The Games of Honinbo Shuei, Volume 3

This is the third of four volumes being devoted to the games of Honinbo Shuei, whose life was recounted in Part 1 (already published, along with Volumes 1 and 2 of the games) of a trilogy, the Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei. The four games volumes constitute Part 2. Part 3 features commentaries by Shuei on games by other players.

One reason Shuei is so famous is because of his flowing but elusive style. The commentaries in Part 2 therefore focus heavily on this aspect. The games are presented in chronological order so that the emergence of his style can be traced.

This volume contains 19 games, covering his career between 1898 and 1900.

The games here are from the beginning of the mature part of Shuei's career in which he dominated all other players. The players here are for the most part the pick of the crop, and include especially his two top pupils, the future Honinbo Shusai and Karigane Junichi. Half of the ten-game match with Karigane is given here - the rest is in Volume 4. Apart from witnessing further examples of Shuei's style and technique (sabaki especially, but see also the "miai game"), we see here as well his use of off-the-board techniques such as psychology. As regards his character, though that was fully discussed in Part 1, here we see reinforcing images of his style and prowess as a teacher.