Rin Kaihō or Lin Haifeng (; born May 6, 1942) is a professional Taiwanese Go player who made his name in Japan. He is, along with

Cho Chikun Cho Chikun ''25th Honinbo'' ''Honorary Meijin'' ( ko, 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 t ...

Kobayashi Koichi is a Japanese Go player. He is one of the 'Six Supers' who championed Japanese Go in the last three decades of Japanese Go. Biography Koichi Kobayashi was born in Asahikawa, Japan. In 1965, he came to Tokyo to be a disciple of Minoru Kitani. ...

, 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.

Biography

Rin Kaiho was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

, China. He was a student of

Go Seigen Wu Quan (), courtesy name Wu Qingyuan ()His courtesy name was created based on his real name (''Quan'' means "spring, fountain" and ''Qing Yuan'' means "clear and pure source of water"). (June 12, 1914 – November 30, 2014), better known by ...

when Go brought him to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

in 1952. He was a promising player who won his first title at the age of 23, the

Meijin is one of the eight titles in Japanese professional shogi, and is the most prestigious title, along with Ryūō. The word ''meijin'' (名 ''mei'' "excellent, artful", 人 ''jin'' "person") refers to a highly skilled master of a certain field (t ...

. He is also part of the 1200 win group. Rin's rise to fame came in 1965 when he challenged Sakata Eio for his Meijin title. Rin, at the time, was still only 23 and critics thought he would stand no chance against the then powerful Sakata. Even Sakata himself said that no Go player under the age of thirty should be Meijin. However, Rin put up a great fight and won the Meijin title. Rin would continue winning the Meijin on different occasions, along with the

Honinbo In the history of Go in Japan, the four Go houses were four major schools of Go instituted, supported, and controlled by the state, at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. (There were also many minor houses.) At roughly the same time shogi w ...

, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His number of titles currently is 34, ranking him 7th of all time on the total number of titles list, tied with

Norimoto Yoda is a professional Go Go players, player. Biography Yoda is a student of Takeo Ando. He has won 35 titles so far in his career, the seventh highest in Japan. He became a professional in 1980, and reached 9 dan in 1993. In 2006, he was the heart ...

. Rin has been on a dry spell of titles lately, with the last time he even challenged for one being in 2001, for the Meijin. Rin became the first professional in Nihon Ki-in history to reach 1,300 career wins. He won the game against

Nobuaki Anzai is a professional Go player. Biography Anzai became a professional in 2003. He is currently 7 dan.N ...

on October 19, 2006 in a preliminary match for the 32nd Kisei. Rin currently resides in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, Japan, but remains a citizen of Taiwan.

Promotion record

Titles and runners-up

Ranks #8-t in total number of titles in Japan.

Trivia

*Rin is Honorary Tengen. *He needs to win the Kisei tournament and he will have won all 7 major Japanese titles. *In 1968 he became the second player to hold the Meijin and Honinbo titles at the same time. *Starting in 1964, Rin had entered the Meijin League and remained in the league (including being the Meijin title holder) for 35 consecutive years (39 participation in total), which is a historical record for all Go tournaments in Japan. *In 2007 Lee Changho mentioned to the media that Rin is his most respected professional Go player for his respectable personality. *His students are

Cho U Cho U (; born on 20 January 1980) 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 ...

, Rin Kanketsu, and Rin Shien.

External links

GoBase ProfileSensei's Library Profile

Bibliography

* * * * *

References

Japanese Go players Taiwanese Go players Go (game) writers Japanese people of Taiwanese descent 1942 births Living people Go players from Shanghai Taiwanese expatriates in Japan Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Taiwanese people from Shanghai {{Taiwan-Go-bio-stub