Shin Jinseo

Keywords: People

Shin Jinseo (신진서, 申眞諝) is a Korean professional 9 dan player born in 2000-03-17.

Shin has been the best player in the world for several years. Recently he has been a long way ahead of his rivals in terms of both rating and head-to-head scores. As of 2024-05-06, Shin’s rating is 3877, while the next highest Ke Jie is 3694.

Since 2019-01-01, Shin has been the highest rated player in the world ( [ext] GoRatings). In the 2018-01-01, list, he was second only to Park Junghwan, and in the 2017-01-01, list, he was second behind Ke Jie and Park Junghwan. Since 2019-01-01, Park and Ke have been second and third behind Shin, not necessarily in that order.

A [ext] report in Jan 2025 documented that Shin earned ₩4.38 billion ($US 3 million) over the previous three years, including ₩1.456 billion ($US 1 million) in 2024.

Table of contents
Name

Promotion history

Achievements

Head to head scores against leading rivals

Results against leading female opponents

Career record

Korean games

International tournament games

Books

Fun Facts

Links

Videos

Pictures

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Name

Because Korean Revised Romanization is not always intuitive, his given name Jinseo is pronounced something like “jin-suh”. It is NOT pronounced “jin-say-oh” or “jin-see-oh” as the spelling might indicate. His full name is pronounced as per the IPA /ɕin t͡ɕin sʌ/.

Shin’s nickname is 신진격(新進擊, “New Attack”)

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Promotion history

9 dan / 2018.04.07 / Promotion to 9th Dan
8 dan / 2017.04.23 / Title Tournament Winner?
7 dan / 2017.03.30 / Promotion to 7th Dan
6 dan / 2016.05.22 / 2016 China Cup League
5 dan / 2015.12.22 / 2015 Let’s Run Park Open Tournament Winner—Special Promotion (increased dan rank by 2)
3 dan / 2015.03.02 / 34th KBS Baduk King Tournament
2 dan / 2013.11.20 / 19th GS Caltex Cup
1 dan / 2012.07.17 / 1st Gifted Entrance Contest

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Achievements

In January 2013 aged 12 he beat Lee Changho 9d in a young players vs legends exhibition match. See GoGameGuru’s report (archived).
Winner in 2013 of the 2nd Yeongjae.
Winner in 2015 of 2nd Let's Run Park Cup.
Winner in 2015 of 3rd Shinin-Wang.
Made last 8 of 21st LG Cup in 2016.
April 2017: won 4th Globis Cup
Winner of 2017 Korean Baduk League as top player (15 wins, 3 losses) of Team Jungkwangjang.
In December 2017, he was the highest-rated under-20 player in the world (on GoRatings), at #2 overall in Korea and #4 in the world
February 2018: runner up of 1st Crown Haitai Cup, losing 1–2 to Park Junghwan
April 2018: 3rd place in 5th Globis Cup
May 2018: won 23rd GS Caltex Cup, beat Lee Sedol 3–2
Since July 2018, he has consistently held the top-ranked position worldwide on GoRatings and continues to maintain that rank
2nd place in 2018 Korean Baduk League as top player (14 wins, 3 losses) for Team Jungkwangjang.
December 2018: runner up in 1st Tianfu cup, losing 1–2 to Chen Yaoye
January 2019: runner up in 4th Bailing cup, losing 0–2 to Ke Jie
June 2019: won 31st Asian TV cup, beat Ding Hao
February 2020: won 24th LG cup, beat Park Junghwan
June 2020: won the first Supreme Player's tournament in 2020, and has successfully defended it in every year since (four times).
September 2021: won 13th Chunlan Cup, defeating Tang Weixing 2–0
February 2022: won 26th LG cup, beat Yang Dingxin
August 2022: won 8th Kuksu Mountains Cup, beat Byun Sangil
November 2022: Won 27th Samsung cup beat Choi Jung
July 2023: Won 2nd YK Geonggi Cup, beat Shin Minjun
August 2023: Won 9th ING Cup, beat Xie Ke 2–0
February 2024: Won 28th LG Cup, beat Byun Sangil 2–0
August 2024: Won 2nd Quzhou Lanke, beat Gu Zihao 2–0
Feb 2025: Won deciding game of the Nongshim Cup for the 5th year in a row.
Feb 2025: Won 1st Nanyang Cup, beat Wang Xinghao 2–0

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Head to head scores against leading rivals

Based on [ext] Shin Jinseo, Go ratings, as of 21 Jan 2025.

