Cho Chi-hun Shows Signs of Revival

“Combative baduk player,” Cho Chi-hun (49, photo) showed signs of revival by gaining the 10 Dan title, one of Japan’s major matches.

Obtaining his 68th title, Cho set a new record of holding the largest number of Japanese professional championship titles.

Cho won the title at the fifth round of the 43rd 10 Dan title against a Chinese 10-dan player, Wang Licheng, by 5/5 after a mere 296 movements. Cho’s total record is three wins and two losses.

Following his title win on that day, Cho completely threw away the distress of garnering no titles in major title matches over the past two years.

Cho, who went to Japan at age six, became a student of Kitani Minoru 9-dan.

After that, Cho started playing baduk in professional matches at 11, and was promoted to 9-dan at the age of 25, while displaying remarkable talents along the way.

Cho set an exceptional record by holding all of the titles from the major seven matches in 1987.

Cho is also called the “25th Honinbo,” after successfully winning his 10th Honinbo title, a historic title.