Xie Yimin

Xie Yimin (謝 依旻 Xiè Yīmín, alternate spellings Hsieh Yi Min or Shei Imin) is a 7 dan professional of the Nihon Ki-in, born November 16, 1989 in Taiwan. Student of Ko Mosei.

She became shodan in 2004 at age 14 years 4 months. Xie held the record for the youngest ever female pro in Japan until 2010, when Fujisawa Rina passed her. Xie set a record for the youngest female 3 dan in history in 2006, 16 years and 4 months. Her record stood until Nakamura Sumire broke it on 14 October 2022, at 13 years and 7 months.

Xie became 4 dan in 2008, 5 dan in 2010, 6 dan from 2012-02-01, 7 dan from August 2021 (with 120 wins).

In 2013, she was undisputedly the best female professional in Japan, holding all three titles and the record for most female professional titles, with 15 to her name. She is the 1st Honorary Women's Honinbo after winning the Female Honinbo five times in a row.

However, by 2016 she had a serious rival who probably overtook her next year: Fujisawa Rina. Xie lost both the Female Honinbo and Female Meijin to Fujisawa (2016 and 2017 respectively), as well as the Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup and the Senko Cup.

Xie still holds the record number of Women's Go titles: 27. Fujisawa Rina is second with 23 titles. As of 2023-12-22, Xie is the #30 ranked female in the world and #417 overall, and #5 female in Japan.

In recent years, Xie has become runner-up several times, e.g. Female Kisei 2018; Female Strongest 2019, 2020; Female Honinbo 2018. In 2022, she came 4th in the 4th Senko Cup. She was part of the best result by a Japanese team in the international event—she defeated world #1 female Choi Jung in the first round, clearing the way for Ueno Asami to win and Fujisawa Rina to finish 3rd.

On 28 Sep 2023, Xie became the 6th female Go professional to win 500 career wins, by beating Honda Mariko. She achieved her 500th win a record 19 years and 5 months after becoming a professional. She was also the youngest female player to win 500 games, at 33 years and 10 months old.

2017

• Female Kisei

2016

• Female Meijin (d. Aoki Kikuyo by 2:1)
• Female Kisei (d. Yoshihara Yukari by 2:0)
• Female Saikyo (d. Mukai Chiaki by 1:0)
• Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup (d. Aoki Kikuyo by 1:0)

2015

• Female Honinbo (d. Fujisawa Rina by 3:2)
• Runner up of the 2nd Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup, losing to O Keii by 1.5 points.
• Female Meijin (d. Suzuki Ayumi by 2:0)
• Female Kisei (d. Konishi Kazuko by 2:0)

2014

• Female Meijin (d. Kato Keiko by 2:1)
• Female Kisei (d. Aoki Kikuyo by 2:0)

2013

• 16 wins, 18 losses
• Female Meijin (d. Okuda Aya by 2:0)
• Female Kisei (d. Aoki Kikuyo by 2:0)

2012

• 21 wins, 21 losses
• Female Honinbo (d. Okuda Aya by 3:0)
• Female Meijin (d. Mukai Chiaki by 2:0)
• Lost Female Kisei title 1:2 to Aoki Kikuyo

2011

• 33 wins, 15 losses
• Female Honinbo (d. Mukai Chiaki by 3:1)
• Female Meijin (d. Mukai Chiaki by 2:1)
• Female Kisei (d. Umezawa Yukari by 2:0)
• Ricoh Pair Cup?, together with O Meien

2010

• 22 wins, 11 losses
• Female Honinbo (d. Mukai Chiaki by 3:0)
• Female Meijin (d. Mukai Chiaki by 2:0)
• Female Kisei (d. Umezawa Yukari by 2:0)

2009

• 27 wins, 15 losses
• Female Honinbo (d. Aoki Kikuyo by 3:1)
• Daiwa Ladies Cup (d. Kobayashi Izumi) (not counted as pro title)
• Female Meijin (d. Chinen Kaori by 2:1)

2008

• 26 wins, 17 losses
• Female Honinbo (d. Suzuki Ayumi by 3:1)
• Silver medalist in the Mixed pair competition at 1st WMSG, together with Zhou Junxun
• Daiwa Ladies Cup (d. Kobayashi Izumi) (not counted as pro title)
• Runner up the 10th Female Strongest Tournament (defeated 2:0 by Kato Keiko)
• Female Meijin (d. Kato Keiko by 2:0)

