1st Meijin title

Up Yomiuri 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

# 1st Meijin title

## Tournament setup

The Meijin tournament is open to Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in players. A nine-player league decides the challenger each year. Every year, the three lowest-ranked players in the league drop out. Entrance into the league is decided by three preliminaries. The first is between 1-4 dans (6 winners: 4 Nihon ki-in and 2 Kansai ki-in). The second is between 5-9 dans and the six winners and yields some 30 winners. The third is a knock-out tournament between these winners and the 3 people who dropped from the league, and yields 3 winners, who enter the league.

Komi is 5; since 1977 5.5; since 2003 6.5. The time limit is 8 hours each in the title matches and 5 hours in the league and preliminaries. Byo-yomi is 1 minute per move.

## Newcomers

The lowest three players from the previous year are demoted, and entrance matches determine which three new players are allowed to enter the League.

game | date | black | white | result | sgf
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Qualification final | 1976-02-17 | Kubouchi Shuchi | Sekiyama Toshio | B+2 | sgf
Qualification final | 1976-02-19 | Kajiwara Takeo | Ohira Shuzo | B+7 | sgf
Qualification final | 1976-02-19 | Kudo Norio | Kato Masao | B+2 | sgf

## League

Results (in the first column the white player, on the top row the black player). The ordering of the first six players is according to their results in the previous year. The last three are the winners of the entrance matches (in some order).

# | player | result | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1. | Ishida Yoshio | 6-2 |  |  | B+4 |  |  | B+5 |  | W+2 | W+R
2. | Fujisawa Shuko | 3-5 | B+R |  |  | W+2 | B+R |  |  | B+R |
3. | Sakata Eio | 4-4 |  | W+R |  |  |  | W+R | W+R |  | B+1
4. | Hashimoto Utaro | 4-4 | B+14 |  | W+R |  | B+R |  |  | B+R |
5. | Rin Kaiho | 6-2 | B+2 |  | W+16 |  |  | W+R |  | W+R |
6. | Yamabe Toshiro | 1-7 |  | B+5 |  | B+R |  |  | B+R |  | B+R
7. | Kubouchi Shuchi | 4-4 | B+R | W+1 |  | B+R | W+R |  |  |  |
8. | Kajiwara Takeo | 4-4 |  |  | W+9 |  |  | W+R | B+R |  | B+6
9. | Kudo Norio | 4-4 |  | B+R |  | B+R | B+R |  | W+R |  |

## 1st Meijin Title

game | date | black | white | result | sgf
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | 1976-09-16 | Otake Hideo | Ishida Yoshio | B+R | sgf
2 | 1976-09-29 | Ishida Yoshio | Otake Hideo | W+5 | sgf
3 | 1976-10-06 | Otake Hideo | Ishida Yoshio | B+2 | sgf
4 | 1976-10-20,21 | Ishida Yoshio | Otake Hideo | B+2 | sgf
5 | 1976-10-27,28 | Otake Hideo | Ishida Yoshio | B+R | sgf

Otake Hideo won with 4-1.