Lots of people like this kind of tale, and this one is likely to be true as Iwamoto Kaoru told it. So I thought I'd share it.

It was just after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. Iwamoto had recently become an independent pro, that is 4-dan. He was luckily out of Tokyo at the time, lodging at a villa in Ikaho owned by his patron Kagami Kenkichi. Armed only with a pile of biscuits and snacks, He made a great effort to get back to Tokyo - a couple of days and nights by train, the last one a goods train by courtesy of an obliging station master. The last 10 kilometres were on foot, through various checkpoints set up by the army. Enormous devastation met him when he reached the high point of Ueno, but by chance the area where his teacher's brother-in-law lived had not been too badly affected and he was able to stay there for a week.

He soon saw that there was now no prospect of earning a living at go in Tokyo, and he needed a change of underwear anyway, so he went back to Ikaho to pick up his luggage. There, Kagami gave him 100 yen (about 500 rice curries) and advised him to tour the country to teach go. Iwamoto decided to do this and went to Nagano to team up with Sakaguchi Tsunetaro 1-dan. They went to Niigata, then Osaka, then various places such as Himeji and Okayama. They collected 50 rice curries here, 100 there, with local friends organising go meets. To a degree it was sympathy money, of course, and so before long the two friends had acquired a nice little nest egg.

By chance, a letter then came from a Japanese player in Taipei to Iwamoto's teacher, who was convalescing in Nagoya after a nervous breakdown. The letter said that Iwamoto would be very welcome in Taipei.

So, with more than enough money in the kitty, the two friends decided to cross the sea. They embarked on a steamer at Moji. They noticed that many people were playing go in the passengers' saloon and went to watch.

One man, who turned out to be a famous political activist, Ito Chiyu, asked Iwamoto whether he played go. When Iwamoto said yes, Ito offered a game and took the white stones. The game was close said, Iwamoto, but he won by 2 or 3 points. Ito then took the black stones, but the result was the same - Iwamoto won by 2 or 3 points. At this point Ito said, "Let's try two stones". He put his two stones down but remarkably the game had the same result.

Ito, obviously giving up at this point, asked Iwamoto where he was going. Hearing that the destination was Taiwan, he said, "Well, if you ever go up to Tokyo and practise a lot, you could perhaps become a pretty reasonable player".

Sounds somewhat similar to a story about a famous chess master:

Alexander Alekhine was traveling to a tournament on a train one night, when a young man saw his chess board and offered a game. Alekhine accepted, and after arranging the pieces to start the game, he took off a rook off his side as a handicap. The young man was offended, and informed Alekhine that he was a pretty good player.

"What makes you think I need a handicap? You don't even know me!" exclaimed the young man.
"It is because I do not know you that I can take the rook off," Alekhine replied.

But note the difference: Iwamoto intentionally hid his strength from the stranger out of politeness (I assume). He could have told the stranger to take a handicap from the first game, but he didn't want to be presumptuous.

Actually this makes me wonder: in go a stronger player can intentionally keep the score close to make the game seem closer than it is. Is the same thing possible in Chess? Maybe someone "carelessly" loses some big pieces to keep the game close?

In hirako no go they do it (especially in volume 9)

_________________
Promotor and Librarian of Sensei's Library

I read this story somewhere, don't remember the name of the great player, think it was not Alechine, though.

The Great Player was traveling from somewhere to somewhere, it was a long and dull journey. One of the fellow travelers suggested a game of chess, not knowing who the Great Master was. Thinking himself a very strong player, he offered a handicap of the Queen to the Great Master when he seemed reluctant to play. The Great Master saw a way to liven up the long and boring journey and agreed. They started playing and the Great Master promptly lost the game. The Fellow Traveler thought to himself that he had never seen such inept player. For the next game, the Great Master suggested the handicap be switched, which means that now the Master will play without the queen. The Fellow Traveler agreed, thinking with pleasure about an easy victory. However - this time the Great Master played at full strength, and the game was decided even faster than the first one, in favor of the Great Master.

The Fellow Traveler was flabbergasted! He simply could not believe what just happened.
The Great Master gave this explanation: It is obviously much easier to play without the queen since then one can truly concentrate on making good moves rather than worrying about protecting the queen.

Such is the humor of chess players.

_________________
- Bantari
______________________________________________
WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

So Japanese players are polite, while Western players are either incredibly arrogant, or simply sandbaggers?

I did read somewhere of an incident involving Capablanca, when he was the number 1 chess player. Apparently, playing in a tournament in Europe, he was caught out by a much weaker player who just happened to find a brilliancy. Capablanca then politely discussed the game, appearing normal, walked back to his hotel and then proceeded to smash the furniture to kindling. Some people can hide their light under a bushel as well as their frustrations.

Best wishes.

_________________
No aji, keshi, kifu or kikashi has been harmed in the compiling of this post.
http://www.gogod.co.uk

Didn't Nimzowitsch once blurt out at a tournament, "Why do I have to lose to this idiot?"

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.