The Nihon Ki-in (日本棋院), 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 association in Japan is Kansai Ki-in. Its innovations include the Oteai system of promotion, time limits in professional games, and the introduction of issuing diplomas to strong amateur players, to affirm their ranks.
Rui Naiwei is a Chinese professional Go player, once active in South Korea. She is the strongest recorded female Go player, and is the only woman to have won one of the major open Go titles. She achieved this by winning the 1999 Guksu title, on the way beating Lee Chang-Ho and Cho Hun-hyun, the two strongest players in the world at the time.
Cho Chikun25th HoninboHonorary Meijin is a professional Go player and a nephew of Cho Namchul. Born in Busan, South Korea, he is affiliated to Nihon Ki-in. His total title tally of 75 titles is the most in the history of the Japanese Nihon Ki-in. Cho is the first player to hold the top three titles—Kisei, Meijin, and Honinbo—simultaneously which he did for three years in a row. Cho is the first in history to win all of the "Top 7" titles in Japan which he achieved by winning the Oza in 1994. Cho U in 2011 and Iyama Yuta in 2013 would duplicate this feat, both by winning the Kisei. He is also one of the 'Six Supers' Japanese players that were most celebrated in the late twentieth century, along with Rin Kaiho, Otake Hideo, Takemiya Masaki, Kato Masao and his classmate and arch-rival Kobayashi Koichi. He is the author of several books on Go.
Rin Kaihō or Lin Haifeng is a professional Taiwanese Go player who made his name in Japan. He is, along with Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi, Otake Hideo, Takemiya Masaki and Kato Masao, considered one of the 'Six Supers' who dominated the Japanese Go world in the last three decades of the twentieth century.
Cho U is a Taiwanese professional Go player. He currently ranks 6th in the most titles won by a Japanese professional; his NEC Cup win in 2011 put him past his teacher Rin Kaiho and Norimoto Yoda. Cho is the first player in history to have held five of the top seven major titles simultaneously with Iyama Yuta being the second. Cho U, Naoki Hane, Keigo Yamashita and Shinji Takao make up the group of players in Japan called the "Four Heavenly Kings". His wife is one of Japan's best female go professionals, Izumi Kobayashi, the great Kitani's granddaughter and daughter of Kobayashi Koichi.
Yuta Iyama Kisei, Honinbo, Meijin is a Japanese professional Go player. In April 2016, he became the first player in Japanese history to hold all seven major titles simultaneously. In January 2018, Iyama became the first professional Go player to be awarded Japan's People's Honour Award.
The NEC Cup was a Go competition, supported by NEC Corporation between 1982 and 2012.
The Agon Kiriyama Cup (阿含･桐山杯) is a Japanese Go competition.
The Shinjin-Ō is a professional Go competition.
The Myeongin is a Go competition in South Korea. The word myeongin in Korean language, literally meaning "Brilliant Man", is same as meijin in Japanese and as mingren in Chinese. The Myeongin is the Hanguk Kiwon equivalent to the Nihon-Kiin's Meijin title. The tournament was defunct from 2004-2006.
The Mingren is a Go competition in China organized by the Chinese Weiqi Association. The word míngrén means "brilliant man". The Mingren is equivalent to the Nihon-Kiin's Meijin and the Hanguk Kiwon's Myungin titles.
The Tianyuan is a Go competition in China organized by the Chinese Weiqi Association. The word tiānyuán literally means the center or origin of heaven, and is the center point on a Go board; the name is similar to the Japanese Tengen and Korean Chunwon. The competition was established in 1987 and is held annually.
The Chunwon was a Go competition in Korea. Begun in 1996, it was held nineteen times and was discontinued after 2015.
The Siptan was a South Korean Go competition. Begun in 2005, it was held eight times and was discontinued after 2013.
The Women's Honinbo is a Japanese Go competition.
The Women's Meijin is a Go competition. The Women's Meijin is the female version of the Meijin title. This title is sponsored by Fuji Evening Newspaper and Nippon Life Insurance. The winner's purse is 5,100,000 Yen ($48,000).
The Igo Masters Cup was a Japanese Go competition. It was held nine times from 2011 until 2019, when it was discontinued. The tournament sponsor was Fumakilla, a chemical manufacturing company.
Hsu Chia-yuan or Kyo Kagen is a Taiwanese Go player who plays professionally in Japan.
The Bingsheng Cup was an international women's Go tournament. It was held annually from 2010 to 2019, a total of 10 times. The tournament was held at Qionglong Mountain in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. It is also known as the Qionglong Mountain Bingsheng Cup. The name bingsheng is in honor of Sun Tzu, who is said to have written The Art of War at Qionglong Mountain; the historicity of Sun Tzu is uncertain.
The Globis Cup is an international Go competition for players under the age of 20. The tournament was created in 2014 and is held annually. It is organized by the Nihon Ki-in and sponsored by Globis, a Japanese company.
