 | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(March 2016) |
The lists below comprise the top title-winning professional Go players.
| This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(March 2016) |
The lists below comprise the top title-winning professional Go players.
| # | Nat. | Player | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Lee Changho | 17 |
| 2 | | Lee Sedol | 14 |
| 3 | | Cho Hunhyun | 9 |
| 4-t |  | Gu Li | 8 |
| 4-t | | Ke Jie | 8 |
| 6 | | Shin Jinseo | 7 |
| 7 | | Yoo Changhyuk | 6 |
| 8 | | Park Junghwan | 5 |
| # | Nat. | Player | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Gu Li | 9 |
| 2 | | Lee Changho | 6 |
| 3 | | Chang Hao | 5 |
| 4 | | Chen Yaoye | 4 |
| 5-t | | Ma Xiaochun | 3 |
| 5-t |  | Cho Chikun | 3 |
| 5-t | | Lee Sedol | 3 |
| 8-t | | Park Yeonghun | 2 |
| 8-t | | Rin Kaiho | 2 |
| 8-t | | Kobayashi Koichi | 2 |
| 8-t | | Cho Sonjin | 2 |
| # | Player | Domestic | Continental | International | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ma Xiaochun | 47 | 5 | 2 | 54 |
| 2 | Gu Li | 31 | 12 | 8 | 51 |
| 3 | Nie Weiping | 37 | 1 | 0 | 38 |
| 4 | Chang Hao | 20 | 7 | 3 | 30 |
| 5 | Ke Jie | 14 | 3 | 10 | 27 |
| 6 | Chen Yaoye | 13 | 5 | 4 | 22 |
| 7 | Kong Jie | 11 | 1 | 6 | 18 |
| 8 | Liu Xiaoguang | 13 | 1 | 0 | 14 |
| 9-t | Zhou Heyang | 10 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| 9-t | Lian Xiao | 11 | 1 | 0 | 12 |
| 9-t | Mi Yuting | 8 | 0 | 4 | 12 |
| # | Player | Domestic | Continental | International | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cho Chikun Meiyo Meijin, 25th Honinbō | 71 | 3 | 2 | 76 |
| 2 | Yuta Iyama 26th Honinbō Meiyo Kisei, Gosei, Honinbō and Tengen | 67 | 2 | 1 | 70 |
| 3 | Koichi Kobayashi Meiyo Kisei, Meijin and Gosei | 59 | 1 | 7 | 67 |
| 4 | Sakata Eio 23rd Honinbō | 61 | 2 | 1 | 64 |
| 5 | Masao Kato (deceased) Meiyo Oza | 47 | 0 | 0 | 47 |
| 6 | Hideo Otake Meiyo Gosei | 41 | 1 | 2 | 44 |
| 7 | Cho U | 37 | 1 | 1 | 39 |
| 8 | Rin Kaiho Meiyo Tengen | 34 | 2 | 1 | 37 |
| 9 | Norimoto Yoda | 30 | 4 | 1 | 35 |
| 10 | Yoshio Ishida 24th Honinbō | 23 | 0 | 1 | 24 |
| # | Player | Domestic | Continental | International | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cho Hunhyun | 143 | 0 | 11 | 154 |
| 2 | Lee Changho | 117 | 6 | 21 | 144 |
| 3 | Lee Sedol | 30 | 2 | 18 | 50 |
| 4 | Kim In (deceased) | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| 5 | Park Junghwan | 20 | 1 | 8 | 29 |
| 6 | Seo Bongsoo | 27 | 0 | 1 | 28 |
| 7 | Yoo Changhyuk | 18 | 1 | 6 | 25 |
| 8 | Cho Namchul (deceased) | 23 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| 9 | Park Yeonghun | 15 | 2 | 3 | 20 |
| 10 | Choi Cheolhan | 14 | 0 | 2 | 16 |
Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to fence off more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day. A 2016 survey by the International Go Federation's 75 member nations found that there are over 46 million people worldwide who know how to play Go, and over 20 million current players, the majority of whom live in East Asia.
A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major Go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion players are very large. For example, the Honinbo Tournament has a grand prize of about $350,000.
Wu Chuan, courtesy name Wu Ching-yuan, better known by the Japanese pronunciation of his courtesy name, Go Seigen, was a Han Chinese master of the game of Go. He is considered by many players to have been the greatest Go player in the 20th century.
Hikaru no Go is a Japanese manga series based on the board game Go, written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The production of the series' Go games was supervised by Go professional Yukari Umezawa. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1998 to 2003, with its chapters collected into 23 tankōbon volumes. The story follows Hikaru, who discovers a Go board in his grandfather's attic one day. The object turns out to be haunted by a ghost named Sai, the emperor's former Go teacher in the Heian era. Sai finds himself trapped in Hikaru's mind and tells him which moves to play against opponents, astonishing onlookers with the boy's apparent level of skill at the game.
