Rin Kaiho

Infobox Go player
playername=Rin Kaiho


fullname=Rin Kaiho
chinese=林海峰
pinyin=Lín Hǎifēng
dateofbirth=birth date and age|1942|5|6
cityofbirth=flagicon|ROC Shanghai
countryofbirth=China
residence=flagicon|Japan Tokyo, Japan
teacher=Go Seigen
rank=9 dan
affiliation=Nihon Ki-in; Tokyo branch

Rin Kaiho (Chinese: 林海峰; Pinyin: Lín Hǎifēng; born on May 6, 1942) is a professional Go player.

Biography

Rin Kaiho was born in Shanghai, China. He was a student of Go Seigen when Go brought him to Japan in 1952. 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 Meijin 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 36, ranking him 4th of all time on the total number of titles list. 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. [http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/topics2006/brandnew-e.htm] Rin currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, but maintains Republic of China citizenship.

Promotion record

Promotion record
1 dan
1955

2 dan
1955

3 dan
1957

4 dan
1958

5 dan
1959

6 dan
1960

7 dan
1962

8 dan
1965

9 dan
1967

Titles & runners-up

Ranks #5 in total number of titles in Japan.

Trivia

*Rin is Honorary Tengen.
*He needs to win the Kisei tournament and he will have won all 7 major Japanese titles.
*In 1968 he became the second player to hold the Meijin and Honinbo titles at the same time.×Starting in 1964, Rin had entered the Meijin League and remained in the league (including being the Meijin title holder) for 39 consecutive years, which is a historical record for all Go tournaments in Japan.
*In 2007 Lee Changho mentioned to the media that Rin is his most respected professional Go player for his respectable personality.
*His students are Cho U, Rin Kanketsu, and Rin Shien.

External links

* [http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Rin%20Kaiho GoBase Profile]
* [http://senseis.xmp.net/?RinKaiho Sensei's Library Profile]