Tengen (Go)

Tengen (天元, center or origin of heaven) is a Go competition in Japan.[1]

Tengen (Go)
Full nameTengen
Started1975
Honorary WinnersRin Kaiho
Iyama Yuta
SponsorsThree Newspaper Companies
Prize money12 million yen
AffiliationNihon Ki-in

The name Tengen refers to the center point on a Go board.

The event is held annually, and has run continuously since its inauguration in 1975.

Tengen competition (天元戦)

The Tengen competition is a Go tournament run by the Japanese Nihon-Kiin and Kansai-Kiin. The Tengen is the 5th of the 7 big titles in Japanese Go.

It has the same format as the other tournaments. There is a preliminary tournament, which is single knockout, where the winner faces the holder in a best-of-five match.

Before the 6th Tengen, the format was different. Instead of the title holder waiting for a challenger, it would be the two Go players left from the single knockout tournament who then played a best-of-five match to determine the holder.

The tournament was formed from a merger between the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in championships. The former ran from 1954 to 1975.

Past winners
YearWinnerScoreRunner-up
1 1975 Fujisawa Hideyuki 3–1 Shuzo Ohira
2 1976 Kobayashi Koichi 3–1 Sugiuchi Masao
3 1977 Shimamura Toshiohiro 3–1 Sonoda Yuichi
4 1978 Kato Masao 3–1 Fujisawa Hideyuki
5 1979 3–0 Kataoka Satoshi
6 1980 3–0 Yamabe Toshiro
7 1981 3–2 Kobayashi Koichi
8 1982 Kataoka Satoshi 3–2 Kato Masao
9 1983 3–1 Awaji Shuzo
10 1984 Ishida Yoshio 3–1 Kataoka Satoshi
11 1985 Kobayashi Koichi 3–0 Ishida Yoshio
12 1986 3–1 Sonoda Yuichi
13 1987 Cho Chikun 3–2 Kobayashi Koichi
14 1988 3–2 Sonoda Yuichi
15 1989 Rin Kaiho 3–2 Cho Chikun
16 1990 3–1 Kobayashi Koichi
17 1991 3–1 Kato Masao
18 1992 3–1 Yamashiro Hiroshi
19 1993 3–1 Kataoka Satoshi
20 1994 Ryu Shikun 3–1 Rin Kaiho
21 1995 3–2 Kobayashi Koichi
22 1996 3–2 Rin Kaiho
23 1997 Kudo Norio 3–1 Ryu Shikun
24 1998 Kobayashi Koichi 3–2 Kudo Norio
25 1999 3–0 Kudo Norio
26 2000 Ryu Shikun 3–0 Kobayashi Koichi
27 2001 Hane Naoki 3–1 Ryu Shikun
28 2002 3–0 Cho Sonjin
29 2003 3–2 Yamashita Keigo
30 2004 Yamashita Keigo 3–0 Hane Naoki
31 2005 Kono Rin 3–2 Yamashita Keigo
32 2006 3–1 Yamashita Keigo
33 2007 3–1 Yamashita Keigo
34 2008 Cho U 3–0 Kono Rin
35 2009 Yamashita Keigo 3–2 Cho U
36 2010 Yuki Satoshi 3–0 Yamashita Keigo
37 2011 Iyama Yuta 3–0 Yuki Satoshi
38 2012 3–0 Kono Rin
39 2013 3–0 Akiyama Jiro
40 2014 Takao Shinji 3–2 Iyama Yuta
41 2015 Iyama Yuta 3–0 Takao Shinji
42 2016 3–1 Ichiriki Ryo
43 2017 3–0 Ichiriki Ryo
44 2018 3–2 Yamashita Keigo
45 2019 3–2 Kyo Kagen
46 2020 Ichiriki Ryo 3–2 Iyama Yuta
47 2021 Seki Kotaro 3–1 Ichiriki Ryo
48 2022 3–2 Ida Atsushi

Trivia
  • The first player to defend the title was Kato Masao who won four consecutive terms in the 4th-7th Tengen.
  • Rin Kaiho surpassed this with a record five consecutive wins in the 15th-19th Tengen.
  • Iyama Yuta equaled this record in the 41st-45th terms, and has won the title a record eight times over nine terms starting with the 37th.

See also

References
  1. "Tengen tournament". GoBase. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
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