Cho Hun-hyeon

Korean spelling
Hangeul	조훈현
Hanja	曺 薰 鉉
Revised Romanization	Jo Hunhyeon
McCune- Reischauer	Cho Hunhyon
See also : Korean name

Cho Hun-hyeon (born March 10, 1953 in Mokpo ) is a South Korean Go professional.

Cho Hun-hyeon became the youngest go pro of all time at the age of nine. At the age of eleven he traveled to Japan , where the conditions for the game of go were better at that time. Under his teacher Segoe Kensaku , he became one of the most hopeful talents in Japan.

In 1972 he came back to Korea because of conscription, where, after some initial difficulties, he managed to dominate the Go scene there. In 1975 he won his first title against the strongest Korean player at the time, Kim In . Until about 1990 he remained the leading player in Korean Go, only Seo Bong-soo could inflict a few defeats on him. In 1981 he received his 9th Dan doctorate.

In 1983 he accepted Yi Chang-ho , who is currently the strongest player in the world, as a student.

In 1988 he won the first Ing Cup , an international tournament held every four years, the victory of which is worth $ 400,000. This success made him a national hero and gave the Korean Go enormous prestige, which until then had been rated as weaker than the Japanese or the Chinese.

From the late 1980s, however, Korean young stars such as Yu Chang-hyeok or his student Yi Chang-ho began to compete with him increasingly. Yi Chang-ho in particular was able to inflict severe defeats on him from the early 1990s. From this time on, Yi Chang-ho was no longer considered the strongest player in Korea, but Cho.

Nevertheless, he was able to celebrate countless national and international successes up to 2003, which is astonishing especially because of his old age. With increasing age, his game became more and more aggressive and combative, which earned him the nickname "God of War". Until about 2002 he was considered the second strongest player in Korea, but in the 21st century he had to make way for younger players such as Lee Sedol , Choi Cheol-han , Song Tae-gon and Pak Young-hun .

successes

• eight international titles (only surpassed by his student Yi Chang-ho ) and around 160 national titles (world record).

Web links

• Interview at Koreafocus.or.kr (English)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Cho is the family name here, Hun-hyeon is the first name.