Hane Yasumasa has just tied for 5th place in the list of Nihon Ki-in players ranked by number of official career wins. The prompted them to publish to top ten list, which I think will be of interest to some players. This is as of 15 October.

1. Cho Chikun 1553 wins, 868 losses (64.1%)

2. Rin Kaiho 1433 wins, 939 losses (60.4%)

3. Kobayashi Koichi 1420 wins, 763 losses (65.0%)

4. Otake Hideo 1311 wins, 836 losses (61.0%)

5= Kato Masao 1254 wins, 663 losses (65.4%)

5= Hane Yasumasa 1254 wins, 701 losses (64.1%)

7. Yamashiro Hiroshi 1250 wins, 668 losses (65.1%)

8. O Rissei 1218 wins, 700 losses (63.5%)

9. Takemiya Masaki 1199 wins, 762 losses (61.1%)

10. Kobayashi Satoru 1158 wins, 633 losses (64.6%)

These figures exclude jigos etc (Hane had 5 jigos).

Hane is just 76 and will no doubt soon overtake Kato, but it may surprise some people to see that he is ranked equal with Kato even though Kato has a higher win ratio. But wins and wins alone have always been the main criterion in Japanese pro go, and in general reflects a Japanese feeling that attainment is what matters. Not only is the number of failures largely irrelevant, if anything they add lustre to the attainment because it shows you had to try even harder. Rather a refreshing point of view, no? But all part of the notorious Japanese topsy-turvydom.

Older top players such as Go Seigen and Sakata don't appear because there were far fewer tournaments in their day, but some years ago I compiled some figures that showed they, and everyone else who reached the summit in Japanese go, scored around 70% when they were at their own peak. Cho Chikun was one of that A class, so he has so far lost about five percentage points through age or lack of motivation or whatever it is when top players dip (he is 64). [And no he does not hate go - that notorious quote, he has since explained, meant he hated kowtowing to sponsors and all the other mullarkey related to big events.]

The Nihon Ki-in practice of ignoring losses continues in the promotion system. Unless you achieve something major like winning one of the important titles or entering a league or some such, promotion in rank is determined by reaching certain numbers of wins, and the time it takes to reach that level is not important, unless I don't quite understand the current system. Thus, a middle ranked pro, say 5-dan, might be 5-dan for twenty five years before finally accumulating the wins for promotion to 6-dan. By this time the player might be well past his peak and, though accumulating the final wins, might actually be playing at a level below 5-dan.