Yeong-ha Ko

A 16-year-old prodigious Korean Go player who is internationally considered Korea's finest young professional. Despite his age he's played in the fifth round of the prestigious Kuksu title (the equivalent of the Honinbo title in Korea) and is later selected to be the Korean captain in the Hokuto cup. He's a friend of Hong Suyong, who admires his strength and hard works and looks up to him like an older brother. However, he's also rather outspoken, arrogant and childish, as regarded by Suyong's uncle, the kind "who will react to attitude with attitude". He's frequently seen reading a notebook of game records. Prior to the Hokuto cup, Yeong-ha was interviewed by a Japanese journalist and his comments on contemporary Japanese Go (which were none too laudatory), owing to a translation error, were mistaken to be derisive towards Honinbo Shusaku, the legendary Japanese Go player. Hikaru was outraged upon hearing this, and later requested that Suyong clarify the matter, only to have his misunderstanding publicly affirmed by Yeong-ha himself (who was provoked by Hikaru's hostility and wanted a payback). This eventually prompted Shindo to sit as First Board against Yeong-ha in the game between the Korea and Japan teams. Yeong-ha barely managed to win only by half a moku and inwardly acknowledged Hikaru's strength, but out of what others consider childish obstinacy still refused to rescind his previous provocations. In the Hokuto cup, Yeong-ha is 1st board of Korea against Lu Lee of China and Shindo Hikaru of Japan. He won both games, bringing the victory to Korea.