Kim Eunji

Kim Eunji (김은지; 金恩持), b. 27 May 2007, is a Korean female prodigy and 9 dan professional Go player, often called Korea’s genius girl, who became a pro aged 12y 7m.

On the ranking lists for female players on 2024-01-01 and 2025-01-01| https://www.goratings.org/en/ladies/2025-01-01.html], Kim Eunji reached the #2 rank of both world and Korean females (behind only Choi Jeong). She is also the #1 ranked female teenager in the world. As of 15 Jan 2025, for both sexes, she is #128 in the world and #34 in Korea. Her lifetime professional score (as of 1 Sep 2024) is 538 games, 357 wins, 181 losses, for a 66.36% win rate.

On the Korean women’s ranking list, Kim’s own fine play and Choi Jung’s temporary slump allowed her to take the #1 spot briefly. Thus she temporarily fulfilled her stated ambition after winning the 1st Hyorim Cup while still a 3 dan, “I want to become a player who surpasses 9 Dan Choi Jeong.” But Kim narrowly regained #1 female ranking on the 6 Jan 2025 Korean list, #34 overall while Choi was #36.

Table of contents Early career Promotion history Titles and runners up 2022 2023 2024 2025 Cheating controversy Nanseolheon Cup Women's Kisung finals Genius Girls victories 10th Korean Women’s League 2024 Other appearances Career record Head-to-head scores against current female rivals (at least two games) Links Youtube reviews of her games Other videos Pictures

Early career

From an early age, Eunji was known as a prodigy. She excelled in children’s baduk competitions since 2012, when she was 5 years old. In 2018, when she was 10, she won the 1st BnBK Cup Women’s Amateur Championship by defeating Cho Eun-jin (24) in the finals. Later that year, she became only the second female Korean representative?] for the 35th World Youth Goe Championship, for the U-12 division. She beat another future female pro, Kim Min-seo (10, now 4p), in the final. The first Korean female representative was O Yujin, now 9p, for the 30th World Youth Baduk Championship in 2012, the year she became a professional.

Promotion history

• 9 dan / 2023.12.19 / Winner of major title, Female Kisung — Shortest period of time from going pro to reach 9 dan; youngest 9 dan
• 8 dan / 2023.11.12 / Winner of 3rd Nanseolheon Cup, Jehangijeon? special promotion up 1 dan
• 7 dan / 2023.09.20 / 7th Dan Promotion
• 6 dan / 2023.07.25 / Winner title, Jehangijeon? promoted up 1 dan
• 5 dan / 2022.12.04 / Winner 2nd Nanseolheon Cup promoted up 1 dan
• 4 dan / 2022.11.19 / 4 dan promotion
• 3 dan / 2022.04.21 / 3 dan Promotion
• 2 dan / 2020.10.22 / 2 dan Promotion
• 1 dan / 2020.01.10 / 53rd Women’s Entrance Competition

On 19 Dec 2023, Kim Eunji was promoted to 9 dan for taking the Women's Kisung title from Choi Jung. She was 16y 6m old, and apparently became the youngest ever, beating Fan Tingyu's 2013 record of 16y 7m. From qualification, it took her 3y 11m 9 days, or only 2y 11m 9 days if her 2020–21 suspension is excluded. This is probably also a record time.

Titles and runners up

2022

• Winner of 1st Hyorim Cup Future Empress Championship (d. Kim Minjung)
• Runner up of 6th Female Kisung (l. Choi Jung 0–2)
• Winner of 2nd Nanseolheon Cup (d. Kim Yun-young) earned promotion to 5p

2023

• Runner up of 3rd Supreme Female Player (l. Choi Jung 1–2)
• Runner up of 3rd IBK Cup Women’s Baduk Masters (l. Choi Jung 0–2)
• Winner of 3rd Nanseolheon Cup (d. Kim Chaeyoung) earned promotion to 8p
• Winner of 7th Female Kisung (d. Choi Jung 2–1) earned promotion to 9p

2024

• Runner up of 4th Supreme Female Player (l. Choi Jung 1–2)
• Winner of 4th Nanseolheon Cup (d. Heo Seo-hyeon 2–0)
• Runner up of 12th Kuksu Cup (both sexes, l. Cho Sangyeon 1p)
• At 2024 Baduk Awards held at The Meridian in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si on 26 Dec, won triple crown award for female players of most wins (81), most consecutive wins (13), and highest percentage (75%).

