American Go E-Journal » 50 years aGO

By Keith L. Arnold, hka, with Patrick Bannister

We start this month with a report from the former editor of Go World, author of Invincible and translator of many go books, John Power. If you go back to the team match photo from last month’s column, I only identified the first three boards. Power’s sharp eye offers that Board 4 was Horst Mueller of Austria, Board 5 was Stuart Dowsey “cofounder of Ishi Press and founder of the London Go Centre,” and Board 6 was William Pinckard whose book on go art is one my favorites. I myself recognized Dowsey, but did not want to make everyone squint, but I am happy to offer this addendum simply out of pride that Mr. Power takes the time to read my efforts.

Speaking of Stuart Dowsey, on March 10 Dowsey and Manfred Wimmer taught Max Euwe, the President of the World Chess Federation and former World Chess Champion, how to play go during a visit to the Nihon Ki’in.

March 19 saw the start of the the Amateur Best 10 tournament. James Davies 4d made it to the second round, while Wimmer 5d made it to the third.

Mr. Wimmer had a busy month, here we see him playing on NHK TV. His opponent is the female junior high champion, Endō Keiko. According to Go Review, Wimmer demonstrated his knowledge of the taisha jōseki on his way to a three and a half point win.

On March 22, Ishida Yoshio began his defense of his Asahi Pro Best Ten title. The challenger, Iwata Tatsuaki 9d, was not a frequent challenger for top titles. Indeed, responding to the surprise of the go world, Iwata responded “That’s right, it is indeed a fluke.” Iwata, known for calm courtesy, was perhaps being modest, you do not defeat fellow senior Kitani disciple Ōtake Hideo, Hashimoto Shōji, Sugiuchi Masao and Sakata Eio in succession and not be worthy. Still the challenge created an almost modern style pregame show with various pros opining as to who would win. Katō Masao 7d backed Ishida, while Kanō Yoshinori 9d (author of Graded Go Problems for Beginners) believed Iwata had a very good chance because of the similarity of their styles. Rin Kaihō diplomatically and prudently suggested that in his experience, the winner of the first game usually won. Ishida took the first game by a half a point, but Iwata leveled the match on March 28. (Game records: Game 1, Game 2.)

As of March 23, the former title holders were still holding on to the lead in the leagues. Rin was 5-0 in the Hon’inbo, and Fujisawa Shūkō was 3-0 in the Meijin. Ishida had bounced back from his poor start in the Meijin League to level his result at 2-2.

Game records courtesy of SmartGo, photos from Go Review

by Keith L. Arnold, hka, with Patrick Bannister

We start with another quick tidbit about inflation. The Nihon Ki’in released the prize leaders for 1971. Rin Kaihō led the pros with a princely income of $25,000.

On February 11, the Nihon Ki’in Team Tournament began. At the urging of Fujisawa Hōsai 9d, a “gaijin” team entered the event for 15 player teams. 11 Americans, 2 Austrians and 2 British made up the “Ishi Press Team.” Their first three boards were Manfred Wimmer, Richard Bozulich and James Davies – you can make them out in the attached picture from the event. Other notables were one time AGA President Robert McCallister and Congress Director Stuart Horowitz. Unfortunately full names are not given and we are left to speculate whether “Hall” was T. Mark Hall, co-creator of GoGOD. The top boards had a solid 70% win rate, but the tail end of the team was not as successful, and they were eliminated in the initial stage.

The Jūdan title match went the full 5 game distance. Beginning the month knotted at one game apiece, Sakata Eio took the lead in the third game played on February 9 and 10. Hashimoto Utarō managed to even the score by half a point on February 16 and 17. However, Sakata returned from the wilderness, taking the title on February 23-24. (Game records: Game 3, Game 4, Game 5.)

Photos from Go Review, game records from SmartGo