was a Japanese professional

three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each su ...

player and 2-time world champion. After placing 2nd to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

's Raymond Ceulemans three times (1970, 1972 and 1973) in the

UMB World Three-cushion Championship The UMB World Three-cushion Championship is a professional carom billiards tournament in the discipline of three-cushion billiards, organized mostly annually by the Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB). Until 1953 it was organized by the UIFAB (Union ...

, Kobayashi turned things around and defeated Ceulemans for the world title in 1974. With this win, he ended Ceulemans' 10-year reign as champion. Kobayashi later admitted that he had been taping on camera Ceulemans' performances in a 1969 tournament in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in order to study the Belgian's playing style. A decade later, he won it again at the expense of Ludo Dielis. He defended it unsuccessfully the following year, losing to Ceulemans again. For more than three decades, he was the only

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n native (not counting Sang Lee who represented the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

at the time) ever to win a World Three-cushion Championship. Two other players from Japan were close to achieving a world title but both were not very fortunate. This was until Ryuuji Umeda, another Japanese, won the title in 2007. Kobayashi was a 9-time Japanese Champion. His son, Hideaki Kobayashi, was also a professional three-cushion billiards player. His highest run documented is 15. He died on 25 November 2019 at the age of 77.Japanese two times world champion Kobayashi (77) passed away
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Nobuaki Japanese carom billiards players World champions in three-cushion billiards People from Wakayama Prefecture 1942 births 2019 deaths Asian Games medalists in cue sports Cue sports players at the 2002 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games