1. Cho Chikun 25th Honinbo Honorary Meijin is a professional Go player and a nephew of Cho Namchul.
120 Facts About Cho Chikun
1. 2.
Cho Chikun is the first in history to win all of the "Top 7" titles in Japan which he achieved by winning the Oza in 1994.
3.
Cho Chikun is 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.
4.
Cho Chikun was born into a very rich family of six children.
5.
Originally called Pung-yeon, Cho Chikun'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, saying that following the change, Chihun's younger brother would die but Chihun would become famous.
6.
Cho Chikun's grandfather taught him Go when he was young.
7.
Cho Chikun's rise to becoming one of the greatest Go players began when he joined Minoru Kitani's Go school.
8.
Cho Chikun was accompanied by his uncle Cho Namchul and his brother Cho Shoen on his way to the Haneda airport in Japan in August 1962.
9.
The day after arriving in Japan Cho Chikun 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.
10.
Cho Chikun enrolled at the Nihon Ki-in as an insei when he was only seven.
11.
Cho Chikun was bullied by many other students for being Korean.
12.
Cho Chikun started to become annoyed since he was the Kitanis' "baby".
13.
Cho Chikun was known to be lax in his studies, which could be clearly seen when his future rival Koichi Kobayashi joined the Kitani school.
14.
Cho Chikun broke through to shodan after beating Michihiko Azuma in May 1968.
15.
Cho Chikun became one of the youngest professionals ever in modern go history, at 11 years and 8 months.
16.
Cho Chikun reached 5 dan in 1971, at just 15 years of age.
17.
Cho Chikun's name was well known before he was even allowed to drive.
18.
Cho Chikun won the 5th Shin-Ei after beating Yasumasa Hane, who was an 8 dan at the time.
19.
Cho Chikun then took tenth place in the 11th Asahi Pro Best Ten tournament.
20.
Cho Chikun was promoted to 6 dan in 1973 with a good record of 30 wins and 11 losses.
21.
Cho Chikun beat Kazuo Sometani, Masao Kato, Yoshio Ishida, and Rin Kaiho.
22.
Cho Chikun didn't make it past the second game in the 18th Prime Minister Cup, which again went to Kobayashi.
23.
Cho Chikun then took revenge on Kobayashi by beating him in the 6th Shin-Ei.
24.
Cho Chikun was awarded a Special Merit Prize by Kido magazine after his most impressive record thus far of 33 wins and 9 losses.
25.
Cho Chikun's career skyrocketed when Kido magazine named him the Number One Young Player.
26.
Cho Chikun barely lost out in the final of the 22nd Nihon Ki-In Championship to Eio Sakata after making a critical mistake that led to his resignation.
27.
Cho Chikun lost in the second round of the 30th Honinbo preliminary to Toshihiro Shimamura 9-dan.
28.
Cho Chikun was on a roll in the 1st Tengen league, until he was defeated by Shuzo Ohira.
29.
Cho Chikun didn't get far in the rest of the tournaments that year.
30.
Cho Chikun's record was a formidable 39 wins and 16 losses for the year.
31.
Cho Chikun began the year by winning the 1st Asahi Top Eight Players tournament.
32.
Now along with the new year, Cho Chikun had to win new titles.
33.
Cho Chikun won a place in the 2nd Meijin league this year, before failing to get into the 32nd Honinbo league.
34.
Cho Chikun then went back to his old self, getting four wins in a row to reach the 26th Oza final.
35.
Cho Chikun reached the 15th Judan challenger final, where he lost to Eio Sakata.
36.
Cho Chikun lost in the preliminaries of the 2nd Meijin league, the 15th Judan, and the 16th Judan.
37.
Cho Chikun won the 7-dan section of the 3rd Kisei before being promoted to 8 dan in the summer.
38.
Cho Chikun participated in the 16th Judan, the 3rd Tengen, and the 26th Oza preliminaries.
39.
