The Honinbo title is decided in a best of seven match with 9 hours thinking time per person. The challenger comes from a league with 8 participants. The players in the league are ordered according to their results in the previous year. The winner becomes challenger (a playoff game decides in case of a tie) and the lowest four players demote and are replaced by the winners of the four qualification knockout tournaments. Again, in case of a tie a playoff game decides who demotes. The 49th edition of the tournament shows all stages, so you can get an idea. These pages include all title match games and the league and playoff games when available. The Japanese Title Overview page shows what's available.

The Honinbo is the third most prestigeous title with a first prize of about USD 175,000,=

Edition		Final		Details
77th	2022	Iyama Yuta	Ichiriki Ryo	0-0
76th	2021	Iyama Yuta	Shibano Toramaru	4-3
75th	2020	Iyama Yuta	Shibano Toramaru	4-1
74th	2019	Iyama Yuta	Kono Rin	4-2
73rd	2018	Iyama Yuta	Yamashita Keigo	4-1
72nd	2017	Iyama Yuta	Motoki Katsuya	4-0
71st	2016	Iyama Yuta	Takao Shinji	4-1
70th	2015	Iyama Yuta	Yamashita Keigo	4-1
69th	2014	Iyama Yuta	Ida Atsushi	4-1
68th	2013	Iyama Yuta	Takao Shinji	4-3
67th	2012	Iyama Yuta	Yamashita Keigo	4-3
66th	2011	Yamashita Keigo	Hane Naoki	4-3
65th	2010	Yamashita Keigo	Hane Naoki	4-1
64th	2009	Hane Naoki	Takao Shinji	4-2
63rd	2008	Hane Naoki	Takao Shinji	4-3
62nd	2007	Takao Shinji	Yoda Norimoto	4-1
61st	2006	Takao Shinji	Yamada Kimio	4-2
60th	2005	Takao Shinji	Cho U	4-1
59th	2004	Cho U	Yoda Norimoto	4-2
58th	2003	Cho U	Kato Masao	4-2
57th	2002	Kato Masao	O Meien	4-2
56th	2001	O Meien	Cho U	4-3
55th	2000	O Meien	Cho Sonjin	4-2
54th	1999	Cho Sonjin	Cho Chikun	4-2
53rd	1998	Cho Chikun	O Rissei	4-2
52nd	1997	Cho Chikun	Kato Masao	4-0
51st	1996	Cho Chikun	Ryu Shikun	4-2
50th	1995	Cho Chikun	Kato Masao	4-1
49th	1994	Cho Chikun	Kataoka Satoshi	4-3
48th	1993	Cho Chikun	Yamashiro Hiroshi	4-1
47th	1992	Cho Chikun	Kobayashi Koichi	4-3
46th	1991	Cho Chikun	Kobayashi Koichi	4-2
45th	1990	Cho Chikun	Kobayashi Koichi	4-3
44th	1989	Cho Chikun	Takemiya Masaki	4-0
43rd	1988	Takemiya Masaki	Otake Hideo	4-3
42nd	1987	Takemiya Masaki	Yamashiro Hiroshi	4-0
41st	1986	Takemiya Masaki	Yamashiro Hiroshi	4-1
40th	1985	Takemiya Masaki	Rin Kaiho	4-1
39th	1984	Rin Kaiho	Awaji Shuzo	4-1
38th	1983	Rin Kaiho	Cho Chikun	4-3
37th	1982	Cho Chikun	Kobayashi Koichi	4-2
36th	1981	Cho Chikun	Takemiya Masaki	4-2
35th	1980	Takemiya Masaki	Kato Masao	4-1
34th	1979	Kato Masao	Rin Kaiho	4-1
33rd	1978	Kato Masao	Ishida Yoshio	4-3
32nd	1977	Kato Masao	Takemiya Masaki	4-1
31st	1976	Takemiya Masaki	Ishida Yoshio	4-1
30th	1975	Ishida Yoshio	Sakata Eio	4-3
29th	1974	Ishida Yoshio	Takemiya Masaki	4-3
28th	1973	Ishida Yoshio	Rin Kaiho	4-0
27th	1972	Ishida Yoshio	Rin Kaiho	4-3
26th	1971	Ishida Yoshio	Rin Kaiho	4-2
25th	1970	Rin Kaiho	Sakata Eio	4-0
24th	1969	Rin Kaiho	Kato Masao	4-2
23rd	1968	Rin Kaiho	Sakata Eio	4-3
22nd	1967	Sakata Eio	Rin Kaiho	4-1
21st	1966	Sakata Eio	Fujisawa Shuko	4-0
20th	1965	Sakata Eio	Yamabe Toshiro	4-0
19th	1964	Sakata Eio	Takagawa Shukaku	4-0
18th	1963	Sakata Eio	Takagawa Shukaku	4-2
17th	1962	Sakata Eio	Handa Dogen	4-1
16th	1961	Sakata Eio	Takagawa Shukaku	4-1
15th	1960	Takagawa Shukaku	Fujisawa Shuko	4-2
14th	1959	Takagawa Shukaku	Kitani Minoru	4-2
13th	1958	Takagawa Shukaku	Sugiuchi Masao	4-2
12th	1957	Takagawa Shukaku	Fujisawa Hosai	4-2
11th	1956	Takagawa Shukaku	Shimamura Toshihiro	4-2
10th	1955	Takagawa Shukaku	Shimamura Toshihiro	4-0
9th	1954	Takagawa Shukaku	Sugiuchi Masao	4-2
8th	1953	Takagawa Shukaku	Kitani Minoru	4-2
7th	1952	Takagawa Shukaku	Hashimoto Utaro	4-1
6th	1951	Hashimoto Utaro	Sakata Eio	4-3
5th	1950	Hashimoto Utaro	Iwamoto Kaoru	4-0
4th	1947	Iwamoto Kaoru	Kitani Minoru	3-2
3rd	1945	Iwamoto Kaoru	Hashimoto Utaro	3-3 (2-0)
2nd	1943	Hashimoto Utaro	Sekiyama Riichi	2-0
1st	1941	Sekiyama Riichi	Kato Shin	3-3

In the overview players link to their biographies while results link to a detailed description of the edition.

 Mainichi Shimbun Go page 
 Mainichi Shimbun Honinbo Coverage 

To find the name of a player in other languages such as Chinese or Korean please refer either to the dictionary pages, Internet Go Dictionary or their biography pages.

If you have additional information to the supplied info or if you can supply us with the results of other tournaments please send an E-mail about it and it will be included on these pages.