The Nihon Ki-in (日本棋院), also known as the Japan Go Association, is the main organizational body for Go in Japan, overseeing Japan's professional system and issuing diplomas for amateur dan rankings. It is based in Tokyo. The other major Go association in Japan is Kansai Ki-in. Its innovations include the Oteai system of promotion, time limits in professional games, and the introduction of issuing diplomas to strong amateur players, to affirm their ranks.
Football is among the most popular sports in Japan, together with baseball, tennis, golf, sumo, and combat sports. Its nationwide organization, the Japan Football Association, administers the professional football leagues, including J.League, which is considered by many the most successful football league in Asia. Japan is also the country with the most comprehensively developed football in Asia in both men and women as well as in both futsal and beach soccer.
The game of Go originated in China in ancient times. It was considered one of the four essential arts of a cultured Chinese scholar in antiquity and is described as a worthy pastime for a gentleman in the Analects of Confucius. It reached Korea by the 5th century, in the 7th century it had reached Japan. The game was described by Matteo Ricci in 1615 and by Thomas Hyde in 1694, but it did not become popular in the West until the late 19th century.
The dan ranking system is used by many Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, and other martial arts organizations to indicate the level of a person's ability within a given system. Used as a ranking system to quantify skill level in a specific domain, it was originally used at a Go school during the Edo period. It is now also used in most modern Japanese fine and martial arts.
The Kansai Ki-in (関西棋院), i.e., Kansai Go Association, is an organizational body for the game of Go in Japan, which was founded by Hashimoto Utaro in 1950. Though it is not as large as its chief rival, the Nihon Ki-in, it also issues diplomas to strong players and oversees professionals as the Nihon Ki-in does.
The Korea Baduk Association, also known as Hanguk Kiwon (Korean: 한국기원), was founded in November 1945 by Cho Namchul.
The South Korean national baseball team, also known as the Blue Wave, is the national baseball team of South Korea. It has participated in every edition of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), reaching the finals in 2009, and won the WBSC Premier12 in 2015. South Korea also hosted and won the Baseball World Cup in 1982, and has participated in several Summer Olympic Games.
Jūbango (十番碁) is a Japanese term for a Go match consisting of ten games which might be ended earlier if agreed by both players. A decisive victory would result in the opponent being 'beaten down' to a lower rank. A player would be beaten down if he fell behind his opponent by four wins in the net score. This would mean a change in the playing terms corresponding to a handicap suitable for a rank difference of one rank. Some notable historical jūbango players are Go Seigen (1914-2014), Kitani Minoru (1909–75), Honinbo Shuei (1852-1907) and Hashimoto Utaro (1907-94).
Chinese people in Japan (在日中国人/華人) include any people self-identifying as ethnic Chinese or people possessing Chinese citizenship living in Japan. People aged 22 or older cannot possess dual-citizenship in Japan, so Chinese possessing Japanese citizenship typically no longer possess Chinese citizenship. The term "Chinese people" typically refers to the Han Chinese, the main ethnic group living in China (PRC), Taiwan (ROC) and Singapore. Officially, China (PRC) is home to 55 additional ethnic minorities, including people such as Tibetans, though these people might not self-identify as Chinese. Han Chinese people have had a long history in Japan as a minority.
The Chinese Taipei national baseball team is the national men's baseball team of Taiwan. It is governed by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association. The team is ranked fourth in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The team is usually made up of professionals from Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League, Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, and Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball from the United States.
The Hong Kong Go Association, created in 1982, is an organizational member of the International Go Federation, whose current chairman is 張大朋. It is dedicated to training and ranking Go players in Hong Kong.
The Singapore Weiqi Association is a Go association in Singapore. Founded in 1981, it aims to promote the game of Go in Singapore and improve the skills of local Go players. To achieve its objective, professional players from China are hired to conduct lessons, and tournaments are regularly organized. Amateur players in Singapore can have their rank assessed by the association; it awards rank diplomas up to 6 dan. For international exposure and networking, the association sends players to participate in international competitions such as World Amateur Go Championship and World Youth Go Championship. Currently, the association has two clubhouses: the main clubhouse in Bishan and the city clubhouse in Bugis.
Junichi Tazawa is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for ENEOS of the Japanese Industrial League. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels. He also played in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) for the Wei Chuan Dragons.
The Japan national under-17 football team is a national association football youth team of Japan and is controlled by the Japan Football Association. The team were champions in the 1994 and 2006 AFC U-17 Championships, as well as the 2012 AFF U-16 Youth Championship. The year before the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the national team is renamed the Japan national under-16 football team, and the year before that, the national team is renamed the Japan national under-15 football team.
The European Go Championship or Congress (EGC) is the annual and main event organised by the European Go Federation for players of the board game Go. It consists of a 2-week open competition, one round per day, making a total of 10 rounds with a champion ultimately emerging – the player with the most wins. The Congress has taken place in a different European city each year, since the first contest in 1983. During these two weeks, the best Go players in Europe fight for the title of European Champion. The number of participants in recent years has ranged from a low of 290 to a high of 718 players.
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(May 2016) |
