To be quite precise, the match ended at 2:42 on the afternoon of
December 4, 1938. The last play was Black 237, by the Master’s opponent.
Silently, the Master filled in a neutral point.
“It will be five points?” said one of the judges, Onoda of the Sixth Rank,
his manner polite and distant. He probably spoke from solicitude for the
Master, whom he wished to spare the discomfort of having the board
rearranged on the spot,
and his defeat by five points made quite clear.
“Yes, five points,” muttered the Master. Looking up through swollen
eyelids, he made no motion toward rearranging the board.
None among the functionaries who crowded the room was able to speak.
“If I hadn’t gone into the hospital we would have had it over with at
Hakoné.” The Master spoke calmly, as if to relieve the heaviness in the air.
He asked how much time he had used in play.
“White—nineteen hours and fifty-seven minutes. Three minutes more,
sir, and it would have been exactly half the time you were allowed,” said
the youth who was keeping the records. “Black used thirty-four hours and
nineteen minutes.”
High-ranking players are usually given ten hours of play, but for this
match an exception was made and the time allotment increased fourfold.
Black still had several hours left, but the thirty-four hours he had used were
extraordinary all the same, indeed probably unique in all the annals of the
game since the imposition of time limits.
It was almost three when the game ended. The maid came with tea. The
company sat in silence, all eyes on the Go board.
