Women's Honinbo

    Keywords: Tournament

(女流本因坊戦) This is the female-only equivalent of the Japanese Honinbo title. It is the most prestigious women's title in the 2020 Nihon Ki-in ordering.

It was originally called the All-Japan Women's Championship for 27-terms. But since the All-Japan Women's Championship was unofficially called the Women's Honinbo, then after some time its name and format was simply changed to the modern, official Women's Honinbo. Unlike the Honinbo title, this tournament is conducted using the single knockout format to determine a challenger. The title is then decided by a best of five match (best of three prior to 1995) with the previous year's title holder. The winner's prize is ¥5,800,000.

The 16th Women's Honinbo tournament in 1997 involved huge press coverage at the time due to the fact that challenger Chinen Kaori was quite far along in her first pregnancy when the title match games were being played. Game four (which she won, along with the title) was actually played on chairs in the Yugen no Ma room of the Nihon Ki-in. As by that point in time, the baby was expected any day.

Fujisawa Rina has appeared in the final every year since 2014: she's the first player to do so eight years in a row since Kusunoki Teruko (1983-90). Immediately before Rina's streak, Xie Yimin appeared seven consecutive times (2007-13), the first six of those as champion, the longest title reign (the next longest is Yoshida Mika's 1993-96 stretch). Xie also made to the final four times after that, reaching a record eleven times.

Winners and Runners-up

Ed. Year Winner Runner Up Re.
1st 1982 Honda Sachiko Kobayashi Reiko 2-1
2nd 1983 Kusunoki Teruko Honda Sachiko 2-1
3rd 1984 Honda Sachiko Kusunoki Teruko 2-0
4th 1985 Kusunoki Teruko Honda Sachiko 2-1
5th 1986 Ogawa Tomoko Kusunoki Teruko 2-0
6th 1987 Kusunoki Teruko Ogawa Tomoko 2-1
7th 1988 Kusunoki Teruko Ogawa Tomoko 2-0
8th 1989 Kusunoki Teruko Ogawa Tomoko 2-0
9th 1990 Nakazawa Ayako Kusunoki Teruko 2-1
10th 1991 Nakazawa Ayako Kobayashi Chizu 2-1
11th 1992 Kato Tomoko Nakazawa Ayako 2-0
12th 1993 Yoshida Mika Kato Tomoko 2-1
13th 1994 Yoshida Mika Tsukuda Akiko 2-0
14th 1995 Yoshida Mika Chinen Kaori 3-1
15th 1996 Yoshida Mika Nakazawa Ayako 3-0
16th 1997 Chinen Kaori Yoshida Mika 3-1
17th 1998 Chinen Kaori Kato Tomoko 3-0
18th 1999 Chinen Kaori Kobayashi Izumi 3-0
19th 2000 Kuwabara Yoko Chinen Kaori 3-2
20th 2001 Kobayashi Izumi Kuwabara Yoko 3-1
21st 2002 Kobayashi Izumi Chinen Kaori 3-2
22nd 2003 Kobayashi Izumi Yashiro Kumiko 3-1
23rd 2004 Chinen Kaori Kobayashi Izumi 3-1
24th 2005 Yashiro Kumiko Chinen Kaori 3-0
25th 2006 Yashiro Kumiko Inori Yoko 3-1
26th 2007 Xie Yimin Yashiro Kumiko 3-0
27th 2008 Xie Yimin Suzuki Ayumi 3-1
28th 2009 Xie Yimin Aoki Kikuyo 3-1
29th 2010 Xie Yimin Mukai Chiaki 3-0
30th 2011 Xie Yimin Mukai Chiaki 3-1
31st 2012 Xie Yimin Okuda Aya 3-0
32nd 2013 Mukai Chiaki Xie Yimin 3-2
33rd 2014 Fujisawa Rina Mukai Chiaki 3-0
34th 2015 Xie Yimin Fujisawa Rina 3-2
35th 2016 Fujisawa Rina Xie Yimin 3-1
36th 2017 Xie Yimin Fujisawa Rina 3-2
37th 2018 Fujisawa Rina Xie Yimin 3-1
38th 2019 Ueno Asami Fujisawa Rina 3-1
39th 2020 Fujisawa Rina Ueno Asami 3-2
40th 2021 Fujisawa Rina Hoshiai Shiho 3-0
41st 2022 Fujisawa Rina Ueno Asami 3-0
42nd 2023 Fujisawa Rina Ueno Risa 3-2


Women's Honinbo last edited by Jono64a on January 4, 2024 - 01:05
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