Rin Kaiho Explained

Rin Kaiho
Fullname:Rin Kaiho
Chinese:林海峰
Pinyin:Lín Hǎifēng
Birth Date:6 May 1942
Birth Place:Shanghai, China
Residence:Tokyo, Japan
Teacher:Go Seigen
Rank:9 dan
Affiliation:Nihon Ki-in
Tokyo branch

Rin Kaihō or Lin Haifeng (; born May 6, 1942) is a professional Taiwanese Go player who made his name in Japan. He is, along with Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi, Otake Hideo, Takemiya Masaki and Kato Masao, considered one of the 'Six Supers' who dominated the Japanese Go world in the last three decades of the twentieth century.

Biography

Rin Kaiho was born in Shanghai, China and moved to Taiwan after the second world war. He learned go from his older brother, and later was a student of Go Seigen when Go brought him to Japan in 1952.[1] He was a promising player who won his first title at the age of 23, the Meijin. He is also part of the 1200 win group. Rin's rise to fame came in 1965 when he challenged Sakata Eio for his Meijin title. Rin, at the time, was still only 23 and critics thought he would stand no chance against the then powerful Sakata. Even Sakata himself said that no Go player under the age of thirty should be Meijin. However, Rin put up a great fight and won the Meijin title. Rin would continue winning the Meijin on different occasions, along with the Honinbo, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His number of titles currently is 34, ranking him 7th of all time on the total number of titles list, tied with Norimoto Yoda. Rin has been on a dry spell of titles lately, with the last time he even challenged for one being in 2001, for the Meijin. Rin became the first professional in Nihon Ki-in history to reach 1,300 career wins. He won the game against Nobuaki Anzai on October 19, 2006 in a preliminary match for the 32nd Kisei.[2] Rin currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, but remains a citizen of Taiwan.

Titles and runners-up

Ranks #8-t in total number of titles in Japan.

Domestic
Title Wins Runners-up
3 (1980, 1982, 1984)
8 (1965–1967, 1969, 1971–1973, 1977) 8 (1968, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1987, 1991, 1994, 2001)
5 (1968–1970, 1983-1984) 6 (1967, 1971-1972, 1974, 1979, 1985)
5 (1989–1993) 2 (1994, 1996)
1 (1973) 3 (1966, 1974, 1986)
1 (1975) 3 (1976, 1978, 1989)
1 (1994) 2 (1993, 1995)
1 (1994)
3 (1970, 1974, 1978) 1 (1987)
1 (1989) 2 (1986, 1995)
1 (1967)
3 (1979, 1992, 1998)
3 (1975, 1984, 1987) 2 (1990, 1995)
3 (1966, 1973-1974) 1 (1969)
Total 34 34
Continental
2 (1990-1991) 3 (1992–1994)
Total 2 3
International
1 (1990) 2 (1988-1989)
1 (1992)
Total 1 3
Career total
Total 37 40

Trivia

External links

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Book: Iwamoto, Kaoru . 1972 . The 1971 Honinbo Tournament . Kiseido Publishing Company. Introduction to chapter 9 . 4-906574-07-6.
  2. Web site: News & Topics . 2007-01-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070118191525/http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/topics2006/brandnew-e.htm . 2007-01-18 .