is a professional
Go player
Player may refer to:
Role or adjective
* Player (game), a participant in a game or sport
** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games
** Athlete, a player in sports
** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...
.
Biography
Before becoming a professional, Sakai was majoring in
medical science
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pra ...
at
Kyoto University
, or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan.
The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...
. For a long time, Sakai was the strongest amateur player in
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, and when he won the
World Amateur Go Championship in 2000, the
Kansai Ki-in
The Kansai Ki-in (), i.e., Kansai Go Association, is an organizational body for the game of Go in Japan, which was founded by Hashimoto Utaro in 1950. Though it is not as large as its chief rival, the Nihon Ki-in, it also issues diplomas to stro ...
awarded him professional 5 dan (after defeating two 5 dan and two 7 dan players). He was also the first player in Japan to be awarded a special 8 dan (amateur) diploma. In 2003, he won the biggest Kansai Ki-in tournament, the
Kansai Ki-in Championship The is a Go competition.
Outline
The original Kansai Ki-In Championship ran from 1957 to 1975. It was merged with the Nihon Ki-In Championship to form the Tengen. A new Kansai Ki-In Championship tournament replaced the old. The tournament is sp ...
. In 2004, he was runner-up for the
Shinjin-O title, losing to
Mizokami Tomochika two games to one (losing both by half point). He is currently active in various tournament leagues for both the
Nihon Ki-in
The Nihon Ki-in (), also known as the Japan Go Association, is the main organizational body for Go in Japan, overseeing Japan's professional system and issuing diplomas for amateur dan rankings. It is based in Tokyo. The other major Go associat ...
(participation in Meijin league 2005–present) and the Kansai Ki-in.
In 2010, Sakai won the
Gosei title, defeating title-holder
Cho U
Cho U (; born on 20 January 1980) is a Taiwanese professional Go player. He currently ranks 6th in the most titles won by a Japanese professional; his NEC Cup win in 2011 put him past his teacher Rin Kaiho and Norimoto Yoda. Cho is the first p ...
3–2.
Titles and runners-up
External links
GoBase ProfileSensei's Library Profile(Japanese)
1973 births
Japanese Go players
Living people
People from Sanda, Hyōgo
Sportspeople from Hyōgo Prefecture
Kyoto University alumni
{{Japan-Go-bio-stub