Lee Sedol

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Lee Sedol

Full name	Lee Sedol
Hangul	이세돌
Hanja	李世乭
Revised Romanization	I Sedol
McCune- Reischauer	I Sedol
Date of birth	February 3, 1983 (age 24)
Place of birth	, South Korea
Residence	South Korea
Teacher	Kwan Kab Ryong
Turned pro	1986
Rank	9 dan
Affiliation	Hanguk Kiwon

Lee Sedol (Yi Se-tol or Lee Sedol, born on February 3, 1983) is a South Korea professional Go player of 9-dan rank.

1 Biography
2 Promotions & Career Record
3 Titles and runners-up
4 Trivia
5 External link
6 See also

Lee is known to be a risk-taker who reads very carefully. A very strong player, he reached the highest rank of order, 9 dan, when he was only 21 years old. He was a prodigy, which could be seen when he turned professional at the tender age of 12. He would have a rocky start to his career, as it took him 3 years to reach 2 dan. His career started to accelerate when he was promoted to 3 dan in 1999. In 2000, he had an exuberant 32 game winning streak. After his impressive run, he won his first title, the 5th Chunwon (equivalent to the Tengen title in Japanese Nihon-Kiin). He was becoming famous in Korea, and given the nickname "Boy, the Unbeatable". He had done all this at only 17 years of age. The Hanguk Kiwon changed its promotion rules in 2003. It would allow giving more credit to the players who were doing well at the time. Lee Sedol saw this and took it as a chance to move up the ranks, which he did. In that same year, he moved from 6 dan to 9 dan. This happened after he won the 7^th LG Cup over fellow Korean baduk player Lee Chang-ho, and came in second place in the 2^nd KT Cup. Add another title, the Fujitsu Cup, and now Lee Sedol is among the top players, not just in his age group, but in the world.

Rank	Year	Notes
1 dan	1995	Promoted to professional dan rank after passing qualifying test.
2 dan	1998
3 dan	1999
4 dan	2003
5 dan	2003
6 dan	2003	Won the LG Cup against Lee Chang-ho.
7 dan	2003	Runner up in the KT Cup against Yoo Changhyuk.
8 dan	2003	Skipped over because of the Hanguk Kiwon promotion rules.
9 dan	2003	Won Fujitsu Cup against Song Tae Kon.

Year	Record	%
1995	6-6
1996	33-21
1997	55-20
1998	40-16
1999	47-20
2000	74-20
2001	53-25
2002	53-28
2004	43-23
2005	61-21	74%
2006	74-28	73%

Ranks #7 in total amount of titles in Korea.

Title	Years Held
Current	9
GS Caltex Cup	2006
Chunwon	2000
KBS Cup	2006
Prices Information Cup	2006
BC Card Cup	2002
SK Gas Cup	2002
Maxim Cup	2005 - 2007
Defunct	4
LG Refined Oil Cup	2002
Baedalwang	2000
Paedal Cup	2000
KTF Cup	2002
Continental	1
China-Korea New Pro Wang	2002
International	7
LG Cup	2003
Samsung Cup	2004
Fujitsu Cup	2002, 2003, 2005
World Oza	2004, 2006

Title	Years Lost
Current	4
Wangwi	2002, 2004
KBS Baduk Wang	2001
Chunwon	2006
SK Gas Cup	2000
Defunct	1
KT Cup	2003
Continental	1
China-Korea Tengen	2001
International	2
LG Cup	2001
Zhonghuan Cup	2005