Kajiwara Takeo: The Giant Who Made Titans
If you are asked to name a legendary Go player from modern Japan, perhaps the names Takemiya Masaki, Cho Chikun, or Kato Masao come to mind. Their styles are beautiful and unique and their stories well known. If I asked you to name some older legends, you would probably come up with names like Fujisawa Shuko, Sakata Eio, Go Seigen, or Kitani Minoru; again, players of renown with well-known styles and stories. Well, what if I told you there was a name worthy of as much or more accolade as the masters you know? What if I told you there was a player so original, with a style so insane, that to see his games, is to stare into the truth of Go itself?
Introducing, Kajiwara Takeo. He was a unique and extraordinary personality on and off the Go board. His Go was alive, it breathed life into every stone and shell, his every move the spark of human ingenuity. Together let’s right the wrongs of history, and put Kajiwara’s name back on the map, and at the end of this course, we will show you that Living Go is still alive, and how it can improve your understanding of Go, even in an era ruled by artificial intelligence.
Suitable for: 10k–9d. This is a historical course, so it may be interesting to all players regardless of their strength.
Course Contents
Teacher
Course Includes
22 Lessons
8 QuizzesReviews
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The course clearly took a lot of effort, especially at 6 hours long. However, most of it felt like storytelling and discussion, which I could get from ChatGPT. I hoped to learn practical techniques, tactics, direction of play, and deeper analysis of the games shown, but there wasn’t enough explanation of key ideas. So the practical benefit was limited. Thank you, and I look forward to more!
HelpfulSuper fun, interesting and inspirational. Love Matthews teaching style a lot, although some more technical replicable concepts would make me improve more probably
HelpfulGood course, the historical and cultural background is immensely precious. Ben is a titan of studying Japan.
Helpfulfun and interesting course, but would have loved to see more technical content
HelpfulExcellent course. Between all the courses that discuss strategy and tactics, openings and endgame, it's great to have courses as well that highlight the life and games of a player. For that type of course, I think the pace was excellent in this one: lots of good stories, fascinating games to enjoy and learn from. Matthew's love for the game is inspiring; would love to see more courses like this.
HelpfulThis course is great. Matt clearly loves Go and Kajiwara. And his passion shows through excellently. Lots of great tidbits to improve my game as well as fascinating stories to digest. Another great aspect: my son enjoyed watching the game reviews with me, which was indescribably wonderful!
HelpfulI was hoping for more direction of play, more re-usable patterns, or intuition building principles.
PS: the quiz about historical facts do nothing for me, I would have preferred technical questions to improve my play, it has no value to me to remember the name of the closest restaurant to wherever he grew up ...HelpfulQuite some interesting historical remarks have been added to the content
HelpfulReally love the passion from Matthew during the course. Inspirational to play in a more beautiful way, even that could mean less practical
HelpfulThank you for remembering us that we have to play beautifull games.
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