Cătălin Țăranu
Cătălin Țăranu (in Japanese: タラヌ・カタリン, Taranu Katarin; born March 31, 1973 in Romania), is one of the very few professional players of the board game of Go from outside Asia.
| Cătălin Țăranu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full name | Cătălin Țăranu |
| Kanji | タラヌ・カタリン (katakana) |
| Born | March 31, 1973 , Romania |
| Teacher | Saijo Masataka |
| Rank | 5 p |
| Affiliation | Nihon Ki-in |
Biography
Țăranu started learning Go from Cristian Cobeli in 1989, at the age of 16. His first tournament was for players in the 10 to 4 Kyū range, when he was a 6 kyu. He won all eight games. He moved up to amateur 1 dan in a year, and just a year later moved up to 4 dan. He started winning small tournaments in Romania around this time. He was invited to Japan by Saijo Masataka in 1995. He quickly joined the Nagoya branch of the Nihon-Kiin and became an insei. After two years, he became the second European (after Manfred Wimmer from Austria in 1978) to pass the professional examination. It took Cătălin just 4 years to reach 5p (5-dan professional).
He won the European Go Championship in 2008.
He was the president of the Romanian Go Federation from 2009 to 2011.
References
- Cătălin Țăranu's Introduction (source: Gobase.org)
- Sensei's Library
- Cătălin Țăranu on the European Go Database