He played like the birds fly: swift and light. Suddenly the position could
get frozen though, and then one would get a glimpse of the universe of
variations hidden below the sky thatWu had spanned in the earlier stages.“
— A friend (Jan van der Steen) on Go Seigen’s (Wu) game
呉清源 極みの棋譜
Go Seigen (吳清源) is my idol. For two simple reasons:
1. He won games
2. He won games in his unique manner. Always.
Maybe a few other professional players can qualify the above criteria. “Ancients” like Kitani Minoru and Sakata Eio, and the “super players” of the 80’s: Rin Kaiho,Otake Hideo, Kato Masao, Takemiya Masaki, Cho Chikun, and Kobayashi Koichi. And don’t forget the big man in China: Nie Weiping.
These are all big winners. But none of them is as big a winner as Go Seigen. Go Seigen once ruled Japanese Go profession for one third of a century! And that was a 1/3 of century when Japan was the only land where Go was blooming. I (Jim Yu) think it’s fair to say that a new generation of professionals come out about every ten years.
Then, Go Seigen would have to hold off the challenges from three generations of best Go players in Go history.
Excerpt From Patrick Bridges' Go on Go: The Analyzed Games of Go Seigen
THE GO MASTER (Movie) :: Website