Professional Record
Go Seigen is commonly considered to be among the best to have ever played the game and the best player of the 20th century. He dominated professional Go for more than a quarter of a century. He maintained a brilliant match record and successively defeated all the leading players of the day in a series of notable jubango (contest between two players consisting of ten games), even forcing them down to handicaps. Some of the defeated were Kitani Minoru, Karigane Junichi, Hashimoto Utaro, Iwamoto Kaoru, Fujisawa Hosai, Sakata Eio, and Takagawa Kaku. Go lost just one jubango, and that was against Fujisawa Hosai. However, the match was played with Fujisawa taking the josen handicap throughout, and Fujisawa only managed to win with a score of 6 to 4. Some ten years later, Go Seigen took revenge on Fujisawa by beating him in two consecutive jubango with lopsided scores of 7-2 and 5-1 respectively. One must note that these jubango matches were all played without komi, and indeed the same applied to the vast majority of games Go Seigen played during his career. Go Seigen won the Oteai six times, and won a special Nihon Ki-in championship tournament in 1933.
A table of Go's jubango record is below.
| Opponent | Record | Dates Played |
|---|---|---|
| Kitani Minoru 5p | 3 - 3 (started even, abandoned after Kitani was promoted to 6p; handicap not changed) | 1933 - 34 |
| Kitani Minoru 7p | 6 - 4 (started even, Kitani was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 6 games (5-1)) | 1939 - 40 |
| Karigane Junichi 8p | 4 - 1 (started even, abandoned to avoid possible embarrassment for Karigane, since one more loss would mean Karigane having to play with sen-ai-sen handicap) | 1941 - 42 |
| Fujisawa Kuranosuke 6p, later renamed Fujisawa Hosai | 4 - 6 (started with Fujisawa playing with josen handicap; handicap not changed) | 1942 - 44 |
| Hashimoto Utaro 8p | 6 - 3 - 1 (started even, Hashimoto was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 8 games (6-2)) | 1946 - 48 |
| Iwamoto Kaoru 8p | 7 - 2 - 1 (started even, Iwamoto was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 6 games (5-1)) | 1948 - 49 |
| Against a team of ten players | 8 - 1 - 1 (this was a 10-game match, but not a jubango) | 1949 - 50 |
| Hashimoto Utaro 8p | 5 - 3 - 2 (started with Hashimoto playing with sen-ai-sen handicap, handicap not changed) | 1950 - 51 |
| Fujisawa Hosai 9p | 7 - 2 - 1 (started even, Fujisawa was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 9 games (6-2-1)) | 1951 - 52 |
| Fujisawa Hosai 9p | 5 - 1 (abandoned after Fujisawa was beaten down from sen-ai-sen handicap to josen handicap) | 1952 - 53 |
| Sakata Eio 8p | 6 - 2 (abandoned after Sakata was beaten down from sen-ai-sen handicap to josen handicap) | 1953 - 54 |
| Takagawa Kaku 8p | 6 - 4 (started even, Takagawa was beaten down to sen-ai-sen handicap after 8 games (6-2)) | 1955 - 56 |
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