Cho Chikun finally broke through to the 34th Honinbo finals before doing okay in the 16th Judan and 3rd Tengen leagues.
40.
Cho Chikun might have lost his newly won Gosei title, but he won what he was after: the Meijin title.
41.
Cho Chikun made his first trip home on the New Year holiday in 1980 at the age of 24.
42.
Cho Chikun even played two games with Korean champion Cho Hunhyun.
43.
Cho Chikun won the Honinbo league undefeated with a score of 7 wins and 0 losses.
44.
Cho Chikun's campaign was the first time someone won the Honinbo league undefeated.
45.
Cho Chikun defended his Honinbo title, winning 3 games in a row to beat Kobayashi.
46.
Cho Chikun left many flabbergasted after coming back to win three games to tie it at three a piece.
47.
Cho Chikun was the first to hold the top four titles of Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo, and Judan.
48.
Cho Chikun lost all the titles except the Meijin, but set a record.
49.
Cho Chikun was the first player in history to hold the Meijin title for four years in a row.
50.
Cho Chikun won the 8th Kisei title, defending it against Rin Kaiho.
51.
Cho Chikun went down 3 games again, only to win 4 straight games and defend his Meijin for the 5th time.
52.
Cho Chikun was lucky, as his corners and side territory led him to a 1.5 point win.
53.
At around lunch time on January 6,1986, Cho Chikun was leaving in his car when a motorcyclist came around from his blind spot.
54.
Cho Chikun had avoided Cho's car, only to have slid and overturned on his motorcycle.
55.
Cho Chikun was helping the motorcyclist to stand up, and then he went to pick the bike up when a car hit him.
56.
Cho Chikun was sent into the emergency room and had an operation the day after.
57.
Cho Chikun played a good game, only to lose by 2.5 points.
58.
Cho Chikun recovered from the loss and took the next two games.
59.
Cho Chikun went on to lose in a playoff for the Meijin, only to end the year with winning the Gosei title.
60.
Cho Chikun lost his Gosei title in 1987 to friend Masao Kato.
61.
Cho Chikun won the Judan from Kato and defended his Tengen.
62.
Cho Chikun went on to the Honinbo title, then lost the Tengen against the same person that he took the Honinbo from Rin Kaiho.
63.
Cho Chikun was happy to win the Honinbo once more, but Kobayashi still held to Kisei and Meijin titles, which Cho Chikun desired to take away from his rival.
64.
Cho Chikun held strong against rival Kobayashi but couldn't find an opening to beat Takemiya.
65.
Cho Chikun defended the Honinbo title once more, which would lead to him defending it again and again until 1999.
66.
Cho Chikun did terribly due to not making it through to the Meijin.
67.
Cho Chikun lucked out in the 1991 Fujitsu Cup because his opponent Qian Yuping had health issues to pay attention to and couldn't compete in the final.
68.
Cho Chikun lost the Judan once more and lost the play-off of the Kisei.
69.
Cho Chikun's record looked better when he ended with 30 wins and 17 losses.
70.
Cho Chikun made another miraculous comeback, this time in 1992 against his biggest rival Kobayashi Koichi in the Honinbo.
71.
Kobayashi had challenged for the Honinbo in 1990 and 1991, but Cho Chikun was too stubborn to give it up.
72.
Cho Chikun had come back in both finals, being down 3 games to 1, but pulled back 3 wins to defend the Honinbo.
73.
Cho Chikun was losing 3 games to 0, but was so relentless, that he came back and won 4 straight games once more to take the Honinbo away from Kobayashi's grip.
74.
Cho Chikun would get far into the Tong Yang Cup, losing to Lee Chang-ho in the final.
75.
Cho Chikun won the Kisei once more, along with defending the Honinbo again.
76.
Cho Chikun then won the Oza for the first time in 17 years.
77.
Cho Chikun was back to his old ways, ending the year with 33 wins and 19 losses.
78.
Cho Chikun made a big mistake in the Kisei final of 1995 and lost the title.
79.
