Kobayashi Satoru

Kobayashi Satoru (小林 覚, born 5 April 1959) is a Japanese 9-dan professional Go player.

Pupil of Kitani Minoru. One of four children, three of whom are professional players: Kobayashi Chizu Kobayashi Satoru and Kobayashi Kenji. He had won 900 professional games more and 1000 games on 2011-12-02 more.

In 1995 he won the Kisei and Gosei titles, the only time he has won any of the seven big Japanese titles. He also won the 3rd IBM Hayago Open Championship in 1990, the NHK Cup in 1995, the Ryusei in 1996, the Agon Cup in 1998 and was Challenger / Runner up in many other titles, most notably in 1997 the Tong Yang Securities Cup and the Samsung Cup.

In the 2013-07-17, he won his tenth title, the 3rd Igo Masters Cup, beating Ishii Kunio

2001 Suspension

The 3rd Chunlan Cup was the scene of the infamous incident where Kobayashi accidentally injured Ryu Shikun during a drinking session in Taizhou, China. The Nihon Ki-in moved swiftly and suspended Kobayashi Satoru from all professional Go activities for one year. That suspension was later commuted to eight months, and he was allowed to return to active play in September 2001.

Chairman

He is the chairman of Nihon Kiin from April 2019 to the present.