Old Go Records
Keywords: People
Unbeaten records in Go that were set before 2001 and are still beatable. They've often been tied, sometimes multiple times.
No "oldest to..." records since that ship's sailed.
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Most wins
- Oza: 11 wins (Kato Masao, 1993)
- Honinbo: 12 wins (Cho Chikun, 1998)
- Meijin: 9 wins (Cho Chikun, 1999)
- Judan: 6 wins (Kato Masao, 1997)
- Shinjin O: 5 wins (Yoda Norimoto, 1990). Although the title changed from U-30 to U-25 in 2006, the record still stands untarnished since Yoda was 24 on his last win.
- Kansai Ki-in First Place Championship: 12 wins (Hashimoto Shoji, 1990)
- NHK Cup: 11 wins (Sakata Eio, 1982)
- European Championship: 8 wins (Jürgen Mattern, 1979)
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Japanese international results
- Samsung Cup: 1 win (Yoda Norimoto, 1996). Tied by Cho Chikun, originally from Korea, in 2003.
- LG Cup: 1 win (O Rissei, 1998). Cho U also won in 2005. However, both of them are originally from Taiwan.
- Chunlan Cup: 1 win (O Rissei, 2000).
- Ing Cup: Once runner up (Otake Hideo, 1993). Tied by Yoda Norimoto in 1996.
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Most consecutive wins
- Samsung Cup: 3 wins (Lee Changho, 1999)
- Judan: 4 wins (Kato Masao, 1979)
- Gosei: 6 wins (Otake Hideo, 1985)
- Oza: 8 wins (Kato Masao, 1989)
- Tengen: 5 wins (Rin Kaiho, 1993)
- Meijin: 7 wins (Kobayashi Koichi, 1994)
- Kansai Ki-in First Place: 5 wins (Hashimoto Shoji, 1974)
- Okan: 6 wins (Shimamura Toshihiro, 1965)
- NHK Cup: 3 wins (Sakata Eio, 1959). This is the oldest purely achievement based record listed. It was tied by Yoda Norimoto in 2000 and by Yuki Satoshi in 2014.
- Myeongin: 7 wins (Cho Hunhyun, 1990). Lee Changho might well have beaten this record if the tournament hadn't been discontinued for three years between 2004 and 2006. It was also suspended between 2016 and 2020.
- European Championship: 4 wins (Wichard von Alvensleben, 1964)
- The first ten European Championships were won by Germans, making them the nationality with the most consecutive wins. These were Fritz Dueball (1957-59), Günter Ciessow (1960), Wichard von Alvensleben (1961-64) and Jürgen Mattern (1965-66). The record was nearly tied by the Russians Alexandre Dinerchtein, Andrei Kulkov, Svetlana Shikshina and Ilja Shikshin in the nine years from 1999 to 2007.
- US Championship: 12 wins (Takao Matsuda, 1975). Note that he was assigned the title in 1959, so he didn't "win" it that year.
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Most consecutive wins by two players
- Honinbo: Won by Takagawa Kaku and then Sakata Eio for 16 years total (1952-67)
- Gosei: Won by Otake Hideo and Cho Chikun for 9 years total (1978-86)
- Oza: Won by Kato Masao, with a one year interruption by Hashimoto Shoji, for 11 years total (1979-89)
- Kisei: Won by Cho Chikun and Kobayashi Koichi for 12 years total (1983-94)
- Meijin: Won by Kobayashi Koichi, with a two year interruption by Kato Masao, for 10 years total (1985-94)
- Myeongin: Won by Cho Hunhyun and Seo Bongsoo for 20 years total (1971-90). Tied by the 20 years that it was only won by Cho and Lee Changho (1984-2003).
