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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.
Cho U is a Taiwanese professional Go player. He currently ranks 6th in the most titles won by a Japanese professional; his NEC Cup win in 2011 put him past his teacher Rin Kaiho and Norimoto Yoda. Cho is the first player in history to have held five of the top seven major titles simultaneously with Iyama Yuta being the second. Cho U, Naoki Hane, Keigo Yamashita and Shinji Takao make up the group of players in Japan called the "Four Heavenly Kings". His wife is one of Japan's best female go professionals, Izumi Kobayashi, the great Kitani's granddaughter and daughter of Kobayashi Koichi.
Yuta Iyama Kisei, Honinbo, Meijin is a Japanese professional Go player. In April 2016, he became the first player in Japanese history to hold all seven major titles simultaneously. In January 2018, Iyama became the first professional Go player to be awarded Japan's People's Honour Award.
Keigo Yamashita is a professional Go player. Yamashita adopted the name Honinbo Dowa after winning his first Honinbo title in 2010.
Satoshi Yuki is a Japanese professional Go player.
Kimio Yamada is a professional Go player. A territorial player who is adept at invading and living within opponent's spheres of influence, Yamada won his first major title, the Oza, in 1997. He has two older brothers, Shiho Yamada and Wakio Yamada.
The 31st Kisei is being 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 9th LG Cup featured:
The 6th LG Cup featured:
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.
The 45th Judan was held from May 11, 2006 to April 25, 2007. The current sponsor is Sankei Newspapers. The holder is Cho Chikun, and the challenger is Keigo Yamashita for the second time in-a-row. Hideki Komatsu, Norimoto Yoda, Kimio Yamada, Hideo Otake, Koichi Kobayashi, Kim Shushun, Naoki Hane, and Takeshi Sakai qualified through preliminary tournaments. The rest of the players were given spots automatically.
The 1st Ing Cup was the first edition of the Ing Cup, an international Go tournament held every four years. The 1st Ing Cup was a sixteen player invitational, with six players representing the Nihon Ki-in, five players representing the Zhongguo Qiyuan, three Taiwanese Nihon Ki-in players, one player from the Hanguk Kiwon, and one player representing North America.
The 35th Kisei began league play on 3 June 2010 and concluded with Cho U defending his title in six games over challenger Iyama Yuta on 11 March 2011.
The 66th Honinbo began league play on 7 October 2010 and completed on July 21, 2011. Title holder Yamashita Keigo retained his title over challenger Hane Naoki by a score of 4-3. Yamashita Keigo won the first three games, Hane Naoki the next three, and Yamashita Keigo the final game.
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.
The 5th Ing Cup began on 20 April 2004 and concluded on 5 March 2005. Chang Hao defeated Choi Cheol-han 3–1 in the finals.
The 1st Nongshim Cup was the inaugural edition of the team Go tournament consisting of five players each from China, Japan and South Korea. The tournament began on 16 December 1999 in Shanghai and finished on 28 March 2000. On Lee Chang-ho and Ma Xiaochun met in the final, with Lee defeating China's top player and leading Korea to their first of six straight Nongshim Cup titles.