Jack’s mouth dropped open in shock. ‘You have it?’
The daimyo slowly shook his head. ‘I was hoping you did. The Shogun has requested its return.’
‘Return?’ Jack exclaimed. ‘But it’s mine. It belonged to my father.’
‘You lay claim to much, young samurai,’ said the daimyo. He walked over to a small wooden table, tutting in disappointment. ‘It’s most unfortuate you no longer have it. I’d have gained great favour with the Shogun for finding this rutter.’
Surprisingly, Jack discovered he was relieved to hear that the rutter had not been found. The Shogun was the last person he wanted to own it. That meant Botan might still have the logbook, unless he’d traded it … or thrown it away … or used it for tinder. With a death sentence hanging over his head, Jack realized he might never know.
Daimyo Sanada seemed lost in contemplation for a moment. He sat down at the table on which a set of black and white stone counters was arranged in a complex pattern across a square grid scored into the table’s surface. From a bowl he removed another small white stone and placed it down with a clack.
‘Have you played the game of Go before?’ he suddenly asked.
Jack shook his head.
‘How uncivilized your country must be!’ remarked daimyo Sanada. ‘Then it’s my duty to introduce you to Go before you die.’
Astounded, Jack couldn’t help himself. ‘As you intend to kill us, why on earth would I want to play any game with you?’
‘For your freedom?’ suggested daimyo Sanada to Jack’s utter disbelief. ‘In respect of the great service you showed daimyo Takatomi, I propose a game for you to win your life back.’
‘But I’ve no idea how to play,’ said Jack.
‘Oh, the rules are simple,’ said the lord, waving away his protest. Sanada looked to Ronin. ‘I assume you know the game.’
Ronin, tight-lipped since their arrival, gave a barely perceptible nod.
‘Good. Then I’ll give you the rest of the morning to teach the gaijin.’
‘You’re too kind,’ Ronin muttered.
‘But if I beat you,’ interjected Jack, ‘how can I trust your word?’
‘I’m an honourable man who plays by the rules and my word is my bond,’ replied the daimyo, offering an ingratiating smile.
Jack knew that was probably the best he’d get. ‘And what about my friends?’
The daimyo considered them for a moment, then threw up his hands. ‘Why not? I’m in a generous mood. You’ll all be released … if you win.’
Turning to Kanesuke, daimyo Sanada instructed, ‘Keep six guards on them at all times. They can use the game board by the tea house. You are responsible for them, but first I need to speak with you alone.’
As the daimyo and a very repentant Kanesuke headed for the mansion, Ronin leant close to Jack and whispered, ‘He’s playing a cruel game with us. We don’t stand the remotest chance of winning Go against the likes of that man!’
‘But he said the rules were easy,’ interjected Hana, with a desperate look of hope.
‘Go may be simple to learn,’ acknowledged Ronin, ‘but it takes a lifetime to master.’
37
THE RULES
Despite his pessimism, Ronin agreed to teach Jack, since the postponement of their death sentence might give them an opportunity to escape.
While the three of them sat round the board beside the tea house, going over the rules, the six guards stood at a distance. But so far they hadn’t taken their eyes off their prisoners or their hands off their swords.
‘Think of this board as a piece of land to be fought over,’ said Ronin, his fingertip marking out the grid of nineteen by nineteen lines. ‘Go is a game of territory and your aim is to control as much of the board as possible and to capture your opponent’s pieces by surrounding them.’
Ronin removed a black counter from a smooth, rounded rosewood bowl.
‘These stones are your “men”,’ he said, placing the counter upon one of the grid intersections. ‘You can put them on any unoccupied point, known as a “liberty”. Once played, the stones are not moved. They can be surrounded and captured during the course of the game by the enemy occupying all of its adjacent “liberties”, in which case they’re removed from the board as prisoners.’
Taking three white counters from a second bowl, he placed them on the empty points immediately above and to either side of the black stone, leaving the one space below unoccupied.