Wang Xinghao, World #2, China #1: 2–1
Ke Jie, World #3, China #2: 15–11 (Shin won the most recent 10 games in a row)
Ding Hao, #4 in world, #3 in China: 10–4
Park Jung Hwan, World #5, Korea #2: 44–23 (Shin won the most recent 15 games in a row)
Yang Dingxin, World #6, China #4: 11–8 (Shin won the most recent 4 games in a row)
Dang Yifei, World #7, China #5: 8–5
Li Xuanhao, World #8, China #6: 2–2
Li Weiqing, World #9, China #7: 5–1
Li Qincheng, World #10, China #4: 6–6
Byun Sangil, World #11, Korea #3: 35–9
Ichiriki Ryo, World #12, Japan #1: 7–0
Iyama Yuta, World #13, Japan #2: 3–0
Zhao Chenyu, World #21 (recently #11): 8–1
Gu Zihao, World #24 (recently $5), China #3: 14–6 (Shin won the most recent 7 games in a row)

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Results against leading female opponents

Choi Jeong, World #65, Female World and Korean #1: 6–0
Yu Zhiying, 8p, #2 female in world, #1 female in China: 2–0
Kim Eunji, World # 147, Female World #3, Korean #2; Female teenager World and Korean #1: 4–0
Zhou Hongyu, 7p, #4 female in world, #2 female in China: 1–0
Fujisawa Rina, 7p, #9 female in world, #2 female in Japan: 1–0
Cho Hyeyeon, 9p, #20 female in world, once #1 and many years #2 female in world: 1–0
Gao Xing, 4p, #21 female, #10 female in China: 1–0

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Career record

Shin’s professional record is 1033 games, 816 wins, 216 losses, for a 79.07% win rate.

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Korean games

Scores from [ext] Korea players win-loss, Go for Everyone. For the last few years, he has been top or second in total number of wins, and with very high winning rate.

Year	total	wins	losses	rate
2014	64	40	24	62%
2015	81	59	22	73%
2016	66	51	15	77%
2017	61	47	14	77%
2018	102	77	25	75%
2019	93	74	19	80%
2020	91	81	10	89%
2021	98	82	16	84%
2022*	95	80	14	85%
2023	111	97	14	87%
2024	60	51	9	85%

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International tournament games

Scores from [ext] World players win–loss, Go for Everyone.

Year	total	wins	losses	rate
2016	24	19	5	71%
2017	19	13	6	68%
2018	28	17	11	61%
2019	25	17	8	68%
2020	15	12	3	80%
2021	24	22	2	92%
2022*	23	22	2	91%
2023	24	19	5	71%
2024	20	16	4	80%

In 2022, Shin also had a draw.

Shin Jinseo recorded his 800th career win in the opening round of the 2024 Jia League?, making him #29 to do so within korean professionals.

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Books

His match against Park Junghwan in 2020 is covered in SEVEN. The Go Super Match.

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Fun Facts

He has never won an international title, if he has lost the first game of the final match
In the first game of 2020 Samsung Cup final versus Ke Jie he played the famous “mouso” move that caused him to lose the game. The accidental misclick was caused by a mouse cord accidentally touching the touchpad of the laptop. In the following Korean article you can see a picture from the mouso-game. The picture shows how the mouse cord travels over the touchpad waiting for the disaster to happen. ( Link to ilyo.co.kr article )
The previous evening before the Quzhou Lanke Cup World Go Open second final Shin Jinseo and Shin Minjun played chess in the hotel, a video was posted in the chinese social media. Playing chess before an international major final was probably not a good idea, Shin Jinseo lost his 1-0 lead and lost the title 2-1 to Gu Zihao. Weibo link

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