Professional Records

This page is for records for professional players, in the sense of "mostest, bestest or fastest".

See also the list of old Go records, set in the 20th century.

Youngest Professionals

Also see Prodigy.

• China: Yang Dingxin (9 years, 9 months)
• Japan: Nakamura Sumire (10yr 0m, 2019). Prev. Cho Chikun (11yr 9m, 1968) and Fujisawa Rina (11yr 6m, 2010). Now arguably Fujita Reo (9yr 4m, 2022), but ( see here) he's "semi-professional" and receives half game fees.
• Korea: Cho Hunhyeon (9 years, ? months)
• Taiwan: Wei Haoting (10 years, 3 months)
• World: Yang Dingxin, Cho Hunhyeon or Fujita Reo

Youngest 9 dan professionals

• China: Fan Tingyu (age 16 and 7 months)
• Japan: Shibano Toramaru (age 19 and 11 months)
• Korea: Park Junghwan (age 17)
• Taiwan: Zhou Junxun (age 17 or 18)
• World: Chen Yaoye

Oldest promotion to 9 dan

• China: Chen Zude (at 38, in 1982)
• Japan: Nakamura Yutaro (at 72, in 1981)
• Korea: Cho Namcheol (at 59, in 1982)
• Taiwan: Lin Zhihan (at 28, ten months, in 2009)
• World: Nakamura Yutaro

Oldest active professional (living)

Sugiuchi Kazuko (nee Honda Kazuko), born 1927.3.6. Sugiuchi Masao's widow.

Oldest active professional (deceased)

Sugiuchi Masao, 97 years 1 month. He passed away in 2017. (And surpassed by his widow, Kazuko, in May 2024)

Largest age difference between players in a game

• 83 years 7 months: Sugiuchi Kazuko (96) vs Yanagihara Saki (12) 13 July, 2023 - forfeited by Sugiuchi for ill health.
• 82 years 8 months: Sugiuchi Kazuko (97) vs Cho Koharu (14) 29 Aug, 2024 - actually played and Cho won.

Most Titles

• China: Ma Xiaochun (50)
• Japan: Cho Chikun (72)
• Korea: Cho Hunhyeon (158)
• Taiwan: Zhou Junxun (48)
• International titles: Lee Changho (21)
• World: Cho Hunhyeon

valerio: by me, Ma Xiaochun won 50 titles. As of 2011-10-25, Gu Li won 38 titles (48, including unofficial tournaments).

Youngest International Title Holder

Lee Changho ( according to Go Game Guru) at 16 years, 5 months and 29 days

Not Fan Tingyu at 16 years and 7 months

To clarify the apparent confusion, Go Game Guru explains here that age is counted starting from 1 at birth in Korean culture, so even though it's usually said that Lee Changho was 17 when he won the 3rd Tongyang Securities Cup, he was actually only 16 by the Western reckoning of age. This means that Lee Changho still holds this record.

Most Wins

See Professional Milestones.

Most wins of different titles

Japanese

Honinbo: 12 wins (Cho Chikun, 1998) (Iyama 11)
Oza: 11 wins (Kato Masao, 1993)
Meijin: 9 wins (Cho Chikun, 1999) (Iyama 8)
Judan: 6 wins (Kato Masao, 1997 and Iyama 2024)
Tengen: 8 wins (Iyama Yuta, 2020)
Gosei: 9 wins (Kobayashi Koichi, 2002 and Iyama 2023)
Kisei: 9 wins (Iyama Yuta, 2021)

Ryusei: 5 wins (Iyama Yuta, 2023)

Japanese, female

Female Honinbo: 8 wins (Xie Yimin, 2017)
Female Meijin: 8 wins (Xie Yimin, 2016)
Female Kisei: 7 wins (Xie Yimin, 2017)
Female Saikyo: 3 wins (Fujisawa Rina, 2021)
Aidu Chuo / Tachiaoi Cup: 6 wins (Fujisawa Rina, 2021)

Korean

Myeongin: 13 wins (Lee Changho, 2003)

Chinese

Mingren: 13 wins (Ma Xiaochun, 2001)

European

European Championship: 7 wins (Alexander Dinerchtein, 2009). Ilya Shikshin holds the title with 6. Jürgen Mattern won 8 times (by 1979), but was not professional. Then again, Ilya was an amateur for his first three wins.

International

Ing Cup: No multiple winners
LG Cup: 4 wins (Lee Changho, 2004)
Samsung Cup: 4 wins (Lee Sedol, 2012 and Ke Jie, 2020)
Chunlan Cup: 2 wins (Lee Changho, 2005 and Gu Li, 2015)

Other

• Longest professional game