April 26th, 2017

In March of last year world champion Go player Lee Sedol squared off against the computer program AlphaGo in a fascinating show of Man vs Machine. In the end, AlphaGo came out the victor, winning four of five games. Lee Sedol, however, was happy to have won at least one. In the fourth game, which AlphaGo lost, move 78 made by Lee Sedol was referred to as a 神の一手 (Divine Move). A Divine Move is an unpredictable yet masterfully strategic one whose discovery is so unlikely it is as if God himself guided the player's hand. One such move, played in 1846 by 17 year old Honinbo Shakshu against 48 year old champion Inoue Gennan Inseki - head of one of the four Houses of Go -  was named the 耳赤の一手 (the ear-reddening move). A doctor watching the game noted Inoue's ears flushed red when he saw the play. Shakshu would go on to become one of the most mythical Go players in history; his mythos only added to when he died tragically at 33 from Cholera. Shakshu was also portrayed in the anime ヒカルの碁 (Hikaru's Go), which helped ignite a new wave of interest in the game.

-E