Nongshim Cup

Submitted by macelee on 2014-10-21 20:57; Last upda ted on: 2022-02-26 09:24

Overview:

The Nongshim Cup is a team competition for the three major Go-playing countries - China, Japan and Korea. It is named after sponsor Nongshim, a Korean food company producing instant noodles. This tournament was first held in 1999, replacing the Jinro Cup.

Tournament Format:

The three countries each starts with 5 players. The selection is often based on a combination of preliminary tournaments and appointments. Two countries are randomly selected to start the first game. The winner continues playing a player from the third country. The winner of each subsequent game stays in to play the next opponent from a different country. In the end the team with players left standing is the winner of the tournament. These games are played over three stages in different cities (and online since the start of COVID-19 pandemic).

Prize Money:

The generous prize money has increased over the years. The prize for the winning team stands at 500,000,000 KRW as of the 17th edition. There is also a separate prize for players winning consecutively - 10,000,000 KRW for winning three games in a row and 10,000,000 KRW for each additional victory after that.

Time System:

1 hour main time for each player followed by 1 minute byoyomi.

Ruleset and Komi:

Korean rule with 6.5-point komi.

Key Players, Events and Statistics:

The full name of this tournament is 'Nongshim Spicy Noodle Cup'. Instant noodle (ramyun) is a popular fast food in oriental countries. Nowadays, the particular brand of noodle, as shown in the picture, is widely available even in western supermarkets.
Korea dominated this tournament by winning most times and never finishing third. China really struggled in early years but its performance improved a lot in recent years.
Korea's domination was mainly because of the stellar performance of Lee Changho, who single-handedly terminated the tournament 8 times, including a winning streak of 14 games over 6 years. In the 6th Nongshim Cup, he beat 5 opponents when his teammate failed to perform.
In most years, the winner was decided by the 14th and final game. The winning team was always properly challenged. This is what makes the tournament exciting.
The winning team is not necessarily winning the most number of games. Team with the strongest captain often benefits from the three-team arrangement.
For all editions so far, at least one player won the special prize for winning 3+ games consecutively.
Four members of the Korea team are selected from a qualifying tournament. The sponsor then determines a wild-card player. The decisions in the past were often controversial because the sponsor favoured famous players over other players in better forms.
Up to 14 games are split over three stages. The split was 4/6/4 but quietly changed to 4/5/5 in term 17, apparently to avoid the awkward situation in which one poorly performing team gets knocked out in stage 2 (this is still possible).
The longest winning streak was by Fan Tingyu winning seven consecutive games. Believe it or not, he did this twice! Yang Dingxin managed to do the same in 2019.

Historical Results:


Term	Year	1st place	2nd place	3rd place	Final game & terminator	Winning streak
1	2000	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Changho	Chang Hao: 3
2	2001	Korea	Japan	China	Lee Changho	Choi Cheolhan: 3
3	2002	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Changho	Luo Xihe: 3
4	2003	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Changho	Hu Yaoyu: 5; Park Yeonghun: 4
5	2004	Korea	Japan	China	Lee Changho	Kobayashi Koichi / Weon Seongjin: 3
6	2005	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Changho	Lee Changho: 5
7	2006	Japan	Korea	China	Yoda Norimoto	Yoda Norimoto / Cho Hanseung: 3
8	2007	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Changho	Peng Quan: 5; Park Yeonghun: 4
9	2008	China	Korea	Japan	Chang Hao	Chang Hao: 4; Mok Jinseok / Wang Xi: 3
10	2009	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Sedol	Kang Dongyun: 5; Tuo Jiaxi: 4
11	2010	Korea	China	Japan	Lee Changho	Xie He: 5; Kim Jiseok / Lee Changho: 3
12	2011	Korea	China	Japan	Choi Cheolhan	Xie He / Choi Cheolhan: 4
13	2012	China	Korea	Japan	Xie He	Tan Xiao / Kim Jiseok: 4; Xie He: 3
14	2013	Korea	China	Japan	Park Junghwan	Tan Xiao / Wang Xi / Choi Cheolhan: 3
15	2014	China	Korea	Japan	Shi Yue	Fan Tingyu / Chen Yaoye: 3
16	2015	China	Korea	Japan	Lian Xiao	Wang Xi: 4
17	2016	China	Korea	Japan	Ke Jie	Ichiriki Ryo / Gu Li / Lee Sedol: 3
18	2017	China	Korea	Japan	Fan Yunruo	Fan Tingyu: 7
19	2018	Korea	China	Japan	Kim Jiseok	Shin Minjun: 6; Dang Yifei: 5
20	2019	China	Korea	Japan	Dang Yifei	Fan Tingyu: 7
21	2020	China	Korea	Japan	Ke Jie	Yang Dingxin: 7
22	2021	Korea	China	Japan	Shin Jinseo	Shin Jinseo: 5; Gu Zihao: 3
23	2022	Korea	Japan	China	Shin Jinseo	Iyama Yuta / Shin Jinseo: 4

Reference Links:

Go4Go's collection Nongshim Cup games

Go4Go Collection Note:

All main tournament games are in the Go4Go database. Some games from preliminary tournaments are also available.

Tournament Tag:

International Tournament

Nongshim

Jinro

Comments

I believe it isn't only the

Submitted by Elom on Sun, 2021-05-09 16:42.

I believe it isn't only the Korean team that's chosen mostly by qualifier, since all teams have to use the same system with the sponsor selecting a wildcard from each.

Interestingly I remember a non-team tournament in which Lee Changho didn't qualify and there being a little controversy over there not being a wildcard option to select him, so I guess there's be dissatisfaction either way . . .

Fun Fact

Submitted by nadoss on Thu, 2021-12-02 00:57.

Korea has played in the first round every year for the last 8 years, a very small disadvantage, but a disadvantage nonetheless.

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