A list of well-known champion players of the game of go:
- Dosaku (1645-1702) Greatest player of the Edo period.
- Honinbo Shusaku (1829-1862) 本因坊秀策 Greatest player of the 19th century - the "golden age" of go.
- Shuei (1854-1907) 17th and again 19th head of the Honinbo house. Very active and innovative in the 1890s.
- Shusai (1874-1940) The last inheritor of "Honinbo" title, and founder of the Nihon Ki-in.
- Go Seigen (born 1914) 呉清源 (Wu Qingyuan in Chinese), is considered the greatest player of the 20th century.
- Kitani Minoru (1909-1975) Great friend and rival to Go Seigen. Go and Kitani were the vanguard of the Shin-fuseki or "New Opening", a great advance in go theory
- Sakata Eio (born 1920) 坂田栄男 "Razor Sakata", the "Master of myoushu" (brilliant move) former longtime holder of most championship titles with 64.
- Rin Kaiho (born 1942)
- Kato Masao (born 1947) 加藤正夫 Master of attack style.
- Yoda Norimoto (born 1966) 依田紀基
- Ishida Yoshio (born 1948) 石田芳夫 Youngest ever Honinbo winner and one of the strongest players of the 1970s. TV commentator.
- Takemiya Masaki (born 1951) 武宮正樹 Famous for his 'cosmic style', aiming for territory in the center of the board rather than the sides
- Kobayashi Koichi (born 1952) 小林光一 Third most titles with 55.
- Cho Hunhyun (born 1953) (조훈현 ; 曺薰鉉) Perhaps the second strongest player in the world, after his former pupil Lee Changho.
- Cho Chikun (born 1956) (조치훈 ; 趙治勳 Cho Chihun in Korean)Among the best players of the last century - passed Sakata in late 2002 for most titles with 66.
- O Rissei (born 1958)
- Rui Naiwei (born 1963) First woman to attain rank of 9-dan
- Michael Redmond (born 1963) First non-Asian (American) to attain rank of 9-dan. TV commentator.
- Yoo Changhyuk (born 1966) (유창혁 ; 劉昌赫) Third strongest in the world.
- Yi Chang-ho (born 1975) (이창호 ; 李昌鎬) Yi Chang-ho is generally considered the strongest player in the world. His name is commonly written Lee Changho
- Yamashita Keigo 山下敬吾 (born 1978)
- Zhang Xu 張栩 (born 1980) (Cho U in Japanese)
- Lee Sedol (born 1983) (이세돌) In 2003 "Yi Se-tol" became the youngest 9-dan pro in history. He is considered one of the top few players in the world.
- Ma Xiaochun (马晓春) One of the top players in China in late 1990s.
- Chang Hao (常昊)
- Nie Weiping (聂卫平) World's top player in the 1980s.
