This is first in a series devoted to handicap games played by top pros when they were young. One special point of interest is to see how their bad moves differ from the bad moves of amateurs. Another is to note which moves the senior pro picks out for comment.
These games come from a wide variety of sources and so the treatment will vary in each case - as will the handicap. We will cover games from nine stones upwards.
Takagawa Kaku vs Meijin Honinbo Shusai
We begin with Takagawa Kaku taking nine stones against Meijin Honinbo Shusai in 1925. Takagawa was nine years old and this game was his test to see whether he could become a pro. He passed and went on to study with Mitsuhara Itaro. He reached 1-dan in 1928.
Takagawa had been sent to Tokyo because of his father's wish that he should become a go player, and he stayed initially with distant relations called Ogawa as an adopted son. But, as Takagawa put it, that was just out of a sense of moral duty, hinting perhaps that he was not happy there. Mr Ogawa was a big shot in the electrical power industry. Maybe he frowned on go, and almost certainly on the young Takagawa's academic record (he failed his exams to go on to higher education in 1932). At any rate, with his elder sister who was looking after him, he soon moved to the house of Kimura Heiemon, a businessman.
The Nihon Ki-in, purely a pro headquarters not yet open to the public, was then at Miharabashi in the Ginza district, and Kimura was able to use his contacts to allow Takagawa to commute there. Koyama Tanizo, a Congress member from Takagawa's home area of Tanabe in Wakayama Prefecture, also kept a fatherly eye on him. Koyama and Kimura were the men who convinced Takagawa's father, a rice-wine brewer, that his son should try to be a pro after he had demolished all the local opponents within a year of learning to play.
Before he played Shusai, Takagawa had been taken by Kimura and Koyama in mid-February to the Nihon Ki-in to play Maeda Nobuaki 1-dan on five stones. Because of the way the go world worked in those days, success against Maeda and Shusai, or even the support of Koyama, was not sufficient to guarantee entree to pro teaching. The intercession of yet another congressman, Hamaguchi Kichiemon, was required for that. The Hamaguchis were a major business force, mainly as soy-sauce brewers, in Wakayama.
Knowing as we do now how Takagawa was to set an incredible record of nine consecutive wins in Honinbo title matches, at a time when it was the main tournament, it seems strange that Takagawa did not become Shusai's pupil. There may have been financial reasons. Shusai could command large fees, and in any case he was living in Kamakura then because Tokyo was still recovering from the Great Kanto earthquake. Also, the competition was hot. Around this time Miyashita Shuyo, who was just over a year older then Takagawa, managed to impress the Meijin more and became his pupil.
Be that as it may, this is what Shusai said about his game with Takagawa.
*****
Shusai's Comments
Black 10 is uncouth bad style. In this case he should first play kosumi at 40, and if White extends to 49 Black can hane at 45. Or he could
simply jump to 34 or play the two-space jump to 39. Otherwise, if he wants to change direction, he can attach at 'a' and when White extends to 'b' he can bend round at 21. Unpractised players often play moves such as 10 with equanimity, but the loss is enormous.
Black 14 is also bad. Since he has already played 10 and 12, he has to play as if he is sacrificing the stone on the right-side star point. Therefore, in this case, he should play the large knight's move at 'c' and, if White responds at 14, push as 'd'. Then, if White plays 56, the best plan for Black is to push at 42, sacrificing the stone while expanding his influence in the centre.
Black 18 is very slack. Obviously he must hane at 'e'. If he does want to play something like the connection at 18, he should make the pole connection at 'f'. Then if White hanes at 'g', Black should cut at 'e' to create a ko. Because it is still early in the game and there is nowhere to make a ko threat, wherever White plays Black will end up connecting the ko. If Black connects at 19 instead of 18, White cannot play 19, so it is evident that 18 is an inefficient move.
For Black 62 it is more effective first to cut at 'h' to make White connect at 'i', and only then to connect at 62.
Black 80 had to be at 81. If his two stones are caught in a ladder, the large group extending from the right into the centre will become weak.
Black 94 is a safe, good-aji move. With this one move he has secured the lower side.
Black 114 to 120 were flawless. White was trying to make a ko but he did not succeed.
We can assume this Black 10 coloured Shusai's judgement greatly, for the choice of word for uncouth (yasei) is one that, intentionally or not, would have conveyed to the crowd from Wakayama that they were a bunch of hicks up from the country.
Moreover, not many pros display their nine-stone games but this one has appeared many times over the years, as if Takagawa was trying to say yah boo sucks to the great man. It's maybe not too fanciful to say that Takagawa's remarkable tenacity in the Honinbo title matches, at a time when he was struggling in other tournaments, and even struggling to make 9-dan, was again in part because he wanted to hold on to the title once most prized by Shusai.
