiture as a coughing fit, and after a quick thinking staff member brought him a glass of water, he was able to begin the announcements. It was obvious, though, to anybody in the first two rows of the audience, that something was much more amiss than a simple coughing fit.

Of couse, had the BGA realised who Caitlin Thomas really was, there was no a way she would have been allowed to take her place on the stage. But, at that moment, all anybody knew for sure was that there were three European professionals, one Japanese superstar, and one elegant, but frightening woman settling down at their places.

Eric Taylor bravely ground through the introductions, although he could not quite muster the necessary self-control to resist the urge to mispronounce Caitlin Thomas as "Cattle`n`tomatoes", and to describe her as a "beginner, who had fortunately won the special competition to decide Shindou-sensei's sacrificial victim".

The games began. All games were to be played even, with Shindou taking black in the game with the highest-ranked opponent, Kasparian. Thrax and Giskard opened with normal first moves, but Caitlin calmly placed her stone on the 6-6 point. While not completely unheard of, this was an extremely unusual way to begin, and certainly not the most polite of choices when faced with one of the five strongest go players in the world in an exhibition game. An angry expression flickered over Hikaru's face, but the woman merely looked at him with a half-smile. He decided to play safely, and laid his stone at the 3-4 point, with a firm sweep of his wrist.

Kasparian opened in his normal, solid and cautious way. After the first twenty or so moves, Hikaru decided that the best way to deal with the Russian would be take him to the endgame, and take small gains where he could find them. He had seen a few of the Russian professional's games, in fact, and had spotted slightly frailties in that area. Jim Thrax had opened with a bold cosmic style opening, but Hikaru took the lead surprisingly quickly. That one would be a resignation game, for sure. As for Marcel Giskard, the French professional had been brave enough to use the Akarui Fuseki ("The Opening of Light"), which was an innovation associated with Shindou, Akira Touya and Honda. It was a high-risk strategy, being a more extreme version of the Chinese Opening, which usually lead to a decision within the first 150 moves or so. Needless to say, it had caught on with the amateurs, and at one point in 2011 it was thought that over 70% of all dan-level games on go servers were being opening with this pattern. The game with Caitlin Thomas, however, began differently. At first, Hikaru felt that playing conservative moves would be more than enough to establish a decisive advantage quickly, but it quickly became apparent that she was constructing a highly original battle formation designed not so much for a large central moyo (the cosmic style), but to provoke intense fighting that would favour black because of her highly placed stones. In other words, Hikaru was already experiencing the creeping feeling that far from being the weak amateur to be slaughtered, in an instructive way of course, this strange woman was in fact a go genius. And something clicked in his memory.

"Caitlin", he mused, while walking between the boards. "That sounds a lot like Keitorin", he continued. And then, as he reached to play a routine move on Kasparian's board, he made the connection.

"Oh, heavens! That woman can only be O Keitorin! But they all said she was dead."

His hand missed the correct point on the board. He then realised that he had just blundered away six points, and he became quite flustered. There was a murmur among the crowd, as Koyama explained the implications of Hikaru's mistake on one of the demonstration screens.

"Pull yourself together!" he muttered angrily to himself.

He took a little longer than was customary to make his moves against Thrax and Giskard, and the atmosphere in the room was becoming increasingly electric. He made his way to Caitlin Thomas's board, and he gazed at the woman's face. There was now no doubt about it. She had aged since the 1970s, from which time many photographs had been included in books, magazines and countless website, but there was no mistaking the angular, somewhat elfin lines of her face, and of course she was unusually tall, a point Hikaru had remembered being mentioned in an old Weekly Go. As he gazed at her, he felt a peculiar aching in his stomach. It was an open secret that Shindou Hikaru was "as gay as a cloud", as he liked to put it, but here he was, standing on stage in an exhibition match, feeling intense, no, desperate desire for a woman over the age of 60.

