Professional Go Player Retires at 98

Ninety-eight year old Kazuko Sugiuchi, Japan’s oldest professional player of the board game Go has retired, saying she can no longer handle “six hours without a break.”  

Go is an especially popular strategy game played in Japan, South Korea, and China and is considered more complex than chess. It involves players placing black and white stones on a square wooden table. (Example picture from internet).

Kazuko Sugiuchi learned Go from her father Eizo, a retired naval captain, beginning when she was six years old and is the oldest of three professional Go-playing sisters. Kazuko turned professional in 1948 and won her first title eleven years later. She then went on to win the prestigious Women’s Meijin Championship four times in a row. She became Japan’s oldest professional player in April 2024, breaking the record held by her late husband Masao. They married in 1954, and were married 63 years until his death in 2017.

She will be promoted to the rank of ninth dan after retiring, becoming the first woman to reach that level. I hope she enjoys her retirement!