Life In 19x19

Any female professional ever reached 9 dan?

Yes, of course. I think probably the best performance by a female pro was Rui Naiwei (9d) winning the Kuksu (A very big Korean tournament) in 2000, beating some of the best players in the world at that time, including Cho Hun-hyeon in the final. She is a bit older now, but still regularly competes in top women's events.

Rui Naiwei, Feng Yun, Park Jieun, and Cho Hye-yeon.

While on topic, have any non-asians ever achieved 9 dan?

teancoffee wrote:While on topic, have any non-asians ever achieved 9 dan?

Michael Redmond from the US is a Japanese 9p.

Are there a lot of non-asian professionals these days? The only one I heard of is Alexander Dinerchtein.

teancoffee wrote:Are there a lot of non-asian professionals these days? The only one I heard of is Alexander Dinerchtein.

According to a recent AGA Poll there have been 15 western professionals:

1: Manfred Wimmer 1978 (Austria/Japan)
2: James Kerwin 1978 (USA/Japan)
3: Michael Redmond 1981 (USA/Japan)
4: Janice Kim 1987 (USA/Korea)
5: Catalin Taranu 1997 (Romania/Japan)
6: Hans Pietsch 1997 (Germany/Japan)
7: Svetlana Shikshina 2002 (Russia/Korea)
8: Alexandre Dinerstein 2002 (Russia/Korea)
9: Diana Koszegi 2008 (Hungary/Korea)
10: Joanne Missingham 2008 (Australia/Taiwan)
11: Mariya Zakharchenko 2012 (Ukraine/Korea)
12: Andy Liu 2012 (USA)
13: Gangsheng Shi 2012 (USA)
14: Calvin Sun 2013 (USA)
15: Francis Meyer 2014 (USA/Japan)

See http://www.usgo.org/news/2014/04/go-qui ... ric-hosts/

And based on comments below about the new CEGO European professional system:

16: Pavol Lisý 2014 (Slovakia/Europe)

Francis Meyer is pro in Japan not Korea.

And there's Pavol Lisy to add soon.

And then you have western pros who passed an asian pro exam, western pros who passed the european/american pro exam and honorary pros.

teancoffee wrote:Are there a lot of non-asian professionals these days? The only one I heard of is Alexander Dinerchtein.

Since last week there's also the first professional of the EGF (European Go Federation): Pavol Lisý (Slovakia, former 7d now 1p)
... with more European pros to be designated soon. See http://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/

Uberdude wrote:Francis Meyer is pro in Japan not Korea.

And there's Pavol Lisy to add soon.

Updated my post.