Comprehensive list of Pro players' nicknames?

I am curious if there is a list anywhere on the internet of known nicknames of professional players, nicknames like “The Stone Buddha” and “The Angel of Death” always intrigued me and made me want to look into games, and it made me think that a list of known nicknames of pros would be an interesting way to find certain types of games and certain types of pro players. I tried searching sensei.xmp.net and didn’t find anything. Does anyone know if such a list exists?

Thanks

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AFAIK most pros are known by their proper name and it’s the exception rather than the rule for a pro to have some kind of interesting nick name

That’s true, but I have heard quite a few in passing that I don’t even remember anymore, I wish there was some list for the ones that are well known. The number might be surprising, especially if there was help from someone who speaks other languages who could help share/translate them.

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Honestly, the only source I’ve ever found for such things is Nick Sibicky videos on YouTube…

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You could start by just searching the word nickname on Sensei’s library. It doesn’t bring up one particular article, but some where the word nickname is used.

I don’t know and don’t particularly want to fact check all the nicknames myself but it could be a good start. (I’m sure being able to speak/read chinese, japanese, korean would help - as opposed to relying on only english translations/commentary.)

For instance on https://senseis.xmp.net/?SakataEio they say " He was called, the Inventor of Myoshu by Go Seigen and nicknamed, ‘the razor’ because of his fierce and brilliant moves during complex fights." - and it’s also mentioned him as “Razor-Sharp” Sakata in “Killer of Go” the book.

Kato Masao was supposedly known as (the) “Killer” according to wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masao_Kato, and nick sibicky and I thought I read something like this in a book too.

There’s other random things in senseis threads like here

“Takagawa Shukaku, in the fourth game of his ninth straight defense [sic] of the Honinbo title against Fujisawa Shuko (1960).
Takagawa, who was nicknamed “Wily Old Fox” (because he was believed to deliberately play bad moves every now and then to confuse the opponent)…”

I think in order to compile a list either trying to search through articles/profiles of players on sensei’s library, on wikipedia and looking at people reviewing their games (people who add in some background to the player preferably) might be the starting point.

There’s also a list of go players, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Go_players , which includes some nicknames for Eio Sakata, Masao Sugiuchi, and Masao Kato.

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Well, in that case, you’ll have to make one, @Safari_Atari no other way around it.

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Here’s also one I just spotted randomly in a video (I wouldn’t have paid attention only for this thread).

Choi Cheol Han is supposedly nicknamed the “poisonous snake”. Wikipedia says his nickname is “The Viper” so it could be a translation thing.

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You can google some of them. Translating nicknames can be pretty difficult though. Also, nicknames can change over time.

  1. Otake Hideo 美学 (Aesthetics)
  2. Rin Kaiho 二枚腰 (posture in which the legs are firmly planted in sumo and judo)
  3. Ishida Yoshio コンピュータ (Computer)
  4. Takemiya Masaki 宇宙流 (Cosmic style)
  5. Kato Masao 殺し屋 (Killer)
  6. Sakata Eio カミソリ (Razor)
  7. Takagawa Kaku タヌキ (Tanuki)
  8. Kitani Minoru 怪童丸 (Prodigy, apparently)
  9. Hashimoto Utaro 火の玉宇太郎 (Fireball Utaro, sounds exciting)
  10. Kajiwara Takeo ドリル戦法 (Drilling tactics)
  11. Ohira Shuzo ハンマー (Hammer)
  12. Miyashita Hidehiro 福島の猛牛 (The Fighting Bull of Fukushima)
  13. Kudo Norio 眠狂四郎 (???)
  14. Awaji Shuzo ロッキー (Rocky)
  15. O Meien 中年の星 (???)
  16. O Rissei 立誠マジック (Rissei Magic)
  17. Cho Chikun 七番勝負の鬼 (something like seven-game devil?)
  18. Hane Yasumasa 中京のダイヤモンド (Diamond of Chukyo)
  19. Komatsu Hideki 熱血親分 (???)
  20. Yamashiro Hiroshi 浸透流 (???)
  21. Yamada Kimio ぶんぶん丸 (???)
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This is the “sleepy-eyed rônin”, a reference to Nemuri Kyōshirō - Wikipedia.

