Cho Chikun25th HoninboHonorary Meijin is a professional Go player and a nephew of Cho Namchul. Born in Busan, South Korea, he is affiliated to Nihon Ki-in. His total title tally of 75 titles is the most in the history of the Japanese Nihon Ki-in. Cho is the first player to hold the top three titles—Kisei, Meijin, and Honinbo—simultaneously which he did for three years in a row. Cho is the first in history to win all of the "Top 7" titles in Japan which he achieved by winning the Oza in 1994. Cho U in 2011 and Iyama Yuta in 2013 would duplicate this feat, both by winning the Kisei. He is also one of the 'Six Supers' Japanese players that were most celebrated in the late twentieth century, along with Rin Kaiho, Otake Hideo, Takemiya Masaki, Kato Masao and his classmate and arch-rival Kobayashi Koichi. He is the author of several books on Go.
Rin Kaihō or Lin Haifeng is a professional Taiwanese Go player who made his name in Japan. He is, along with Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi, Otake Hideo, Takemiya Masaki and Kato Masao, considered one of the 'Six Supers' that dominated Japanese Go world in the last three decades of the twentieth century.
Keigo Yamashita is a professional Go player. Yamashita adopted the name Honinbo Dowa after winning his first Honinbo title in 2010.
Koichi Kobayashi is a Japanese Go player. He is one of the 'Six Supers' who championed Japanese Go in the last three decades of Japanese Go.
Professional Go players in Japan are given the title of "Honorary" title holder if they either win the title ten times in a row, or have won the title five times in a row or ten times in total and reach the age of 60 years or retire. Below is a list of the honorary title holders and which title they are honored for.
Kisei (棋聖) is an honorary title and Go competition. The title, meaning Go Sage in Japanese, was a traditional honorary appellation given to a handful of players down the centuries. The element ki can also apply to shogi, and there were also recognized kisei in the shogi world.
The 1st Kisei was the birth of a new Go tournament. Since this was the first year of the tournament, there was no set challenger or holder. From the 2nd edition on, there has been a playoff between challengers. At the time, it was the highest paying tournament there had ever been, and would be until the creation of the Ing Cup. Fujisawa Hideyuki's win would mark the beginning of a six-year defense of the Kisei title from 1977 to 1982.
The 6th Kisei was the 6th edition of the Kisei tournament. Since Fujisawa Hideyuki won the previous year, he is given an automatic place in the final. Eight players battled in a knockout tournament to decide the final 2. Those two would then play each other in a best-of-3 match to decide who would face Fujisawa. Rin Kaiho became the challenger after beating Kobayashi Koichi 2 games to 0, but would lose 4 games to 3 against Fujisawa.
The 9th Kisei was the 9th edition of the Kisei tournament, held in 1985. Since Cho Chikun won the previous year, he was given an automatic place in the final. Eight players battled in a knockout tournament to decide the final 2. Those two would then play each other in a best-of-3 match to decide who would face Cho. Takemiya Masaki became the challenger after beating Kobayashi Koichi 2 games to 1, but lost to Cho 4 games to 3.
The 10th Kisei was the 10th edition of the Kisei tournament. Since Cho Chikun won the previous year, he is given an automatic place in the final. Twelve players battled in a knockout tournament to decide the final 2. Those two would then play each other in a best-of-3 match to decide who would face Cho. Koichi Kobayashi became the challenger after beating Masao Kato 2 games to 1, and went on to defeat Cho Chikun 4 games to 2.
The 11th Kisei was the 11th edition of the Kisei tournament. Since Koichi Kobayashi won the previous year, he is given an automatic place in the final. Eleven players battled in a knockout tournament to decide the final 2. Those two would then play each other in a best-of-3 match to decide who would face Kobayashi. Masaki Takemiya became the challenger after beating Hideo Otake 2 games to 1, but he would lose to Kobayashi 4 games to 1 in the final.
