Cho Chikun

Cho Chikun 25th Honinbo Honorary Meijin (조치훈; born June 20, 1956) 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.

Seeing great talent in Cho, his father sent him to Japan in 1962.

His rise to becoming one of the greatest Go players began when he joined Minoru Kitani's Go school.

He was accompanied by his uncle Cho Namchul and his brother Cho Shoen on his way to the Haneda airport in Japan in August 1962.

He was only six years old at the time.

At the airport he met Minoru Kitani and his wife, another pupil Kobayashi Chizu, and the master's daughter, Reiko Kitani (who as an adult married Cho's future rival Koichi Kobayashi).

The day after arriving in Japan Cho beat Rin Kaiho in a five stone handicap game at a party held at the Kitani School to celebrate the total dan ranks of Kitani students reaching a sum of 100.

A large crowd watched intensely, as if it were a professional game.

Cho enrolled at the Nihon Ki-in as an insei when he was only seven.

He was bullied by many other students for being Korean.

He started to become annoyed since he was the Kitanis' "baby".

He was known to be lax in his studies, which could be clearly seen when his future rival Koichi Kobayashi joined the Kitani school.

Kobayashi was not as strong, but he studied much harder than Cho.

Cho broke through to shodan after beating Michihiko Azuma in May 1968.

He became one of the youngest professionals ever in modern go history, at 11 years and 8 months.

In the same year, he was promoted to 2 dan and was looking very promising.

Within a mere two years, he climbed to 4 dan after winning almost every Oteai game possible.

He reached 5 dan in 1971, at just 15 years of age.

In 1972, the Go Review and Kido Yearbook released information on Cho Chihun.

His name was well known before he was even allowed to drive.

He was also promoted to 6 dan in 1973 with a good record of 30 wins and 11 losses.

Cho is the first in history to win all of the "Top 7" titles in Japan (Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo, Judan, Tengen, Oza, and Gosei) 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.

Cho was born into a very rich family of six children.

His grandfather was a bank director.

During the Korean War, the money the family had owned was burnt and they became impoverished.

His father then sought the advice of a fortune teller.

Originally called Pung-yeon, Cho's name was changed to Chihun, as the fortune teller told him to change his son's name to Chihun or else his mother would die, also saying that following the change, Chihun's younger brother would die but Chihun would become famous.

Both predictions proved accurate.

His grandfather taught him Go when he was young.

He then took tenth place in the 11th Asahi Pro Best Ten tournament.

Although he had a great record of thirty wins and only six losses in this year, he lost twice to his rival Koichi Kobayashi in big tournaments—first the 4th Shin-Ei, which was even televised, and in the final of the 16th Prime Minister Cup.

After a rocky start, Cho gained momentum, beating three top players, until he lost to Rin Kaiho, who was Meijin at the time, in the 9th Asahi Pro Best Ten tournament.

Cho won the 5th Shin-Ei after beating Yasumasa Hane, who was an 8 dan at the time.

Second prize was awarded to him after scoring an 83.75% winning percentage in the 5+ dan Oteai.