Takemiya Masaki
Takemiya Masaki (武宮正樹, born Jan. 1, 1951) is a Japanese 9-dan professional Go player.
Takemiya became famous for his 'cosmic style' of play - focusing on the construction of large moyos and taking territory in the centre. (but, he wanted his style to be referred to as 'natural style.) He became a 1-dan professional in 1965 and was promoted to 9-dan in 1977. Matsubara Taisei 5-Dan is his pupil. His son, Takemiya Yoko, 5-Dan was his pupil and has become a popular commentator.
He visited Europe and the US many times for teaching tours. In 2009, he lectured at GO7 in Vienna, organized by Kobayashi Chizu. Since several years, he is one of the main guests at the American Go Congresses.
He lost the first opening game ever of a Japanese top-match in Europe in Paris, May 1988. The game featured on the opening pages of the 0-issue of GO MOON, which appeared two days afterwards during the Amsterdam Open. About a year later, GO MOON started a special section of sanrensei games, as also other top-players like Cho Chikun, Fujisawa Shuko and Kato Masao also started to apply this opening in their games. In January 1996, he attended the opening game of the Kisei-match between Cho Chikun and Kobayashi Satoru in Amsterdam.
Books at Sensei's Library
Titles
- 1976: 31st Honinbo title
- 1978: 11th Hayago Championship
- 1980: 35th Honinbo title
- 1981: 1st NEC Cup
- 1985: 40th Honinbo title and 5th NEC Cup
- 1986: 41st Honinbo title
- 1987: 42nd Honinbo title
- 1988: 43rd Honinbo title and 1st Fujitsu Cup
- 1989: 2nd Fujitsu Cup, 36th NHK Cup, Asian TV Cup, and 22nd Hayago championship
- 1990: 28th Judan title and Asian TV Cup
- 1991: 29th Judan and 13th Kakusei titles, and Asian TV Cup
- 1992: 30th Judan title and Asian TV Cup
- 1995: 20th Meijin title
Bill Spight: Takemiya became famous at age 15, when, as a 5-dan, he won several games against 9-dans, and got the nickname, 9-dan Killer.
Hyperpapeterie: Something about this seems odd. The page reports that Takemiya was born in 1951, and became a 1-dan in 1965. So according to the normal promotion rules, he could not have been a 5-dan in 1966. Gobase lists him as being a 2-dan in 1966.
Bill: Well, I thought he was 15. Checking Gobase, it seems that he beat his first 9-dan in 1967. He was 16 then.
Hyperpapeterie: Turns out you were right about the age, as he had a win in 1966 against Iwata Tatsuaki. Perhaps it's even more impressive since he was only a 2-dan rather than a 5-dan.
His excellent book 'Le Go cosmique' has, as far as I know, only been
translated from Japanese to French. Francophones can
read a blurb
about the book.
Le Go Cosmique Blurb in English is a translation of the blurb mentioned above. -- Sifu Eric
Takemiya considers that the centre-oriented style for him is the natural way for his stones to move and focusses in his book largely on the concept of 'playing with your heart' and playing moves which 'please'.
When asked who was his favorite persons' games to study, at the 2008 US Go Congress, Takemiya stated that it was Dosaku. Takemiya continued with how very strong Dosaku was and that he is considered to be the father of our modern opening strategies.
I believe that reviewing Takemiya's games is very instructive since they are full of unusual ideas. It is very difficult to follow his style but at the same time his plays opens horizons for others and show that there is more than one way to compete on the highest level. -- HolIgor
Some of his games can be found on this French page. Click on the red dot to see the game. -- SifuEric
You can find several commented games on Jan van der Steen's site. -- Steffen Glueckselig
More games can be found at http://jianbo.tripod.com/takemiya.
Reviews by Alexander Dinerstein
Tapir: Takemiya Masaki played 34 games in 2008 winning 26. His winning percentage of 76,somewhat% is 2nd only to the 79% of Rin Shien 7d. What does this mean? Can we expect major feats again? He reached but lost the finals of the 56th NHK Cup and reached the Gosei semifinal now, I hope he will challenge for Gosei...
Biondy: Takemiya made a comeback by entering the 65th Honinbo league by beating Ishida Atsushi in the final of preliminary tournament.
valerio: Takemiya made his comeback after a gap of 16 years, like Kubouchi Shuchi and Hane Yasumasa (this is a record).
tapir: We should note he challenged for a title in 2002 (Judan afaik) and that his comeback may as well be dated half a year earlier with Gosei semifinal and Runner up for the NHK Cup. (Both lost against Yuki Satoshi). I am looking forward to the league because unlike the preliminaries there will be game records of his league games. Interestingly he himself relates it to his dancing experience. (S. GD thread on dancing and go :)