Tengen (Go)
Go competition in Japan
title: "Tengen (Go)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["go-competitions-in-japan"] description: "Go competition in Japan" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengen_(Go)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Go competition in Japan ::
| tournamentname =Tengen | fullname =Tengen | started =1975 | honorarywinners=Rin Kaiho
Iyama Yuta | sponsors=Three Newspaper Companies | prizemoney=12 million yen | affiliation=Nihon Ki-in Tengen (天元, center or origin of heaven) is a Go competition in Japan.
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
::data[format=table] | || Year || Winner || Score || Runner-up | |---| | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 10 | | 11 | | 12 | | 13 | | 14 | | 15 | | 16 | | 17 | | 18 | | 19 | | 20 | | 21 | | 22 | | 23 | | 24 | | 25 | | 26 | | 27 | | 28 | | 29 | | 30 | | 31 | | 32 | | 33 | | 34 | | 35 | | 36 | | 37 | | 38 | | 39 | | 40 | | 41 | | 42 | | 43 | | 44 | | 45 | | 46 | | 47 | | 48 | | 49 | | 50 | | 51 | ::
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.
References
References
- "Tengen tournament". GoBase.
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