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 Post subject: Earliest recorded games from different countries
Post #1 Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 2:19 pm 
Dies with sente

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I wondered whether any light could be shed on the earliest recorded games from the various countries of the world.

And if, through doing so, we could teach each other more about the early history of Go outside East Asia.

To get the ball rolling, the earliest game between two named players in Britain (and British players at that) recorded in the British Go Journal is from March 1968, a game between then-young players Tony Goddard (https://senseis.xmp.net/?TonyGoddard) and Jon Diamond (https://senseis.xmp.net/?JonDiamond) (both still with us afaik). It was played in the 1st British Congress (https://senseis.xmp.net/?BritishGoCongress) at Jesus College, Oxford, some time between the 22nd and 24th of that month.

Their dan ranks are not given: Tony is referred to as "Class 15" and Jon (or "John" as the early editions spelt it) as "Class 14". The time control is given as "one hour each, and thereafter 1/2 min per move". This could mean one byo-yomi period of 30s, or else a 30s Fischer increment. Or possibly a Fischer increment that only kicked in after the main time was over.

The game was commented by professional 3 dan "Mr. Nagahara" (named in the early BGJ's typical style), who I'm pretty sure is Nagahara Yoshiaki (https://senseis.xmp.net/?NagaharaYoshiaki) (also still going). It was won by Jon, as White. The value of komi is not supplied -- the event was a handicap tournament, so he might not have even been giving any. The position of the game in the tournament is also not supplied.

Jon went on to win the Championship. Tony was eventually able to challenge him in 1972, but wasn't able to win.

I highly doubt that this is the first recorded British game, for a start because the European Congress was held in London two years earlier, and secondly because the British Go Association had already been in existence since 1953. However, it's the earliest one that I could access, so I hope it functions as a conversation starter.

The record is in BGJ #5 (https://www.britgo.org/files/bgj/bgj005.pdf), on pages 13 and 14. and is in coordinate notation rather than as a kifu. It was quite some time before the British Go Journal was able to reproduce those.

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 Post subject: Re: Earliest recorded games from different countries
Post #2 Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:39 pm 
Oza

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Quote:
To get the ball rolling, the earliest game between two named players in Britain (and British players at that) recorded in the British Go Journal is from March 1968,


The implication of this sentence is that any game counts so long as it was published in Britain. If so there are several candidates for MUCH earlier games (Giles academic articles, Falkener's book, de Haviland's book, Cheshire's book). I'm too lazy to look these things up, but I'm fairly sure de Havilland was the first Brit to have a game published, in 1908 (but it was played in Tokyo). Cheshire's book was 1910 and related to activities in Hastings. (by pure chance - or telepathy? - I watched de Hav's daughter Joan Fontaine in the film Ivanhoe last night.)

But even in the 1960s I'm fairly sure there were earlier examples. John Barrs's games in the 1st International Tournament were published in Japan, but I think they may have appeared in London. I have a memory of go material being mimeographed there (by Bob Hitchens?). This was the first time I'd seen a mimeograph, which in its day was as mind boggling as an iPhone. Jon Diamond may have a more reliable memory. I think he used to edit a newsletter which appeared before the Go Journal.

Franco Pratesi's books will no doubt have the most reliable information for Europe, and maybe the USA, too, but Craig Hutchison's anthologies provide rich fare there.

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 Post subject: Re: Earliest recorded games from different countries
Post #3 Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2021 3:45 pm 
Gosei

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According to this page: https://senseis.xmp.net/?GoHistory the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci spent 30 years in China and wrote about Go in his diaries. There was probably not a game record included. Oscar Korschelt (German) studied go in Japan in 1880 and published a book on the game which might include the first published game record in Europe. Edward Lasker learned go in Europe in 1905 and published his book Go and Go-moku in the United states in 1934. All this is just pointing toward sources for earliest game records.

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