61st NHK Cup (shogi)

The 61st NHK Cup, or as it is officially known the 61st NHK Cup TV Shogi Tournament (第61回NHK杯テレビ将棋トーナメント, dairokujūikkai enueichikeihai terebi shōgi tōnamento) was a professional shogi tournament organized by the Japan Shogi Association and sponsored by Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

The 50-player single elimination tournament was won by Yoshiharu Habu.

All of the tournament games were shown each Sunday morning on NHK-E.

The host (司会者, shikaisha) during the NHK-E broadcasts was female professional Rieko Yauchi.

The initial time control for each player was 20 minutes followed by a 30-second byōyomi.

The first time control for main tournament games was ten minutes per player.

If, however, they did not, a thinking time period began and they then had up to one minute (more specifically 59 seconds) to make a move before entering the next thinking time period.

This process was repeated until a player had used all ten thinking time periods.

Then, the final byōyomi time control of 30 seconds per move then began.

[1] Sente was determined prior to each game by piece toss.

The 50 players listed below qualified for the main tournament.

"Guest Analyst" refers to the kishi who provided commentary during the broadcast.

The 18 preliminary tournament winners were paired against 18 seeded players.

Play began on August 7, 2011, and ended on November 27, 2011.

Play began on December 4, 2011, and ended on January 29, 2012.

Sugai, Kitajima and Akutsu were the only preliminary tournament winners make it as far as round 3.

Kubo vs. Moriuchi (round 3, game 4) was the first pairing of major titleholders in the tournament.

The last remaining preliminary tournament winner (Sugai) was joined by three major titleholders (Habu, Watanabe, and Kubo), two Class A players (Kimura and Gōda) and two Class B1 players (Hatakeyama and Matsuo).

Sugai's feat was even more impressive because he had only become a professional in April 2010, and this was his first time participating in the NHK Cup tournament.

The 1st semifinal game between Akira Watanabe Ryūō (sente) and Toshiaki Kubo 2 crown (gote) was broadcast on March 4, 2012.

The 2nd semifinal game was between Mamoru Hatakeyama 7d (sente) and Yoshiharu Habu NHK Cup (gote).

The game was broadcast on March 11, 2012, and won by Habu in 108 moves.

After 112 preliminary tournament games and 48 main tournament games involving 172 players, Yoshiharu Habu NHK Cup and Akira Watanabe Ryūō met in the final which was broadcast on March 18, 2012.

A victory over Watanabe would also be Habu's tenth NHK Cup title overall, thus making him the first player to qualify for the title of "Lifetime NHK Cup Champion".

The piece toss before the game resulted in Habu being sente and he won the game in 147 moves, thus becoming the 61st NHK Cup Champion、the first player to win the tournament 4 times in a row [j] and the first "Lifetime NHK Cup Champion".

[6] The guest analyst for the final match were Toshiyuki Moriuchi Meijin and the hosts were NHK announcer Taiga Sekiguchi [ja] and female professional Rieko Yauchi.

The host was NHK announcer Nobuo Murakami and the guest analysts were Kunio Yonenaga Lifetime Kisei, Kōji Tanigawa 9d and Takanori Hashimoto 8d.

[7] The game score and a diagram showing the final position is given below.

[8] Sente: Yoshiharu Habu NHK Cup Gote: Akira Watanabe Ryūō Opening: Double Fortress (相矢倉) 1.P-7f, 2.

Gx9c gote resigns (diagram) The final tournament bracket is shown below.