As for Caitlin Wang Thomas, she was unperturbed by Hikaru's behaviour. She had been well aware of her physical allure, and had exploited that extensively in many matches. She looked up, and fixed Hikaru with a penetrating stare.

"We can talk later, if you like, boy", she whispered seductively in Japanese. She knew that he knew who she was.

Hikaru blushed vividly, but found enough composure to reply. "Yes, I want to talk. We have much to discuss, O-sensei".

He had spoken very quietly, but the words "O-sensei" had been sufficiently audible.

"Oh, my God!", somebody in the audience blurted out, "It's Caitlin Wang!"

Mr Taylor tried to hush the spectator, with a stentorian "Silence, if you PLEASE", but the names "O Keitorin" and "Caitlin Wang" were now flying around the hall like a hurricane of whispers. The commotion escalated rapidly, and Mr Taylor took a microphone and rushed up on to the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced, "We regret to announce that Ms Thomas is to be disqualified for..."
"NO!" shouted the crowd.
"But, she was not eligible."
"Get off the stage you twit!" shouted the British champion, Martin McPhytin, "We want to see this game!"
"Yes, you burk," added P. Mike Wall, "You call yourself a go fan and you want to stop a game like this?"
A chant began, "PLAY ON! PLAY ON! PLAY ON!".
Eric Taylor put down the microphone, and limped off stage. This was the worst day he had ever experienced.

It took another fifteen minutes, but at last the games continued. As expected, Thrax's moyo crumbled, and he resigned. It was possible that he could have staggered into a badly losing endgame, and he might have continued, in his stubborn way, on another occasion, but he inwardly felt glad to have the opportunity to observe the game between Caitlin Wang and Shindou. Kasparian had briefly taken the lead, but Hikaru had indeed pulled himself together, and had demonstrated the power of his "ultradeep" preparatory moves, as he found one extremely strong endgame tesuji after another. The game with Marcel Giskard had erupted into a board-wide firefight, as usually happened with the Akarui Fuseki, but Hikaru had already seen the denouement, and Giskard was aware of that fact, even though he himself had no idea of how the game would be sealed - like a condemned prisoner strapped to the bascule, he could only wait for the blade to come down. Only the game between Shindou Hikaru and Caitlin Wang was yet to reach a decisive phase.

It was already around 8.30 in the evening. First, Giskard's position was sliced apart with the beautiful warikomi tesuji Hikaru had foreseen over an hour previously. The French pro smiled, and bowed his head, "Merci beaucoup, sensei". Kasparian clung on grimly, but he knew that a two-point loss was sealed. He wrestled with the temptation simply to resign, and to enjoy the game taking place a few feet from him, but in the end he submitted to the demands of professionalism - this was an exhibition game, and it would not be fair to the paying audience to resign without an easily comprehensible outcome.

It seemed that Shindou-meijin had at last established supremacy over Caitlin's position, but in the dying moves of the endgame, she played a move inside his apparent territory. As it flashed up on the demonstration screen, the crowd murmured. Surely she was desperate? Wasn't this just a vain and, it had to be said, amateurish attempt to pull off some kind of fluke. Yet, one of the stronger players smugly whispered the word "semedori" to his friends, and the atmosphere once again became silently electric.

Hikaru, of course, had expected Caitlin's move. It was a standard technique to reduce the partner's territory by playing a move inside it, and then forcing them to capture. So, he replied in the ordinary way, and proceeded to Kasparian's board to count the score. As the commentators had predicted, it was indeed a two-point victory for the Japanese grandmaster.

Koyama began explaining the semedori to the audience, and then fell silent. He had noticed something, and the colour drained from his face. It was the kind of tesuji that would still be very difficult to see, even for top professionals who had spent years solving and resolving the terribly challenging problems contained in such collections as Igo Hatsuyoron. In fact, he only noticed it because the position reminded him of a game he had played with Caitin Wang over forty years previously, back in the Oteai (ranking tournament for young professionals). The feelings that stirred within him were every bit as sickening as the memory of that half-point loss in the 1979 Kisei finale. And, at the moment Hikaru came back to Caitlin's board, the move Masashi Koyama had noticed flashed up on the demonstration screen. She had seen it - the only question was, when?

