Go Seigen: Match Player

Introduction

Go Seigen played a total of 41 matches (31 won, 3 draw, 7 losses) in length ranging from 2 to 10 games, the latter of course being the most prestigeous. The only of these matches he lost was to Fujisawa Hosai. Some ten years after this defeat he took revenge and beat Fujisawa Hosai by 7-3 and 5-1 respectively (both in best of ten matches).

The rule for match play was that when the difference in the score would make it necessary to change the handicap the match would be abandoned. Go Seigen achieved this four times (against Iwamoto Kaoru, Fujisawa Hosai, Karigane Jun'ichi and Sakata Eio. In the latter two cases this meant the match was abandoned prematurely.

His score in the best-of-three matches was comparable: 20 matches won and only five losses. So, on average he scored 80% against his contemporaries over a period of thirty years, a truly remarkable achievement.

Match Overview

Best of	From	To	Players		Result
10	1933-03-29,04-21	1934-01-30,02-19	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	3-3
10	1939-09-28,29	1941-06-04,06	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	6-4
10	1941-08-07,09	1942-05-02,04	Go Seigen	Karigane Jun'ichi	4-1
10	1942-12-27,28	1944-09-17	Go Seigen	Fujisawa Hosai	4-6
10	1946-08-28,09-10	1948-01-13,28	Go Seigen	Hashimoto Utaro	6-4
10	1948-07-07,09	1949-02-22,24	Go Seigen	Iwamoto Kaoru	7-3
10	1950-07-25,26	1951-08-08,09	Go Seigen	Hashimoto Utaro	5-5
10	1951-10-20,22	1952-07-02,04	Go Seigen	Fujisawa Hosai	7-3
10	1952-10-09,11	1953-03-13	Go Seigen	Fujisawa Hosai	5-1
10	1953-11-04,05	1954-06-24,25	Go Seigen	Sakata Eio	6-2
10	1955-07-19,20	1956-11-26,27	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	6-4
7	1936-06-27	1939-01-11,12	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	4-2
6	1953-05-27,28	1953-09-01,02	Go Seigen	Sakata Eio	1-5
4	1951-10-01,02	1952-02-20,22	Go Seigen	Fujisawa Hosai	4-0
3	1932-07-08,08-06	1932-08-30,09-21	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	2-1
3	1934-05-08,06-01	1934-09-23,10-19	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	2-1
3	1935-06-13,07-02	1935-07-26	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	0-2
3	1939-01-21,23	1939-02-08,10	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	0-2
3	1943-01-12,02-21	1943-04-07,05-08	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	2-1
3	1944-01-01,02-01	1944-03-22	Go Seigen	Hashimoto Utaro	1-2
3	1948-02-29	1948-05-05	Go Seigen	Sakata Eio	3-0
3	1950-07-14,15	1950-09-21,22	Go Seigen	Hashimoto Utaro	3-0
3	1952-10-25,26	1953-01-31,02-01	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	3-0
3	1953-12-07,08	1954-05-09,10	Go Seigen	Iwamoto Kaoru	2-1
3	1953-12-17,18	1954-03-08,09	Go Seigen	Hashimoto Utaro	2-1
3	1955-04-22,23	1955-06-14,15	Go Seigen	Sugiuchi Masao	2-1
3	1955-05-17,18	1955	Go Seigen	Miyashita Shuyo	3-0
3	1955-07-05,06	1955-08-30	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	3-0
3	1955-11-18,19	1956-03-21,22	Go Seigen	Murashima Yoshikatsu	2-1
3	1956-01-14,25	1956-02-08,09	Go Seigen	Shimamura Toshihiro	2-1
3	1956-04-17,18	1956-05-22,23	Go Seigen	Kubouchi Shuchi	3-0
3	1956-06-06,07	1956-07-24,25	Go Seigen	Maeda Nobuaki	2-1
3	1956-08-27,28	1956-10-09,10	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	3-0
3	1957-01-17	1957-02-06,07	Go Seigen	Hashimoto Utaro	2-1
3	1958-02-03,04	1958-02-25	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	2-1
3	1958-12-17,18	1959-02-13	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	0-3
3	1959-01-14	1959-01-27,02-08	Go Seigen	Fujisawa Hosai	2-0
3	1959-11-18,19	1960-02-16,17	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	1-2
3	1960-12-07,08	1961-02-08,09	Go Seigen	Takagawa Shukaku	2-1
3	1961-07-20,21	1962-01-09,10	Go Seigen	Sakata Eio	1-2
2	1942-08-23,24	1942-10-25	Go Seigen	Kitani Minoru	1-1
2	1957-10-05,06	1957-10-15,16	Go Seigen	Fujisawa Hosai	2-0
Total					122-68

Match Details

The details of the matches are listed on separate pages:

Best of	win-jigo-loss (games)	win-draw-loss (match)	Matches
10	59-0-36	8-2-1	11
3	50-0-25	20-0-5	26
2,4,6,7	12-0-8	3-1-1	5