#1 Rin Kaiho vs Cho Hun-hyeon 2004

This richly layered game can be described in terms of a classical Chinese poem or painting: the broad, picturesque scene is set, and then focus shifts in stages in to a precise human point.

The scene is the Daxiagu - China's Grand Canyon - in the Cangshan Nature Reserve in the western province of Yunnan.

The game was an exhibition game as part of the 2nd Cangshan Daxiagu Go Festival on 26 September 2004 in Dali.

Looking closer we will see that the game was played on a giant board with human figures, beside a tea-house at the head of the Cangshan Ropeway.

Zoom in further and we notice that the players were (White) Rin Kaiho 9-dan (born in China but established in Japan) and Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan from Korea. The occasion was a celebration of the pupils of Segoe Kensaku of Japan and their pupils, and so was also attended by Go Seigen (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and stateless at various times). Go's Chinese pupils Rui Naiwei and Jiang Zhujiu, members of both the Korean Kiwon and the American pro circuit, were also there.

But finally we reach the true focus. Black won by half a point (with 6.5 komi). Yet look even closer and you will note komi was Japanese/Korean, but this was one of those rare cases
where, with Chinese komi - as would be normal on Chinese soil - it was remarked that the other side would have won by the slenderest of margins (0.25 zi).

You will have heard of professionals learning to manipulate a game so that they win by just 1 point. Given the unusual international mix and sense of occasion here, do you wish to believe
this game was engineered so that such an ambivalent result was produced to keep everyone happy?



Rin, incidentally, had only a very few years previously been allowed back into China, his birthplace. To a rapturous welcome, though in the eyes of die-hard communists, as his family had supported the Nationalists, he was technically still a "war criminal". Tomorrow (Tuesday) we shall see real war criminals in action.

Since I focus quite a bit on the opening at the moment and I wanted to play around with Kombilo and my copy of GoGoD, I thought I'll look over the game and write down some thoughts and numbers. I did not come far because this game is way over my head ^^

Was fun anyways =D

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Decided to work my way through the Coffee Break games recently and have really been enjoying them so far. Thank you both, am glad you guys got the chance to do these.

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"Tsumegos are for reading power and Tesujis for knowing which moves to read"