2007

• 40 wins, 16 losses
• Female Honinbo (d. Yashiro Kumiko by 3:0)

2006

• 24 wins, 14 losses
• Winner of 1st Hiroshima Arumi Cup (not counted as pro title)
• Runner up in 3rd Nakano Cup (under-20 tournament), losing to Iyama Yuta in the final.
• Defeated Konishi Kazuko (8p) on Christmas Day to win the 8th Female Strongest Tournament (女流最強位), becoming Japan's youngest ever woman's title holder at the age of 17 years and 1 month.

2005

• 28 wins, 18 losses

2004

• 8 wins, 6 losses

Weblinks

• Nihon Ki-in player profile
• Vogue interview with English translation

Head-to-head scores against current female rivals

(Based on Xie Yimin, Go Ratings and game list), as of 18 Apr 2024.

• Ueno Asami, 5p, Risa's older sister, #5 female and #200 overall in the world, and #1 female and #27 overall in Japan: 3–10
• Fujisawa Rina, 7p, #9 female in world, #2 female in Japan: 16–27
• Ueno Risa, 2p, Asami's younger sister, #21 female and #3 female teenager in world, #3 female in Japan, Female Kisei: 2–0
• Nakamura Sumire, 3p, girl prodigy, #28 ranked female and #4 female teenager in the world, #4 ranked female in Japan: 2–4
• Aoki Kikuyo, 8p, 5× Women's Meijin, 4× Women's Kakusei, once Female Kisei: 13–4
• Suzuki Ayumi, 7p, #7 female in Japan, #33 in world, twice Female Strongest, once Female Kisei: 12–5
• Kobayashi Izumi, 7p, 3× Female Honinbo], 3× Female Meijin, 2× Female Kisei, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 6–2
• Koyama Terumi, 6p, 4× Women's Meijin: 5–1
• Yoshida Mika, 8p, 4× Female Honinbo, 4× Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Women's Kakusei: 5–0
• Chinen Kaori, 6p, 5× Female Kisei, 4× Female Honinbo: 7–1
• Yashiro Kumiko, 2× Female Honinbo: 10–2
• Kato Keiko, 6p, once Women's Meijin, 7–5
• Konishi Kazuko, 8p, once Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 6–1
• Nyu Eiko, 4p, 2× Female Strongest: 6–5
• Mukai Chiaki, 6p, once Female Honinbo: 21–11
• Umezawa Yukari, 6p, 3× Female Kisei: 5–1
• Sugiuchi Kazuko, 8p, one of the strongest Japanese female players from the 1950s to 1990s: 1–0 (played in 2019 when Xie was 29 and Sugiuchi 91!)
• Joanne Missingham, 7p, aka Hei Jiajia, #1 female in Taiwan: 3–6
• Rui Naiwei, 9p, long-time world female #1: 0–2
• Choi Jeong, 9p, current Korean and World #1 female: 1–4
• O Yujin, 9p, #7 female in world, #3 female in South Korea: 1–6
• Zhou Hongyu, 7p, current World #4 female: 0–0
• Kim Eunji, 9p, the highest rated female teenager in the world, and #3 ranked of all female players (as of 2023-12-22): 0–0
• Wu Yiming, 4p, #11 female and #2 female teenager in world, #5 female in China: 0–2
• Kim Chaeyeong, 8p, #8 female in world, #4 female in South Korea: 1–1
• Cho Seunga, 6p, #12 ranked female player and #304 overall, and #5 ranked player in Korea: 0–0
• Tang Jiawen, 5p, #13 female in world, and #6 female in China: 0–0
• Kim Hye-min, 9p, #25 female in the world, #8 female player in Korea: 1–2
• Wang Chenxing, 5p, #16 female in world, #8 female in China: 2–4

Videos

• A clip from a match Xie Yimin&Iyama Yuuta vs Ke Jie&Yu Zhiying in 2017 Pair Go World Cup where the players couldn't stop from laughing. bilibili link

Pictures

xie yimin female meijin 2013 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

xie yimin cosplay kimetsu no yaiba 2021 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)