Professionals, known also as Pros, are Go Players who passed the Professional Exam to become one. Most of them studied first at Go Institution as an Insei from there, as Class 1 students.
Pro Exam[]
Requirements[]
To take the Pro Exam Participate must partake in the First round. Only Insei from Class 1 can take the exam and insei from the top 8 automatically past the First Round. Although Hikaru was at 7th place when he took the exam, only the Top 8 from the last 6 month automatically pass, and Hikaru had to take the prelim. A non insei can also participate, but only people under 30 years old. Once a person reaches 30 they are no longer obliged to take the pro exam, such as Tsubaki.
Process and Outcome[]
The Pro Exam is a Round robin tournament.
Only three can past the Pro Exam, usually those with the most wins. However there are many strong player such as Isumi who didn't pass and took the exam so many times. He fails mostly due to not being able to control his emotions while playing and being affected by pressure. Players such Mashiba were able to pass even though Isumi was much stronger then Mashiba. Another example is where Honda who had 6 losses managed to pass due to Isumi and Kadowaki taking all the wins, as Isumi did not gain an single lost when he took the exam as a outsider and Kadowaki only lost to Isumi.
List of Professionals[]
Japanese[]
- Koyo Toya (Meijin, retired)
- Kuwabara (Honinbo)
- Seiji Ogata (Judan)
- Zama (Oza)
- Ichiryu (Kisei)
- Shigeo Morishita (9 dan)
- Shinoda (9 dan)
- Hiroshi Mizokuchi (9 dan)
- Hagiwara (9 dan)
- Atsushi Kurata (7 dan)
- Michio Shirakawa (7 dan)
- Gokiso (5 dan)
- Koji Saeki (4 dan)
- Hiroyuki Ashiwara
- Chieko Sakurano
- Yoshikawa
- Nogi sensei
- Akira Toya (3 dan)
- Kosuke Ochi (2 dan)
- Yoshitaka Waya (2 dan)
- Shinichi Murakami (2 dan)
- Mitsuru Mashiba (2 dan)
- Hikaru Shindo (1 dan)
- Kiyoharu Yashiro (1 dan)
- Shinichiro Isumi (1 dan)
- Tatsuhiko Kadowaki (1 dan)
- Toshinori Honda (1 dan)
Korean[]
- Kim Kang-Il (9 dan)
- An Daesun (8 dan)
- Yongha Ko (3 dan)
- Ilhwan Im
- Ko Yong-Ha
- Suyong Hong (2 dan)
Chinese[]
- Yang Hai (8 dan)
- Lu Li
- Wang Shizhen (4 dan)
- Zhao Shi (3 dan)
References[]
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Japan | Hikaru Shindo • Akira Toya • Koyo Toya • Seiji Ogata • Yoshitaka Waya • Shinichiro Isumi • Kosuke Ochi • Toshinori Honda • Tatsuhiko Kadowaki • Shigeo Morishita • Kuwabara • Zama • Michio Shirakawa • Hiroyuki Ashiwara • Atsushi Kurata • Kiyoharu Yashiro |
Korea | An Daesun • Suyong Hong • Yongha Ko |
China | Yang Hai • Lu Li • Wang Shizhen • Zhao Shi |