This is the fifth of ten parts devoted to a famous but still neglected ten-game match held almost 50 years ago.

Game 5, held in Kobe City on 9 December 1954.

It was back to home ground for Hashimoto, the venue for Game 5 being the inn Togetsu-so in Kobe. His 3-1 lead gave him a comfortable cushion, although it was Fujisawa who had the advantage of Black in this game, played with no komi.

The Japanese make a distinction sometimes between a ten-game match, where the players come in with equal status, and a challenge match (arasoigo). The present game was technically a challenge match, with Fujisawa as the challenger. That meant there was extra pressure on him to perform well. To lose Game 5 and then hand the advantage of Black to Hashimoto for Game 6 was unthinkable. If the worst scenario happened, he would be 5-1 down, and the four-game gap would mean Fujisawa would be beaten down to the first handicap - that was the special uchikomi provision. His challenge would be shown up as impertinent.

Day 1 was misty, and almost as if to match the weather the game proceeded cautiously and slowly. But on Day 2 the haze lifted and it was almost possible to see across Osaka Bay to the Kii Peninsula. The game was about to open up, too, but the strong sun broke through as the sealed move was being opened and forced the white curtains to be drawn. The inn, of course, was located for the benefit of holidaymakers rather than go players.

The two players sat down and replayed the game from Day 1 up to the sealed-move position. Then as game recorder Kinoshita Takao 2-dan, himself from the Kii Peninsula, was still wrestling with the envelope, Hashimoto said, "I played here" and placed a stone at Black 48.
Fujisawa took one look and smiled: "Hardly worth the fuss, was it?" He assumed his own next move was obvious, too, and played 49 at once. Yet within a handful of moves Black was beginning to look groggy, notably when White was able to establish himself at 56. Sekiyama Riichi 8-dan, one of the senior pros in the area, mused that, nevertheless it hardly seemed possible to criticise Black 47, which struck at the heart of White's shape. There was something odd about the position that defied analysis. What was clear, though, was that it was around here that came the parting of the ways for the possible middle game strategies.

Fujisawa still seemed calm enough from his comments.

That changed when White played 62. He began muttering to himself in vexation: "Stupid," "I've gone and done it," and so on. What was "stupid" was that he was letting White rid himself of a large floating group in the centre.

By nature Fujisawa disliked uncertainty. That was why he chose to spend so much of his thinking time. In this case he spent 40 minutes on the cap at Black 73. Even when he did play, it was with an exclamation of frustration: "Oh, I don't know! Just do it!" Yet others would say it was an obvious move and that he had just wasted 40 minutes. Still more perplexing, Fujisawa was a master of lightning go, so clearly he "did know" what was happening without using all that time.

In contrast to Fujisawa's mutterings, Hashimoto was as silent as the forest.

Black 101, creating a sente cut at 103, had been prepared long before, and when Fujisawa played it he used just six minutes - but that was six minutes out of his remaining time of eight minutes! He might have saved himself some time by shutting up. Almost every move was punctuated with self deprecatory comments: Peculiar, I dunno, I'm too weak, I've messed up... None of this was trickery. He was honest to a fault.

White gave him hope though when he connected at 110 in answer to Black's peep. His group was in serious danger and Fujisawa regretfully wished now he had another six minutes. And still he kept up the barrage of insults at himself. It is all too easy to imagine that this was a case of the strain showing. In the end he opted to connect at 111, but with that the moment had passed and White was able to find safety. Sekiyama pointed out that if 111 had been at 122 White would have probably been in dire straits. Instead, White was able to coast home to victory and Fujisawa was facing a 4-1 deficit and the handicap of White in Game 6.

To download Game 5 in sgf format, click here. The moves are also shown on the following diagram.