Center Oriented Players

For those interested in center-oriented play, the best way is to look at real game examples. Top pros don't play normal joseki in the opening when there are stones placed unusualy high, like at the 55 point, 64 point, tengen, san ren sei and so on. One has to look at how the whole game develops to get a feel for this style of playing.

The aim of this page is to list pro and top amateur players who specialise in such play, along with perhaps giving a few details like rank, dates, nationality, favourite opening style or plays.

Pro players

• Cho Tae-hyeon 9 dan. Born 1959. Korean. Known as the “Korean Takemiya”.
• Gan Siyang 4 dan. Active from 2001 onwards. Chinese. tengen, 8-8 point, 64 point, flexible central moyo style. Sensei's Gazette also discusses him. Post on go4go - five games to be found (as of 2007-11-19).
• Kubomatsu Katsukiyo 7 dan. 1894-1941. Japanese. Famous for his extensive tengen opening research.
• O Meien 9 dan. Active from 1980s onwards. Japanese.
• Ohashi Hirofumi 6 dan. Active from 2002 onwards. Japanese. Often plays 6-6. 8-6 point fuseki as black since 2013.
• Shirae Haruhiko 8 dan (retired). Japanese. Experimented with 'floater' opening.
• Sonoda Yuichi 9 dan. Born 1952. Japanese. Sonoda Yuichi is renowned for a style even more centrally-oriented than Takemiya's.
• Takemiya Masaki 9 dan. Active from 1970s onwards. Japanese. Famous for his innovative use of the san ren sei. His style was dubbed Cosmic Style.
• Yamashita Keigo
• Yasui Senchi 8 dan. 1776-1838. Japanese.
• Honinbo Genjo 8 dan. 1775-1832. Japanese.

Strong amateurs

• Frederic Donzet 5 dan. Active from 1980s onwards. French. Likes playing 55 point openings.
• Robert Jasiek