1001 GoGoD Games for your Coffee Break #11 (20 Jan 2013)

John Fairbairn · #1

I decided to offer a commentary on this game as sort of double-chocolate muffin to help ease the burden of a new Monday.

The commentary is by Xu Xingyou in his legendary 1719 book "Jianshantang Yipu" (Game Records from the Studio of Xu Xingyou). Xu, a Guoshou (Meijin) himself, can claim to be the world's first great go commentator. He had a fairly distinctive style. He would typically start with a reference to opening theory. Then the bulk of the commentary was a far but robust critique, long by ancient standards, of the play of the rest of the game, simply put though with much reliance on technical terms. But he usually finished up with an entertaining summary, either in more homely language or sometimes with a florid gush.

White in this game is the great Huang Longshi, born about 1652, who took the Michael out of Xu in the Games of Blood and Tears. A real Michael, Redmond, has recently edited a book on some of Huang's games, with commentaries based on the work of the Chinese amateur Xie Zhicheng. The commentary, there, however, bears no relation to Xu's (which I happen to prefer because he was of the same era and so, I suspect, has a better feel for the ancient style).

Black was Sheng Dayou, whose long life spanned most of the 17th century. He was the greatest player until Huang came long, so in this game you are getting three meijins from the price of none. At the time of this game, around 1668, Sheng would have been in his eighties and Huang was about eighteen. They played a match which Huang apparently won 7-0. Do be aware that Xu tended to criticise Sheng rather a lot, and Huang himself perhaps damned Sheng with faint praise when he said his play was full of tricks whenever he was hard pressed - in other words, there wasn't much strategy in his play.

Ancient Chinese rules apply, of course, including group tax.

All the games of Huang - the Chinese Dosaku - are on the GoGoD CD.

1001 GoGoD Games for your Coffee Break #11 (20 Jan 2013)

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