Kuksu

    Keywords: Culture & History

The Korean word kuksu corresponds to the Chinese guoshou, a very high term of praise with a meaning like 'national treasure'. It is applied for high mastery in a very few fields such as medicine and go. There were a number of recognised kuksu in Korean when sunjang baduk was the only version of go played.

In the modern era, Kuksu is an annual tournement with the highest prestige among Korean go titles.

Winners:

  1st 1956 Cho Nam-ch'eol
  2nd 1957 Cho Nam-ch'eol
  3rd 1958 Cho Nam-ch'eol
  4th 1959 Cho Nam-ch'eol
  5th 1960 Cho Nam-ch'eol
  6th 1961 Cho Nam-ch'eol (d. Kim In)
  7th 1962 Cho Nam-ch'eol (d. Yi Chang-sae?)
  8th 1963 Cho Nam-ch'eol (d. Yi Chang-sae?)
  9th 1964 Cho Nam-ch'eol (d. Yun Kihyeon)
 10th 1965 Kim In         (d. Cho Nam-ch'eol)
 11th 1966 Kim In         (d. Yun Kihyeon)
 12th 1967 Kim In         (d. Yun Kihyeon)
 13th 1968 Kim In         (d. Cho Nam-ch'eol)
 14th 1969 Kim In         (d. Kim Deok Kyu?)
 15th 1970 Kim In         (d. Cho Nam-ch'eol)
 16th 1971 Yun Kihyeon    (d. Kim In)
 17th 1972 Yun Kihyeon    (d. No Yeong-ha)
 18th 1973 Ha Ch'an-seok  (d. Yun Kihyeon)
 19th 1974 Ha Ch'an-seok  (d. Kang Ch'eol-min)
 20th 1976 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Ha Ch'an-seok)
 21st 1977 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Hong Chong-hyeon)
 22nd 1978 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Kim Soo-chang?)
 23rd 1979 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Ha Ch'an-seok)
 24th 1980 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 25th 1981 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 26th 1982 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 27th 1983 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 28th 1984 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 29th 1985 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 30th 1986 Seo Pong-Su    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 31st 1987 Seo Pong-Su    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 32nd 1988 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Seo Pong-su)
 33rd 1989 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Lee Changho)
 34th 1990 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 35th 1991 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Lee Changho)
 36th 1992 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Lee Changho)
 37th 1993 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 38th 1994 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 39th 1995 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 40th 1996 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 41st 1997 Lee Changho    (d. Seo Pong-su)
 42nd 1998 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Lee Changho)
 43rd 1999 Rui Naiwei     (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 44th 2000 Cho Hun-hyeon  (d. Rui Naiwei)
 45th 2001 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Hun-hyeon)
 46th 2002 Lee Changho    (d. Cho Han-seung)
 47th 2004 Choi Cheolhan  (d. Lee Changho)
 48th 2005 Choi Cheolhan  (d. Lee Changho)
 49th 2006 Lee Changho    (d. Choi Cheolhan)
 50th 2007 Yun Junsang    (d. Lee Changho)
 51st 2007 Lee Sedol      (d. Yun Junsang)

YY: Kuksu literally means "Hand of the nation" (Kuk: Nation Su: Hand). It is a poetic expression refering to a strongest player in the nation and has been the highest title of honor for a Baduk player in Korea. Kuksu as a title of honor belonged to Cho Nam-ch'eol being the undisputed best player in his time. Since Cho Nam-ch'eol became inactive, the title of honor has been acknowledged for Cho Hun-hyeon. They are commonly refered as Cho Kuksu. As Cho Hun-hyeon is still active and produces good games, Yi Ch'ang-ho, though clearly the best player since the mid 90's, is not generally refered as Kuksu (or Yi Kuksu).

The winners of Kuksu title (as a tournament title) are one of the two strongest players at the time -- mostly the strongest. Imagine the shock-wave Rui Naiwei, a woman and foreigner, created by winning the title and furthermore beating the two best players, Yi Ch'ang-ho and Cho Hun-hyeon, en route! Rui was honored for a Woman of the Year by the Korean government for the coup.

YY: Guksu is closer to the actual Korean pronounciation of the referent. KuksuJeon? (Jeon: competition) is only 4th in terms of prize money; however, it is most prestigeous among the Korean tournaments. It is almost inconceivable -- to Koreans, at least :o) -- that in the modern Baduk era, Kuksu as a title of honor (not a tournament title) is to be acknowledged for a player who has not been dominant in the tournament (for this reason, Yu Ch'ang-hyeok can never be refered as Kuksu (Yu Kuksu) although Kuksu as a title of honor can be acknowledged for more than one player from an era).

In March 2nd, 2004, there was an upset comparable to Rui's winning the title. Ch'oe Ch'eol-han, who did not win a single game over Yi prior to the Kuksu challenging series, beat Yi in the deciding 5th match. Yi did not resign even long after it became clear that the match was lost, which is rare (reflecting the importance of the title for him). While Yi struggled and tried desperate attempts toward the end, the commentators kept silence. It was a moment filled with pathos. Yi who always appears unaffected by match outcomes perhaps got emotional. Interestingly, Kuksu is one tournament (with a challeging series between the reigning champ and the challenger), of which Yi has not produced a long string of consecuive wins although he often expresses that winnning or defending the title is very high in priority.

RSM: While YY is mostly right here, I just wanted to note that Yi Changho indeed is regularly referred to as Yi Kuksu. These honorifics work more or less as a kind of nickname, derived from the title with which a player has been associated the most. For Yi Changho or Cho Hunhyeon, they are most commonly associated in Korea with the Kuksu tourney. Other very strong players are sometimes called "So-and-so kuksu" informally merely as a mark of respect, even if they had not won the Kuksu tourney. Seo Bongsu is the lone exception to this, always being referred to as "Seo Myeongin" instead, due to his exploits in that tourney, first taking the title away from Cho Namcheol as a rookie pro in 1971, and playing some of his most sensational games against Cho Hunhyeon over that title.


This is a copy of the living page "Kuksu" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2008 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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