Professional

In the context of go, a professional (abbr: pro) is a go player who has received a professional diploma from one of the professional go associations. The more general English usage of the word professional, which denotes a person who receives a portion of their primary income and/or means of living through a profession, is not generally used in go.

Table of contents Professional organisations Sources of income Professional status Historical go professionals People Notable Historical Pros Notable Twentieth Century Pros (inactive or deceased) Notable Active Pros Notable Migrant Pros Other Resources

Professional organisations

Go professionals are generally affiliated with one of the professional organisations in Asia. The major current organisations are:

• the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in in Japan
• the Hankuk Kiwon in South Korea
• the Zhongguo Weiqi Xiehui under Zhongguo Qiyuan in China
• the Taiwan Qiyuan in Taiwan

These were all founded during the twentieth century. There is another near-defunct group in Japan (Keiinsha).

• The American Go Association started AGA professionals system in 2011, and
• The European Go Federation followed suit with its own European Professional System in 2014.

Other countries do not currently possess a professional system.

Sources of income

Although the current professional organizations are relatively recent, the concept of "professional" players has existed for centuries. The traditional term for such a go (or shogi) player in Japan is 棋士 (kishi).

The primary source of income for the majority of professionals is teaching. Tournament play provides an income supplement for many professionals, but is the primary source of income for only a small number.

Professional status

In the context of go, the word 'professional' is reserved for those who are awarded a professional go diploma.

Some amateur go players make their income from teaching and writing about go. Unless they are affiliated with one of the Go associations, they are still considered 'amateurs', i.e. not professionals. Kikuchi Yasuro is one example of a very strong player who is not an accredited professional. Yasunaga had a pro diploma, but did not claim pro status or compete (he played in the WAGC).

On the other hand, there are also former go professionals. They obtained a professional rank, but subsequently retired from the professional go scene to become an amateur again. An example is Fu Li, who won the 2002 WAGC.

Historical go professionals

In Japan, prior to the Meiji Restoration, the four houses essentially controlled Go. They were sponsored by the shogunate, and indeed played their most important games before the shogun. These castle games, as they were known, were the central fixture of historical Japanese Go, and helped to establish the reputation of several players we study even now. Shusaku, for instance, is famous partially because he never lost in a castle game. After the eventual collapse of the four houses, the professional organizations as we know them today--the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in--arose.

There have been also some changes in ranking systems and titles. Historically, there could be only one Meijin, which is the equivalent of 9-dan professional, at a time. Today, there is no such distinction. There are many professionals who have attained a 9p rank, as determined by their respective Go associations. The title "Meijin" is now given to the winner of the Meijin Tournament, one of the Japanese big titles. Similarly, the last hereditary Honinbo, Shusai, allowed the title to be made into a tournament. None of the other four houses followed this route, however.

People

Notable Historical Pros

This list is extremely cursory; there are many more historical professionals, some of whom may be discussed elsewhere on Sensei's Library.

• Chitoku
• Dosaku
• Genjo
• Gennan Inseki
• Ito Showa
• Jowa
• Shuei
• Shuho
• Shusai
• Shusaku
• Shuwa
• Yasui Senchi

Notable Twentieth Century Pros (inactive or deceased)

• Cho Nam-ch'eol (Cho Namchul)
• Fujisawa Hideyuki
• Fujisawa Hosai
• Go Seigen
• Hashimoto Utaro
• Iwamoto Kaoru
• Kageyama Toshiro
• Kato Masao
• Kitani Minoru
• Maeda Nobuaki
• Ohira Shuzo
• Sakata Eio
• Shusai
• Takagawa Kaku

Notable Active Pros

• Japan
  • Cho Chikun
  • Cho U
  • Hane Naoki
  • Ichiriki Ryo
  • Ishida Yoshio
  • Iyama Yuta
  • Kono Rin
  • Kobayashi Koichi
  • Kobayashi Satoru
  • O Meien
  • O Rissei
  • Otake Hideo
  • Rin Kaiho
  • Takao Shinji
  • Takemiya Masaki
  • Yamashita Keigo
  • Yoda Norimoto
  • Yuki Satoshi
• Korea
  • Shin Jinseo
  • Park Jung Hwan
  • Cho Hun-hyeon
  • Choi CheolHan
  • Kang Dongyun
  • Lee Changho
  • Lee Sedol
  • Mok Jinseok
  • Park Jungsang
  • Park Younghoon
  • Yoo Changhyuk
• China
  • Ke Jie
  • Chen Yaoye
  • Cao Dayuan
  • Chang Hao
  • Gu Li
  • Ma Xiaochun
  • Nie Weiping
  • Wang Lei Sr.
  • Wang Xi
  • Zhou Ruiyang

Notable Migrant Pros

• Ch'a Min-su (Jimmy Cha) From South-Korea to U.S.A.
• Chan Ka Yui From China to Hong Kong and then to Japan.
• Cheon Seu Wien From Taiwan to South-Korea and back (still goes to and fro).
• Cho Chikun From South-Korea to Japan.^[2]
• Cho Nam-ch'eol From South-Korea to Japan and back.
• Cho Shoen From South-Korea to Japan.
• Cho Sonjin From South-Korea to Japan.
• Cho U From Taiwan To Japan.
• Fan Hui From China to France.
• Feng Yun From China to U.S.A.
• Go Seigen From China to Japan.
• Guo Juan From China to Netherlands.
• Ha Yeong Il From Japan to South-Korea.
• Huang Yan From China to South-Korea.
• Jiang Zhujiu From China to U.S.A. Then to Korea.
• Kim Hyeon-cheong From South-Korea to Japan.
• Ko Reibun From China to Japan.
• O Meien From Taiwan To Japan.
• O Rissei From Taiwan to Japan.
• Rin Kaiho From Taiwan To Japan.
• Rin Kanketsu From Taiwan to Japan.
• Rin Shien From Taiwan to Japan.
• Rui Naiwei From China to Japan, then from Japan to U.S.A. Now lives and plays in South-Korea.
• Ryu Shikun From South-Korea to Japan.
• Shigeno Yuki From Japan to Italy.
• Wu Songsheng From China to Australia to South-Korea to China (and then back to Australia?).
• Yang Yilun From China to the U.S.A.

• Western Pros - Western Go professionals usually achieved that status after a staying a considerable period in Japan or Korea, however, many of them returned later.

Other Resources

• Number one professionals in history
• A discussion of the difference between pros and amateurs
• Go4Go provides information and news regarding the professional Go scene. They also have a running series of games commented by Alexandre Dinerchtein, though these require a subscription fee.
• GoBase is a large collection of professional games, news, and other information managed by Jan van der Steen. Downloading the SGF files requires registration.
• GoGameWorld.com has current pro news, photo galleries, player profiles, and a list of tournament titles. Commented pro games are also offered, for a subscription fee.
• GoGoD is a (commercial) database of professional games, historical and modern.
• Professional players' Go styles
• Rating of professional players, by Ales Cieply, last updated sometime around 2006, now available via the internet archive
• Professional Rank Histograms as of 2014-01-10
• Professional Records
• Professional Milestones
• Korean World Ratings of Professionals
• Go Ratings A serious, ongoing attempt to rate go players based on performance, updated daily.

[1] Go World Summer 2005, issue number 104, page 6

[2] Cho Chikun is technically a migrant from Korea to Japan but since he left Korea at the age of 6 and did not return until he had won the Meijin title (age 24), he is Japanese both by go training and culturally.

See also:

• Amateur