Meijin

Meijin (名人), literally translated, means "Brilliant Man". It is the name of the second most prestigious Japanese Go Tournament. It also refers to a traditional Japanese title given to the strongest player of the day during the Edo period.

The tournament

The Meijin tournament is sponsored by the Asahi Newspaper, and has prize money of ¥36,000,000 for the winner and ¥10,400,000 for the runner-up.

The Meijin tournament is open to Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in players. A nine-player league decides the challenger each year. Every year, the three worst-ranked players in the league drop out. Entrance into the league is decided by three preliminaries. The first is between 1-4 dans (6 winners: 4 Nihon ki-in and 2 Kansai ki-in). The second is between 5-9 dans and the six winners (18 winners). The third is between these 18 and the 3 people dropped from the league (3 winners, who enter the league). Komi is 6.5. Time limit is 8 hours each in the title matches and 3 hours in the league and prelims. Byo-yomi is 1 minute per move.

Meijin (shogi)

Meijin (名人) is one of the seven titles in Japanese professional shogi, and is the most prestigious title, along with Ryu-oh. This should not be confused with the "Amateur Meijin" title that is awarded each year to the winner of the Amateur Meijin Tournament. The word "meijin" means "an excellent person" in a certain field. ("mei"(名) = excellent, artful) ("jin"(人) = person)

History

The Meijin institution started in the 17th century (Edo period), and for around 300 years was a hereditary title that was passed from the reigning Meijin upon his retirement or death to another selected from three families, as deemed to be worthy. In 1935, however, the Japan Shogi Association (日本将棋連盟, nihon shōgi renmei), or JSA, announced that it was abolishing the existing system of succession in favor of something more short-term and reflective of actual playing strength. In 1937, the reigning 13th Meijin Kinjiro Sekine, who had received his title under the old system and was 70 years old at the time, voluntarily gave up his title so that a new Meijin could be decided through actual tournament play. Later that year Yoshio Kimura, who was a student of Sekine, became the first Meijin to gain the title based upon actual performance by winning a tournament which included eight other top players. From 1937 to 1947, the challenger for the Meijin title was determined through tournaments involving a select number of players. Finally, in 1947, the JSA officially established the preliminary round of ranking tournaments (順位戦, jun'isen) that it currently uses.

30th Meijin

The 30th Meijin was the 30th Meijin tournament of the board game go. The tournament was held in 2005 in Japan and was won by Cho U.

Challenger Group

Challenger Final

Final