The Ear-reddening Game
Shusaku (Black) vs Inoue Gennan Inseki (White)
Played over three days · September 1846
Shusaku was seventeen and a young 4 dan; Gennan Inseki was nearly fifty, an 8 dan and head of the Inoue house. Gennan surprised the young player with a new opening variation and took the lead. Then, at move 127, Shusaku played a stone in the centre that worked in every direction at once. A doctor watching the game, who hardly knew the rules, said afterwards that he was sure Shusaku would win, because when that stone went down Gennan's ears flushed red.
Moments to look for
List the stones on the board
Keyboard: with the stepper focused, the left and right arrow keys move one step.
Result: Shusaku (Black) won by 2 points. There was no komi in this game.
Where the records differ:
- Most records give the result as Black by 2 points; a few give 3.
- One copy we checked (gokifu) has White's move 202 one point lower. Two independent records agree on the move shown here.
- One copy (fanaro.io) adds a pass and one more Black stone after move 325; they change nothing.
Sources checked (each has the same 325 moves):
- Andries Brouwer's professional game archive (CWI), Shusaku/126.sgf
- tasuki's famous-games wiki (1846.sgf)
Every move is replayed on our own Go engine, so the board is always a legal position. The introduction and notes are our own words.