Life In 19x19

I offer "from the GoGoD archives" an as yet unpublished commentary on a ten-game match game by Go Seigen against Sakata Eio. This is to help you enjoy celebrating his 100th birthday today (12 June 2014).

This is an unedited draft not for use elsewhere. It forms part of a complete book on the match, of course, but when or if that appears may have to wait till the next centenary.

Thanks John. This is a very generous way to celebrate Go Seigen's birthday.

Thanks John!

Thank you!

Thanks a lot, I think I'll make some time tomorrow to replay it.

If you are gonna use this in your book I have a small suggestion though: In the diagrams you start from move one every time, whereas in the text you keep the move numbers consistently rising. Not a problem for me(I only use my pc to replay games), but for someone who wants to replay those on an actual board it might get rather difficult.

Thank-you John.

I've always been interested in their special matches against each other. Particularly with how Sakata's continuing growth and change -- to make him the dominant player of the 1960s -- manifested in their matches over the years, and how Go responded.

Thank you, John

Oooh, exciting! Thanks John.

Thanks John. The prose here is great! I love how you slowly weave the setting, explaining the sumo wrestler analogy, marathon context and generally getting me into the mindset of the Japanese audience at this time. The style reminds me of Kageyama's which I love.

As paKO mentioned, the diagrams are confusing to me because the move numbers do not match the numbers you give in the text. Also it is difficult for me to tell which ones are variations (maybe all) and which are the actual game. Perhaps I am reading this wrong: as a standalone book instead of as a narrative to go along with my review of the game (via sgf or kifu).

FYI, I had a little trouble finding the game, I believe this is it.

I never stopped to look at the diagram numbering. If I had I would have concluded it was too much work to edit the diagrams and I wouldn't have posted it at all.

However, to make amends, but mainly to try to show Go Seigen in a different light from game commentaries on his matches, I thought I would offer the following.

It's unfinished and unedited (and to forestall questions, it will remain so and that's because of the pirates, and no I don't want to hear your views on that - I'm just telling you my reason), but I do think there's enough here to shed more light on Go's approach to josekis, and maybe to fill gaps between the World Cup games.

Thank you, John Fairbairn! I am continually amazed by the wonderful sharing and helpful posts at L19. The best online community I have ever seen. (And the fewest trolls, or is that trollbots!)

Thank you very much for the material!

Thanks for the PDFs, John! Very generous of you!

Thanks John. I didn't find the diagrams troubling at all. I had the actual game open in an sgfviewer on my PC, so it was easy to find the moves the test was referring to. The diagrams were, at least in my opinion, easy to understand.