The one time tengen is good -- Takemiya-Miyashita 1968

[xela]

Make a bit of influence, then drop a stone in the middle of the board, attacking nothing, pure gote, and say "I have a moyo" -- usually it's a kyu move, and I had to learn not to do it. You want your moyos to grow organically, as you lean on your opponent's groups, keeping the initiative.

But here is Takemiya in 1968, playing against Miyashita Shuyo, and guess what KataGo's preferred move is?

$$ GoGoD 1968-08-00c.sgf after black 45; komi is 5.5
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . X O . O . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | X . X O . O . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . X X . X O . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ GoGoD 1968-08-00c.sgf after black 45; komi is 5.5
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . X O . O . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | X . X O . O . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . X X . X O . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

(Actually Takemiya played a different move.)

[Elom0]

Maybe it's because it sets up two possible shoulder hits on the right side . . ? Usually a centre move is bad because it doesn't have a natural continuation when other moves do. So normally a centre move is played either when all the influence facing areas of the board are settled or in this rarer case。