Go players

This page gives an overview of well-known players of the game of Go throughout the ages. The page has been divided into sections based on the era in which Go players played and the country in which they played. As this need not be their country of birth, a flag of that country precedes every player's name. For a complete list of player articles, see .

The important dates that this separation is based on are:
* The establishment of the Four go houses at the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
* The demise of the houses in the Meiji Period (end 19th century) followed by their replacement by the Nihon Kiin in 1924.
* The start of international tournament Go in 1989

A Japanase census on go players performed in 2002 estimates that over 24 million people worldwide play gocite web | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20021217041220/http://www.fin.ne.jp/~igo/census.htm | title = Census of Go players worldwide (in Japanese)] , most of whom live in Asia. Most of the players listed on this page are professionals, though some top level amateurs have been included. Players famous for achievements outside Go are listed in their own section.

17th through 19th century

In the 17th, 18th and 19th century, Go was booming in both Japan (Edo period) and China (period of the Qing Dynasty). In Korea, a Go variant called Sunjang baduk was mostly played instead. [cite web | url = http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/history/sunjang.html |title=Historic: Sunjang Go | author = John Fairbairn | accessdate = 2007-11-26 ]

Japan

At the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate, four go academies were established. This table lists all heads of these houses, as well as some that were appointed heir but died before they became head of the house. Tokugawa also established the post of Godokoro (minster of go), which was awarded to the strongest player of a generation. Such players were dubbed Meijin (brilliant man), which was considered equal to a 9 dan professional grade [cite web | url=http://senseis.xmp.net/?HistoricMeijin | author = Sensei's Library | title = Historic Meijins | accessdate = 2007-06-28 ] . Over the 300 year period covered here, only ten players received the title of Meijin. Several other players (16 total) received the title of Jun-Meijin (half-Meijin), which is considered to equal an 8 dan professional grade and listed as such below. In some houses it was the custom that the head of the house was always named the same according to the iemoto system (家元). All heads of the house Inoue (井上) were named Inseki (因碩), heads of the house Yasui (安井 ) were name Senkaku (仙角) from the 4th head onward, ans heads of the house Hayashi (林) were named Monnyu (門入) from the second head onward. To distinguish between these players, the names listed below are the names they had before becoming head of their house, or after their retirement. The house Honinbo (本因坊) had no such tradition, although heads would often take one character from the name of their predecessor into their own name, notably the character Shu (秀) from the 14th head onward.

China

In the west

References

External links

* [http://senseis.xmp.net/?ProfessionalPlayersGoStyles Sensei's Library:ProfessionalPlayersGoStyles]
* [http://www.gobase.org Gobase.org]
* [http://www.go4go.net/v2/ Recent pro games, daily updates]