Janice Kim
Janice Kim is an American professional Go player, author, and business-owner. Early life and education. Kim was born in Illinois in 1969 and grew up in New Mexico. She earned a bachelor's degree from New York University. Career. As a teenager, she studied Go in Korea under Jeong Soo-hyon. She represented the U.S. in the first World Youth Go Championship in 1984, placing third. In 1986, she played for the U.S. again and won the event. In 1987, she became the first westerner to be accepted by the Korea Baduk Association as a pro. She  remains one of only five western females ever to attain professional status (with Joanne Missingham, Svetlana Shikshina, Diana Koszegi and Mariya Zakharchenko). In 1997, she created Samarkand, an online store for go-related items. Samarkand later became wholesale only. In 2003, she was promoted to a 3-Dan professional Go player, the first female westerner to do so. Kim is the author of the "Getting Go" articles that accompany installments of Hikaru No Go, a manga about a boy who releases the spirit of a famous Go player, in the American magazine Shonen Jump. She also writes occasionally for "The  American Go E-Journal". Personal life. Kim lived in New York City, Denver, and San Francisco Bay Area before settling in New Mexico with her family. She has since become a professional poker player.