Janice Kim is an American professional
Go player, author, and business-owner.
Early life and education
Kim was born in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
in 1969 and grew up in
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. She earned a bachelor's degree from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.
Career
As a teenager, she studied Go in
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
under Jeong Soo-hyon.
She represented the U.S. in the first
World Youth Go Championship in 1985, placing second. In 1986, she played for the U.S. again and won the event. In 1987, she became the first westerner to be accepted by the
Korea Baduk Association
The Korea Baduk Association, also known as Hanguk Kiwon (), is the organization that oversees Go (''baduk'') and Go tournaments in South Korea. It was founded in 1945 by Cho Namchul as the ''Hanseong Kiwon''.
Baduk is a game which was present ...
as a pro. She remains one of only five western women ever to attain professional status (with
Joanne Missingham,
Svetlana Shikshina,
Diana Koszegi and
Mariya Zakharchenko).
In 1997, she created Samarkand, an online store for go-related items.
In 2003, she was promoted to a
3-Dan professional Go player, the first female westerner to do so.
Kim is the author of the ''Getting Go'' articles that accompany installments of
Hikaru No Go
is a Japanese manga series based on the board game Go (game), Go, written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The production of the series' Go games was supervised by Go professional Yukari Umezawa. It was serialized in Shueis ...
, a
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
about a boy who releases the spirit of a famous Go player, in the American magazine
Shonen Jump. She also writes occasionally for ''The American Go E-Journal''.
Personal life
Kim lived in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, and
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
before settling in
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. In 2009, she was fourth in the World Poker Tour Women's Poker Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. After retiring from competition she currently teaches Go and has authored more books, most recently Vital Endgame in 2024.
Bibliography
*Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game ()
*Learn to Play Go: Volume II: The Way of the Moving Horse ()
*Learn to Play Go: Volume III: The Dragon Style ()
*Learn to Play Go: Volume IV: Battle Strategies ()
*Learn to Play Go: Volume V: The Palace of Memory ()
*Vital Endgame: The Shape of Things to Come ()
See also
*
American Go Association
The American Go Association (AGA) was founded in 1935, to promote the board game of Go in the United States.
Founded by chess master Edward Lasker and some friends at Chumley's restaurant in New York City, the AGA is one of the oldest Western ...
*
Go professional
A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major Go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion playe ...
*
Go players
This article gives an overview of well-known Go professional, professional and amateur players of the board game Go (game), Go throughout the ages. The page has been divided into sections based on the era in which the Go players played and the ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Janice
1969 births
Living people
American Go players
Go (game) writers
21st-century American women writers
American women non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers