Yamashita Keigo

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http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player/htm/photo/000322.jpg
Yamashita Keigo's Nihon Ki-in photograph

Yamashita Keigo (山下 敬吾, born September 6, 1978 in Asahikawa, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan) up to now is by far the most successful student from the go school run by Kikuchi Yasuro.

Yamashita's spectacular style has renewed interest in the game of go. A short resume:

  • Born 1978-09-06 in Asahikawa City
  • 1-dan in 1993
  • 7-dan in 2000
  • 1998: 23rd Shinjin-O (King of The New Stars Title)
  • 1999: 14th NEC Shun'ei (New Stars Hayago), 24th Shinjin-O
  • 2000: 30th Shin'ei (New Stars Title), the 25th Gosei and the 25th Shinjin-O
  • 2001: 26th Shinjin-O
  • 2003[1]: 27th Kisei winner
  • 2003: 9 dan
  • 2004: 30th Tengen winner by defeating Hane Naoki 3:0 in the final.
  • 2005: Challenger for both the Kisei and Oza titles.
  • 2006: 30th Kisei and 54th Oza winner
  • 2007: Successfully defended 31st Kisei and 55th Oza titles.
  • 2008: Successfully defended 32nd Kisei.
  • 2009: Successfully defended 33rd Kisei.
  • 2009: 35th Tengen winner by defeating Cho U 3:2 in the final.
  • 2010: 65th Honinbo winner by defeating Hane Naoki 4-1.
  • 2010: 19th Ryusei winner by defeating Nakano Hironari.
  • 2010 17th Agon-Kiriyama Cup winner by defeating Cho Chikun.

As a 7 dan early in 2001, Yamashita Keigo won the prestigious 38th Shusai Prize. It recognised not only the fact that he won the Gosei title at the age of 21, but that his Go style is a breath of fresh air. In the same year he also won the Journalists' Club prize and the Kido Prize, among other awards.

A small collection of his games can be found at [ext] My Friday Night Files.

Gobase page [ext] http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Yamashita%20Keigo .

2003 is a very busy year for Yamashita Keigo. After winning Kisei he plays in the Meijin title match and after that in the Tengen title match.

A list of his famous games is maintained in Sensei's Gazette.


Win/loss record:

On 2009-10-22 reached 700 wins in his carreer (285 losses, 1 jigo), setting the records for youngest player to do so, and also the fastest to reach 700

  • 2009 38-17
  • 2008 27-24
  • 2007 32-25
  • 2006 44-24
  • 2005 33-20
  • 2004 39-32
  • 2003 34-18
  • 2002 61-17
  • 2001 50-19
  • 2000 59-18
  • 1999 55-12
  • 1998 60-15
  • 1997 60-9
  • 1996 39-12
  • 1995 35-1-10
  • 1994 22-11
  • 1993 21-7

[1] DJ: As far as I know, the current Kisei-sen is the 2002: being a mammoth tournament, the final is actually played at the beginning of the year after the "nominal" one.

Charles: It's a fair point. I don't think we yet have an established convention here on SL, whether you give the year in which the tournament started its preliminaries, or the year in which the title match finished.

Dave Sigaty: It is neither. It is the 27th Kisei with no reference to any year. See the [ext] sponsor's page.

Charles: There is a convention followed by the Igo Nenkan reference section, of giving first the term number, and then the year, as determined by the final; so for example the 1st Kisei title is dated as 1977. This is followed by GoGod, too.

valerio: after winning the 65th Honinbo, Yamashita assumed the name of Honinbo Dowa, following the Japanese practice. The list of the names assumed by the 12 Honinbos is in the italian blog [ext] Il Go professionistico.

Uberdude Why did Yamashita do this, but other winners of the Honinbo title like O Meien or Hane Naoki not? At first I thought maybe because they didn't win it lots of times, but neither has Yamashita.

valerio: To choose the new name, to use until the player is Honinbo, is a personal choice. Except Hane, all the pros who have not chosen a new name were not Japanese. Only Honorary Honinbos can always use the name of their choice.


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This is a copy of the living page "Yamashita Keigo" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2011 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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