Like the senior professional, Hikaru Shindou blanched when he saw the tesuji. This was the agony - and the joy! - of go. Even at the last, there were hidden resources in all kinds of positions. In this case, Hikaru saw that he had an uninviting choice to make - either lose several stones, or see the aji (lingering potential) in a neighbouring group flicker back to life. He wanted to resign, but to his enormous credit, he paused not to try to find some miraculous escape, but to find the most entertaining way to lose for the audience.

As the final stones were placed, the outcome became clear. No matter what, the woman would win by five points. Hikaru passed, and Caitlin Wang passed, and they counted the score. As the score was announced by the translator, a man began clapping slowly, with tears streaming down his face. Even after having been thoroughly humiliated, Eric Taylor had been swept up in the joy of go, and wanted to be the first to applaud the beautiful game. Martin McPhytin and P. Mike Wall also stood up beside Mr Taylor, and began applauding, and soon the room was in the uproar of a genuine standing ovation. This was, indeed, the Return of the Queen.

Epilogue

There was considerable controversy, but Caitlin Wang Thomas's decision to return to Japan was supported, albeit with some misgivings, by the influential Koyama, and with great enthusiasm by the young Meijin. The Nihon Kiin insisted that she played a test match with one of the minor title-holders to ensure her worthiness before restoring her professional status, and they also required that she made a traditional, face-to-the-floor apology, on television, for her outrageous disappearance. Following that, she returned to the professional go scene, now known by the name O-tomasu Keitorin (rendered 王・トマス・恵戸鈴), which in turn was usually presented in the media as OTK-sensei.

Shinichiro Isumi always suspected that his younger partner Hikaru had enjoyed some kind of tryst with the legendary Welsh-Chinese-American player, but Hikaru vehemently denied it (sometimes, the only way to handle an inconvenient truth), and they went on as before, although Isumi never was able to feel at ease in the woman's company (not that many people were anyway).

Koyama, who had never married, decided to make Caitlin Wang his own, no matter what, and this time, undeterred by humiliations, rejections and the decidedly strange connection he sensed between flambouyantly gay Shindou and the sociopathic Queen of Go, he continued until she at last agreed to go on a date with him - to see the latest Godzilla movie. From that point, Caitlin began to soften, and allow the kinder, and up to then extremely well-hidden, aspects of her personality to blossom. The strange thing was, the more she allowed this to happen, the happier she felt, and she became even more fearsome over the go board, going on to recapture the Kisei title in 2014 and, in the proudest moment of her life, to take the Fujitsu Cup while playing under the flag of the Welsh dragon.

The EGI proved to be a spectacular success. The drama of its opening event gave it an unstoppable momentum, and within a few years the European professionals began making headway against their Asian counterparts.

As for Eric Taylor, there was a happy ending for him, too. Several weeks after the opening of the EGI, he won the National Lottery on a rollover day. He was able to spend his retirement following professional go throughout Asia, and Europe, and throwing parties for professional players. And he was even invited to the wedding of Caitlin Wang and Masashi Koyama in the Autumn of 2015, which unfolded in the eeriely beautiful surroundings of Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima.

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This post by Tami was liked by 3 people: 1/7,000,000,000, daal, Dokuganryu
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 Post subject: Re: The Return of the Queen - Hikaru Shindo meets another le
Post #2 Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:42 pm 
Dies with sente

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Enthrall ing!
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 Post subject: Re: The Return of the Queen - Hikaru Shindo meets another le
Post #3 Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:11 am 
Lives with ko

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Superb!:)

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 Post subject: Re: The Return of the Queen - Hikaru Shindo meets another le
Post #4 Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:23 pm 
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It took me a long while to remember where I had read about Caitlin Wang :)

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