Big Titles
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Steve: Since it's difficult to say which titles are "big", this page is dedicated to professional tournaments in general. Pro-amateur tournaments are also included in this section. However, I've tried to indicate the "big titles" in brackets for each country, and the international tournaments. Tournaments which are no longer being held can be found under Obsolete Titles
Information about the current events in professional tournaments may be found at igo-kisen go news,
Go 4 Go or
Gobase.
Go professionals battle it out in domestic tournaments in Japan, Korea, China or Taiwan (for which only members of the relevant domestic associations can contend), and also in international tournaments which are also usually held in one of these countries. These international tournaments often involve players from only 2 or 3 of these countries, and sometimes all 4. Some international tournaments (particularly pro-amateur tournaments) also have participants from outside these 4 countries.
International Tournaments
- Fujitsu Cup ¥15,000,000 (Big Title)
- Ing Cup US$400,000 (Big Title)
- Samsung Cup ₩200,000,000 (Big Title)
- LG Cup ₩250,000,000 (Big Title)
- Chunlan Cup US$200,000 (Big Title)
- Toyota & Denso Cup ¥30,000,000 and a Lexus car (Big Title)
- Zhonghuan Cup
- Tengen Tianyuan Match (playoff)
- China Korea Tengen (playoff)
- Southern Great Wall Cup US$ 30,000 (China-Korea playoff)
- Japan China Agon Cup (playoff)
- China Korea New Star (playoff, new pros)
- IGS World Rapid Championship ¥3,000,000 (rapid go, pro-am)
- Asian TV Cup (lightning go)
- CSK Cup (team tournament)
- Nongshim Cup (team tournament)
- Jeongganjang Cup (team tournament, ladies only)
- All Asia New Star (team tournament)
- Jiyexing Cup (team tournament)
(see also International Title Statistics)
Japanese domestic tournaments
(Prize money info last updated September 2005)
- Kisei ¥42,000,000 (Big Title)
- Meijin ¥37,000,000 (Big Title)
- Honinbo ¥32,000,000 (Big Title)
- Judan ¥14,000,000 (Big Title)
- Tengen ¥14,000,000 (Big Title)
- Oza ¥13,500,000 (Big Title)
- Gosei ¥7,770,000 (Big Title)
- Agon Kiriyama Cup ¥10,000,000 (lightning go)
-
Ryusei Tournament ¥5,000,000
- Shinjin O ¥3,280,000 (pros 7 dan and under)
- Kansai Ki-in 1st Place
- NEC Cup ¥15,000,000
- NHK Cup ¥5,000,000
- Okan Tournament? ¥1,500,000
- Tokyo Lightning Cup (lightning go)
- JAL Super HayaGo? (lightning go)
- JAL New Star HayaGo? (lightning go, new pros)
- Female Honinbo ¥5,800,000 (ladies only)
- Female Meijin ¥5,100,000 (ladies only)
- Female Kisei ¥5,000,000 (ladies only)
- Female Strongest?(Female Saikyo) ¥4,500,000 (ladies only)
- Kansai Ladies' Tournament? (ladies only)
- JAL Female HayaGo? (lightning go, ladies only)
For an up to date list of title holders, jump to this web page at the Nihon Ki-in website. Here's the schedule for the seven Japanese big titles.
The URLs for the go web pages of the newspapers sponsoring the seven[1] big Japanese titles can be found at Japanese Go Column URLs
Chinese domestic tournaments
- Mingren RMB 50,000 (Big Title)
- Tianyuan RMB 50,000 (Big Title)
- CCTV Cup? (Big Title)
- Xinren Wang (new pros)
- NEC Cup China? RMB 200,000
- Chinese Agon Cup?
- RICOH Cup?
- Yongda Cup?
- Xiaoqi Cup?
- West-South King?
- Xianye Cup?
- Female Mingren (ladies only)
- Women's Weiqi Tournament? (ladies only)
Korean domestic tournaments
- Wangwi (Big Title)
- Kiseong (Big Title)
- Kuksu (Big Title)
- Ch'eonweon (Big Title)
- Siptan (Wonik Cup)
- GS Cup
- KBS Cup
- KPI Cup
- SK Gas Cup
- Etland Cup
- Maxim Cup (9-dans only)
- Women's Myeongin (ladies only)
- Women's Kuksu (ladies only)
- Osram Cup (new pros)
-
BC Card Cup (new pros: 1d-5d)
- Pro Senior?
- Korean Baduk League? (team tournament)
Other Korean title holders as of January 2005
Steve: The status of these is still hazy to me due to a number of name changes and switches between sponsors - I hope to get these sorted out soon.
- 2nd KT Cup? held by Yu Ch'ang-hyeok
- 4th Korea Cup? held by Lee Huiseong
Taiwanese domestic tournaments
- Tianyuan
- Guoshou?
- Qiyuan Cup?
- Wangjia?
- CMC TV Cup?
- LOTR Cup?
- Donggang Cup?
- Taiwan Zhonghuan Cup?
- Qilingwang Cup?
- New Star Match?
[1] Dronak: Can I ask what might be a stupid question? I was just reading the latest chapters of HikaruNoGo in the US Shonen Jump and there it says there are 8 titles. Is that wrong? The story has a 5 Dan supervisor, so I'd think they'd get details like this right. Maybe things changed? But if there are 8 major titles, what's the eighth one?
kokiri - in terms of prize money the NEC cup pays more than the Gosei so maybe its this. Otherwise I'd guess that perhaps the shinjin-o - usually translated as something clumsly like 'king of the new stars', has quite a cachet to it because several of the winners have gone on to greater things
Chris Hayashida: I think the other title the Fujitsu Cup. I seem to remember that the NEC Cup was haya-go, so I don't think it would count. Also, I don't think the Shinjin-O would count, since the "eight big titles" wouldn't exclude the top players. The Fujitsu Cup is listed eighth on the Nihon Ki-in page, if that's any evidence.
Bob McGuigan: Hikaru no Go is fiction so why would you expect it to agree with the real-world number?