This exists, and is called a Winning Shusaku Number

Furthermore, the number is called "Pure" is the wins happened in chronological order, with each step further away from Shusaku happening later.

Everyone has one, but having one under 8 is rare for non-professionals.

Sedol. He seems like a friendly guy. I love his style. Plus, he's old enough to make a chat about the current state of the pro circuit very interesting.

If handicap games are allowed, then all are not dead.

Kageyama Toshiro, without a doubt.

I would have loved to have met him when he was alive, but sadly he died just before I was born.

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

And who would that be? Who is alive now who played an opponent of Shusaku?

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Since the question was "past or present", you could just play Shusaku, and therefore get 1, right?

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Occupy Babel!

Sorry, it seems that I misread earlier:
tj86430 wrote:

and I thought you were the one who wanted to have a lower number than 6.

I misread in exactly the same way.

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Occupy Babel!

Takemiya masaki

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si no puedes triunfar, muere gloriosamente

If this were a realistic opportunity, I'd do the research to find the least skilled pro player - maybe the pro player with the most losses. Or the player who hasn't played the game in the longest amount of time - or maybe some combination of these factors.

Since they're still a pro player, I'd surely lose the game. But maybe I could come closer to winning than against one of the top players in the world.

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be immersed

is it about winning against a pro player, or just having the opportunity to play against a particular pro you admire?

For me, it'd be about winning (or trying to).

If it's about being with a pro I admire, maybe I'd prefer to just go out for a drink.

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be immersed

You did not read my starting post in the thread, so I will repeat it:

If you could play a game against any professional, present or past, who would it be? I am not talking about a teaching game. I mean if you could just sit down at the local club and play a friendly game with the usual casual conversation over a beer, where the result is not as important as the activity.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Well, I did read the starting post (I realize you mentioned that the result is not important), and mine was somewhat of an attempt at humor. Either it is not obvious, or I have a different sense of humor than you guys.

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be immersed

Well, I wasn't replying to you. Look at the quotes.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

having read your original post, my question to Kirby was more rhetorical

I'm getting confused, now

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be immersed

Me too!!

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

You simultaneously quoted two people: Kirby's quote embedded in xed_over's quote.
Then you said, "You did not read my starting post" -- this "you" is ambiguous: did you mean Kirby, xed_over, or both of them ?
Then you asked Kirby to look at your ambiguous quotes, which he had done before he replied.

Quit being too logical.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).