Tongyang Securities Cup

Overview: 

Tongyang Securities Cup was a major international Go tournament held in 1990's. The sponsor Tongyang Securities Inc is a Korean company offering financial services. The first two editions of this tournament were more like a domestic Korean event, with only few international players invited. Beginning term 3, it became a full-fledged international tournament. The tournament was last held in 1998 and discontinued apparently due to the Asian financial crisis. Tongyang continues to support Go in the form of a new Internet-based Tongyang Securities Cup that has been held annually since 2004.

Tournament Format: 

The main event was a knockout for 24 players, with 8 players (normally the stronger ones) seeded to round 2 directly. A small number of seats were decided through a qualifying event. Other seats were reserved for top finishing players from the previous term, and then allocated to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The finals were best-of-5. The semi-finals were best-of-3 before changing to single game in term 8.

Prize Money: 
Prize pool improved over the years. From term 8, the winner's prize was 120,000,000 KRW.
Time System: 
Three hours for each side, followed by 1-minute 'byoyomi', with each player having 5 opportunities to go beyond 1 minute.
Ruleset and Komi: 
Korean rule with 5.5 point komi.
Key Players, Events and Statistics: 

This tournament underscored Korea's dominance of Go world during 1990's, with teacher/student pair Cho Hunhyun and Lee Changho winning all but one titles. Ma Xiaochun, winning the title in term 6, became the first ever Chinese world champion.

Historical Results: 

Term

Year

Winner

Score

Runner-up

Game Records

1

1989

Yang Jaeho

3-1

Chang Suyeong

2

1990

Seo Bongsoo

3-1

Lee Changho

3

1992

Lee Changho

3-2

Rin Kaiho

4

1993

Lee Changho

3-0

Cho Chikun

5

1994

Cho Hunhyun

3-1

Yoda Norimoto

6

1995

Ma Xiaochun

3-1

Nie Weiping

7

1996

Lee Changho

3-1

Ma Xiaochun

8

1997

Cho Hunhyun

3-0

Kobayashi Satoru

9

1998

Lee Changho

3-1

Yoo Changhyuk

Go4Go Collection Note: 
Go4Go has a complete collection of games beginning term 3 when the tournament became truly international.