Daiwa Shoken Cup

Daiwa Shoken Cup Net Igo Open was sponsored by the Daiwa Securities Group Inc. (大和証券グループ本社, Daiwa Shōken Gurūpu Honsha), one of the three largest brokerages in Japan from 2006 to 2013. It became an official tournament (counting for promotions) starting from the 8th edition.

The tournament system changed through the years. At one point it consisted of four concurrent round robin tournaments of four players each for a total of sixteen players.

In its latest incarnation (8th term) the "Daiwa Shoken Cup Net Igo Open" (大和証券杯ネット囲碁オープン) consists of a preliminary tournament to select 24 qualifiers who are then combined with the top 8 finishers from the previous term to form a 32-player final. The rules are the same as the NHK Cup: 30-second byo yomi with 10 additional periods of 60-seconds thinking time. The games are played live by computer on the Nihon Kiin's Go server, Yugen No Ma.

The 8th edition was a normal official tournament, but was the last.

Older Discussion

Blake: There has to be more information on this tournament. Is it a lightning tournament? It seems to have some sort of invitation mechanism, so that major title-holders are seeded into the final tournament and don't play in the league. According to one of the news sites, Takao (Meijin), Cho Chikun (10d), Kono Rin (Tengen), and Cho U (Gosei) were in the final tournament but didn't play in the leagues.

O was the only non-seeded player to pass the first round. He beat Kono Rin (W+R), Cho U (B+3.5), and Yoda (W+3.5, B+9.5).

valerio: It seems to be a Internet Tournament (10' for player + byo-yomi).

Hyperpapeterie: Iyama Yuta's page lists him as winning the Daiwa Grand Champion Cup in 2008, but Takao Shinji also won a Daiwa Cup in 2008 (listed at http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/news.html). What's the relation of those two?

valerio: Daiwa Grand Champion is a "super" tournament, including Title holders, winners of previous Daiwa editions, first two women from 1st Female Daiwa and winner of Amateur Daiwa. The 2nd edition starts on 2009-01-10 (view http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/2009/01/110_4.html)

valerio: round robin was used only for preliminaries of first two editions.