Jimmy Cha

Jimmy Cha (Korean: Cha Min-su, born 15 January 1951 in Seoul) is a South Korean professional go player who is also an avid poker player. He grew up playing go and poker, turned professional at go in 1974, and was the best player at Dongguk University when he attended; he was twice South Korean National Amateur Champion in a row. After he moved to the United States in 1975, the Hanguk Kiwon awarded him four dan in 1984 for spreading go around the world, and as of 2021 he holds the rank of 6 dan. Because he often lost in the quarterfinals of professional tournaments he is nicknamed the eternal Mr. Quarter-Finalist; in 1989 he beat Yamashiro Hiroshi and Ohira Shuzo to reach the Fujitsu Cup quarterfinals, and in March 2008 he defeated Imamura Toshiya at the Chunlan Cup. He splits his time between go, poker and business, and has almost $400,000 in career poker earnings.