Up 1958 1959 1960

Nihon Saikyo tournament

The Nihon Saikyo (日本最強, Japan's strongest) tournament was the predecessor of the (old) Meijin Tournament. It was a full tournament with 6 players: each played every opponent once with black and once with white. Thinking time 10h, with 5-minute byoyomi. No komi.

1st Nihon Saikyo tournament

The 1st Nihon Saikyo tournament was held in 1957-1958.

Results (in the first column the white player, on the top row the black player).

# player result 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Go Seigen  8   (8-0-2) W+R B+4 W+4 B+R W+R
2. Kitani Minoru 6.5 (6-1-3) B+10 W+4 Jigo B+R W+3
3. Hashimoto Utaro  4   (4-0-6) B+R B+7 B+R B+R B+3
4. Sakata Eio 4.5 (4-1-5) B+R B+R B+2 B+R
5. Fujisawa Hosai  3   (3-0-7) B+R B+R B+R B+R B+R
6. Takagawa Shukaku  4   (4-0-6) B+R B+2 B+5 B+4 W+1

The winner was Go Seigen with 8-0-2. Fujisawa Hosai was demoted.

2nd Nihon Saikyo tournament

The 2nd Nihon Saikyo tournament was held in 1958-1959. The preliminaries (held in 1957-1958) were won by Iwata Masao.

Results (in the first column the white player, on the top row the black player).

# player result 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Go Seigen  5   (5-0-5) B+2 B+5 B+R B+9 W+R
2. Kitani Minoru 5.5 (5-1-4) B+22 B+R W+R B+6 W+1
3. Sakata Eio 8.5 (8-1-1) W+4 Jigo B+14 W+5 W+3
4. Takagawa Shukaku 3.5 (3-1-6) B+R B+R B+R B+2 B+4
5. Hashimoto Utaro 3.5 (3-1-6) B+R B+R B+2 Jigo B+3
6. Iwata Masao  4   (4-0-6) B+R W+1 B+R B+8 W+1

The winner was Sakata Eio with 8-1-1.

Demotion playoff

Takagawa Shukaku and Hashimoto Utaro both had 3.5 points, and played a demotion playoff, lost by Takagawa Shukaku.

date black white result #mv sgf
1959-11-25,26 Hashimoto Utaro Takagawa Shukaku B+1 283 sgf

3rd Nihon Saikyo tournament

The 3rd Nihon Saikyo tournament was held in 1960 (with final in Jan 1961). The preliminaries were won by Hashimoto Shoji.

Results (in the first column the white player, on the top row the black player).

# player result 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Sakata Eio 6.5 (6-1-3) W+1 W+2 W+R B+3 Jigo
2. Kitani Minoru  3   (2-2-5) B+R B+7 B+2   W+R
3. Go Seigen 6.5 (6-1-3) W+1 W+14 Jigo B+R B+R
4. Iwata Masao  5   (4-2-4) B+R Jigo B+6 B+1 W+
5. Hashimoto Utaro 4.5 (4-1-4) W+1 UF B+R B+4 B+6
6. Hashimoto Shoji 3.5 (3-1-6) B+5 B+R B+R B+ W+1

The winners are Sakata Eio and Go Seigen, both with 6-1-3.

UF: Unfinished game. Kitani was ordered by his doctor to stop because of high blood pressure. The game was counted as a jigo.