The road to the top is difficult. Cho loses the only title he has late 1977 (the Oza). That will be the content of this chapter, until his first win of a 'big one', the Meijin title in 1980.
No, it was not such a good year.
Games: [1977]
Games: [1978]
Games: [1979]
1980 is the peak of the first phase of Cho's career . Even though he loses the Gosei to Otake, he finally achieves his ambition to win a big title, in this case the Meijin (against Otake again). 'Finally' may seem a strange word for a 24 year old, but the story goes that after coming to Japan as a six year old, Cho made a vow that he would not make a trip home to Korea until he had won the Meijin title. That may or may not be true, but he did make his first trip home at the New Year of 1980/81, where he was greeted as a national hero. During the visit he played two games with the Korean champion Cho Hun Hyen. One was a serious two-day game (nine hours each), the other was a TV quick Go. Cho Chikun won both.
Games: [1980]
The January 1981 Kido Magazine featured an in-depth review of Cho's career, including some impressive statistics. In fact, there is a complete list in that issue of all the professional games he played until Nov. 30, 1980. The following table summarizes the results per year.
| Year | Tournament | Oteai | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 4-3 | 8-4 | 12-7 |
| 1969 | 18-6 | 9-3 | 27-9 |
| 1970 | 14-5 | 9-0-1 | 23-5-1 |
| 1971 | 20-5 | 9-0-1 | 29-5-1 |
| 1972 | 22-6 | 8-0 | 30-6 |
| 1973 | 23-10 | 7-1 | 30-11 |
| 1974 | 28-7 | 5-2 | 33-9 |
| 1975 | 33-14-1 | 6-2 | 39-16-1 |
| 1976 | 41-15 | 5-3 | 46-18 |
| 1977 | 28-20 | 5-3 | 33-23 |
| 1978 | 29-13 | 7-1 | 36-14 |
| 1979 | 34-12 | 5-1 | 39-13 |
| 1980 | 38-19 | - | 38-19 |
| total | 332-135-1 | 83-20-2 | 415-155-3 |
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