Honinbo Tournament

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Honinbo
Name	Honinbo
Started	1941
Honorary Honinbo's	Takagawa Kaku, Sakata Eio, Ishida Yoshio, Cho Chikun
Sponsors	Mainichi Shimbun
Prize Money	32 million Yen ($280,000 USD)
Affiliation	Nihon Ki-in

The Honinbo is a Go competition.

[edit] Outline

The Honinbo is the oldest Go title in the world, currently on its 61st edition. The sponsor is Mainichi Shimbun. The winner's purse is 32,000,000 Yen ($280,000).

The tournament is similar to the other two biggest Go titles in Japan, the Kisei and Meijin. The holder is challenged by whoever wins the round robin league. Players can get into the round robin league by going through many preliminary tournaments. Once there is a challenger to compete against the holder, the winner is decided through a best of seven match. The games are played over two days and each player is given 8 hours of thinking time. There are also more rewards than just money from the Honinbo tournament. Like the other biggest titles in Japan, if a player qualifies for the Honinbo league, they are automatically moved up to 7 dan. If that same player wins the league, a promotion to 8 dan is given. If that same player goes on to winning the title, they are finally promoted to 9 dan, the highest rank.

[edit] Winners

Player	Years Held
Sekiyama Riichi	1941
Hashimoto Utaro	1943, 1950, 1951
Iwamoto Kaoru	1945, 1947
Takagawa Kaku	1952 - 1960
Sakata Eio	1961 - 1967
Rin Kaiho	1968 - 1970, 1983, 1984
Ishida Yoshio	1971 - 1975
Takemiya Masaki	1976, 1980, 1985 - 1988
Kato Masao	1977 - 1979, 2002
Cho Chikun	1981, 1982, 1989 - 1998
Cho Sonjin	1999
O Meien	2000, 2001
Cho U	2003, 2004
Takao Shinji	2005, 2006