Since the first year of the 1988 World Go Championship, a total of 121 world first-class competitions have been held, resulting in 45 world champions, and the top five world champions are Lee Chang-ho (17), Lee Sedol (14), Cao Xuan-hyun (9), Gu Li (8), Ke Jie (8), all five of them in addition to Ke Jie, have faded out of the first line of the chess world.
The question is, who is the most prominent, the most powerful, and the strongest of the active world champions? These questions can not be explained in one sentence, nor can they be convincing by the number of world championships alone, but they should be measured from many aspects such as the age of the first crown, the time span, the final opponent, the number of annual championships, the time of the last crown (how long has not won the championship), the maximum age to win the championship and so on.
How is an active world champion defined? My opinion is: for the past two years still fighting in the first line of the World Series. The so-called first line of the world series is the competition in this stage rather than the qualifiers, my classification is the Samsung Cup, lg cup, Ying's Cup, Chunlan Cup, etc. are the world's first-level competitions, the Nongshim Cup Ring, the Korean National Hand Mountain Cup, Japan's strongest chess player battle and so on belong to the world's second-level competition. The world championships referred to in this article are all champions produced by the world's first-class competitions.
Ke Jie and Zhongyi
According to the above standards, the active world champions include South Korea's Park Tinghuan, Shin Jin-chan, Shin Min-hyun, Kim Ji-seok, Won Sung-jin, Jiang Dong-yun and other six-member generals, and China's Ke Jie, Yang Dingxin, Gu Zihao, Xie Erhao, Mi Yuting, Fan Tingyu, Dang Yifei, Tan Xiao, Tang Weixing, Shi Yue, Zhou Ruiyang, Jiang Weijie, Feng Jiaxi, Chen Yaoye and other 14 people, a total of 20.
In terms of the number of world champions, eight-time champion Ke Jie, five-time champion Park Tinghuan, triple-crowned Tang Weixing, triple-crowned chen Yaoye, double-crowned champion Mi Yuting, and double-crowned champion Shin Jin-chan are in the top six, and the others are members of the first crown group. This data, Ke Jie is the first person without controversy.
However, compared with the age of the first crown, Ke Jie and Park Tinghuan can only rank third and fourth, and in front of them are The winner of the seventh Ying's Cup in 2013, Fan Tingyu (16 years old), and the first Dream Lily Cup champion in 2013, Mi Yuting (17 years old). If you talk about the advanced age of the championship, Chen Yaoye is the first, he was 29 years old when he won the first Tianfu Cup in December 2018; Park Tinghuan, who just won the Samsung Cup, ranked second with 28 years old; the third place is Tang Weixing, who was 26 years old when he won the 24th Three Star Cup in September 2019.
Park Ting-hwan nine paragraphs
The first in the time span between the first and last crowns is undoubtedly Park Tinghuan, who won the last Fujitsu Cup in 2011 and has spanned 10 years since the summit of this Samsung Cup. Mi Yuting ranked second with 8 years (2013-2021), Tang Weixing ranked third with 6 years (2013-2019), Ke Jie only had 5 years (2015-2020), Chen Yaoye was also 5 years (2013-2018), and Shen Zhenchen was currently only 1 year old.
Measuring the current level of competition of an active world champion and how long it has been since his last world championship is now, I think it is a reference indicator. If it was the Year of the Monkey and the Moon of the Horse, it could only mean that he lacked the skill and good fortune of seeing the mountains. In this regard, Park Tinghuan, who won the championship the day before yesterday, is obviously the most convincing. They are followed by Shen Zhenchen, Mi Yuting, Shen Minqiu, and Ke Jie. Our first person, Ke Jie, has not been able to stand out for a whole year, and the day after tomorrow's LG Cup quarterfinals, he will meet the strong challenge of park Tinghuan, the champion of the New Branch Three Star Cup, I don't know if he can successfully pass the pass and give himself the opportunity to ascend to the throne.
The final opponent is also a major benchmark for the gold content of the world championship. In my personal judgment, Chen Yaoye is the leader in this regard, and his opponents who have won the cup three times are Li Shishi in the 2013 Chunlan Cup, Ke Jie in the 2016 Lark Cup, and Shen Zhenchen in the 2018 Tianfu Cup. Tang Weixing is also very tough, and his three World Championship finalists are Li Shishi of the 2013 Samsung Cup, Park Tinghuan of the 2016 Ying Cup, and Yang Dingxin of the 2019 Samsung Cup. Eight final opponents of the eight-time champion Ke Jie were Qiu Jun, Shi Yue, Lee Sedol, An Guo-hyun, Feng Jiaxi, Peng Liyao and Shin Jin-chan (2 times), and half of them were not world champions when they fought with each other. The five-time champion Park Tinghuan's opponents are Qiu Jun, Park Yong-hoon (2 times), Kim Ji-seok, and Shin Jin-hyun, and obviously cannot compete with Chen Yao-yeol and Tang Weixing.
Shen Zhenchen nine paragraphs
The number of annual championships and the annual consecutive championship time are both records for the eight-time champion Ke Jie, the former is a one-year double crown, and the latter is 6 years from 2015 to 2020.
Judging comprehensively, Ke Jie is the first candidate in the three aspects of the number of world championships, the number of annual championships and the annual consecutive championship time, and is indeed the leader among many active world champions; Park Tinghuan has two data in the forefront, namely the time span and the time of the recent championship; Chen Yaoye's two firsts, which are the highest age to win the championship and the strongest final opponent.
Again, the one with the most gold content in a single final is undoubtedly South Korea's Shin Min-so, because he defeated the eight-time champion Ke Jie, and Chen Yaoye defeated Ke Jie in the 2016 Lark Cup, when he was only the identity of the triple crown.
The last thing to say is that Ke Jie should not stop at the eight champions, I don't know when he will be able to join the nine champions?