Women in goOne of the earliest references to women playing
go in Japan can be found in "The Tale of Genji.
Not only was this novel written by a women, the only go players
in it were women. No doubt go was a popular pastime in the medieval
court of the time, and the game was clearly enjoyed by women as well
as men.
Go playing was also one of the arts that many of the geisha of
the Edo period mastered. Evidence for this is in the numerous
woodblock prints of geisha featuring go as its main theme.
Only a few women who played go professionally during the Edo
period. The most famous was Sano Hayashi (1825-1901). As a child she
showed sufficient talent for the game to be adopted by the Hayashi
go house. By 1840 she had reached 1-dan and became 3-dan in 1846.
She was an active player until 1890. Perhaps her most important
legacy was in her disciple Fumiko Kita (1875-1950).
Kita's father was a famous doctor who compiled the first
Japanese-German dictionary, but, when he died, her mother gave her
up for adoption to the Hayashi go school and Sano Hayashi became her
adoptive mother. She became 1-dan in 1889 and eventually was awarded
the rank of 6-dan, the highest rank ever attained by a woman at that
time, and, when she died in 1950, she was posthumously awarded the
rank of 7-dan. As a go player, being a woman was no handicap; she
was clearly the equal of most of her male rivals. She became famous
and earned great respect by winning five straight games against male
opponents on three different occasions.
Kita is considered to be the mother of modern-day women's
professional go. Virtually all female players who turned
professional before World War II were taught by her. Before the war,
only one or two women played go professionally, but now there are
more than 50 female professional go players.
One of the most promising postwar players is Izumi Kobayashi
3-dan (b. 1977). She is the daughter of Koichi Kobayashi 9-dan,
(considered to be Japan's No. 2 player) and the late Reiko Kobayashi
(nee Kitani) 7-dan, who was the daughter of the great Minoru Kitani.
She has beaten many top-ranked players in open tournaments, and
currently holds the Women's Kisei title. Many feel she will develop
into a top player.
Although she holds no title, Kikuyo Aoki 7-dan is another very
promising as well as an ambitious competitor--she hopes to be the
first woman to take a top open title. She came close when she played
in the best-of-three match for the King of the New Star tournament
two years ago. At present, she is challenging Terumi Nishida 5-dan
for the Women's Meijin title. She has held a number of women's
titles in the past, including the 1990 Women's Meijin title.
In spite of Japan's long history of women go players, Chinese
female players seem to be much stronger than their Japanese
counterparts. The most stellar is Rui Naiwei 9-dan (b. 1963). She
has defeated many top professionals in international tournaments,
and she has won the Bohai Cup, a world championship tournament
exclusively for women, three times. Rui emigrated to the United
States a number of years ago with her husband, who is also a 9-dan.
She is unaffiliated with any of the major go associations, so her
appearances are limited to the international open tournaments and
others that she is invited to participate in. Her results, however,
would seem to indicate that she is among the 20 top players in the
world.
The other Chinese woman 9-dan is Feng Yun. She has won the Bohai
Cup twice and has played in every final of that tournament that she
has entered, but each time she faced Rui, she was convincingly
defeated, indicating that, although the second strongest female
player in the world, Rui is clearly a cut above her.
Capturing racesProblem 8. In this problem, Black
moves first and must capture the marked white stones before White
can capture his. The correct answer is for Black to play on one of
White's liberties. Black 1 will be answered by White 2, but Black 3
puts the four white stones in atari, i.e., Black threatens to
capture these stones on the next move.
Next, White 4 in Diagram 1
puts the three black stones in atari, but Black captures the
four white stones with 5. Black has won the race. Black could also
start with 1 in Diagram 2. Again, Black wins the race by one
move when he captures with 5.
From these two sequences, you
might think that if you have more liberties than your opponent--all
you have to do to win the capturing race is to fill the liberties of
your opponent's stones, and that any liberty will do. But this is
not the case; caution is required. For example, Black must not play
on the inside point that the two embattled groups have in common,
namely at A in Diagram 3. If Black plays on this point first
with 1 in Diagram 4, Black loses a liberty and White's next
move at 2 puts the four black stones in atari. Black plays 3, but
White captures four stones with 4.
Seki Sometimes in a capturing race,
a situation occurs in which neither side can capture the other.
Consider the position in Diagram 5. The marked black and
white stones are opposing each other and, if Black plays 1, White
will play 2. All the outside liberties are filled and only inside
liberties remain. However, Black cannot atari at 1 in Diagram 6
because he puts himself into atari, and White will capture the
black stones by playing at A.
On the other hand, White cannot play at 1 in Diagram 7
because Black will capture five white stones by playing at A.
Therefore, the marked black and white stones in Diagram 5 are
both alive and neither side can capture the other. This situation is
called seki.
Snapback Problem 9.
In this problem, it is White's turn to move and he can capture five
white stones in two moves using a capturing technique known as
"snapback."
Try to find this clever move.
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