Lee Chang-ho

Infobox Go player
playername=Lee Chang-ho


fullname=Lee Chang-ho
hangul=이창호
hanja=李昌鎬
revisedromanization=I Chang-ho
mccunereischauer=Yi Ch'ang-ho
dateofbirth=birth date and age|1975|7|29
cityofbirth=
countryofbirth=South Korea
residence=flagicon|South Korea South Korea
teacher=Cho Hunhyun
turnedpro=1986
rank=9 dan
affiliation=Hanguk Kiwon

Lee Chang-ho (born on July 29, 1975) is a South Korean professional Go player of 9-dan rank. He is regarded by many as one of the strongest modern Go players. He was a student of Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan. He is the only player who has won all eight international competitions at least one time each.

Biography

He turned pro in 1986 at the young age of 11. By the time of the early 1990s, he would start winning titles that his teacher, Cho had won. By 1992 Lee already won his first international title, which was the 3rd Tong Yang Cup. No other Go player comes close to his international title record. Lee has won all of the international Go tournaments at least twice, excluding the World Oza and Ing Cup, which are held every two and four years, respectively. He is only the second player to record a "Grand Slam." The first was Cho Hunhyun. In 2006, Lee won the Wangwi title for the eleventh straight year. His teacher, Cho Hunhyun, holds the record for the most successive domestic titles with sixteen consecutive Paewang titles. Ma Xiaochun has the second-most successive domestic titles with thirteen Mingren titles.

Style

"Stone Buddha" is one of Lee's many nicknames. It derives from the fact that he always keeps a straight face and never smiles or frowns during a match. The nickname reflects his playing style as well. His reading ability is among the best in the world. He does not attack much and never plays "wild Go." He usually wins by making the opponents think they are winning. This is because he never kills large groups or makes a move that decides the match. Lee's power was never seen by pros in the beginning of his career. He is not like Honinbo Shusaku; he never makes big moves or surprises with amazing play.

The Disciple Overcomes The Master

It was said by Lee's first teacher that he would always try to play brilliantly. That was until he became Cho Hunhyun's student. Cho did not think Lee's talent was of a high level, seeing as how he could not even re-create a game he played against Cho. Lee fell short of expectations in Cho's assessment. Although he did not have the conventional wisdom of a Go genius, his deep reading and study abilities were of a different level. Lee stopped his attempts at playing brilliant moves and started playing more "common" moves instead. Lee often toys with opponents by playing a normal move that would help him read moves ahead, rather than a brilliant move where he could not read ahead as well. It has been said that Lee's style of play in his early career was to only beat his teacher. He was not as effective against other top players as he was against his teacher. This is one of the reasons why he was underestimated so much by other players, such as Cho Chikun. His playing style would go on to be effective against anyone. Instead of taking the style of his teacher's natural brilliance and quick thinking, he chose magnificent calculation and deep reading. Many are still unimpressed by Lee's style of Go, as it seems too simple.

Current

Over the years, Lee's style of play has been broken down. Even Cho Chikun said that Lee Sedol would eventually pass Chang-ho because Chang-ho's style is no longer guaranteed due to the new generation of players. He has had to resort to abandoning his old style and improvising play against these new players. When asked if Lee's era was over, his teacher Cho Hunhyun simply replied, "No." He continued, saying that Lee Sedol is just someone who has finally fit the description of a rival for Chang-ho. He also said that both will battle many times and in the coming years the smoke will settle and one of them will come out on top.

After losing the 10th Samsung Cup to Luo Xihe, Lee came back and took the newly made Sibdang Cup against Park Young-Hoon. This was payback to Park, who had beat Lee in the 1st Prices Information Cup. Lee also won the 49th edition of Korea's oldest title, the Guksu. Unlike himself, Lee failed Korea thrice in international tournaments for 2006. First in the Nongshim Cup, then in the newly created Kangwon-Land Cup, and finally in the Asian TV Cup. This is a change for Lee, considering he has won 17 international tournaments over the past 14 years. In the final match of the 11th Samsung Cup, Lee lost 0-2 to Chang Hao of China. This was the second year in a row Lee lost the Samsung Cup.

In March 2007 the barely 19-year-old Yun Junsang beat title holder Lee Chang-ho 3-1 for the 50th Guksu title, but Lee got his revenge in July, beating Yun 3-2 to retain his Wangwi title.

Although not having had a successful year internationally, he was the highest earner in South Korea for 2006. [ [http://gobase.org/reading/trivia/?id=ranking2006 GoBase.org - Go Trivia: Hankuk Kiwon: prize money and ranking 2006 ] ]

Titles & runners-up

Ranks #2 in total amount of titles in Korea.

ee also

*Go players
*List of Koreans
*List of Korea-related topics

References

External links

* [http://www.leechangho.com Official website] ko icon
* [http://gogame.info/samples/16/index.html Interview]
* [http://senseis.xmp.net/?YiChangHo Sensei's Library page]

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