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Longest time between first and last wins
- Judan: 21 years (Kato Masao, 1986-97)
- Kisei: 16 years (Cho Chikun, 1983-99)
- Meijin: 19 years (Cho Chikun, 1980-99)
- Tengen: 23 years (Kobayashi Koichi, 1976-99)
- Kansai Ki-in First Place: 25 years (Hashimoto Shoji, 1965-90)
- NHK Cup: 25 years (Sakata Eio, 1982)
- Myeongin: 20 years (Cho Hunhyun, 1977-97)
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Most wins of a title without losing any games in the match
- Honinbo: 3 wins (Sakata Eio, 1966). He pulled off these one-sided wins consecutively.
- Meijin: 2 wins (Kato Masao, 1987). He also did this consecutively.
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Most times runner up
- Honinbo: 6 times (Rin Kaiho, 1985). Finalist 11 out of 19 years from 1967.
- Meijin: 8 times (Otake Hideo, 1993). Finalist 12 out of 19 years from 1975.
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Most consecutive times runner up
- Honinbo: 3 times (Rin Kaiho, 1973). All to Ishida Yoshio. Tied by Kobayashi Koichi, 1992, all to Cho Chikun.
- Meijin: 3 times. Counting the Old Meijin, this is Sakata Eio, 1967 (all to Rin Kaiho). Not counting it, this is Otake Hideo, 1984 (all to Cho Chikun).
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Youngest pro
- Korean: 9 years, ? months (Cho Hunhyun 1962)
- Nihon Ki-in, male: 11 years, 9 months (Cho Chikun, 1968)
- Western, female: 17 or 18 years old (Janice Kim, 1987)
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Women
- Highest rank achieved by a Japanese woman: 8p (Sugiuchi Kazuko, 1983). Tied by Aoki Kikuyo in 2000, Yoshida Mika in 2003 and Konishi Kazuko in 2004. Sugiuchi and Aoki are Nihon Ki-in; Yoshida and Konishi are Kansai Ki-in. So the Kansai Ki-in record was apparently broken in 2003, whereas the Nihon Ki-in one still stands. Sugiuchi was perhaps the original holder of the global version of the record, until Rui Naiwei reached 9p in 1988.
- Most wins of the European Championship by a woman: 4 wins (Guo Juan, 1997)
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Kansai Ki-in
- Only Kansai Ki-in pro to win the Honinbo: Hashimoto Utaro, 1951. Although he won it twice before, the Kansai Ki-in didn't yet exist.
- Most wins of the Oza by a Kansai Ki-in pro: 3 wins (Hashimoto Utaro, 1956)
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Westerners
- Michael Redmond is the only Western professional to reach 8p (1996) and 9p (2000). If we don't count Joanne Missingham, who grew up in Taiwan, he's the only one to reach 7p (1990). Also the only one to reach 6p (1988), depending on whether you count Hans Pietsch's posthumous promotion. He's the only American professional to reach 5p (1985).
- Fastest Western professional to 4p (excluding Joanne): 2 years, 5 months (Catalin Taranu, 1999).
- Fastest Western professional to 5p (excluding Joanne): either Redmond in 1985 or Taranu in 2001, depending on when Redmond qualified within 1981. Catalin did it in 4 years, 2 months. It took Redmond a minimum possible time of 3 years, 10 months, with an average possible time of 4 years, 4 months.
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Other
- Most times awarded the Kido Prize for longest winning streak: 3 times (Kato Masao, 1993)
- Most times awarded the Kido Prize for best winning percentage: 4 times (Kobayashi Satoru, 1994)
- Best winning percentage of a Nihon Ki-in pro: This is apparently either 91.3% or 87.0%, set by Yamashita Keigo in 1997, though the data does seem possibly suspect.
- Longest time winning a Japanese big title at least once a year: 20 years (Cho Chikun, 1979-99). For a list of his most prestigious titles during this period, see his etiquette titles.
- Longest Japanese pro game: 411 moves (Yamabe Toshiro vs Hoshino Toshi, 1950, Oteai)
- Most similar pro game: Fujisawa Hosai - Go Seigen, 1957-10-15,16 and Fujisawa Hosai - Rin Kaiho, 1965-07-07,08