Go storyKimi no Makimi, a young guy from Japan, was the smartest in his village.
One day he went to China, where Weiqi (Go) was really popular. It didn’t last long
that someone asked him, if he would be a good Go-player. Because Kimi no Makimi
didn’t want lower one’s guard, he answered: ”Yes!”. ”Well!”, the questioner said,
”So you going to play against our strongest player tomorrow!”
Now, the young Japanese had a problem, he was a weak 3 Kyu and his
opponent would have been a strong 3 Dan. He had no problems with losing, but
if he became completely smashed by the Chinese player, all would have said, that
the Japanese are totally uneducated and dumb. However, 3 Dan against 3 Kyu in a
even game...
Kimi no Makimi thought the whole night about possible solutions and really,
he got an idea. He remembered an old anecdote about Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who
liked really to play Go but had the habit to lose. So Hideyoshi ordered his teacher
Honinbo Sansa to find a way, how he could resist even against stronger players
(there was no komi at this time). Honinbo Sansa didn’t want to lose his position and
so he discovered Mirror-Go: blacks first move is Tengen and afterwards he copied
all whites moves. For Kimi no Makimi, this was the solution of his problem. Full
of confidence he went to the Go-Club the next day.
The players sat face to face and bowed, afterwards both wanted to take the black
stones, but the Chinese player was faster and Kimi no Makimi really got into trouble.
He tried hard to find a solution to get out of the game, but there was nothing,
what could have helped him really. Blacks first move was ...
...Tengen. Now it was Whites turn, but he had still no idea, so he put his stone
also at Tengen, over the black stone. The chinese player was getting really angry:
”What are you doing? You have no clue of Weiqi!” However, Kimi defended his move
really originally: ”In Japan the sun is rising first, so the Japanese stone, should be
in the centre in view of the universe and the world order.” His opponent was getting
more and more mad: ”You dumbhead ...” Finally they start to fight and the game
was totally forgotten. At the end, Kimi no Makimi managed
it to get out of this game, anyhow he learned Go in China after all and went back
to Japan to teach it there.
[by Janine Böhme (D, 1k), our special
educational reporter]