Commentary 13

White: Honinbo Shusaku
Black: Murase Shuho (wins without counting)

25th of same month (1861-06-03), same venue

1 ~ 100

White 20 could be at 22 and then after Black 23, White plays ▲ and then he can vary according to how Black responds. This is a recent move invented by Shuho in games with Nakagawa Kamesaburo.

It was not that he was saying it was better than this, but he offered it for people of similar tastes.

The idea of capturing the three white stones in the centre with Black 27 and 29 is slack. He should urgently approach at o.

For White 60 he should have held back at ■. After the game was over, Shusaku said that if he had opted for safety by playing 60 at ■, Black would have had an overconcentrated shape in the centre where he would have captured three stones, White would have sente, and Black would have found it hard to win. However, White overplayed here and ended up in vexatious confusion, and so this effectively became the losing move, much to his regret.

101 ~ 203

After White 138 (38 in Figure 2), White gets a ko but it ends up exposing the fact that he already has a lost position. It was nothing more than unreasonable play.

Book II-28b (Sgf version: )

© John Fairbairn & T Mark Hall (GoGoD), London 2007.