Go to Go Manga Chapter 1 Summary
For the actual discussion, please go to this thread: New Go Manga: Go to Go - #41 by Sadaharu
Chapter 1: Frog in the Well
Summary
Growing up, Akiyama Kousei was a genius in nearly everything he tried. He could do handstands at just one year old. In his first baseball game in primary 4, he hit home runs against secondary 3 students. By primary 5, he was solving problems meant for first-year high school students, and in primary 6, he defeated second-year high school students in soccer.
At the age of 12 (Primary 6 in Japan), he decided to study Go as he wanted to be the Fujii Sota (Shogi player who holds eight titles) in Go. He didn’t want to go into fields such as baseball as baseball already had Ohtani Shohei. His goal was to become a legend when he was still in his 10s. His mum concluded that he was a serious validation-seeker.
After learning for a month, Kousei went to a Go salon to find people to play with. The lady at the Go Salon asks him to play with Enomoto Midori, who is a Primary 4 kid who looks very aloof and says very few words. They play an even game (no handicaps) and while Kousei talks a lot during the game, he realised he didn’t have any territories on the board and resigned.
After returning home, he felt strange that a genius like him had lost. He decided he lacked knowledge and experience, so he began studying Go for ten hours daily. A week later, he lost another even game to Midori. 10 days later, he lost another game to Midori with 2 handicap stones (handicaps make it easier for the weaker player to play). 1 month later, he lost another game to Midori with 5 handicap stones. 3 months later, he lost another game to Midori with 9 handicap stones. Kousei concludes that what he was lacking was neither knowledge nor experience but talent.
After going back home, Kousei says that he will quit playing Go as he could not win anyone at the Go salon for 3 months. He says that there were 5 kids at the Go salon and he could not beat any one of them. It was the first time that he couldn’t win despite putting in effort. He concluded he was no longer a genius and began to struggle in other areas as well.
4 years passed and Kousei became a high school student. One day, his mum asks him to help out in one of the cafes in the town festival opened by the neighbourhood association president. Kousei agrees for the money and he does a very good job in explaining the menu and serving the customers. The president asks him to work as a part-timer at the cafe. Kousei was about to agree when he heard the click of Go stones.
At the Go/Shogi booth, he saw Shirayama Kogane, who had beaten nine players in a row. Even the strongest in the town also lost to him and the staff there didn’t know what to do. The president asks Kousei to be his next opponent. He wasn’t sure if Kousei knew how to play, but he sensed Kousei’s interest because he’d smiled upon hearing the Go stones.
As Kousei sat down at the table, still wearing his apron, Kogane began to introduce himself. He has been playing Go every day since he was 4 years old. He had even become an Insei (someone training to be a professional Go player) in his first year of secondary school. He thought that he was a genius, but he kept losing to kids smaller than him and he stayed in the D class among the Inseis. He talks about the idiom ‘frog in the well’ and says how he is the frog. Most people would have given up, but he said he persevered, choosing to learn to swim in the ocean instead. He would continue to strive for improvement and try to become a professional player again through qualifying exams. He explains that it’s his resolve to take revenge for the times that he suffered.
The game between Kogane and Kousei starts. Kousei explains how he couldn’t beat any of the kids at the Go salon when he was a kid. Kogane says that Kousei has the bare minimum abilities to play Go and he will help him carry his grievances when he becomes a pro. Kousei recalled his ambition to become the Fujii Sota of Go, only to realize he was just a ‘kid in the well.’ Suddenly, a vision of himself as a child appeared, asking why he was playing Go now. He could have simply declined the president’s request or could have just played one move and resigned, but he didn’t and kept on playing. “Why?”
“You know the answer to that very well,” Kogane said as if he was replying to the question. He says that even though it’s only the opening (starting part of the game), he can see that Kousei is enjoying the game. It was as if he was contemplating, ‘What if I play here? What if I play there?’. He deduces that Kousei is having fun playing Go now. However, he says that and the result of the game are two different things.
As they played, Kogane continued to boast about his moves. Eventually, he resigned, looking crestfallen. Everyone, including Kousei, was surprised. Kogane says that Kousei played very accurately in the opening and eventually avoided all of his attacks and killed his groups instead. Kousei was surprised that, despite his boasting, Kogane was far weaker than the five kids he had lost to. Kogane is asking who are the 5 kids that beat him previously.
Suddenly, Kogane received a call from a friend, who told him to check the news. Kogane showed Kousei the news: Enomoto Midori 1P (professional dan), one of the kids who had defeated him, had become the youngest challenger in history for the Judan title, having just defeated a 9P player. Kousei is shocked.
At the Go salon, the receptionist, on the phone, explained the idiom ‘the frog in the well does not know the ocean.’ Usually, this idiom is used to describe how people are very narrow-minded and do not see how wide the world is. The “well” is usually used to describe a very small world, but what if that well is deeper than the ocean? For example, a top baseball player in Japan might feel that he has no talents if he attended a school with five other players as skilled as Ohtani Shohei. And this Go salon was just such a place. While such a coincidence might seem miraculous, statistically, it’s bound to happen eventually. And it was happening now.
The receptionist explained that she eagerly awaited the return of the boy who had been defeated by this extraordinary circumstance. Suddenly, Kousei burst through the door, dragging Kogane with him, his face ablaze with determination, demanding to know where the five kids were.
End of chapter.