The Traveling Board

Counting Isn't Everything
February 23, 2004
By Erwin Gerstorfer

At the 1981 European Go Congress in Austria several Asian professionals were present. One Japanese professional was accompanied by his family, including his six-year-old son. This boy was going to enter primary school just after returning home, but he was already a strong amateur 3-dan. Before the Main Tournament a friendly match between Asian and European players took place. The then Swiss Champion, also a  3-dan, was matched again the boy. His father, the professional, who had played the Swiss player before on other occasions, proposed that the boy should take the white stones. The boy was quite little, so he just put his chin on the table in front of the board, and played in this posture for 
most of the game. The Swiss player soon discovered that he was no match for the boy. He fell further and further behind and was prepared to give up, but the boy never looked up from the board and the Swiss player, not knowing any Japanese, didn't wanted to frighten him. Thus, he was forced to play out the lost game to the last dame point. But the really bitter end was yet to come. When the time came to count the game, the boy finally looked up, gestured that the Swiss player should wait for a moment and went to get his father. The boy needed his father to count the result, not because of the language barrier, but because the boy had won by over thirty points and had only learned to count to ten.

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