The 1971 Honinbo Tournament

In November 1970, an unheralded 21-year-old 7-dan won his way into the Honinbo league. There, over the next 6 months, he beat some of the strongest go players in the world to earn the right to challenge Rin Kaiho for the Honinbo title.

At that time, Rin was the undisputed king of the go world. He had convincingly stripped the great Sakata Eio of his Meijin and Honinbo titles, and he had rebuffed him in his challenges to get them back. Rin was being billed as Go Seigen's successor and no one gave Ishida Yoshio much of a chance.

But Ishida was one of a new breed of players from that hot-house of go prodigies known as the Kitani Dojo. He was almost invincible and rarely lost a game - he had run up a string of 30 straight victories in the ranking tournament; he was a calm player, especially under pressure; he possessed superb positional judgement; and his endgame calculation was so accurate that he earned the nickname 'the computer'. Rin was also noted for these same abilities, but Ishida was a level higher.

The 1971 Honinbo Tournament chronicles Ishida's first major triumph. It starts with his win in the final preliminary tournament which earned him the right to play in the Honinbo league. It then analyzes all seven of his games in the league, and the six games in the title match. Every game is analyzed in great detail, with easy-to-follow figures for each game.

This book was written by James Davies, based on the commentaries of Iwamoto Kaoru 9-dan who had held the Honinbo title for two terms from 1945 to 1950. Out of print more than 20 years, it will be a welcome addition to the libraries of those players who are looking for in-depth game commentaries.

In November 1970, an unheralded 21-year-old 7-dan won his way into the Honinbo league. There, over the next 6 months, he beat some of the strongest go players in the world to earn the right to challenge Rin Kaiho for the Honinbo title.

At that time, Rin was the undisputed king of the go world. He had convincingly stripped the great Sakata Eio of his Meijin and Honinbo titles, and he had rebuffed him in his challenges to get them back. Rin was being billed as Go Seigen's successor and no one gave Ishida Yoshio much of a chance.

But Ishida was one of a new breed of players from that hot-house of go prodigies known as the Kitani Dojo. He was almost invincible and rarely lost a game - he had run up a string of 30 straight victories in the ranking tournament; he was a calm player, especially under pressure; he possessed superb positional judgement; and his endgame calculation was so accurate that he earned the nickname 'the computer'. Rin was also noted for these same abilities, but Ishida was a level higher.

The 1971 Honinbo Tournament chronicles Ishida's first major triumph. It starts with his win in the final preliminary tournament which earned him the right to play in the Honinbo league. It then analyzes all seven of his games in the league, and the six games in the title match. Every game is analyzed in great detail, with easy-to-follow figures for each game.

This book was written by James Davies, based on the commentaries of Iwamoto Kaoru 9-dan who had held the Honinbo title for two terms from 1945 to 1950. Out of print more than 20 years, it will be a welcome addition to the libraries of those players who are looking for in-depth game commentaries.