Kataoka Satoshi

Kataoka Satoshi (片岡 聡, born 1958) is a professional Go player.

Born in 1958 in Chiba Prefecture, Kataoka studied under Sakakibara Shoji, became an insei in 1967, turned 1-dan in 1972, and reached 9-dan in 1988. He's best known for winning the Tengen title in 1982 and defending it the following year, but he also won the Shinjin-O title in 1981 and the Kakusei title in 1990. He's been in the Honinbo League 11 times and the Meijin League six. He is a three-time winner of the Kido Prize. In 2014-02-27 Kataoka reached 1,000 wins (18th japanese pro and 15th Nihon Kiin player), beating Fujisawa Kazunari 8 dan.

In Uchigo Kansho Series 1: Kataoka Satoshi, (pp. 345-349), Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan characterizes Kataoka's go as balanced, with good-looking, robust shape. His local play may appear simplistic, but whole-board balance allows him to take the lead. He is also one of the unheralded fuseki masters of the modern age, ranking alongside Takagawa Shukaku. Where required he can read out a sequence to the very end, and his yose is brilliant--so much so that he is sometimes called the "new computer", following Ishida Yoshio who was the original "computer". His go has no major weaknesses, and easy for amateurs to understand. His positional judgment is well-developed. He always remains calm, even when behind, waiting for a chance.

Kobayashi Satoru goes on to say that Kataoka's weaknesses include the way he sometimes gives up a lead in the middle game. Sometimes he underestimates moves by the opponent which at first glance seem to be overplays. His yose may have deteriorated just a bit since his younger days. But his overall strength remains unchanged. With his kind of go, it would not be surprising if he held one or two titles.

Kobayashi Satoru then mentions the possible impact of the new Nihon Ki-in rule against smoking during matches on Kataoka, a long-time smoker, noting that as a smoker himself he can agree that that could be one reason Kataoka has been off his style recently, tending to drop big games (although his winning percentage remains good). Smoking helps you think, and if you've been using it for many years going into a non-smoking environment can throw you off your stride for a while. Smoking is especially useful during byo-yomi to calm your stress.

Now Kataoka is reported to have built himself a non-smoking study room to help him get accustomed to non-smoking go. It should just be a matter of time before Kataoka is back playing in the leagues regularly. (The book was published in Oct. 2003).