Modern Fuseki Innovator (1961-)
Despite being not particularly famous (compared to, for instance, Lee Chang Ho or O Rissei), O Meien is one of the most interesting 9 dan professional Go players currently active in Japan. He is Taiwanese born - his Chinese name is Wang Mingyuan - but moved to Japan to pursue his Go career. He has achieved a reasonable degree of success, winning the Honinbo title in 2000 and holding it in 2001 (lost it to Kata Masao in 2002) and the Oza title in 2002.
What makes him noteworthy, and why I'm noding him before other, more famous, modern professionals, is that he plays very unorthodox moves in fuseki (opening), aiming towards quick development and use of influence in chuban (middle game). These unusual moves are characteristic enough of his play that they are commonly referred to as Meienisms by commentators.
Here is one example of a Meienism:
a b c d e f g h j k l m n o p q r s t
19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
16 . . . + O . . . . e . . . . . X . . . 16
15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . f . . 14
13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . g . . 12
11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
10 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10
09 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
08 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
07 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07
06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b . . 06
05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c . . . . 05
04 . . d + . . . . . + . . . . . + a . . 04
03 . . . . O . . . . . . . . . X . . . . 03
02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01
a b c d e f g h j k l m n o p q r s t
O Meien is playing Black (X). His opponent, White (O), is Takagi Shoichi. Both players have been playing for influence, rather than territory, in the first few moves of the game. Meien (really I should call him "O," since that's the family name but that would get cause confusion with the use of "O" for the White stones) began with a hoshi (4-4) stone in the top right. Takagi responds with a takamoku (5-4) stone in the top left, presumably because he expects Meien to be playing for influence, and wants to work to counter it. Meien plays mokuzuhashi (5-3) in the lower right. This is already a somewhat unconventional opening move, but played often enough not to raise eyebrows. Takagi, still fighting Black's influence responds in kind in the lower left. If Black wants to play in the lower right now, "a" would be the standard move, while "c" is also playable in some circumstances (although I believe that the White mokuzuhashi in the lower left makes it less desireable here). Meien, however, played "b," a move whose effect is difficult to describe, as it would not be entirely correct to call it shimari (corner enclosure), nor can it really be called an extension, either. Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan described it as being like "dislocating one's jaw" (I'm not entirely sure what he means, it must make more sense in Japanese) and went on to say that what makes it interesting is that if Black gets to play "c" later, the formation is ideal, but despite the weaknesses in that corner, there is no one "perfect" move for White locally (if White "c", then Black "a" would look perfectly acceptable to me, for instance).
For comparaison, Takagi did in fact continue in his own corner (lower left) with the standard move at "d." The game proceeded with Meien taking a big point at "e," Takagi approaching the top right corner with "f" and Meien pincering at "g," which to my 5k (see kyu level) eyes looks to coordinate well with both "e" and the "Meienism" in the bottom right.