Cho Chikun ran away with his defense of the Honinbo for the 7th year in a row.
80.
Cho Chikun played 62 tournament games, 45 of which he won.
81.
Cho Chikun defended his Triple Crown again with a record of 28 wins and 21 losses for the year.
82.
Cho Chikun finally lost his Honinbo title unexpectedly in 1999.
83.
Cho Chikun lost his most prized title, the Meijin, to Norimoto Yoda in 2000.
84.
Cho Chikun continued saying that it was too tiring and tense for him.
85.
Cho Chikun became even more discouraged when he was no match for Yoda, losing 4 games to 0.
86.
Cho Chikun finished the year with just one title, the NEC Cup.
87.
Cho Chikun came close to becoming the challenger in all of the three big titles this year.
88.
Cho Chikun defended the NEC Cup and won the 34th Hayago Championship along with the Oza.
89.
Cho Chikun competed in 34th edition of the Hayago Championship in 2002.
90.
Cho Chikun won the match by 6.5 points, and it became his 62nd title.
91.
Cho Chikun competed in what would be the final edition of the Hayago Championship.
92.
Cho Chikun beat him by resignation, before moving on and beating Yasuhiro Nakano by resignation.
93.
Cho Chikun had never won the tournament before, but had a good record in hayago tournaments.
94.
The third match saw Cho Chikun taking black again, beating O Rissei by resignation.
95.
Cho Chikun had not noticed that it was his move from all the intense concentration of making the right move.
96.
Cho Chikun was known for not doing well in international tournaments, so when he progressed to the quarter-finals of the 8th Samsung Cup, many were surprised.
97.
All were under the age of 21, while Cho Chikun was 47 at the time.
98.
Cho Chikun was lucky, winning by only half a point.
99.
Park won the first game by 4 and a half points, but Cho Chikun came back and took the next two games.
100.
Cho Chikun won his first international title in 12 years, and only his second of all time.
101.
In 2003, Cho Chikun competed in the JAL Super Hayago Championship.
102.
In 2004, Cho Chikun competed in the JAL Super Hayago Championship again.
103.
Cho Chikun found himself in the Judan once more, this time 14 years after his last bid as challenger in 1991 against Masaki Takemiya.
104.
Cho Chikun found himself in a league with old friends and rivals, including Masao Kato, Rin Kaiho, and Yoda Norimoto.
105.
Cho Chikun continued his run, his next opponent being Naoto Hikosaka.
106.
Again holding white, Cho Chikun went on to win by 2 and a half points.
107.
Cho Chikun took white in the game, and won by 1 and a half points.
108.
Cho Chikun won the first game of the 44th Judan against the then newly crowned Kisei, Keigo Yamashita.
109.
Cho Chikun defended the Judan title for the first time since 1989.
110.
Cho Chikun finished the year with 25 wins and 17 losses, tied for 24th highest in Japan.
111.
Cho Chikun starts off the year by winning his first three games.
112.
Cho Chikun reached the final of the 54th NHK Cup by beating Norimoto Yoda in the semi-final.
113.
Cho Chikun is the first modern Nihon Ki-in player to reach 70 career titles.
114.
Cho Chikun won the first game of his second consecutive Judan defense against Keigo Yamashita by resignation.
115.
Cho Chikun won the second game by 2.5 points, while Yamashita won the third game by resignation.
116.
Cho Chikun lost again to Yamashita in the fourth game, before finally clinching the final game by 3.5 points while holding black, and thus keeping the title.
117.
In November 2016,8 months after Lee Sedol was defeated by computer program AlphaGo, Cho Chikun played a 3-game challenge match against program Zen.
118.
Cho Chikun won a close game 1, lost game 2 when his invasion into enemy territory was killed, and won game 3.
119.
Cho Chikun was 60 years ten months at the time and it took him 49 years to achieve the record.
120.
Cho Chikun's best students include Kim Shushun, who is a 7p in Japan and winner of the 30th Shinjin-O title.