(The original article was published on Monthly JoongAng, 201407 on June 17 2014. http://jmagazine.joins.com/monthly/view/302309. I extracted some paragraphs from the article.)



[…]



Cho left to Japan in October, 1963. He was only a ten year old boy. He was excited by curiosity about flight and his plan to study high-level baduk in Japan. […] In this period, Korea baduk players who wanted to study in Japan almost always went under Kitani Minoru 9 dan as if it was a rule. At that time, Kitani 9 dan believed Cho would come to his dojo following the implicit rule.

“One day, I visited the house of Segoe 9 dan, who was one of the two pillars of the Japanese baduk community, just to introduce myself. Kim Hee-woon, who was Park Soon-jo’s [1] son’s friend, introduced me to Segoe. Kim was a Korean student studying in japan, and he knew much about Japanese society. He did not know baduk at all, but he knew that Segoe was a kind of big figure. Segoe taught only two pupils, Hashimoto and Wu Qingyuan, but since these two were extraordinarily grave figures, master Segoe was called as the grand teacher of the Japanese Baduk community. He was considered to in a higher position compared to Kitani 9 dan by age and experience. He had such great influence on Japanese culture, politics, and industry. “

Segoe did not run a dojo at that point since he was very old. He did not have any student-in-residence. At first, when Kim Hee-won asked Segoe 9 dan to take Cho Hun-hyun as his student, Segoe refused due to his old age. However, as soon as Segoe met Cho, whose eyes looked brilliant, Segoe brought a baduk-board and tested Cho’s level. The test match started with a three stone handicap. The boy, playing black with three stones on the board, attacked the white group in the beginning, reduced it to the corner, and quickly won.

“Huh, it is hard to plan out this match!” Segoe 9 dan easily admitted his defeat and collected stones. “Can we try with a two stone handicap?” Observers were very surprised by Segoe 9 dan’s suggestion. Segoe was well-known to be strict, and he played less than one test match a year. Even in the second match, the boy was not intimidated at all playing a two stone handicap game. Hun-hyun’s fast play mesmerized the old man. The boy won again, and Segoe decided to take the boy as a student-in-residence. Segoe told people around, “I will take care of this boy in my house from today until I die.”

[1] Cho Hun-hyun’s sponsor in japan