A reference to his “great comebacks” where he came back from 0-3 to win 4-3 multiple times.

Something like “Hot-blooded boss”? According to the dictionnary, 親分 is used for the head of a crime syndicate or the like…

Something like “The penetrating flow”, I guess an image of a river that cannot be stopped.

ぶんぶん seems to be onomatopoeia for shaking or the habit of tapping one’s finger or feet on a surface. So I guess an idiomatic translation could be “A ball of nerves”.

Forgot this one. 中年 is middle-age, so i guess it is a reference to the fact that he got his titles when he was around 40.

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I don’t think number 17 is correct but still pretty close I don’t know Japanese but I do know some Chinese words so I think a even closer meaning will be (to be filled when I am free)good job getting close to the meaning though

It might be the case that some of he Wikipedia pages for players include a nickname too

Full name Cho Hunhyun
Nickname The God of War

According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Hun-hyun

Found here three nicknames. Probably already covered by @S_Alexander

Maybe make that list into a wiki, so that we can add names is a good option?

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Japanese streams now put nicknames on certain stream thumbnails. You can see on the right Cosmic Style vs Computer.

And apparently Ueno Asami is the hammer girl. Because her go looks like she’s swinging a hammer.

image

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Professional Player Usernames on Fox Go Server: Professional Player Usernames on Fox Go Server • Life In 19x19

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^^

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Viktor Lin made a blog post on this topic in 2012 – Pros’ Nicknames According to Chinese Poker Cards.

Professional Nickname
Nie Weiping Go Saint
Fujisawa Hideyuki World’s Number One of First Fifty Moves
Otake Hideo Cosmetic Player
Rin Kaiho Two Waists (?)
Chang Hao Duck
Takagawa Kaku Fox
Yoda Norimoto Tiger
Park Yeonghun Half Point Prince
Zhou Heyang Economic Husband (?)
Xie He Xie Saint
Gu Li Ancient Great Force
Cho Hunhyun Gentle Wind Fast Gun
Kong Jie Little Beauty
Yu Ch’ang-hyeok World’s Number One Attacker
Kato Masao Stone Amputator
Chen Zhude Chinese Fuseki
Choi Cheolhan Venomous Snake
Liu Xiaoguang Nemesis (?)
Rui Naiwei Witch that Paints the Board
O Rissei Assassin
Cao Dayuan Little Zhuge *
Hu Yaoyu China Hero
Sakata Eio Razor
Cho Chikun Digging Mole
Kobayashi Koichi Subway Style
Kitani Minoru Sacred Boy Dumpling (??)
Yu Bin Washing Machine
Zhou Junxun Red-faced King
Ishida Yoshio Computer (Electronic Calculator)
Wang Xi Rapid Cannon
Qiu Jun King of Polishing
Lee Sedol Little Lee Shuriken / Flying Knife
Takemiya Masaki Cosmic Style
Ma Xiachun Demonic Sword
Cho U Veda Days (?)
Lou Xihe Divine Pig
Kobayashi Satoru Basicist School Player (?)
Liu Xing Beauty Guy
Hashimoto Utaro Genius Utaro
Iyama Yuta Golden Boy
Lee Changho Stone Buddha
Go Seigen Saint of Shuwa

(* “Zhuge Liang, one of the greatest strategists and scholars in Chinese history, his uncommonly two-charactered family name is synonymous with intelligence and strategy”)

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Great to know! thanks

I just discovered this gigantic list of nicknames by pros on Foxy:

https://www.h-eba.com/Lizzie/foxgo.html

maybe not entirely on-topic, but this seemed like the best place to link it.

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