Michael Sean Redmond (マイケル・レドモンド, born May 25, 1963) is an American-born 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 ...

. He is one of only a few such players, as Go is not as widespread or developed outside of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

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 ...

. He is the only Westerner to reach the highest grade of 9- dan.

Biography

Michael Redmond was born in 1963 in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

, and began playing Go at age 11. At 14, he moved to Japan and became an insei (Go apprentice) at the Nihon Ki-in, one of the two major Japanese Go associations. He was promoted to professional 1 dan at age 18, and 2 dan the same year. He was promoted to 5 dan in 1985; 8 dan in 1996; and 9 dan in 2000, becoming the first Western Go professional to reach 9 dan. Redmond has not won any tournament titles but has come close. He was runner-up in the Shinjin-O, Kisei 7 dan section, and NEC Shun-Ei competitions in the early 1990s. He was also a quarter-finalist in the

Fujitsu Cup The Fujitsu Cup (富士通杯) was an international Go competition that ran from 1988 to 2011. Outline The Fujitsu Cup was an international Go competition hosted by Fujitsu and Yomiuri Shimbun. The players were selected as follows: * The top 3 ...

and

Tong Yang Cup The Tongyang Cup ( Korean: 동양증권배 세계선수권전, Hanja: 東洋證券杯世界選手權戰) was a Go competition. The Tong Yang Cup was sponsored by Tongyang Securities of South Korea. The tournament was run from 1988 to 1998, with pl ...

. Currently, he is a celebrated commentator for the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

channel. In 2005, he was voted "Best Commentator" for the NHK channel, over Ishida Yoshio. In August 2006, he taught at the AGA East Coast Go Camp in Pennsylvania, and attended the 22nd annual US Go Congress in Black Mountain,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. He has also attended several other US Go Congresses. Redmond is married to Xian-Xian Niu, a Chinese 5 dan professional. They have two daughters, Yumi and Emi. Redmond and his family are sponsors of many Go activities for children in America, such as the Redmond Cup, an annual tournament for strong youth players. Niu's elder sister, Lili Niu, is a Chinese 5 dan professional and collaborator of Wu Qing-Yuan ( Go Seigen). Her husband is Xiangqi ( Chinese chess) champion Zhao Guo-rong. Redmond provided the English commentary along with Chris Garlock for the Google DeepMind Challenge Match between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo from March 9 to March 15, 2016. His commentary was praised in news articles as "vivid" and "illuminating".

Promotion record

Titles and runners-up

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

*
Page on Redmond from Sensei's Library
*

*
Redmond's YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redmond, Michael American Go players Go (game) writers Sportspeople from Santa Barbara, California 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Tokyo