Yamashita Keigo

Keywords: People

Yamashita Keigo (山下敬吾)

Yamashita Keigo (山下敬吾, b. 6 September 1978 in Asahikawa, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese, professional 9-dan of the Nihon Kiin. He has been one the top players in Japan since the early 2000s, winning over 20-titles. He was a student of the Ryokusei Academy.

Yamashita learned how to play go from his parents at the age of five. He disliked losing so much that he stopped playing until he saw his older brother monopolizing his mother over the go board. In 1986, he won the 7th Boys and Girls Go Tournament, becoming the Elementary School Student Meijin. His photo was placed in the Igo Club magazine, and as a reward he received a four stone teaching game from Kobayashi Koichi and Kato Masao. Kato said that Yamashita had a 'strong-willed face.'

On January 1, 1988, Yamashita and his older brother enrolled at the Ryokusei Academy with support of their parents. Yamashita became a professional five years later in 1993.

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Style

Yamashita has a powerful, active and creative attacking style that makes him one of the most aggressive players of his generation. As such, his games are popular among go fans and media.

Regarding his early style, Yamashita said:

Around the time when I became professional, I feel like I got strong. I was able to see the board as a whole. Around the time when I was a low dan player, I valued fighting above everything else, all-out fighting. It was unrestrained fighting go. From a different viewpoint, it was undisciplined go.^[1]

Furthermore, he said that it was a kind of 'power go,' where the aim was to play the most severe move possible, but it was still an immature go.

In order to improve his fighting he studied the games of Honinbo Dosaku and Honinbo Jowa more closely. From Dosaku he learned to play safe moves that delayed whole-board fighting until the time was right, but didn't put him behind in the overall game. From Jowa he learned how to sharpen his fighting even more.

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Rank Promotion

1993: 1d
1993: 2d
1995: 3d
1996: 4d
1997: 5d
1998: 6d
2000: 7d
2003: 9d

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Titles^[2]

1998: 23rd Shinjin-O
1999: 14th NEC Shun'ei
1999: 24th Shinjin-O
2000: 30th Shin'ei
2000: 25th Gosei
2000: 25th Shinjin-O
2001: 26th Shinjin-O
2003: 27th Kisei
2004: 30th Tengen
2006: 30th Kisei
2006: 54th Oza
2007: 31st Kisei
2007: 55th Oza
2008: 32nd Kisei
2009: 33rd Kisei
2009: 35th Tengen
2010: 65th Honinbo
2010: 19th Ryusei
2010: 17th Agon-Kiriyama Cup
2011: 66th Honinbo
2011: 36th Meijin
2012: 37th Meijin
2013: 22th Ryusei

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Awards & Recognitions^[2]

2001: 38th Shusai Prize
2001: Go Journalists' Club prize?
2001: Kido Prize
2009: 700 career wins
2012: 800 career wins

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Career Statistics

Year	Total	Win	Loss	Win %
1993	28	21	7	75.0%
1994	33	22	11	66.7%
1995	45	35	10	77.8%
1996	51	39	12	76.5%
1997	69	60	9	87.0%
1998	75	60	15	80.0%
1999	67	55	12	82.1%
2000	77	59	18	76.6%
2001	69	50	19	72.5%
2002	88	61	17	69.3%
2003	52	34	18	65.4%
2004	71	39	32	54.9%
2005	53	33	20	62.3%
2006	68	44	24	64.7%
2007	57	32	25	56.1%
2008	51	27	24	52.9%
2009	55	38	17	69.1%
2010	63	40	23	63.5%
2011	52	32	20	61.5%
2012	46	26	20	56.5%
Total	1160	807	353	69.6%

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Books

Breakthrough Attacking Power: Yamashita Style (2008)

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Trivia

After winning the 65th Honinbo title in 2010 Yamashita took the name Honinbo Dowa (本因坊道吾). He is able to use the honorific title for as long as he holds the Honinbo title.

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