Takagawa Kaku
Takagawa Kaku (高川格, September 1915 - November 1986) was a Japanese 9-dan professional Go player. He is sometimes called Takagawa Shukaku (高川秀格 Takagawa Shūkaku) since "Shukaku" was the name he chose as Honinbo.
The highlight of Takagawa's career was his unexpectedly winning the Honinbo title 4-1 against Hashimoto Utaro in 1952, and subsequently defending the title eight years straight. This was a feat everybody thought would never be repeated, until Cho Chikun did even better in the late 1990s.
Other than the Honinbo, Takagawa also won various other titles, such as the Oza, Judan and - last but not least - Meijin title in 1968.
Sakata Eio mentions Takagawa in Killer of Go as an example of a player constructing his games as long drawn out battles, marathons if you like.
Ota Seido was his pupil.
Takagawa Kaku was the author of several books:
- Translated into English: How to Play Go, Vital Points of Go, The Power of the Star-Point and Improve Your Intuition.
- Translated into German: Joseki im Mittelspiel? and Der Schlüssel zum Go.
Links
http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Takagawa%20Shukaku
http://leaohp1.epfl.ch/~warkent/go/goseigen/takagawa.html (dead link)
http://jerome.hubert1.perso.sfr.fr/Go/Parties/Takagawa_GoSeigen_1959/Takagawa_GoSeigen_1959_1.htm
Main author: Stefan