American pro Gansheng Shi matched today as new Canadian Doc

[go4thewin]

Gansheng Shi had a movie made about him, was one of the first American pros, and now is officially a medical doctor! is there anything he can't do? What an great inspiration to the go playing youth.
https://ibb.co/dWSwvVq
he added the subscript, "coming home, baby!“

[Ferran]

is there anything he can't do?

Defeat Chuck Norris.

Because, face it, he's on that level. And young enough to have a lot of way to go, yet.

Take care

[John Fairbairn]

There seems to be a bigger link between the medical profession and go than simple demographics would suggest. Obviously both require high intelligence, but the only other link I can think of is the pleasure of saying "This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me."

There have been western amateurs who have excelled at both, even going back to Oskar Korschelt (he taught at Tokyo Medical School). I can also recall Dr Marseille, who I stayed with once in Munich. In the days when 1-dan was a stupendous level in British go, one of them, Colin Irving (?Irvine) was a doctor in Sheffield. I can't remember the names of the more recent examples in Europe, but some have been, or at least flirted with becoming, inseis in Japan. Was Rehm one?

Although he was Chinese, Zhang Shutai spent a long time in London qualifying as an eye doctor, and he had previously been on the insei path in China.

Among Oriental players, there have been few who were truly active in both fields, but Sakai Hideyuki even became a go-title holder. He seems to have gone back to doctoring now. Also worthy of mention is Habu Akizo, a medical taxonomist who played as a 7-dan amateur around 1980, a time when that would have qualified him as a pro.

The most usual link is a DNA one, i.e. having a parent who is a doctor. Under normal circumstances such people would be expected to follow the parental path, but go took over. Among those I can think of, there is Takemiya Masaki, Chen Yaoye, Suzuki Tamejiro and Hattori Yusetsu. There is also Kita Fumiko, who was not just the daughter of a doctor but of one of the most famous doctors in Japan, Shiba Ryokai.

In fact the earliest known Japanese player, Shunpei, came to light in a 19th-century book about famous Japanese doctors. Shunpei was the grandson of the doctor of the Emperor Tenji (late 7th century).

There is, of course, the famous go-playing doctor who reached into his pocket to get a pen to record his game. Instead he pulled out a suppository. "Oh," he said, "some bum's got my pen!"

[botija]

Ronald Schlemper MD 7 dan
His cv includes his European Championship and shared 1st place on Wagc.
http://internationalclinic.org/dr_schlemper.html

[dust]

Of the European examples of strong go players/medics, I think there's also Egbert Rittner (Germany) and Helmut Hasibeder (Austria).

[tundra]

1) An older example is Dr. Gilbert W. Rosenthal, M.D., of Baltimore, Maryland (U.S.A.). I do not know what role he played in promoting go in the city, but presumably it was significant, as the full, official name of the city's club is the "Gilbert W. Rosenthal Memorial Baltimore Go Club." According to Senseis Library, it is one of the oldest chapters in the AGA.

In 1943, Dr. Rosenthal published "A Go Primer", an introduction to go based on the 13x13 board.


2) Steve C. Stringfellow is an AGA 5- or 6-dan in the area of Tacoma, Washington. I am not certain, but I think I read somewhere that he is a medical doctor.