Short games
Professionals do make mistakes. Sometimes things goes wrong very early on in the game. Even in two-day title matches there are several games that last less than one 100 moves. I do not know what
makes a game short, it's an arbitrary boundary. The following games by Cho Chikun are all his games shorter than 75 moves. Others, shorter than 110 moves or unusual I might add later.
Early wins
| Date and opponent |
Moves |
Comment |
| 1994-08-18 Tono Hiroaki |
47 |
The very first joseki - double kakari against the hoshi - turns into a fight after the unusual move of Black 15. White must have done something wrong, by move 47 the white group dies. |
| 1991-10-24 Hikosaka Naoto |
60 |
The same double kakari, now started at move 22. That is where the similarity stops. This time black dies. |
| 1996-09-06 Takemiya Masaki |
61 |
Game 1 of the 21st Meijin match, the shortest game from Cho's two-day matches. Was Takemiya careless? After move 32 Cho splits off two invading stones. Takemiya's 38 is already the deciding mistake. Cho has to
sacrifice some stones himself, but the capture is big enough. |
| 1997-07-17 Yamada Kimio |
65 |
A first round game from the Judan. After move 34 it seems that Cho is going to lose a couple of stones. How can he escape? Thirty moves later that is clear: by winning a capturing race. |
| 1977-07-07 Shiraishi Yutaka |
68 |
This is from the Meijin League. Nothing dies, it just seems that Shiraishi was fed up with his poor position in the upper half of the board by the time he resigned. |
| 1973-09-27 Kurosawa Tasanao |
73 |
From the Oteai, when Cho is 5 dan. A lot of the Oteai game records are incomplete, but this one is definitely a complete record. Still in the early phase of the game there is a ko, but there are
not enough threats. |
Early losses
| Date and opponent |
Moves |
Comment |
| 1995-02-01 Kobayashi Satoru |
69 |
Game 2 from the 19th Kisei match. This one ended on day one. A typical example of wanting too much. Cho invades a corner, and in the process tries to kill some stones as well with 58. But all in a sudden
the surrounding stones are short of liberties. What have I done, cried Cho when he saw 65. |
| 1997-03-27 O Meien |
75 |
From the Oza. O Meien builds an unusual territorial framework. Cho walks out with an isolated stone, it is not even an invasion. But in the end it looks very much like a deep invasion that
failed. |
Again this was written a long time ago. There is at least one game I found later that might beat all of these; however I am not certain that it is complete. In any case, in a 1969 Oteai game Cho's opponent (Ishibashi) makes a mistake in the first corner fight, and after move 36 —where my game record stops— it is a lost position.
[2004-07-24]