Go Seigen

Infobox Go player
playername=Go Seigen


fullname=Go Seigen
chinese=Trad. 吳清源 Simp. 吴清源
pinyin=Wú Qīngyuán
dateofbirth=birth date and age|1914|5|19
cityofbirth=
countryofbirth=China
residence=flagicon|Japan Tokyo, Japan
teacher=Segoe Kensaku (from 1928)
pupil=Rin Kaiho
turnedpro=1929 (given 3 dan)
retired=1983
rank=9 dan
affiliation=Nihon Ki-in

Wu Qingyuan (吳清源, Pinyin: Wú Qīngyuán, born May 19, 1914),His original name was Wu Quan. A new name, Qing Yuan was created for him based on his old name ("Quan" means spring, fountain and "Qing Yuan" means clear and pure source of water).] generally known in the West by his Japanese name Go Seigen, is considered by many to be the greatest player of the game of Go in the 20th century and one of the greatest of all time.

Biography

Born May 19, 1914 in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, southeast China, Go Seigen did not start learning the game of Go until he was nine, a relatively late age for a professional (Honinbo Dosaku first learned Go at seven and Honinbo Shusaku before he was six). His father, who had taken Go lessons from Honinbo Shuho while studying in Japan, was responsible for introducing him to the game. Go Seigen quickly excelled and soon became known as a Go prodigy. By the time he was 12, less than three years after first learning the game, he was already of professional strength, as evidenced by his games against the visiting Japanese player Iwamoto Kaoru, 6p in 1926. The next year, he was able to reach a draw in a two-game match against another Japanese professional, Inoue Kohei, 5p. In 1928, still only 14 years old, he twice defeated Hashimoto Utaro, 4p. Go Seigen's reputation spread to Japan, then the leading Go powerhouse, and a movement was started there to bring him to Japan. He subsequently immigrated to Japan in 1928, at the invitation of Baron Kihachiro Okura and Inukai Tsuyoshi (later prime minister of Japan), and embarked on a professional career. He was tutored by Segoe Kensaku, the same teacher as Hashimoto Utaro and Cho Hunhyun.

Go Seigen began his rise to the top of professional Go world early. By the time he was 18 he was already a top-flight player belonging to a very small elite. In 1933, along with his great friend Kitani Minoru, Go Seigen developed and popularized the "Shinfuseki" that broke away from the traditional opening patterns. It is for this very important contribution that Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru are recognized as the fathers of modern Go.

Starting in 1939, Go Seigen began a spectacular series of Jubango matches against other top players of the day. It was through these matches that Go Seigen convincingly demonstrated an overwhelming dominance over his contemporaries. Go Seigen's had only one formal disciple - Rin Kaiho, Honorary Tengen. Go Seigen's star began to fade in the early 1960s due to health reasons (see section titled "end of career and retirement" below) and he had to virtually retire from playing professional Go by 1964. However, Go Seigen remained active in the Go community through teaching, writing, and promoting Go around the world.

Professional record

Go Seigen is commonly considered to be among the best to have ever played the game and the best player of the 20th century. He dominated professional Go for more than a quarter of a century. He maintained a brilliant match record and successively defeated all the leading players of the day in a series of famous jubango (contest between two players consisting of ten games), even forcing them down to handicaps. [ [http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoSeigen Go Seigen] (Senseis Library)] Some of the defeated were Kitani Minoru, Karigane Junichi, Hashimoto Utaro, Iwamoto Kaoru, Fujisawa Hosai, Sakata Eio, and Takagawa Kaku. Go lost just one jubango, and that was against Fujisawa Hosai. However, the match was played with Fujisawa taking the josen handicap throughout, and Fujisawa only managed to win with a score of 6 to 4. Some ten years later, Go Seigen took revenge on Fujisawa by beating him in two consecutive jubango with lopsided scores of 7-2 and 5-1 respectively. One must note that these jubango matches were all played without komi, and indeed the same applied to the vast majority of games Go Seigen played during his career. Go Seigen won the Oteai six times, and won a special Nihon Ki-in championship tournament in 1933.

A table of Go's jubango record is below.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/special/goseigen.html Mindzine article]
* [http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Go%20Seigen Gobase player stats and games listing]
* [http://www.wingsgoclub.org/books/go-seigen-book.pdf PDF-file of a series of his own now famous games commented almost move by move by the master himself]

Persondata
NAME=Go Seigen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Wu Qingyuan (Chinese name), 呉清源
SHORT DESCRIPTION=20th century Chinese-born go (igo) player
DATE OF BIRTH=1914
PLACE OF BIRTH=Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=