Baduk Legends
There have been many strong go players throughout history. On this page is information about who were arguably the best of the best. Feel free to contact me if you believe other players deserve to be mentioned.
The Honinbo House
After the foundation of the Honinbou/Honinbo Go school in 1612, Japan grew to become the strongest baduk country in the world. The heads of the Honinbo house, was some of, if not the best go players to have ever lived. Many of the Honinbos were appointed Meijin as well, which was the most respected title that a go player could achieve.
Honinbo Dosaku(1645-1702)
Honinbo Dosaku was the 4th head of the Honinbo house(1677-1702), and also appointed to Meijin at the age of 23. He is regarded by many as the greatest player of all time. He dominated everyone, and it was believed that he was 2 stones stronger than other top pros. Due to the lack of good competition, it's difficult to measure how strong Dosaku really was. Dosaku was the first player to be awarded the title Go Saint, the only other player being Honinbo Shusaku.
Dosakus most famous game is known as "Dosakus masterpiece". In this game, he gave one of the strongest go players(Yasui Shunchi) 2 handicap stones, and even though Shunchi played many great moves, Dosaku only lost by 1 point. You can download the game in SGF format here: Dosakus Masterpiece.
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| Honinbo Dosaku. |
Honinbo Jowa(1787-1847)
Jowa was the 12th Honinbo(1827-1839) and also the Meijin(1831-1839). Jowa had a great rival whos name was Genan Inseki. Both these players wanted the Meijin title, but because of Hayashi Gembis contacts within the Government, Jowa became Meijin without proving himself against the other top go players first. Jowa promised Gembi that he would promote him to 8 dan after becoming Meijin, but this promise was never fulfilled. In 1839 Gembi "spilled the beans" about Jowas promise and so Jowa was forced into retirement. Rumor has it that Jowa was to be awarded the title of Go Saint, but because of his political maneuvering this did not happen.
Despite Jowas incredible strength and the controversy surrounding him, he is perhaps most famous for the "blood vomiting game". After winning a game against Genan Insekis pupil, a 7 dan by the name of Intetsu Akaboshi, Intetsu literally threw up blood on the goban and died 2 weeks later. Inseki setup this match hoping Jowa would lose, because if he did, he would obviously not be deserving of the Meijin title when having lost to a 7 dan.
You can download the blood vomiting game in SGF format here: Blood Vomiting Game.
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| Honinbo Jowa. |
Honinbo Shuwa(1820-1873)
Shuwa was the 14th Honinbo(1847-1873) and Shusakus teacher. When there are discussions about who the strongest player of the 19th century was, Shuwa and Shusaku are usually brought up the most.
Shuwa is famous for beating one of the strongest players at the time, Inoue Genan Inseki 3 times, by 4 points in 1940 and by 6 and 4 points in 1942. These games are known as "the challenge games", and they were played to determine who would be best suited to become Meijin after Honinbo Jowa. Hovewer, because of political reasons and also because Shuwa had a bad game against a weaker player by the name of Matsumoto Inseki, Shuwa never became Meijin.
This is his first game against Inoue Genan Inseki: Shuwa VS Inseki 1, and this is their third game: Shuwa VS Inseki 3. I couldn't find a record of their second game.
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| Honinbo Shuwa. |
Honinbo Shusaku(1829-1862)
Honinbo Shusaku is probably the most famous go player of all time. He was incredibly strong at an early age, becoming a pro at 11 years old.
He's also famous for making one of the best moves of all time, the "ear reddening move", when he was a 4 dan professional at the age of 17.
After his 8 dan opponent and head of the Inoue house, Inoue Genan Inseki saw this amazing move, his ears turned red, and the 8 dan ended up loosing the game by 2 points. Unfortunately, Shusaku died at the age of 33 falling ill to the cholera epidemic. Shusaku was to be the next head of the Honinbo Go School after Shuwa.
Shusaku, like Dosaku, has also earned the Go Saint title.
There's actually a book about Honinbo Shusaku called Invincible, The Games of Shusaku
You can download an SGF file of Shusakus famous game against Inoue Genan Inseki here: Shusaku VS Inoue Genan Inseki.
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| Honinbo Shusaku. |
Honinbo Shuei(1852-1907)
Honinbo Shuei, one of Honinbo Shuwas sons, was the 13th head of the Hayashi house, and after the Honinbo house and Hayashi house merged in 1885, he became the 17th head(1884-1886), and later the 19th head(1887-1907) of the Honinbo house. He also earned the Meijin title in 1906. Honinbo Shuei, along with a few others, started playing on the 4-4 points in the beginning of the games, which inspired Go Seigen to make the influence style of play even more popular. When looking at Shueis games, it appears that the other top players of his time needed a handicap, or at least play with black to have a chance of beating him. Two of the strongest players in modern go history, Fujisawa Hideyuki and Kobayashi Koichi have said that they would be no match for Shuei.
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| Honinbo Shuei. |
Other Legends of Go
Huang Longshi(1662-1723)
Probably the best Chinese player at the time, and regarded by many as the best go player ever. Go Seigen has said that if Huang Longshi were alive today he would be of 13 dan strength. He's not as known as the Honinbo legends because the level of Japanese players at this time were generally higher than the Chinese. People therefore believed that the top Chinese players wouldn't stand a chance against the top Japanese players in this era.
Go Seigen(1914-)
Considered by many to be the best player of the 20th century and a living baduk legend. Go Seigen dominated the go scene from 1930 to 1961, and his style has contributed greatly to advancements in modern go.
Perhaps his most famous game was against the last Honinbo, Honinbo Shusai. The game was played in 1933 as a way of celebrating Shusais 60th birthday(Go Seigen was 18 at the time). The game was very controversial. Since Shusai played as white, he was allowed to adjourn the game whenever he wanted, and would have several weeks to discuss moves with other members of the Honinbo house. He used this right 13 times and always when it was his turn to move. In the end, Seigen ended up losing by 2 points. This game is also known as "the game of the century". Here's an SGF file of their game to download: Go Seigen VS Honinbo Shusai.
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| Go Seigen. |
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