Honinbo Shusaku: Today's Google doodle is dedicated to the 185th anniversary of the birth of Honinbo Shusaku, perhaps the most famous player of the game of Go.
Honinbo Shusaku, born Kuwabara Torajirō, is a famous player of the game of Go (a strategy game), and is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.
The game of Go, although played with very simple rules, is considered one of the greatest strategy board games, and has its roots in ancient China.
It is played with white and black pieces on a 19×19 grid.
Go originated in China (known as Weiqi) and was considered the game of the aristocracy. The two players, white and black, alternately add stones to the goban (board), encircling an area, imprisoning the opponent's stones, and protecting their own stones.
According to a recent census of players worldwide, there are more than 40 million of them, most of whom come from East Asia.
Honinbo Shusaku was born on the island of Innoshima, on June 6, 1829, and died on August 10, 1862.
He is considered a “legend” of this game, and according to testimonies and records of his time, he was truly invincible, while in skill he was possibly surpassed only by his teacher, Honinbō Shuwa.
He began playing at a young age, and by the age of 8, in 1837, he had already reached a “professional” level and was a very capable opponent for any other known player of his time.
https://youtu.be/L18ORAOisoc
He left his parents' home at a young age, and chose to study the art of strategy at one of the famous colleges of the time.
In 1862, a cholera epidemic struck Japan. Shusaku also died after a short illness, at the age of just 33!
He also gave his name to a technique of the game, called Shusaku fuseki, a technique involving playing with the black pawns and which was the most well-known technique until almost the middle of the 20th century.
Source: newsit.gr
