A game I will always remember is a game I played on the only occasion I represented Japan in international competition. It was in the women's individual tournament in the 1st World Mind Sports Games, held in Beijing in 2008. It was played in the first round of the main tournament, for the best eight, against the eventual winner, Song Ronghui 1-dan of China.
The atmosphere was completely different from my ordinary games in Japan, and I remember that I was tenser than I had ever been before during a game. I had black, and in the first fifty moves I fell behind in territory, so the only way I could make a game of it was to use my thickness to attack the white group at the bottom. I lost my cool. Somehow I threw the game into confused fighting, sacrificed eight stones in the centre, and set up a large capturing race at the bottom. At this moment, I felt, 'I can do this!'
The diagram shows the position after 118 moves, with a capturing race at the bottom. I thought that the wedging move of Black 1 was good style. Beginning with this move, my opponent used a lot of time, and I knew that she was looking perplexed, but inside my head I couldn't find a winning sequence . . .
My move at 123, played in byo-yomi, was the losing move. The correct move was Black 5 in the reference diagram. With 'one eye versus no eye', Black won the capturing race and had the lead.
I was really disappointed with myself for my ignorance of the basics of life and death. (Laughter)
I was weak, both in actual playing strength and mentally, but the week I passed amidst the tension of a world championship was a valuable experience. I'll do my best so that I can play again in a big match like this.