The 12th Kisei was the 12th edition of the Kisei tournament for the game of Go. Since Koichi Kobayashi won the previous year, he was given an automatic place in the final. Eleven players battled in a knockout tournament to decide the final two. Those two would then play each other in a best-of-3 match to decide who would face Kobayashi. Masao Kato became the challenger after beating Hideo Otake 2 games to 0, but would lose to Kobayashi 4 games to 1 in the final.
The 19th Kisei was the 19th edition of the Kisei tournament of the board game go, in 1995. Since Cho Chikun won the previous year, he was given an automatic place in the final to defend his title. Sixteen players battled in a single elimination tournament to decide the final 2. Those two would then play each other in a best-of-7 match to decide who would face Cho. Kobayashi Satoru became the challenger after beating Kobayashi Koichi, but lost 4 games to 2 against Cho.
The 20th Kisei 20th iteration of the Kisei tournament, a tournament in the board game go. It was won by Cho Chikun and held in 1996. The first match was played outside Japan, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Chikun won 4 games to 3 over Kobayashi Satoru in the final.
The 31st Kisei is a go tournament held from May 2006 to March 22, 2007. The following players earned spots through not being eliminated in the group stage: Satoshi Yuki (5-0), Tomoyasu Mimura (3-2), Kato Atsushi (3-2), Kobayashi Satoru (3-2), Komatsu Hideki (3-2), Norimoto Yoda (2-3), and O Rissei (2-3). Cho U, Kunihisa Honda, O Meien, and Toshiya Imamura were eliminated from group play and had to earn a spot through preliminary stages. The players to have qualified through preliminary tournaments are Cho U, Kunihisa Honda, Cho Chikun, and Toshiya Imamura. Naoki Hane, the loser of the 30th Kisei takes the place of holder Keigo Yamashita in the group stage. Players who end with the two lowest records in the each league are eliminated from automatic berth into the next tournament while the 3 other players who were not eliminated or had the top record are given a place in the following years groups.
The 30th Kisei was held from May 2005 to February 22, 2006. The players to have qualified through preliminary tournaments are Toshiya Imamura, Atsushi Kato, Hideki Komatsu, and Kunihisa Honda. The players to have returned from the previous year are Satoshi Yuki, Norimoto Yoda, Cho U, Tomoyasu Mimura, Keigo Yamashita, O Rissei, O Meien, and Kobayashi Satoru. The two players with the worst records at the end of each league are disqualified from an automatic berth in the following tournament.
The 32nd Kisei was held from January 2007 to 2008. The following players earned spots through not being eliminated in the group stage: Naoki Hane (4-1), Cho U (4-1), Kobayashi Satoru (4-1), Atsushi Kato (4-1), O Rissei (3-2) Hideki Komatsu (2-3), Norimoto Yoda (2-3), and Imamura Toshiya (2-3). Mimura Tomoyasu, Kunihisa Honda, Satoshi Yuki, and Cho Chikun were eliminated from group play and had to earn a spot through preliminary stages. The players who qualified through preliminary tournaments are Cho Chikun, Hiroshi Yamashiro, Shinji Takao, and Yuta Iyama. Players who ended with the two lowest records in the each league were eliminated from automatic berth into the next tournament while the 3 other players who were not eliminated or had the top record were given a place in the following year's groups.
Kisei (棋聖) is one of the eight major titles in Japanese professional shogi. The word Kisei means an excellent player of shogi or go and has been translated as "shogi saint".
The 1st Igo Masters Cup began on 24 February and ended on 23 July 2011. Eleven players participated: Kobayashi Koichi, Kudo Norio, Rin Kaiho, Kataoka Satoshi, Hane Yasumasa, Ishida Yoshio, Takemiya Masaki, Cho Chikun, O Rissei, Kobayashi Satoru, Otake Hideo.
Hsieh Yimin is a Taiwanese-born professional Go player in Japan. She holds the titles of Honorary Female Honinbo and Honorary Female Meijin, and, as of 2016, holds three major female titles in Japan: Female Meijin, Female Kisei and Female Honinbo.