Choi Jeong (Go player)

Last updated
Choi Jeong
Hangul 최정
Hanja 崔精
Born (1996-10-07) 7 October 1996 (age 28)
South Korea
Residence Flag of South Korea.svg South Korea
Teacher Yoo Chang-hyuk
Turned pro2010
Rank 9 dan
Affiliation Hanguk Kiwon
Medal record
Women's Go
Representing Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea
Asian Games
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2022 Hangzhou Women's team

Choi Jeong (born 7 October 1996), or Choi Jung, is a South Korean professional Go player.

Contents

A student of Yoo Chang-hyuk, Choi Jeong became a professional Go player in 2010. Her first tournament championship was the Female Myungin in 2012, [1] a title which she held for five years up to end of the tournament in 2016. [2] Beginning in December 2013, she was the number one woman in the Korea Baduk Association's official ranking, a position which she maintained for 128 consecutive months until August 2024. [3]

She has won seven women's international titles: four times in the Bingsheng Cup (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019) and three times in the Wu Qingyuan Cup (2019, 2021, 2023). [4] [5] [6] In December 2019, she became the first woman to reach the top 20 in the official ranking of all Korea Baduk Association players. [7] In the 2022 Samsung Cup, she became the first woman to reach the finals of a major world tournament. [8]

Choi Jeong, who dominated women's Go in South Korea from 2014 to 2024, reaffirmed her strong position in the field by winning the 2024 Dr. G Women's Top Player Championship, maintaining her impressive record in this tournament. She was also widely regarded as the best female Go player in the world during her time.

Path to professional

Choi's father, an amateur 1-dan in baduk (Go), started teaching Choi Jeong baduk after hearing from an academy director that his daughter had talent for the game. When she was in third grade of elementary school, they moved to Seoul, and she began attending 'Yoo Chang-hyuk Baduk Academy' in Mapo-gu. Choi Jeong, who formed a teacher-student relationship with 9-dan Yoo Chang-hyuk, even moved to Bundang when Yoo Chang-hyuk's baduk academy relocated there. In May 2010, at the age of 14 while attending the second year of Chungam Middle School, she became a professional at the Korea Baduk Association. She inherited her teacher Yoo Chang-hyuk's style, being strong in reading and combative. She doesn't hunker down in one place but boldly jumps into enemy territory. It's commonly said that her style is to cut when attached and to push when pushed. In 2012, she dropped out of high school where she had enrolled as a baduk specialist. This was because it was difficult to balance baduk competitions and academics. In the same year, she won the 13th Female Myungin title for the first time. [9]

Professional career

References

  1. ↑ "Choi Jung makes her breakthrough in the 13th Female Myeongin", Go Game Guru, 2012-01-31, archived from the original on 2016-12-21
  2. ↑ 최정, 여류명인 5연패 위업 (in Korean), 2016-02-12
  3. ↑ "여자바둑 '10년 8개월' 만에 세대교체…김은지, 최정 꺾고 1위(종합)", Yonhap News Agency (in Korean), 2024-08-05
  4. ↑ "The Power Report: December updates", American Go E-Journal, 2019-12-30, archived from the original on 2022-12-04
  5. ↑ "'바둑여제' 최정, 오청원배 우승…세계 여자대회 2관왕 등극(종합)", Yonhap News Agency (in Korean), 2019-12-03
  6. ↑ "최정, 천신만고 끝에 위즈잉 꺾고 오청원배 제패", The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean), 2021-12-04
  7. ↑ "'바둑 여제' 최정 9단의 '女풍당당'…남자 기사들에도 강하다", Yonhap News Agency (in Korean), 2019-12-05
  8. ↑ "최정, 여자기사 사상 첫 메이저 세계대회 결승 진출!", Hanguk Kiwon (in Korean), 2022-11-04
  9. ↑ "최정, 여류바둑 '최정예' 꿈꾼다". 2013-04-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.