‘A stone’s liberties are horizontal and vertical, but not diagonal,’ explained Ronin. ‘The black counter is now in atari, meaning it’s about to be captured because it only has one liberty left. Where would White put a stone to take Black as prisoner?’
Ronin handed Jack a white counter. Without hesitation, Jack placed it on the vacant point below the black stone.
‘Good,’ said Ronin. ‘But always handle your stone between your second and middle fingers. It’s more elegant and good etiquette.’
Removing Jack’s white counter from the board, Ronin replaced it with a black and added several more in an L-shape.
‘Stones occupying adjacent horizontal and vertical points create a connected group. Think of these groups as mini-regiments. They share each other’s liberties, so are stronger and more resistant to attack. A group can only be captured when all its liberties are occupied by enemy stones.’
He surrounded the Black L-unit with white counters.
‘This group is now held prisoner –’ he removed the black pieces – ‘and White has gained all this territory in its attack. Such battles as this will decide who wins the game. At the end, once both players can find no way to take more territory, capture stones or reduce their opponent’s area, the liberties inside their own territory are counted along with any prisoners they’ve taken. The winner is the player with the highest score.’
‘That seems easy enough,’ said Jack, grasping the concept with little difficulty, since the game didn’t appear to be any harder than the Draughts he’d played with his father.
‘Don’t be fooled!’ warned Ronin. ‘Capturing stones is only one way of gaining territory. Eventual victory has more to do with the deployment of your stones to surround territory. Strategy is everything in this game.’
Ronin began to lay various groups of counters across the board. ‘Placing stones close together helps them support each other and avoid capture. See?’ He pointed to a connected Black group that appeared surrounded by White but still had two liberties. ‘On the other hand, placing stones far apart creates influence across more of the board and helps you gain territory.’ He surrounded the board’s top right corner with a division of white counters to demonstrate this in action. ‘The challenge of Go is in finding a balance between these conflicting interests. You need to be both defensive and offensive, always choosing between tactical urgency and strategic planning.’
‘How do you know all this?’ asked Hana, who sat cross-legged beside them, enthralled.
‘My father and I played every day,’ Ronin replied wistfully.
Jack noticed the faintest of smiles appear at the corner of the samurai’s mouth, but then it was gone.
‘He believed it should be a part of every warrior’s training. The game is essentially a martial art. And the best way for you to learn, Jack, is to play the game.’
Ronin slid the bowl of black stones over to him.
‘Black goes first. I’ll explain more concepts along the way.’
Stone by stone, Ronin and Jack played a mock game. At first Jack placed his stones randomly across the board, but soon found himself under attack from all quarters by White. As the game progressed, Ronin showed Jack how to connect his own stones, cut through his opponent’s groups, reduce their area of influence and invade another’s territory.
‘Life and Death is played out upon the board,’ explained Ronin. He pointed to two of Jack’s groups. ‘Despite having liberties, these are already dead since they can’t avoid eventual capture. So don’t
waste your time playing these groups any more.’ He indicated one of his own units formed into a figure of eight. ‘This group is alive and can never be captured. See the two “eyes” in the middle here and here. You can’t place a stone at either point because, with no liberties, your counter would be committing suicide. Formations like this are the key to your survival on the board.’
They played through several matches, each time Jack lasting a little longer and gaining more knowledge of the game. Ronin introduced him to the concept of sente – a play that threatened capture and allowed development of other positions – and even when to sacrifice groups in order to carry out a plan in a more important area.
Jack felt as if his head would burst. There was so much to take in. He understood the basic gameplay and tactics, but the larger strategic concepts still eluded him. Go was far more subtle and complex than it appeared.
‘You’ll have to do a lot better than that!’ scolded Ronin. ‘Your mistake is to concentrate on single conflicts. You need to see the game as a whole, look for patterns and formations, as if commmanding a battle with many fights occurring simultaneously across the board.’
