The answer to this question would vary depending on one’s point of view. Some will say Google’s AlphaGo Zero, and others would name highly ranked Go players in their respective countries. Some might name players who have the most Go titles. If you want to find out who are some of the best Go players in the world, take a look at the list below.
Go ranking systems and how the best Go players are ranked
In the modern Go ranking system, there are typically kyu and dan rankings. Kyu, or student ranks, is typically for beginners and newer players. Similarly, dan ranking is to “master” rank, and there are both amateur dan and professional dan rankings. Amateur ranking typically goes from 30-kyu to 1-kyu, then from 1-dan to 9-dan. For professionals, it goes from 1-dan to 9-dan.
Also, with the development of gadgets such as computers and calculators, rating systems have been also developed, such as ELO and Glicko rating systems. Ratings may help predict the results of a game. Each type of rating system uses different formulas to calculate points to determine the ranking of Go players. Click here to find out more about Go Ratings.
Shin Jin-Seo
He is a South Korean professional Go player of 9 dan rank. Born on 17 March 2000 in Busan, South Korea, he is ranked first in the professional ratings of 2020. He is the first person to hit an ELO rating of 3800.
At the LG cup 2020, he defeated Park Junghwan. He turned 9 dan in 2018, joining the list of 9 dan Go players.
Ke Jie
Many will consider Ke Jie as one of the top Chinese go players with a rank of 9 dan. He was born on 2 August 1997 and started to learn to play Go in 2003 at the age of five. He won his first national championship in 2007 and became a professional Go player in 2015. Since then, he has played many games and won international titles.
In May 2017, Ke Jie played a three-game match against AlphaGo (a computer program that plays the board game Go). In the first game, AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie by half a point. Sadly, he resigned in the second and third games after 186 and 209 moves, respectively.
Park Junghwan
Park Junghwan was born on 11 January 1993. He is a South Korean professional Go player of 9 dan rank. Park become a professional Go player in 2006. In his performance, he was able to defeat the world no.1 Ke Jie in two consecutive tournaments, that is, LG Cup and the Ing Cup.
He has had a total of 676 wins, and 269 loses. At the time of writing, Park ranks number six in the total number of individual titles in Korea and the total number of international titles.
Choi Jeong
Choi Jeong was born on 7 October 1996. She is a South Korean Go professional player with a rank of 9 dan. As of October 2018, she was the highest-ranked female player with an ELO rating of 3344.
Choi Jeong became a professional Go player in 2010. She won female Myungin (Go completion in South Korea)
Yuta Iyama
He was born on 24 May 1989 in Osaka, Japan. He is a professional Go player. In 2016, he became the first player in Japan to hold all the seven major titles simultaneously. He is also the first Go player to receive an award for Japan’s people’s honor.
Closing thoughts on who are the best Go players in the world
As the world of Go is constantly evolving, it is very difficult to say who is the best player in the world. However, we hope you’ll get some insight into the five highly decorated Go players above.
