Michael Redmond

Michael Redmond (born May 25, 1963) is a Nihon Ki-in professional Go player.

Redmond was born in Santa Barbara, California, United States and began playing Go at age 11. At age 14 he became an insei for the Nihon Ki-in. A student of Oeda Yusuke 9-dan, he became a professional 1-dan at age 18 and was promoted to 2-dan during the same year. Michael achieved 500 professional wins in August 2007 (500 wins, 331 losses and 2 jigo).

He was promoted to:

• 5-dan in 1985
• 8-dan in 1996
• 9-dan in 2000 (the first and only Western Go Professional to ever reach 9-dan)

Redmond made the semifinals of the Gosei in 2003, and reached the quarterfinals in 36th (2010) Tengen. He managed to the second round of the 17th Agon (2010, on going) where he beat Cho U in the first round (source: UnlimitedGo). He was one of 16 participants in the final tournament of the 50th Judan. In 1985, he won the 9th Ryuen Cup, and in 1992 he was runner up in the 17th ShinjinO.

Redmond is married to Xian-Xian Niu, a Chinese 5-dan professional. They have two daughters, Yumi and Emi. Redmond worked with the AGA and the The Ing Foundation to create the Redmond Cup as well as the Ing Redmond Tournament, a tournament for American players stronger than 5D and under 30. Xian-Xian Niu's sister Niu Lili is also a 5p Go player and was also the long-term assistant for go Seigen in his later years, and the mother of Nyu Eiko, another female professional (4p). Redmond is thus Eiko's uncle by marriage, and was also her Go teacher.

(This info from AGA, GoBase.org, and GoGameWorld.com websites.)

Redmond has worked extensively as a commentator, in both English and Japanese. He was the official commentator of the game between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo in March 2016. He was also one of the four English-language commentators for the match between AlphaGo and Ke Jie in 2017, and its associated Team Go and Pair Go events.

In 2017, he became very active on the AGA's Youtube channel. He commentated / is commentating three series of review videos with Chris Garlock:

• Redmond's Reviews (in which he reviews both modern and historic human professional games, often his own)
• AGA Master Review Series (in which he reviews 22 of the 60 online games played between AlphaGo and human professionals in December 2016, which were all won by AlphaGo)
• AlphaGo vs AlphaGo (in which he reviews (so far the first 13 of) the 50 AlphaGo self-play games released by DeepMind in 2017)

In April 2020, Redmond started his own YouTube channel Michael Redmond's Go TV.

Books

English:

• The ABC's of Attack and Defense (Slate and Shell, 2002).
• Patterns of the Sanrensei (Slate and Shell), 2011. (Smart Go (Go Books)).
• AlphaGo to Zero, 2023 (SmartGo (Go Books)).

Japanese:

• 直観力―私が囲碁から学んだ生きるということ (Intuition, Life Lessons Learned from Go). A "self-help" style book.
• 棋士マイケル・レドモンド (Go Pro Michael Redmond). An autobiography.
• 石の方向 養成トレーニング (Stone direction (of play) Training).
• レドモンドの基本は格言にあり "Redomondo no kihon wa kakugen ni ari" (Redmond's Fundamantals are in the Proverbs). Publisher: NHK.
• レドモンドの狙え!戦いの手筋 "Redomondo no nerae! Tatakai no tesuji." (Redmond's nerae (aim). Fighting tesuji). Publisher: NHK.
• 基本定石の正しい使い方 星編 (4-4 point joseki). Publisher: 囲碁人ブックス ("Igo jin books").
• 基本定石の正しい使い方 小目編 (3-4 point joseki). Publisher: 囲碁人ブックス ("Igo jin books").

Links

• Photos of four pairs of family go players from China, Japan, South Korea and the United States participating in the Bosi Cup Family Match, includes photo of mother/daughter pair Lili and Eiko together, and playing a game with Lili's younger sister Niu Xian Xian and brother-in-law Michael Redmond (in Chinese)

Pictures

xianxian niu michael redmond 2018 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

xianxian niu michael redmond 2018 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)