15
We have our Seven Ages of Man. Orientals are more familiar with the five ages of Confucius. In Book 2 of his Analects, he is reported as saying:
At fifteen, I set my mind on study. At thirty, I had become established. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I understood what Heaven required of me. At sixty, my ears were obedient [to the truth]. At seventy, I could follow my heart's desires without transgressing the proprieties.
As you can see, he obviously lived a long time and apparently kept his marbles intact, though he slagged off go rather than embracing it. But at least he knew from an early age that it was good to keep his mind active. Since that is what seems to promote a healthy old age, we will start there.
All these Confucian ages are known by a shorthand of two characters taken from the Analects text. The desire to study at 15 is known as 志学 (shigaku in Japanese).
In modern go, 15 may sometimes seem like decrepitude, but although young 1-dans seem to
knock over 9-dans almost every day, it's actually rather rare for a teenager to win an event
- and very rare to do it the age of 15. Yi Ch'ang-ho, born in July 1975 won the 34th Kuksu
in October 1990, against no less than his teacher Cho Hun-hyeon (and 3-0 at that).
It was not actually Yi's first title - he won the KBS Cup the year before - but the Kuksu was a major title, and winning it was one of the most staggering achievements ever in go. It perhaps did not get the acknowledgement it deserved, since Korea at the time was not so prominent in world go, but it was no fluke by Yi. In that year (1990) he posted his best ever annual score of 78-12, an unprecedented win-loss ratio of 86.7%.
He went even further the following year, winning his first world title in January 1992, while he was still 16. He beat Rin Kaiho in the 3rd Tong Yang Cup. Now, at the age of 31 and "well established", he is a grand old man of go and is giving back to the game. The upcoming 1st Prime Minister's Cup for world amateurs will be held in October 2006 in Jeonju City, where Yi was born. Yi is therefore giving a cup of his own for one of the side events.
We once asked Cho Hun-hyeon what made Yi so special. His answer could be summed up in two characters: 志学 - "I set my mind on study."
This pair dominate Korean go. Even now Cho Hun-hyeon leads with 157 titles, and during most of his career there were fewer titles to be won than there are now. But Yi is catching up, with 131. Next in the list is Seo Pong-su on 30. Even Yi Se-tol only has 14, though it has been said that he does not study as hard as his talents merit...