When the number of players was increased from 8 to 16 for the 16th NHK Cup (1966), the tournament became open to other professionals as well.
To commemorate the tournament's 50th anniversary, the final of the 50th NHK Cup (2000) was held at the Kansai Shogi Kaikan.
[7][8] In addition, each tournament game can also be viewed online for a short period of time after it has been broadcast and for a small fee using the NHK On Demand service.
[12] Encore presentations of Yoshiharu Habu's victories over four Meijins were broadcast instead in the same time slot.
[13] When the game broadcasts resumed, a number of changes had been made to the studio set in consideration of the social distancing policies advocated by the government to reduce the spread of the virus.
Games were played with players seated at a table using a table-top shogi board.
[3] Seeded players are determined based upon their results as of December 31 of the previous year.
The NHK Cup is a "quick play" (早指し, hayazashi) tournament with time controls that are quite short in comparison to those of the major shogi titles.
A player in byōyomi who fails to make their move within 30 seconds loses the game.
[3] Habu qualified for the title by beating Akira Watanabe to win the 61st NHK Cup (2011) on March 18, 2012.
[22][23] The following is a list of the winners and runners-up for past NHK Cup TV Shogi Tournaments.
[3] In addition, special single-character shogi pieces are used so that they can easily be seen by television audience.
Once a game has finished, the two commentators join the two players on the main set and post-game analysis takes place broadcast time permitting.
Women's professionals began serving as tournament hosts for the 41st NHK Cup (1991).
The women's professional host and the guest analyst(s) are also asked to give their impressions of tournament and thoughts on the final.
The radio broadcasts stopped, however, once the tournament switched to television in 1962 for the 12th NHK Cup.
NHK also created a website people could not only listen to the audio commentary, but could also follow the moves online.
[31][106][107] Hiroe Nakai became the first women's professional to win a NHK Cup game.
[41][42] The following year Nakai also qualified for the 54th NHK Cup (2004) and continued her high level of play by beating Shūji Satō in round 1.
[43][44] In round 2, Nakai faced Yasumitsu Satō who was the reigning Kisei title holder.
Nakai obtained an advantageous position against Satō, but was unable to convert it into a win.
[70] Satomi won for the second time when she defeated Kohei Funae in Round 1 of the 73rd NHK Cup on April 30, 2023.
Tomoka Nishiyama defeated Kazuki Kimura in Round 1 of the 74th NHK Cup on June 23, 2024.
[74] The four semifinalists of the 59th NHK Cup (2009) were Yoshiharu Habu, Tetsurō Itodani, Tadahisa Maruyama and Akira Watanabe.
[5][110] In Round 3 of the 46th NHK Cup (1996), Kenji Kobayashi lost on time to Nobuyuki Yashiki when he failed to complete his move within 30 seconds during byōyomi.
[114] In the 61st NHK Cup (2011), the Round 1 game between Takuya Nagase (sente) and Yasumitsu Satō (gote) ended in sennichite.