21st Kisei · 9-dan Final
Tap a point on the board to explore a line from here.
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Each tile is a move you could play next. Tap one to play it: it lands on the board as a numbered stone, and this panel refills with the options that follow. Keep tapping to build a line.
- The Variation panel above lists the moves you've played. Tap any of them to rewind there; tap ← Main line to return to the game.
- Tap Preview on the current move to lay the whole continuation on the board at once — the AI's best line, or the recorded one if the game has it. Tap again to clear.
- Tiles tagged sgf are variations saved in the game record.
- Each tile's corner shows how good the move is — from blue (best) through green and yellow to red — the same color it has on the board. The blue-highlighted tile is the AI's top choice.
- The move actually played in the game isn't shown here — only the alternatives.
New lines you play here are read to 100 visits — quick, but shallow. A deeper read finds longer, stronger continuations.
See deeper analysis plans →This game comes from the GoGoD collection — decades of careful transcription work by T Mark Hall and John Fairbairn — which we share with a daily download allowance at their request. You can keep studying it right here in the meantime, and your allowance resets at midnight UTC.
If you want the whole collection on your own machine today, GoGoD sells it directly:
Established in 1976 and sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Kisei ("Go Sage") is the highest-paying annual Go title in Japan, with a winner's purse of 43 million yen (roughly US$275,000). The format leads through a multi-tier challenger league -- S, A, B (split into B1 and B2 groups), and C -- whose ultimate winner faces the defending Kisei in a grueling best-of-seven title match. The title carries unique rank implications: reaching the top S League earns sub-7-dan players automatic promotion to 7-dan, winning the challengership lifts a player to 8-dan, and capturing the title itself elevates a player to 9-dan. Kobayashi Koichi held the title for eight consecutive years (1986-1993), and Iyama Yuta matched-then-surpassed that mark with nine straight wins (2013-2021). Alongside the Meijin and Honinbo, the Kisei forms Japan's "Big Three" titles.
- Date
- 1996-07-11
- Moves
- 263
- Komi
- 5.5
- Rules
- Japanese (assumed)
- Result
- W+3.5
- Game record
- GoGoD