They started again. Jack was concentrating so hard that he lost all track of time and only realized it was lunch when a servant appeared with a meal of plain rice and water. They ate while they played on.
Taking Ronin’s advice, Jack decided to treat Go as a martial art and tried applying his Two Heavens training to the game. Just as he split his attention to wield two swords, he divided his focus between different areas of the board. The game transformed in his mind into a simultaneous duel against four swordsmen, and gradually he began to make gains against Ronin – first he captured an entire group, then he managed to create two ‘eyes’ and was even beginning to invade Ronin’s territory!
‘I think you’re winning!’ exclaimed Hana, delighted. Then she looked at Ronin’s grave face. ‘Jack is winning … isn’t he?’
Studying the board, Ronin went to reply when Kanesuke skulked into the garden and over to the tea house. He had a devious grin on his wrinkled face.
‘Time to play.’
38
A GAME OF GO
A table had been set in the middle of the garden’s chequerboard courtyard. The daimyo, in an all-white hakama, sat to one side, his expression solemn, as befitted a game of Go. Jack faced him, equally serious, trying desperately not to show his pre-match nerves. Despite the daimyo’s sombre attitude, it was still just a game for him, but for Jack it was a matter of life and death.
Ronin and Hana knelt at the edge of the courtyard, guarded by the six samurai. Kanesuke, having arranged tea for his master, settled at a respectful distance to the side of the board as official adjudicator.
‘I’m looking forward to this game, however short it may prove to be,’ daimyo Sanada revealed, taking a sip of sencha. ‘You see, I’m intrigued as to how the foreign mind will strategically tackle Go.’
Jack couldn’t believe the man’s audacity. He was playing with their lives purely to satisfy his own curiosity.
‘As this is your first proper game and I wish to be fair, you can be Black and I’ll also give you an advantage of four stones.’
Jack looked to Ronin for an explanation.
‘You can place a counter at each of the corners, three points in, before the daimyo makes his first move. This gives you influence in all key areas of –’
‘Enough!’ interceded the daimyo, holding up his hand. ‘Explanation of the rules allowed, but no further tutoring!’
Jack laid out his four starter stones, remembering to hold each between his second and middle fingers. Nodding with approval at the correct etiquette, the daimyo gently placed his first counter in the upper left corner of the board.
‘Let battle commence.’
For the first dozen moves, Jack followed Ronin’s pre-planned opening strategy. He tried to exert influence over the lower right-hand side of the board, letting the daimyo lay claim to the top left. He then began a campaign to exclude White from the bottom half, but the daimyo countered – positioning a White stone against his lone Black and reducing its liberties by one. Daimyo Sanada attacked again, seizing another liberty, and Jack immediately had to strengthen his own stone by forming a group of two Blacks.
The game continued in this manner, each player loosely making claims to territory in different parts of the board, while occasionally invading with a direct threat to take prisoners.
The daimyo sighed contentedly. ‘A game of Go is a work of art. The play of black upon white and white upon black has a creative magic, don’t you think?’ He didn’t wait for Jack to answer. ‘The flow of spirit and the harmony of the players is like music in the mind.’
His next stone hit the board with a loud clack to emphasize his point. The daimyo had made an aggressive move, cutting between two of Jack’s groups with the aim of further destroying Black’s influence in the lower area. The smaller unit was now isolated and Jack knew he had to act decisively to avoid its imminent capture. A similar situation had occurred in one of Ronin’s mock games and he’d rallied to their defence, but Ronin had reprimanded him for this. Instead he had to go on the offensive – be the instigator of sente – otherwise he’d be forever on the back foot. Jack attacked White hard, aiming to surround one of its upper groups.
‘Kiai!’ said daimyo Sanada, surprised at Jack’s tactics. ‘You have fighting spirit, gaijin!’
With White forced to flee the assault, Jack was given the opportunity to stabilize his own threatened group and potentially trap three of the daimyo’s stones in the process.
