The Game of the Century: Seigen vs. Honinbo

The game of the century refers to a famous game of go between Honinbo Shusai (white) and Go Seigen (black) that was played to celebrate the 60th birthday of Honinbo Shusai. The game began on October 16, 1933 and finished on January 29, 1934. Each player was given twenty-four hours of thinking time. Shusai was arguably the strongest player of his day, and was head of the famous Honinbo go school, most prestigious of the schools originally founded at the behest of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu at the start of the 17th century. Go Seigen was famed as prodigy, first among a generation of young new brilliant players, and would go on to become one of the most celebrated players of the 20th century. This led newspapers to dub the match the game of the century.

As the older player, Shusai had the right to adjourn the game at any time he saw fit. As there was as yet no practice of sealing the last move (putting in an envelope, hidden from the public and the opponent) Go Seigen was said to have had played the entire Honinbo go school. Players were allowed to analyze the game during adjournments, and Honinbo Shusai took thirteen adjournments, often at critical parts of the game. This clouded the game with controversy.

A particularly brilliant move played by Honinbo Shusai was said to have been discovered by one of his pupils, Nobuaki Maeda, who later denied this. Before the move, Shusai had been behind for most of the game. Shusai would eventually win by 2 points, though it must be mentioned that this was a game without komi (points to compensate white for the fact that black moves first), which put Shusai at a disadvantage from the start.

From wikipedia ^^

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[PoopShitMario]

First couple seconds of the audio made me think I was gonna get rick rolled.

[ChromeBallz]

The music is ridiculously distracting and entirely inappropriate >_<

[tavogp]

so who 1

[OtakuViking]

@ivankomar1 KGS (Kisedo go), IGS (pandanet), Tygem, wbaduk, OGS, DGS, yahoo etc.

[rubentg1]

I have no idea what just happend

[ivankomar1]

what program program can i play this on

[MsSillypanda123]

Hm,I think it was because of Chess that I came to understand and appreciate Go better than it just being a simple game of stones and intersection.I think Chess is just more visible in the Social aspect with limiting moves that reflect rank and piece shapes making it an obvious game while Go let's you think a little bit more.In Go one stone may end up acting as a pawn in some cases as well as a bishop.Also in Go you're more of a General on battle base than an Aristocrat waiting in a castle.

[guthax30]

@maquih So i suppose our argument boils down to aesthetics...and that's okay. I respect your love of a beautiful game, even though it is not a love i share...

[maquih]

@guthax30 I don't disagree with your assessment that Chess is more human than Go. Chess reflects the uniquely western philosophy of war; two armies facing off on a battlefield.

Indeed, I believe that Go transcends humanity, if there are aliens in outerspace, there's a good chance they play Go, I think.

Don't get me wrong, Chess is great and certainly a very complex game that no human will ever figure out, but I prefer Go for it's more transcendental nature.

[guthax30]

@maquih I respect your passion but i simply don't see it that way. Go holds no romance for me...there is no humanity in those pieces or that board...they are simply bits of black and white stone scattered about on a scrap of gridded wood. Now chess...THAT is an emotional game. Chess is dramatic...

You are also not counting for all the different families of chess that come from Asia...

[maquih]

@guthax30 you can make a go board any shape, the board can be shaped like the state of North Carolina. You can give handicaps make the board 100x100 or even play with three colors of stones. Look I used to love chess a lot through the age of about 22 it was my favorite thing to do.

Go just blows it out of the water. Tic-tac-toe is to checkers is to chess is to Go.

[guthax30]

@iluvadar1977 Your not counting all the different chess variants like chess960, for instance...Go has no variants, at least i don't think it does. Except scoring, of course...and that is just a very minor thing.