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 Year Winner Score Runner-up 1 1975 Fujisawa Hideyuki 3–1 Ohira Shuzo 2 1976 Kobayashi Koichi 3–1 Sugiuchi Masao 3 1977 Shimamura Toshiohiro 3–1 Sonoda Yuichi 4 1978 Kato Masao 3–1 Fujisawa Hideyuki 5 1979 3–0 Kataoka Satoshi 6 1980 3–0 Yamabe Toshiro 7 1981 3–2 Kobayashi Koichi 8 1982 Kataoka Satoshi 3–2 Kato Masao 9 1983 3–1 Awaji Shuzo 10 1984 Ishida Yoshio 3–1 Kataoka Satoshi 11 1985 Kobayashi Koichi 3–0 Ishida Yoshio 12 1986 3–1 Sonoda Yuichi 13 1987 Cho Chikun 3–2 Kobayashi Koichi 14 1988 3–2 Sonoda Yuichi 15 1989 Rin Kaiho 3–2 Cho Chikun 16 1990 3–1 Kobayashi Koichi 17 1991 3–1 Kato Masao 18 1992 3–1 Yamashiro Hiroshi 19 1993 3–1 Kataoka Satoshi 20 1994 Ryu Shikun 3–1 Rin Kaiho 21 1995 3–2 Kobayashi Koichi 22 1996 3–2 Rin Kaiho 23 1997 Kudo Norio 3–1 Ryu Shikun 24 1998 Kobayashi Koichi 3–2 Kudo Norio 25 1999 3–0 Kudo Norio 26 2000 Ryu Shikun 3–0 Kobayashi Koichi 27 2001 Hane Naoki 3–1 Ryu Shikun 28 2002 3–0 Cho Sonjin 29 2003 3–2 Yamashita Keigo 30 2004 Yamashita Keigo 3–0 Hane Naoki 31 2005 Kono Rin 3–2 Yamashita Keigo 32 2006 3–1 Yamashita Keigo 33 2007 3–1 Yamashita Keigo 34 2008 Cho U 3–0 Kono Rin 35 2009 Yamashita Keigo 3–2 Cho U 36 2010 Yuki Satoshi 3–0 Yamashita Keigo 37 2011 Iyama Yuta 3–0 Yuki Satoshi 38 2012 3–0 Kono Rin 39 2013 3–0 Akiyama Jiro 40 2014 Takao Shinji 3–2 Iyama Yuta 41 2015 Iyama Yuta 3–0 Takao Shinji 42 2016 3–1 Ichiriki Ryo 43 2017 3–0 Ichiriki Ryo 44 2018 3–2 Yamashita Keigo 45 2019 3–2 Kyo Kagen 46 2020 Ichiriki Ryo 3–2 Iyama Yuta 47 2021 Seki Kotaro 3–1 Ichiriki Ryo 48 2022 3–2 Ida Atsushi 49 2023 Ichiriki Ryo 3–1 Seki Kotaro 50 2024 3–1 Shibano Toramaru 51 2025 3–0 Shida Tatsuya
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 Go professional China–Japan Tengen China–Korea Tengen International Go Federation
References
External links Tengen – Nihon Ki-in (in Japanese) Full tournament grid since the 32nd edition Full tournament results and game records