100 Games of Chen Zixian: and his place in China’s go history Paperback – June 29, 2023

This is Book 5 in the Museum of Go Theory project, which looks at the evolution fo go theory, mainly in the period 1600 ~ 1900, and mainly in China, which has by far the greatest amount of source material.This book It presents the 1890 book 100 Games of Chen Zixian, and so can be seen as one 'bookend.'Chen was one of the two great guoshous of the 19th century. The other was Zhou Xiaosong. Zhou is sometimes referred to as the Chinese Shuwa (partly because he was born in the same year, 1820). The slightly younger Chen might be considered the Chinese Shusaku in that he too died tragically early. But rather than teacher and pupil, Chen and Zhou were great rivals who respected each other. They beat everyone else down to two stones, and when Chen died, that vacuum took the drive out of Zhou's go. He still made great contributions to late 18th century go, as he lived a rather long life, and the most notable was his great book of longish commentaries. I hope to present Zhou's book later (it has 27 games).This book of Chen's games, compiled by an amateur fan, lacks commentaries, but does contain over a dozen games with Zhou, other even games (some very famous) with top players , and more than a sprinkling of handicap games, from two to four stones.The milieu in which Chen and Zhou plied their trade was very different from that of Edo players in Japan. The opportunity has therefore been taken to add text to the book by describing this milieu of Chen and Zhou and showing how it evolved.This book has thus become something of a fascinating romp through China’s go history. It goes back a long way at times, and scurries down some rabbit holes, but always with the aim has been to show how and why the 19th century scene evolved.Although the main focus is on anecdotes illustrating the lives of Chena and Zhou, the topics ranged over are the history of go in Yangzhou (the equivalent of Edo in Japan) and the history of Chinese grades, from the time of Mencius to Deng Yuanhui's comprehensive survey of 1895. You will meet the original Mulan, Stinky Toes, a chrysanthemum muncher, Iron Head, a carnivorous monk, a lovesick emperor, and a welshing viceroy, as well as everlasting sorrow, dreams. poetry clocks, broken sandals, 2x2 boards and silversmiths. And more! As a result, the go players of the past really come alive. Read more