2025

• In late December 2024, she played in Sh Suhyup Bank Navy vs. Women's Pro-Win Competition. This was a match of a Navy team, all 9p, playing top females, with only #1 Choi Jung 9p not playing, It was a six-per-side win-and- continue format, playing best-of-3 matches. Go Geun-tae beat the first five females single-handed: Kim Dayoung 5p, O Yujin 9p, Cho Seunga 7p, Nakamura Sumire 3p, and Kim Chaeyeong 9p. Kim as the last bastion of the female team, and she won 2–0 and thus ended his streak on New Year’s Day 2025. She kept her side in play, and then beat Yoon Jun-sang 2–1 on 3 Jan. But she lost to Heo Yeong-ho 0–2 on 4 Jan. So her team lost 3–6, but she contributed ⅔ of her team’s score. O Yujin was the only other female player to win a match.

Cheating controversy

In November 2020, shortly after qualifying as a professional, Kim became mired in an online AI cheating controversy concerning a game she had played against Yi Yeong-ku. The fallout from this resulted in her being suspended from the KBA for a year. Kim Eunji didn't attend the hearing, but her mother Kim Yeon-hee did, and said:

I have nothing to say but I'm sorry. I was so busy raising my child that I didn't pay attention to what was going on around me. I will think about it again using this incident as an opportunity.

Kim used this year to read a book a day, learn horse riding, and study for middle school qualification. Previously her life had been all Baduk. Because Baduk is usually played without talking, she had no real friends, just an older sister.

The only person she had deep conversations with was her mother, also her homeschool teacher and advocate. She was particularly grateful that horse-riding had improved Eunji's spirit and strength, adding:

Eun-ji is naturally fearless. She really enjoys riding a horse and running through mountains, fields, and lakesides. … She has really grown so much.

After reading after reading the book series Grumpy Jae-seok, Kim Eunji wrote:

I have only studied Baduk since I was 6 years old, so I never felt the importance or need for friends. This book helped me understand the meaning of friends and relationships when I didn’t go to school and didn’t have any friends my age, and it comforted me a lot during my difficult times. After reading this book, I also started to think about making real friends for the first time.

• Read more on forum thread in lifein19x19.com.
• See a Spanish language YouTube video about the controversy, by Estudiando Go con Ini..

Nanseolheon Cup

Kim has won editions 2–4 of the Nanseolheon Cup, 2022–2024. For winning the 2nd, she was promoted a dan rank to 5 dan, and for winning the 3rd, she was promoted a dan rank to 8 dan.She was already 9 dan when she won the 3rd.

Women's Kisung finals

In 2022, Kim lost to Choi Jung in the final of the 6th edition of the Women's Kisung, 0–2. The next year, she beat Choi 2–1, which earned Kim's promotion by one dan rank to 9 dan.

Genius Girls victories

In January 2023, Kim won the Korea–Japan Genius Girls’ tournament. She beat Nakamura Sumire 2–0 in hard-fought games.

In January 2024, Kim won a three-way competition, the “Three Kingdoms of Korea–China–Japan Genius Girl” tournament. She beat both Nakamura Sumire and Wu Yiming, the latter for the first time. Kim Chang-geum: Kim Eunji, Winner of Korea-China-Japan Genius Girls’ Three Kingdoms by defeating Wu Yiming, 2024-01-07 (in Korean)

10th Korean Women’s League 2024

Kim Eunji was captain of the Yeosu World Island Expo team in the 10th Korean Women’s League. She had the best score of any player, 13/13 (she missed R13).She was the only player with 100% wins, while everyone else dropped two or more games.

