Honinbo Doetsu

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Honinbo Doetsu

Full name	Honinbo Doetsu
Kanji	本因坊道悦
Date of birth	1636
Place of birth	, Japan
Date of death	1727
Place of death	, Japan
Teacher	Honinbo Sanetsu
Rank	8 dan

Honinbo Doetsu (本因坊道悦, 1636 - 1727) was a Japanese professional go player, who became the third head of the Honinbo house. His surname was Niwa, and he used a Buddhist name Nissho.

[edit] Biograpy

He was born in Matsuzaka, currently in Mie Prefecture. He was adopted as Honinbo heir in 1658. He was promoted to 7 dan in 1666. His final ranking was as 8 dan.

He challenged Yasui Sanchi to a long match. In the end 20 games were played, out of a theoretical 60, over seven years starting in 1668. Under the beating-down rules (see jubango) he forced Yasui down from sen (Black in each game, for a theoretical difference of two levels) to sen-ai-sen (Black-White-Black).

He was also active in oshirogo from 1660, for 15 years. In 1677 he stepped down as Honinbo head, handing over to Dosaku. He did however still meet an official requirement to play oshirogo; he was given a personal allowance of 20 koku of rice.^[1] He is given the credit for establishing standard dimensions for go equipment.^[2]