Rin Kaiho

Keywords: People

Rin Kaiho's Nihon Ki-in photo

Rin Kaiho (Lin Haifeng, 林海峰, b. 6 May 1942 in Shanghai, China), is a Taiwanese, professional 9-dan of the Nihon Kiin. He was a top player from the mid 1960s to 1990s, holding over 35-titles. Rin holds the title of Honorary Tengen for winning the Tengen title for five consecutive years; remained in the Honinbo league for 39 consecutive years; and is one of the few to have won 1,300 professional games. He was brought over to Japan and trained by Go Seigen. He is the teacher of Cho U.

Rin Kaiho was born in Shanghai, China. He became a student of Go Seigen when Go brought him to Japan in 1952. Rin's rise to fame came in 1965 when he challenged Sakata Eio for his Meijin title. Rin, at the time, was still only 23 and critics thought he would stand no chance against the powerful Sakata. Even Sakata himself said that no go player under the age of thirty should be Meijin. However, Rin put up a great fight and disproved the old convention. Rin would continue winning the Meijin on different occasions, along with the Honinbo, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He last challenged for a big title in 2001 (the Meijin). Rin became the first professional in Nihon Kiin history to reach 1,300 career wins. He won the game against Nobuaki Anzai on October 19, 2006 in a preliminary match for the 32nd Kisei.^[1] Rin currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, but remains a citizen of Republic of China (Taiwan).

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Style

In 1984, the Yomiuri Kisei report over the 8th Kisei final said the following about Rin (trans. John Power):

In his younger days, Rin was a slow-paced player who plugged away steadily taking territory and slowly grinding the opponent down. He could play like this because he had complete confidence in his endurance. However, he had the bad luck to run into a player, Ishida Yoshio, who was even better than he at this slow-paced kind of go. After losing his Honinbo and Meijin titles to Ishida, Rin embarked on the laborious process, which took him most of his 30's to complete, of reorganizing his game and giving it a complete overhaul. The new Rin tries to lead the game into fighting as early as possible.^[2]

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Rank Promotion

1955: 1d
1955: 2d
1957: 3d
1958: 4d
1959: 5d
1960: 6d
1962: 7d
1965: 8d
1967: 9d

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Titles

1965: 4th Old Meijin
1966: 5th Old Meijin
1966: 3rd Pro Best Ten
1967: 6th Old Meijin
1968: 23rd Honinbo
1969: 24th Honinbo
1969: 8th Old Meijin
1970: 25th Honinbo
1970: 17th NHK Cup
1971: 10th Old Meijin
1972: 11th Old Meijin
1973: 12th Old Meijin
1973: 21st Oza
1973: 10th Pro Best Ten
1974: 21st NHK Cup
1974: 11th Pro Best Ten
1975: 8th Hayago Senshuken
1975: 13th Judan
1977: 2nd Meijin
1978: 25th NHK Cup
1979: 1st Kakusei
1983: 38th Honinbo
1984: 17th Hayago Senshuken
1984: 39th Honinbo
1987: 20th Hayago Senshuken
1989: 15th Tengen
1990: 3rd Fujitsu Cup
1990: 9th NEC Cup
1990: 16th Tengen
1990: 3rd Tengen-Tianyuan Match
1991: 17th Tengen
1991: 4th Tengen-Tianyuan Match
1992: 14th Kakusei
1992: 18th Tengen
1993: 19th Tengen
1994: 19th Gosei
1998: 20th Kakusei

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Pupils

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Notes

A game between Rin Kaiho (Black) and Komatsu Hideki resulted in eternal ko (1993 Sep 23).

As of July 2010, he had 1,352 wins, the most of any Japanese professional.^[1]

At the age of 59, he challenged for the Meijin title again in 2001, but lost 4-2 to Yoda Norimoto.

In 1968, Rin became the second person to hold the Meijin and Honinbo titles simultaneously.

In 2007, Yi Ch'ang-ho mentioned that Rin is his most respected professional for his respectable personality.

Rin only needs to win the Kisei tournament to have won all seven major Japanese titles.

Starting in 1964, Rin had entered the Meijin League and remained in the league (including being the Meijin title holder) for 39 consecutive years, which is a record for all go tournaments in Japan.