Cho Hoon-hyun came back to Korea in 1972 to fulfill his military service obligation. Although it meant an interruption in his studies, the return of Cho Hoon-hyun was an important opportunity for Korean Baduk to make great strides forward. In his home country, Cho Hoon-hyun soon became an outstanding leader in Baduk, winning every important tournament in Korea three times. Cho Hoon-hyun's competitions with his contemporary and rival, Seo Bong-soo, went on for 15 years. The publicity and increasing popularity of Baduk which followed these splendid performances led to the discovery of many new players.

Cho Hoon-hyun's career reached its summit when, as the only Korean player invited to the tournament, he won the first Ing Cup competition in Singapore. The victory shocked Japan and China. These countries had been slow to recognize the strength of Baduk in Korea. A new age of international competition, with three major powers, had begun.
By the 1990s Korean was the clear leader in international Baduk, for reasons all connected with Cho Hoon-hyun: the rapid improvement in Korean Baduk skill and power, the increasing national pride in the game, and the introduction of new players like Lee Chang-ho and Yoo Chang-hyuk. In particular, Cho Hoon-hyun's discovery and training of Lee Chang-ho has been a very important contribution to Korea's international leadership in Baduk. It should be emphasized that Cho Hoon-hyun's outright genius is the basis for all of these contributions. His forty-year record is so splendid that it will never be matched.
His achievements include: becoming a professional at the age of nine, winning every single game he played during the course of a year, (a feat he performed in three separate years), earning146 national titles, winning international Baduk competitions (including the Jinro team competition), and recording the maximum possible number of victories in title competitions (495 wins). In 1982 Cho Hoon-hyun became the first 9-dan in Korea. Finally, he has more than once achieved what has been called the "international Baduk competition cycle hit": winning every international competition in a single period.
In recognition of these accomplishments Fujisawa has called Cho Hoon-hyun "the greatest genius since Wu Qingyuan." Cho Hoon-hyun's remarkable ability has not only supported his own brilliant career, it has contributed inestimably to the development of Korean Baduk. Looking back at the history of Korea's challenge to Japan as the sole leader in theoretical and practical approaches to Baduk, we see again that one talented person certainly can change history.


- by Lee Hong-ryul, Baduk critic