Cho Chikun
Cho Chikun 25th Honinbo ''Honorary Meijin'' 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. Cho is the first in history to win all of the "Top 7" titles in Japan 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.
The beginning (1962–1967)
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. 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. 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.
Breakthrough to shodan (1968–1972)
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. 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.
Victories and defeats (1973–1979)
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. He then took tenth place in the 11th Asahi Pro Best Ten tournament. He was also promoted to 6 dan in 1973 with a good record of 30 wins and 11 losses.His most significant accomplishment of 1974 was qualifying for the 22nd Nihon Ki-in Championship, especially since this came after being beaten out of the Honinbo preliminaries by Takaho Kojima. He beat Kazuo Sometani, Masao Kato, Yoshio Ishida, and Rin Kaiho. His win against Ishida was something strange, as it came a week after Ishida achieved Meijin-Honinbo. He didn't make it past the second game in the 18th Prime Minister Cup, which again went to Kobayashi. He then took revenge on Kobayashi by beating him in the 6th Shin-Ei. He was awarded a Special Merit Prize by Kido magazine after his most impressive record thus far of 33 wins and 9 losses.
His career skyrocketed when Kido magazine named him the Number One Young Player. His power and composure shone through his strong endgame. He 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. This loss fueled him to take the 12th Asahi Pro Best Ten undefeated, which made him look incredibly powerful, as all the opponents were 9-dan. The victory made him the youngest title holder ever in Japan. He lost in the second round of the 30th Honinbo preliminary to Toshihiro Shimamura 9-dan. Even though he had a second chance to take the match against Masao Kato—due to a triple ko—he still lost. He was on a roll in the 1st Tengen league, until he was defeated by Shuzo Ohira. He didn't get far in the rest of the tournaments that year. His spirits were high after he was promoted to 7 dan in late October, only to be crushed a month later when his teacher, Kitani, died. His record was a formidable 39 wins and 16 losses for the year.
1976 was a year of change, especially for Cho. Having to cope with the loss of his teacher, he regained his power and went on to having a very successful year. He began the year by winning the 1st Asahi Top Eight Players tournament. Then the title system was greatly altered—the Asahi Pro Best Ten and Top Eight Players tournaments were disbanded, being replaced by the Kisei and Gosei tournaments. This was unfortunate for Cho, since he couldn't defend his first 2 titles. The Tengen was enhanced after the Nihon Ki-in Championship was combined with the Kansai Ki-in Championship. Now along with the new year, Cho had to win new titles. He won a place in the 2nd Meijin league this year, before failing to get into the 32nd Honinbo league. The hard start of the year got only worse after losing in the 2nd round of the Tengen, and losing in the preliminaries for the 1st Gosei. Things started looking up after he reached the semi-final of the 20th Prime Minister Cup, only to fall after losing in the 2nd round of the 1st Shinjin-O. He then went back to his old self, getting four wins in a row to reach the 26th Oza final. He went on to win his first Oza title, beating Hideo Otake 2–1. He reached the 15th Judan challenger final, where he lost to Eio Sakata. Although having a not so great record in tournaments, he won prizes from Kido for having the highest number of wins and for having the best technique. Along with the 46 wins, he lost 18 times.
1977 was a bad year for Cho. He lost in the preliminaries of the 2nd Meijin league, the 15th Judan, and the 16th Judan. He then lost his only title, the Oza, in November. The only tournament he would win this year was the 8th Shin-Ei, which was followed by another loss to rival Kobayashi in the 2nd Shinjin-O final.
Cho looked much better in 1978. He won the 7-dan section of the 3rd Kisei before being promoted to 8 dan in the summer. He took 3rd place in the Meijin League. Even through some success of the year, he still couldn't make it through the preliminaries of the 33rd Honinbo. He participated in the 16th Judan, the 3rd Tengen, and the 26th Oza preliminaries.
1979 was a year of change for Cho. He finally broke through to the 34th Honinbo finals before doing okay in the 16th Judan and 3rd Tengen leagues. He took the 4th Gosei league and title in August. The year ended on a high, after getting the best Oteai score of the year.
Achieving the peak of his career (1980–1981)
He might have lost his newly won Gosei title, but he won what he was after: the Meijin title. Coincidentally, he won the title from Hideo Otake, who had taken Cho's Gosei the same year. There are rumors that said that Cho vowed that after moving to Japan, he wouldn't return to South Korea until the Meijin title was his. He made his first trip home on the New Year holiday in 1980 at the age of 24. He was a national hero in Korea now. He even played two games with Korean champion Cho Hunhyun. One was a quick Go game, while the other spanned an almost 18 hours over two days. Cho Chikun won both games. After losing both games, Cho Hunhyun vowed that he'd never lose to Cho Chikun again.From 1981 to 2003, Cho Hunhyun never lost to Chikun in all the games they played.
The beginning of the year issue of Kido Magazine had a table of statistics. A summary of his career are shown below.
| Year | Tournament | Oteai | Total |
| 1968 | 4–3 | 8–4 | 12–7 |
| 1969 | 18–6 | 9–3 | 27–9 |
| 1970 | 14–5 | 9–0–1 | 23–5–1 |
| 1971 | 20–5 | 9–0–1 | 29–5–1 |
| 1972 | 22–6 | 8–0 | 30–6 |
| 1973 | 23–10 | 7–1 | 30–11 |
| 1974 | 28–7 | 5–2 | 33–9 |
| 1975 | 33–14–1 | 6–2 | 39–16–1 |
| 1976 | 41–15 | 5–3 | 46–18 |
| 1977 | 28–20 | 5–3 | 33–23 |
| 1978 | 29–13 | 7–1 | 36–14 |
| 1979 | 34–12 | 5–1 | 39–13 |
| 1980 | 38–19 | * | 38–19 |
- Did not participate in Oteai due to reaching 9 dan. 9 dan players do not participate in the Oteai.