The NHK Cup (Go), or as it is more commonly known the ,
is a professional
Go tournament (
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 ...
) organized by the Japan Go Association (
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 associat ...
)
and sponsored by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
).
The tournament lasts roughly one year from April to the following March. Tournament games are
televised
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
each Sunday from 12:30 to 14:00 (
JST) on NHK Educational TV (
NHK-E
, abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, cultural or intellectual nature, periodically also sh ...
)
and live commentary and analysis is provided by two commentators (Go professionals): (typically a female Go professional) who serves in that role for the entire tournament and a to provide detailed analysis. Post-game analysis involving the two players and the two commentators takes place once the game has ended (broadcast time permitting). This year (2019) marks the 67th time the tournament has been held and the host is Shiho Hoshiai 2P. Prior to 1963, the tournament was broadcast on the
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
.
Tournament Format
The tournament is a
single-elimination tournament
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
with 50 competing for the title of . A fixed number of spots in the main tournament are reserved for "seeded players" (higher ranked players, existing title holders, those with superior win loss records, etc.) while the remaining spots are decided through a series of preliminary tournaments. Once the final 50 players have been determined, they are divided into two blocks (Block A and Block B) of 25 players each.
The tournament consists of 6 rounds: the first 5 rounds determine the winner of each block、and then the two block winners meet in Round 6 for the tournament championship. The reigning title holder and