This month’s mystery pro question turned out to be much harder than I thought. I asked you to identify the man in the picture at right, share his importance to Western go and finally, explain why we celebrate him this month.
Well, we only received one correct answer, and that only to the first two parts of the question. I will let former AGA President, former International Go Federation (IGF) Director and current American Go Foundation (AGF) Treasurer Barbara Calhoun take it away. “I’ll take a stab that it is Yusuke Oeda. Don’t recognize the hair but it could be his face. Oeda was Michael Redmond’s sensei and was a prime mover in establishing the World Amateur Go Championship and the International Go Federation.”
Yusuke Oeda 9 dan, 1935-2010 was a student of Nobuaki Maeda. In his E-Journal obituary, Barbara further elaborated on her friend’s efforts bringing the Meijin Tournament to New York, remarking “He was an emotional man who could relate to and communicate with people culturally different from him.” Michael Redmond said that the lessons he learned from Oeda were not just about the game that became his career, adding that “Mr. Oeda was also generous with his knowledge of the fine points of Japanese language and culture, and he gave me a basic understanding of the country I live in” (7/26/2010 EJ).
My fondest memory of Mr. Oeda was watching him play simuls. If you have had the pleasure of playing a simultaneous game with a professional, you understand the awe of watching their calm strength as they guide the game to a result that tests the amateur player. They do not resort to strong player tricks but rather slowly wear down each opponent, happily winning or losing based on our performance.
That was not the Oeda way. He preferred pairing himself with a young female professional, sharing the effort, but also playing moves designed to make his partner laugh, hilarious to watch as the young pro was torn between trying to maintain her professional demeanor and her natural reaction to Oeda’s mischief.
The final answer to this month’s quiz is explained in this picture of Ishida playing Oeda on November 12, 1970. With his victory in this game, Ishida qualified for the Honinbo League and this game is the first one featured in Iwamoto’s (and Davies’) “The 1971 Honinbo Tournament” book, one of the great early Ishi press masterpieces. The photo shows the moment where Ishida played move 11 (at the lower right corner of the book) “a new joseki developed at the Kitani Dojo”. Oeda navigated the surprise move well, but gradually was out-maneuvered in an exciting game. (game record here).
