This is the seventh of ten parts devoted to a famous but still neglected ten-game match held almost 50 years ago.
Game 7, held on Awashijima on 16 February 1955.
The mood was different now. The party was on Awajishima, a small island between the main island of Honshu and the island of the Four Provinces - Shikoku. Nowadays it is like a giant pontoon supporting the road and rail links between Honshu with Shikoku, but in 1955 access was usually by boat.
The players were in an inn on the favoured east coast, overlooking the sea of Osaka Bay and the sometimes treacherous Yura strait. Unlike today, it was reasonable then to assume all the participants would think at once of Poem 46 on the series of One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, in this case a lament by Sone no Yoshitada of the 10th century.
Yura no to wo wataru funabito kaji o tae,
Yukue mo shiranu koi no michi kana!
The poet's plaint is that the path of love goes he knows not where, just like the fisherman who rows across the Yura strait and loses his steering rudder. Up the creek without a paddle, in other words - which is how we would have expected Fujisawa to feel.
In fact, he arrived early, seemed quiet and purposeful, toyed with the poker in the brazier, hardly smoked, certainly did not appear nervous. It was true that after move 39 he was to start muttering again about his declining ability - but that was normal for him.
Hashimoto, in contrast, was on edge. Not that one could tell straightaway - for him pokers went with faces, not braziers. But plenty of signs were to emerge. Who would guess from this encounter alone that Hashimoto was a whopping 5-1 ahead and giving a handicap, rather than a fisherman about to venture into stormy seas?
Day 1 was slow and uneventful - just 63 moves played - but the knots in Hashimoto's stomach were tightening. Come Day 2 and the strong morning sun appeared almost like a deus ex machina. Glinting sharply on the Yura strait, to make sure everyone remembered the often stormy sea was there, the sun filled the playing room with intense light as the players sat down as usual at 9 o'clock. The moves of Day 1 were replayed, and as the sealed move was revealed, Hashimoto uncharacteristically began complaining.
The owner of the inn, responding to his chance of a lifetime, had provided a brand new 6-inch thick board with the rare and supremely esteemed shihomasa grain. But because it was so new and bright, it was awkward to see under the bright sun. But Hashimoto soon lapsed back into his usual retinence.
The bulk of the day then proceeded much as Day 1 - all the excitement was being saved up for the final few hours. At the scheduled 5.30 break time, Hashimoto laughingly said he felt punch-drunk, and played 110. Both players showed their tiredness when game recorder 15-year-old Tono Hiroaki 3-dan called out: Fujisawa sensei has 2 hours left; Hashimoto sensei has 4 hours 10 minutes.
Black (Fujisawa) went into byoyomi on move 139 when White still had three and a half hours left.
The first black cloud appeared to Hashimoto when he saw the clamp at 145. He muttered, "A big way to link up." It was rare for Hashimoto to talk to himself, and was always a sign a game was becoming difficult for him. He took 42 minutes over 146. That span of time on one move was rare, too. By this time Fujisawa was down to 6 minutes left, yet he still had the cool confidence to start a ko with 163.
Tainaka Shin 7-dan said Black 159 should have been at 183 for an easier game, but that it would lose a ko threat, so obviously Fujisawa had decided on the ko already. Perhaps he was determined to win big?
White lived in gote at 190, painful enough but then Black 191 to 195 piled on the misery. When Black was able to switch to 201 the outcome was effectively known, and certainly by 219 it was all over bar the counting. When it came to the count up, Hashimoto said despondently: "As much as 8 points difference? With that sort of margin I should have resigned long ago..." If Hashimoto genuinely did not realise he was so far behind, that was yet another lapse from the norm.
It was as if the previous 5-1 margin was irrelevant. Without a firm hand on the tiller, the path of a game goes we know not where...
To download Game 7 in sgf format, click here. The moves are also shown on the following diagram.
White: Hashimoto Utaro 9-dan, Black: Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan
Game 7 of 10-game uchikomi match sponsored by Yomiuri Shinbun
Played at the Shishuen Inn, Awajishima, Hyogo Pref. on 16 and 17 February 1955
Handicap (B)-B-W, no komi, 10 hours each
