Sekiyama Riichi

Sekiyama Riichi (関山利一, Honinbo Risen 本因坊利仙, 23 Dec 1909 – 31 Jan 1970) was a professional, Japanese 9-dan. He was the winner of the 1st Honinbo tournament in 1941. After his victory, Sekiyama temporarily assumed the name of Honinbo Risen. He was a pupil of Suzuki Tamejiro.

Table of contents Early Go career Go career Family Style Pupils[2] Books Quotes English Commentaries Notes

Early Go career

Sekiyama learned Go at the age of 5 from his father, Sekiyama Moritoshi 4p. When he was 12, he learned from the 16th Inoue Inseki, going from an 8-stone to 3-stone handicap in two years. When he was 14, he became the pupil of Suzuki Tamejiro. He became a professional aged 16.

Go career

Sekiyama tied 3–3 with Kato Shin during the 1st Honinbo title match. Rules stated that in such a case the title would be awarded to the player with the better record during the tournament. Sekiyama Riichi had gone 6–3 while Kato Shin performed 5–4, thus awarding Sekiyama the Honinbo title.

Sekiyama dropped out of the title defense in 1943 against Hashimoto Utaro because of bad health, which effectively ended his career.^[4] According to John Fairbairn in Kamakura, Sekiyama “was reckoned to have been capable of becoming a fearsome opponent for Go Seigen later had he not had health problems.”

Sekiyama won the Oteai tournament, the biggest tournament before WWII, seven times, more often than anyone else, including Go Seigen. In 1932 (Jiji Go Tournament, win and continue), when Go Seigen was on an eighteen game winning streak, Sekiyama stopped him with a three point victory as white.

When the Kansai Kiin went independent in 1950, he changed affiliations to the new organization.

His last game was in 1952, against Iwamoto Kaoru in the All Honinbo All–8-dan match (both were still 8p at a time when there were still very few 9-dan professionals).

Family

Sekiyama Riichi was the son of Sekiyama Moritoshi 4p (d. Aug 1939). His son (Sekiyama Toshio) and grandson (Sekiyama Toshimichi) both became 9-dans at the Kansai kiin. Tochimichi’s daughter and thus Riichi’s great-granddaughter Sekiyama Honoka became a Nihon Kiin pro 1 dan aged 17, making the Sekiyamas the first five-generation professional family. Sekiyama Riichi was also the patriarch of Japan’s first three-generation 9-dan family.

Sekiyama Riichi was also the father-in-law of Hashimoto Shoji 9p, who married his eldest daughter Nabuko, and of Kurahashi Shozo 8p, who married his second daughter Yoko. He is the maternal grandfather of Kurahashi Masayuki 9p.

Style

Miyamoto Naoki said of Sekiyama’s style that:

with his intensely serious approach to the game he almost never made oversights. Professionals admired his restrained style of play. […] Gote no sente was another phrase that typified his style. […] He played solidly, with an inward strength acquired from his teacher Suzuki, and he quickly mastered the art of winning with black. Next he absorbed himself in studying the games of Meijin Shuei. He claimed this made him a stone stronger, and he became a master with white, too.^[1]

Pupils^[2]

He concentrated his efforts on educating pupils after his de facto retirement.

• Ito Kazuteru
• Kajiwara Takeo
• Kishimoto Kazuo
• Koyama Yasuo
• Kurahashi Shozo
• Mikawa Shinji
• Nishizawa Katsuaki
• Ota Seido
• Sekiyama Toshio
• Shiraishi Yutaka
• Tabuchi Koichi
• Tokunaga Hirohisa
• Yamazaki Masuo
• Yoshida Takuji

Books

• Gote no Sente Kōgeki e no Junbi (後手の先手 攻擊への準備)
• Igo Kingen no Hyōri (囲碁金言の表裏)
• Kessaku Tsumego Jiten (傑作詰碁事典)^[3] - Co-authored with his son and grandson. A high level problem collection.
• Okigo Hisshū: Tenuki Jōseki (置碁必修: 手抜定石)
• Shibori no Shujusō (しぼりの種々相)
• Shikatsu Yōten iki Shini kō Semeai: Igo Jōtatsu no Shōkei (死活要点: 囲碁上達の捷径)

Quotes

Play every move as if it were the first in your life.^[1]

Five points in reverse sente is worth taking even early in the opening.^[1]

English Commentaries

Notes

^[1] Source: Go World, Iss. 12 p. 50.
^[2] Source: 1996 Igo Nenkan.
^[3] ISBN: 978-4-416-51002-5
^[4] He played two professional games in 1952, accompanied by a Go loving doctor, but no more.
^[5] Must be Miki Tadashi (三木 正), editor in chief of Gekkan Gogaku magazine.