Judan (Go)

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Judan
Name	Judan
Started	1962
Honorary Judan's	None
Sponsors	Sankei Shimbun
Prize Money	14.5 million Yen ($126,000 USD)
Affiliation	Nihon Ki-in

The Judan (十段)—which can be translated as "10 dan"—is a Go competition in Japan. It is one of the seven major professional titles.

1 Biography
2 Past winners
3 Trivia
4 See also

[edit] Biography

Judan is a Go competition used by the Japanese Nihon-Kiin and Kansai-Kiin. It was started by the Sankei Shimbun newspaper in 1962. The format is similar to the other big titles in Japan. There is a preliminary tournament that decides the challenger. Although, there is something different about the preliminary tournament. Instead of single knockout, it is a double knockout tournament. There is a losers' section where if a player loses in the preliminary, they go to the losers' section. The winner of the losers' section plays the winner of the winners' section which ultimately decides the challenger for the title. The challenger then plays against the holder in a best of 5 match.

Like the other titles in Japan, players can be promoted to higher ranks for doing a certain task. In the Judan competition, if a player wins the challenger section, they are promoted to 7 dan. Winning the title gives the player a promotion to 8 dan. If that player defends the title the next year, they are promoted to 9 dan.

[edit] Past winners

Player	Years Held
Hashimoto Utaro	1962, 1971
Handa Dogen	1963
Fujisawa Hosai	1964
Takagawa Kaku	1965
Sakata Eio	1966 - 1968, 1972, 1973
Otake Hideo	1969, 1980, 1981, 1993, 1994
Hashimoto Shoji	1974
Rin Kaiho	1975
Kato Masao	1976 - 1979, 1983, 1987, 1997
Cho Chikun	1982, 1988, 1989, 2005, 2006
Kobayashi Koichi	1984 - 1986, 1999, 2000
Takemiya Masaki	1990 - 1992
Yoda Norimoto	1995, 1996
Hikosaka Naoto	1998
O Rissei	2001 - 2004