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 Go News.
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
- Ing Cup US$400,000 (Big Title)
- Toyota & Denso Cup ¥30,000,000 and a luxury car (Big Title)
- LG Cup ₩250,000,000 (Big Title)
- Samsung Cup ₩200,000,000 (Big Title)
- Chunlan Cup US$150,000 (Big Title)
- Fujitsu Cup ¥15,000,000 (Big Title)
- Zhonghuan Cup TW$2,000,000
- Tengen Tianyuan Match (playoff)
- China Korea Tengen (playoff)
- Southern Great Wall Cup US$ 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)
- Yayi Cup (team tournament, China-Taiwan)
- Nongshim Cup ~$127,000 (team tournament)
- Jeongganjang Cup (team tournament, ladies only)
- All Asia New Star (team tournament)
- Jiyexing Cup (team tournament)
- Teda Cup Super Match? (Japan-China Korea playoff)
- Pro Pair-Go Championship? (pair-go)
(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)
- NEC Cup ¥15,000,000
- Judan ¥14,500,000 (Big Title)
- Tengen ¥14,000,000 (Big Title)
- Oza ¥13,500,000 (Big Title)
- Agon-Kiriyama Cup ¥10,000,000 (lightning go)
- Gosei ¥7,770,000 (Big Title)
- NHK Cup ¥5,000,000
- Ryusei Tournament ¥5,000,000 (lightning go)
- Shinjin O ¥3,280,000 (pros 7 dan and under, 30 years or younger - 25 years from 2006)
- Kansai Ki-in Championship (Kansai Ki-in players only)
- Okan Tournament ¥1,500,000 (Players from Nihon Ki-in Nagoya branch only)
- 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 Women's Lightning Go Tournament (lightning go, ladies only)
- Nakano Cup (under-20)
- Ricoh Pair Go Cup? ¥5,000,000 (pair go, lightning go)
- Daiwa Shoken Cup
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
- Ahan Tongshan Cup (Chinese Agon Cup) (rapid) - about 15,000 Yuan
- Liguang Cup? (Ricoh Cup) 80, 000 Yuan - about $10, 000 (mainly invitational)
- Yongda Cup?
- Chang-ki Cup 400,000 Yuan
- Xinan Wang (West-South King)
- Chinese City League (including Jiangling Cup)
- Female Mingren (ladies only)
- Women's Weiqi Tournament? (ladies only)
- Jiangqiao Cup (aka Xianye Cup) (ladies only) RMB 100,000
- National Go Individual?
- National Women Individual?
Korean domestic tournaments
- Wangwi (Big Title)
- Kiseong (Big Title)
- Kuksu (Big Title)
- Ch'eonweon (Big Title)
- Siptan (Wonik Cup)
- GS Caltex Cup (aka LG Refined Oils Cup) ₩50, 000, 000
- KBS Cup
- KPI Cup (lightning, pros 6 dan and over)
- SK Gas Cup (aka New Stars Best Ten)
- Etland Cup
- King of Kings
- Maxim Cup (9-dans only)
- Yeongnam Ilbo Cup (lightning) ₩ 25, 000, 000
- Women's Myeongin (ladies only)
- Women's Kuksu (ladies only)
- Osram Cup (aka New Pro Strongest) (new pros)
- Korea Cup?
-
BC Card Cup (new pros: 1d-5d)
- Pro Senior?
- Korean Baduk League? (team league)
- Baduk Masters Emperor
- Baduk Masters Queen? (female only)
- Baduk Masters? (aka Samkukji) (team tournament)
Taiwanese domestic tournaments
- Tianyuan
- Guoshou?
- Qiyuan Cup?
- Wangjia?
- CMC TV Cup?
- LOTR Cup?
- Donggang Cup?
- Taiwan Zhonghuan Cup?
- Qilingwang Cup?
- New Star Match?
Other tournaments allowing professionals
[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?
Dronak: Because it's not that difficult to get basic facts from reality correct in fiction? Apart from the ghost, the story has a pretty normal, realistic setting and time period. I'd be a little surprised if they didn't make it match reality in something as simple as how many major titles exist.
Christopher Vu?: There used to be an eighth title called the "Kakusei", and similar had a Women's Kakusei as well, but it was discontinued after 2002 (or just the results had never been released after that date.)