I imagine many of us have a personal favorite pro, who we always root for in current games, or maybe a historical character with an amazing legacy of games.

Post who yours is! What do you admire about them ?

Mine has changed a bit over time (Takemiya Masaki; Ishida Yoshio when I was playing a lot of sanrensei and 5-3s, respectively), but I've settled on Honinbo Shuei! I realize he's a bit of a stereotypical choice - his power is legendary - but I don't mind. I love playing through and memorizing his games. The feeling in his reductions is something I especially like, powerful but tempered - elegant.

Secretly I like to think since I've started studying his games, my style has taken on aspects of his ( to the extent a 4k can resemble a legendary meijin).

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

Sai

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长考出臭棋.

Sakata on the board, Shuko off the board.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

The long answer
Since I haven't played through many pro games yet, and know very little about the players themselves, I haven't really found a player whose style/moves/biography I really like. Based on books I've read bearing the the names of pro's, I am probably the world's largest fan of Kageyama Toshirô, though. The man is a genius. (Though that might mean I am actually the world's largest fan of Kageyama's ghostwriter.) I would simply die of happiness if I could get my hands on the Japanese original, though the style in Davies' translation is a very good read as well.

The short answer
Kageyama Toshirô.

Yoda Norimoto

Figures you would like the meanest player in go history

Takemiya Masaki.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

Go Seigen (吳 清源).

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A good system naturally covers all corner cases without further effort.

I'll admit it, my idol is TheCaptain. Among pros, Jowa. Among current pros, Kong Jie.

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

Michael Redmond

Park Jieun

I'm only just starting to know the names of pros, both past and present, so I can't give a solid answer.

I did like Lee Sedol's play in the Fujitsu Cup final, even though he lost.

Maybe I'll have an idol eventually, but I don't have one right now.

Honinbo Shusaku, Honinbo Dosaku, Honinbo Jowa, Go Seigen, Yi Chang'ho and Iyama Yuta.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Cho Chikun. Not that I know very well his games but from the games I read with a commentary, I admire his saving seemingly hopeless groups.

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If you say no, Elwood and I will come here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week.

I don't know much about the pro scene, so at any given moment, I want to play like whoever last reviewed one of my games.

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

SoDes, how did Honinbo Shuei not make your list ??!

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

I don't know him, yet ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

There's a link to a collection of his games on his sensei's page, I think, lots of fun to take a look at.

What's Jowa famous for ? Who were his contemporaries ?


Also Fwiffo; nice. I am also a thecaptain fan.

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

Probably Yi Changho

Surely you jest?

Honinbo Jowa
The Blood Vomiting Game

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku