Given the many and varied contributions to the game by so many dedicated, respectable people, the task of selecting the ten who have been most influential in the development of Baduk is daunting. But if, as a practical matter, we limit the field to those who have contributed most to the technical development of Korean Baduk, there is no one who can deny that Cho Nam-chul has been the hero of Korea's rise to become the strongest Baduk nation of the late 20th century. [The reader will note that Cho Nam-chul is the author of the affectionate tribute to Baduk Master Kitani Minoru, and his wife, Mrs. Kitani Maharu, published above. -- editor] Before Cho Nam-chul began the spread of Baduk in Korea,
Baduk was just one among many, miscellaneous and ordinary games. Personally, I prefer to call him Grand Master Cho Nam-chul, but for the sake of at least the appearance of objectivity, I have excluded this honorific here.

There are several ways to evaluate Cho Nam-chul, 9-dan. Although he has not been fully appreciated abroad, a review of 20th century Baduk history demonstrates that Cho Nam-Chul's contributions toward making Korea the center of the worldwide Baduk community were absolutely crucial. When a tree bears fruit, there is always someone who has sown the seed. How could Lee Chang-ho have become the world's top Baduk player without the contribution of Cho Nam-chul? In just fifty years of Korean Baduk history, Cho Nam-chul brought Korea to a level of play it took Japan five centuries to attain.
Cho Nam-chul's father had a passionate desire to teach Baduk as a means of gaining Korean revenge on the Japanese. Turning away from arts like drawing or music, Cho Nam-chul's father chose Baduk because there the winner and the loser are clear. At the age of ten, Cho Nam-chul had the opportunity to play a 7-stone handicap teaching game with Kitani. Soon after, in 1937, Cho Nam-chul went off to Japan as Kitani's first in-house student, where he was especially loved by the family, and treated as a son. Cho Nam-chul became a professional in the Nihon Ki-in in 1941 and returned to Korea in 1944, a year before the liberation from Japanese rule.