Tengen (天元, ''center'' or ''origin of heaven'') is a
Go competition
This is a list of professional Go tournaments, for competitors in the board game of ''Go''. The tradition, initiated by the Honinbo Tournament in Japan, is for an event to be run annually, leading up to a title match and the award of a title f ...
in
Japan.
The name Tengen refers to the
center point on a
Go board
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboa ...
.
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
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
, 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
This article gives an overview of well-known professional and amateur players of the board game Go throughout the ages. The page has been divided into sections based on the era in which the Go players played and the country in which they pla ...
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
The Nihon Ki-in (), also known as the Japan Go Association, is the main organizational body for Go in Japan, overseeing Japan's professional system and issuing diplomas for amateur dan rankings. It is based in Tokyo. The other major Go associa ...
and
Kansai Ki-in championships. The former ran from 1954 to 1975.
Past winners
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
*
Honorary Tengen Professional Go (board game), Go Go players, players in Japan are given the title of "Honorary" (or "Lifetime") title holder if they either win the title ten times in a row, or have won the title five times in a row or ten times in total and reach t ...
*
Go professional
*
China–Japan Tengen The China–Japan Tengen was a professional go competition. It was played between Japan's Tengen titleholder and China's Tianyuan titleholder each year in a best-of-three match. The competition was held 15 times, from 1988 to 2002. It was discont ...
*
China–Korea Tengen The China–Korea Tengen was a Go competition. It was played between China's Tianyuan titleholder and Korea's Chunwon titleholder each year in a best-of-three match. The competition was held 19 times, from 1997 to 2015. China won 10 times and Korea ...
*
International Go Federation
References
External links
Full tournament grid since the 33rd editionFull tournament results and game records
{{Tengen
Tengen