Piao Wenyao has just become the 25th player to hold a world pro open title in go.
What may surprise the fashionistas is that Japan has a more than respectable presence in that list. Korea has nine different titlists, and Japan has eight - ahead of China with seven. Taiwan has one.
Admittedly, Japan has not had a new titlist since 2005, and some of the previous ones were Taiwanese in disguise, but the go world is pretty mixed up at the moment and nationalist lines are rather fuzzy. Even Piao, though from China, is strictly an ethnic Korean, and it will be recalled that when his father was robbed and murdered in 2000, with the family already in debt over Piao's go training, it was Cho Hun-hyeon and other Koreans who rallied round and helped them financially.
There are lots of nice guys in go.
World's best
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John Fairbairn
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hyperpape
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Re: World's best
Some data: http://senseis.xmp.net/?InternationalTitleStatistics. I hope they're truthy.
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gogameguru
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Re: World's best
Nice word, 'truthy'. 
Interesting page on Sensei's too. I didn't realise Takemiya was Japan's top winner of international titles. If asked to guess before seeing this I'd probably have gone with Kobayashi. Did Kobayashi really only win one international title?
That being said, I was lucky enough to come across a second hand copy of John Power's 1992 Tournament Go recently. Some of Takemiya's game records in that book are really inspiring. The commentary is good too.
Interesting page on Sensei's too. I didn't realise Takemiya was Japan's top winner of international titles. If asked to guess before seeing this I'd probably have gone with Kobayashi. Did Kobayashi really only win one international title?
That being said, I was lucky enough to come across a second hand copy of John Power's 1992 Tournament Go recently. Some of Takemiya's game records in that book are really inspiring. The commentary is good too.