Cho Hunhyun (; born 10 March 1953) is a South Korean professional Go player and politician. Considered one of the greatest players of all time, Cho reached professional level in Korea in 1962. Since then, Cho has amassed 150 professional titles, more than any other player in the world. He thrice held all of the open tournaments in Korea in 1980, 1982 and 1986. Cho has also won 11 international titles, third most in the world behind Lee Chang-ho (21) and Lee Sedol (18). He reached 1,000 career wins in 1995.

Early life (1962–1982)

Cho began learning Go at the age of four and passed the test for becoming a professional in 1962. In 1963, Cho was invited to Japan. Originally intended to study under

Minoru Kitani was one of the most celebrated professional Go players and teachers of the Go (board game), game of Go in the twentieth century in Japan. Biography He earned the nickname "the Prodigy" after winning a knockout tournament. He defeated eight op ...

, Kensaku Segoe took Cho under his tutelage. Segoe was responsible for bringing Go Seigen to Japan and also teaching Utaro Hashimoto, founder of the

Kansai Ki-in The Kansai Ki-in (), 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 stro ...

. Cho was considered a 2 dan professional in Korea, but was demoted to 4 kyu upon arriving in Japan. Cho passed the

Nihon Ki-in The Nihon Ki-in (), 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 associat ...

professional exam three years later and became the first player to hold professional certificates from two Go associations. It was at this time when Cho was introduced to Hideyuki Fujisawa. Fujisawa began mentoring Cho, and the two kept a friendly relationship between each other until Fujisawa's death in 2009. Cho participated in some Japanese tournaments, finishing runner-up to Takaho Kojima in the 3rd Shin-Ei tournament. In 1972, Cho returned to Korea to begin mandatory military service. Cho won his first title in 1973, defeating Kim In in the 14th Chaegowi. That same year, Cho lost his first title to rival Seo Bongsoo in the 6th Myungin. Since 1973, Cho and Seo have met 65 times in the finals of tournaments, with Cho winning 53 of them. Their most recent title match-up came in the 1st Daejoo Cup in 2010. Cho continued winning several titles, including the Paewang in 1977, a title he defended sixteen straight times until 1992. In 1980, he held nine titles simultaneously: Guksu, Myungin, Wangwi, Kisung, Paewang, Kiwang, Daewang, Jaewang and the Baccus Cup. Cho repeated this twice, in 1982 and 1986, winning ten and eleven titles respectively. Despite winning several titles, Cho wasn't considered the best Korean player at the time. Instead, the media favored Cho Chikun, a Korean-born 9 dan professional in Japan. In 1980, Cho Chikun visited South Korea after winning the

Meijin is one of the eight titles in Japanese professional shogi player, professional shogi, and is the most prestigious title, along with Ryūō. The word ( "excellent, artful", "person") refers to a highly skilled master of a certain field (the ...

title and the two began a friendship match consisting of two games. The two game series was played on 31 December 1980 and 2 January 1981 with Hunhyun losing both games. From 1991 until Hunhyun's loss in the 8th Samsung Cup in 2003, Cho Hunhyun didn't lose a match to Cho Chikun.

First Korean 9 dan (1982–2004)

In 1982, Cho was promoted to 9 dan, becoming the first Korean 9 dan. Cho was the sole Korean player invited to the 1st Ing Cup, which featured nine players from the

and six players from China. Cho was matched up with

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese-born Japanese professional O Meien in the first round. Cho won the match and went on to defeat Koichi Kobayashi in the quarter-finals. He then met another Taiwanese-born Japanese professional Rin Kaiho in the semi-final. Cho won the best-of-three match in two games and progressed to the final to face

Nie Weiping Nie Weiping (; born 17 August 1952) is a Chinese professional Go (board game), Go Go players, player. Biography Nie was born in Shenzhou City, Shenzhou. He was a childhood friend of future Paramount leader, Chinese leader Xi Jinping. His bro ...

in a best-of-five final. Cho won the first game, but Nie went on to win the next two. The match came down to a fifth and final deciding game, with Cho winning by resignation. In 1984, Cho began teaching Lee Chang-ho. Two years later, Lee became a professional and began challenging Cho. By 1989, Lee defeated Cho for the first time in a title final by winning the 29th Chaegowi. In 1992, he lost the Paewang title to Lee after defending it for sixteen consecutive years. Their rivalry would continue until 2003, when Lee won the 34th Myungin. As of 16 June 2011, the score between the two in title finals is Lee 47–19 Cho.

Political career

Cho decided to go into

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

, joining the Saenuri Party in March 2016. He was elected on the party's proportional representation list in the 2016 election, taking seat number 14. On 5 February 2020, Cho was appointed as the Secretary-General of the newly formed Future Korea Party.

Promotion record

Titles and runners-up

Ranks first in total number of titles in Korea and third in international titles.

Book

2015
''The Power of Master's Thinking''

2018
''Go with the Flow''
is a 2015 autobiography written by Korean, professional 9-dan Cho Hunhyun and translated by You Jungmin. The original Korean edition was published in 2015 and the English edition as was published in 2018. It features a collection of eight thematic stories and self-reflections about go and life. Since he became a professional Go player at the age of nine, he has won 1,935 matches and taken various championship titles as many as 160 times over 56 years, achieving unprecedented record in the world Go history. Now, he gives what he has learned through his life, the essence of how to train our heart and mind.

References

External links

Official site
(in Korean) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Hunhyun 1953 births Living people South Korean Go players Sportspeople from South Jeolla Province Liberty Korea Party politicians