Judan (Go)

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Judan (Go)
Full name Judan
Started 1962
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.

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[edit] Biography

The 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 - 2007
Kobayashi Koichi 1984 - 1986, 1999, 2000
Takemiya Masaki 1990 - 1992
Yoda Norimoto 1995, 1996
Hikosaka Naoto 1998
O Rissei 2001 - 2004
Takao Shinji 2008

[edit] Trivia

  • The losers' section winner playing the winners' section winner to find the challenger for the Judan title was thought up by Fujisawa Hosai.

[edit] See also