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

(see also International Title Statistics)


Japanese domestic tournaments

(Prize money info last updated September 2005)

For an up to date list of title holders, jump to this [ext] 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

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 [ext] 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.)


This is a copy of the living page "Big Titles" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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