Game of the Century, Honinbo Shusai vs. Go Seigen

Hello,

I’m (relatively) new to GO and was recently looking at the Game of the Century between Honinbo Shusai and Go Seigen. I saw the move W160 played by Honinbo Shusai and understand, from further reading, that this was effectively the game-winning move.

Can anyone explain what it was that made this move so good? I cannot see how/why it’s so pivotal.

Thanks,
Alex

Here’s a link:

http://gokifu.com/share/24

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Before this move, black is expecting that entire area to be his territory. Once white plays here, black has no way to capture the stone, so he loses a lot of territory. There is nowhere for black to make up the points, because it is near the end of the game. The stone ultimately gets captured because white gives it up to capture the Q8 group, but it is still very valuable.

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In addition to what speedchase said, this is what the move is aiming at http://senseis.xmp.net/?Shusai%2FMyoshu

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Thank you. So in the end black does actually manage to keep the territory but white gets the reward of the Q8 group that it wouldn’t have been able to get had it not played W160?