Cho Chikun
Cho Chikun (Japanese: 趙 治勲 Chō Chikun, Korean: 조치훈, 趙 治勲, RR: Jo Chi-hun, MC-R: Cho Ch'i-hun, born June 20, 1956) is a professional go player. He is sometimes referred to by his honorific title "the 25th Honinbo", which he gained by winning the Honinbo title 10 times in a row.
Early Life
Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1956. His uncle Cho Nam-ch'eol was one of the leaders of professional Go in South Korea in the post-war period. He was brought to Japan at the age of 6 by his older brother Cho Shoen (who was himself a young professional Go player in Japan) to become a student at the Kitani dojo. He qualified as a professional shodan at the age of 11, and was the youngest person to do so in Japan until Fujisawa Rina beat his record in 2010.
Professional Accomplishments
In 1975, he became the youngest to win a Japanese professional title by beating Kato Masao in the Pro Best Ten. He is one of the few to have won 1300 professional games. Cho has been the champion of the two-day matches. Between 1980 and 2000 he won nearly 50% of the big three Japanese titles (Kisei, Meijin and Hon'inbo). He is the only person to have held all three of these titles simultaneously.
Cho has won a total of 71 titles, more than any other Japanese professional, as of April 2007. In 2010, March, he won the 3rd Yugen Cup, unofficial tournament. That gives him a career average of over 30 wins per year!
On 2010-11-11, Cho Chikun tied Rin Kaiho's record of 1362 official wins by defeating Nakaonoda Tomomi.
Cho has shown great longevity as a professional, winning the Samsung Cup at 47 and the Judan at 51. In 2010, he placed in the top ten in tournament winnings among Japanese professionals, and continues to compete in the big title leagues.
A large biography and more than 1555 games of Cho Chikun can be found
at the Cho Chikun Internet Book.
There is another long biographical article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Chikun.
Books at Sensei's Library
On August 17th, 2002 Cho won the 2002 Haya Go Championship. As reported in Go Weekly, this gives him 64 titles in his lifetime, tying Sakata for the most titles won among Japanese pros (third is Kobayashi Koichi with 55). Cho will challenge Yoda Norimoto for the Meijin starting in September and defend the Oza against O Meien starting in October. If he wins either, he will become the leader in Japan for titles won. -- Dave Sigaty
- With both the Meijin and Oza title matches still going on, Cho won the Agon Cup (All-Japan HayaGo Open Tournament) on October 13, 2002 to make it 65 titles, surpassing Sakata's record. Dave
Kim Kwang-sik and Kimu Sujun are his pupils.
In December 2003, Cho registered another remarkable performance by winning the 8th Samsung Cup, a major international title. Cho is Korean but his victories are always counted for Japan, as he is a Nihon Ki-in professional. Winning this title broke a streak of 15 consecutive victories by Korean professionals in international go.
My favorite professional anecdote:
- When asked by Dutch television why he liked go so much, Cho Chikun replied: "I hate go."
Source: Behind the Scenes at the Meijin
Main author: Jan van Rongen