Other appearances

Kim played in the 2022 Uijeongbu International Rookie Team Championship and the 2023 Asian Games.

Career record

Kim has won 69 professional games in 2024, the second highest number of wins for Korean professionals of either sex. Only fellow girl prodigy Nakamura Sumire has won more, 71, but Kim has lost only 21 to Nakamura’s 39. Kim’s win rate of 77% is second only to Shin Jinseo’s 85%. (From Korea players win-loss, Go for Everyone.)

Head-to-head scores against current female rivals (at least two games)

(Based on Kim Eunji, Go Ratings and game list), as of 10 Apr 2025.

• Choi Jung, 9p, #1 female and overall #65 in world: 5–16
• Zhou Hongyu, 7p, #4 female in world, #1 female in China: 0–2
• O Yujin, 9p, #6 f. world, #3 f. Korea: 9–4
• Yu Zhiying, 8p, #7 female in world, #2 female in China: 3–0
• Kim Chaeyeong, 9p, #9 f. world, #4 f. Korea: 6–2
• Wu Yiming, 6p, #9 f. and #2 f. teenager world, #3 f. China: 1–2
• Li He, 6p, #⁶12 female in world, #6 female in China: 2–0
• Nakamura Sumire, 4p, #14 f. world, #3 f. Japan, #5 f. Korea: 6–0
• Cho Seunga, 7p, #15 f. world, #6 f. Korea: 13–1
• Kim Hye-min (#19 f, #7 f Korea): 6–2
• Cho Hyeyeon, 9p, #28 female in world, once #1 and many years #2 female in world: 1–2
• Kim Eunseon 6p, Winner Baduk Masters Queen: 2–0
• Heo Seo-hyeon, 5p, Hyorim Cup winner: 11–3
• Jeong Yujin, 4p, Winner 2nd IBK Cup: 2–2
• Kim Minseo, 4p, 3–1
• Kim Jooah, 3p, Runner up, 2nd Hyorim Cup Future Empress Championship: 3–3
• Lee Suljoo, 3p: 1–1

Kim has also beaten some very strong male players, e.g. a sensational win over Gu Zihao (B+R), ranked #5 in the world, in the 10th Ing Cup, qualifier, on 4 April 2024. In the 18th Korean GG Auction Cup, Kim beat Lee Changho, who had been world #1 1991–2006 (B+R); and former world #2 Yoo Changhyuk (W+R). In the 2024 Samsung Cup, she became the youngest player to advance to the main tournament by beating Xie Erhao 9p, ranked #32 in the world (on 12 Nov 2024).

Links

• Korean Wikipedia
• Korean Baduk player information
• NamuWiki
• Go4Go
• Go Ratings and Games

Youtube reviews of her games

• vs Byun Sangil, by Cho Yeonwoo (Yeonwoo) (video)
• vs Cho Yeonwoo, by Yeonwoo (video)
• vs Shibano Toramaru, by Baduk Doctor (video)
• vs Shin Minjun, by Yeonwoo (video)
• vs Shin Jinseo, by Dwyrin (video)
• vs Ueno Asami, by Baduk Doctor (video)
• vs Wu Yiming, by Yeonwoo (video)

The reviews of her games against Nakamura Sumire and Won Seongjin were removed, probably to become commercial content for Awesome Baduk.

Other videos

• A post-game interview with Kim Eunji and Wu Yiming, “the youngest national team members of Korean and the Chinese teams” in July 2023.
• A pre-game interview and a post-game interview after defeating Shin Minjun in the 46th Myeongin’s quarter-finals in the winners’ bracket in September 2023.

Pictures

kim eunji rookie female award dec2022 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

kim eunji aug2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

kim eunji asian games 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

Commemorative photo of runner-up Heo Suhhyun 4p & winner Kim Eunji 9p (right), in front of Heo Nanseolheon statue. (Image credit: m.baduk.or.kr)