Daimyo Sanada studied the board carefully. ‘Mmm … you’ve taught him well, Ronin. I’ll need to raise my game.’
‘Recess,’ announced Kanesuke, following a nod from the daimyo.
Having one last look at the board, daimyo Sanada took a short walk round the garden to contemplate his next move. Although unaware such breaks were allowed, Jack was thankful. His brain was aching from the intense period of concentration. He got up too and stretched his legs, passing as close to Ronin and Hana as he dared.
‘I can’t believe it!’ hissed Ronin. ‘You’ve got him on the run!’
‘But he’s seizing control of the entire upper board,’ replied Jack under his breath.
Ronin shook his head. ‘The outcome of the game may well hinge on the fate of those three White stones,’ he explained. ‘If you can kill them and White gets no compensation in any other area, the daimyo will lose. But if they live, White will win the game.’
Jack glanced at the board. The three little White stones represented their three lives and he felt the intense pressure upon him grow. So far he’d been employing Ronin’s tactics, but now, as they entered the middle phase of the game, he’d have to rely solely on his own strategies.
The daimyo returned from his walk and sat back down, indicating for Jack to join him.
‘Good luck!’ whispered Hana, barely concealing her anguish.
Taking a deep breath, Jack gave her his most confident-looking smile and returned to the board. Daimyo Sanada, a stone in hand, held it tantalizingly over the game.
‘Now the battle really begins.’
39
CONSTELLATIONS
White opened with an invasion into Black’s right-hand territory. Jack tried to block it with his next stone, but a masterful play by daimyo Sanada simultaneously threatened the capture of a Black group and the future freedom of the three key White stones.
Jack retaliated, attempting to stop White building a lifeline and saving them. But in spite of his best efforts, he found his defences crumbling under the daimyo’s onslaught. He was being attacked from all quarters and his battle strategy began to unravel. Focusing on surrounding the three White stones and killing them, Jack missed daimyo Sanada’s drive across the upper half of the board. Before he’d even realized it, a group of four Blacks had been surrounded and taken prisoner.
Jack despaired. He’d lost virtual
ly all influence in the upper territory. How could he ever hope to win now?
‘Can I call a recess?’ he asked.
‘By all means. I’m enjoying this game immensely,’ replied daimyo Sanada, taking the opportunity to talk with Kanesuke.
Jack paced the courtyard, slowing as he passed Ronin and Hana.
‘Don’t worry,’ whispered Ronin, with as much conviction as he could muster. ‘It’s possible to suffer losses in one area, but still fight back and win.’
‘How can I?’ replied Jack. ‘He’s surrounding all my groups.’
‘You have to see the patterns in his strategy! Predict his movements. View the whole board –’
‘Time!’ called Kanesuke, noticing the exchange.
Returning to his seat, Jack stared bleakly at the board. He couldn’t see any ‘patterns’, only individual conflicts. The configuration of Black and White was almost meaningless on a large scale and there appeared no obvious way to interpret a strategy from it.
‘If he takes much longer, we’ll be playing by starlight!’ remarked Kanesuke sarcastically.
Constellations!
Jack was hit with a flash of inspiration. As a ship’s pilot, his father had taught him how to navigate by the stars. At first, there’d been so many constellations he’d been unable to interpret the sky at all. His father, though, had shown him how to see the small in the large and the large in the small. Gradually, Jack had learnt to recognize key star clusters and then, all of a sudden, he was able to read the heavens at a single glance and steer a safe course across the featureless ocean.
If he viewed the White stones as stars and his Black as the night sky, he could picture the whole battle in his head. Almost at once patterns started to emerge, and a strategy formed, revealing a glimmer of hope that he could navigate his way to victory.
He now saw that the daimyo’s plan was to sacrifice his three White stones and in the process destroy Black’s prospective territory at the bottom of the board. Immediately Jack made a play for this area. Two groups formed – White and Black – and there was a race to capture one another. Jack got there first, seizing four prisoners and securing the zone.
The Ring of Water Page 15