NHK Cup (shogi)

The NHK Cup, officially the NHK Cup TV Shogi Tournament, is a professional shogi tournament organized by the Japan Shogi Association and sponsored by Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

History

Formerly known as the NHK Cup Competition Shogi Tournament, the 1st NHK Cup was held in 1951 with eight professional shogi players. The winner was Yoshio Kimura, who held the Meijin title at the time. Prior to 1962, the tournament was broadcast only on the radio, but starting with the 12th NHK Cup, the tournament moved to television. The 26th NHK Cup was the first to be broadcast in color.
Up until and including the 15th NHK Cup, only Class A professionals were allowed to participate. When the number of players was increased from 8 to 16 for the 16th NHK Cup, the tournament became open to other professionals as well. The number of players was increased again from 16 to 26 for the 27th NHK Cup and to its current level of 50 for the 31st NHK Cup. In addition, the preliminary tournaments also started with the 31st NHK Cup.
Women's professionals were allowed to participate for the first time in the 43rd NHK Cup. Hiroe Nakai was the first woman to participate in the tournament. To commemorate of tournament's 60th anniversary, the number of players was increased to 51 players for the 60th NHK Cup to allow a second female professional to participate. The number of players returned to 50 for the 61st NHK Cup.
Although tournament games are typically recorded in advance in a closed studio for broadcast at a later date, the final of the 45th NHK Cup was the first to be held before a studio audience. This was repeated again for the final of the 49th NHK Cup. The final for the 57th NHK Cup was the first to be broadcast live.
To commemorate the tournament's 50th anniversary, the final of the 50th NHK Cup was held at the Kansai Shogi Kaikan. This was the first time that a final was held outside of Tokyo.
The tournament returned to radio in 2010, when the final of 60th NHK Cup was also broadcast on the NHK Radio 1. The finals for both the 61st and 62nd NHK Cups were also broadcast on NHK Radio 1. 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. This video-on-demand (VOD) service, however, was only available to those living in Japan. In April 2014, NHK discontinued this service for the 64th NHK Cup.
Broadcasts of the 70th NHK Cup tournament were temporarily suspended from mid May to mid June 2020 in response to the Japanese Government's declaration of a state of emergency regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Games which had already been recorded were broadcast as scheduled, but no new games could be recorded due a suspension of all official games put into effect by the Japan Shogi Association at the beginning of April. Encore presentations of [|Yoshiharu Habu's victories over four Meijins] were broadcast instead in the same time slot. 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. In addition, protective transparent screens were placed in front of the player's faces and the each player wore a mask. The host of the tournament stood off to the side of the set and read-off the game moves from that position, while the time keeper sat to at the side of the table protected by another screen.

Format

The tournament is actually made up of two parts: the main tournament, and preliminary tournaments. The main tournament is a 6-round single elimination tournament in which 50 players compete for the title of "NHK Cup Champion". The first 4 rounds determine the four players who will meet in the two semifinals to determine the winner of each block; The two block winners then meet in the final to determine the overall tournament winner. All of the games played in the main tournament are televised.

Participants

A total of 50 players compete in the main tournament: 49 male professionals and 1 female professional. Of the 50 players, 32 are seeded and 18 are preliminary tournament winners. Seeded players are determined based upon their results as of December 31 of the previous year. The criteria for selecting seeded players are as follows:

The winner, runner-up and two losing semifinalists from the previous year's tournament.
Current titleholders of the eight major titles main titles: Meijin, Ryūō, Kiō, ōshō, ōza, ōi, Kisei and
Lifetime title holders or those who have qualified for such titles and players in either Class A or Class B1.
Winners of other tournaments during the previous year.
One female professional
Players who had performed at an exceptionally high level during the previous year. Typically, these are players who ranked at the top in terms of the number of games played, number of games won, and winning percentage on the JSA's year end ranking of players.

Among the seeded players, fourteen are directly seeded into round 2 and, thus, only need to win five games to win the tournament. These include the defending NHK Cup Champion, the previous year's runner-up, the previous year's other two semifinalists, and all of the players in Class A as of December 31 of the previous year. Occasionally other players are also seeded into round 2 in order to complete the fourteen if necessary; This often happens when one or more of the Class A players is also one of the previous year's tournament's semifinalists or a reigning major title holder.
Professionals who do not qualify as one of the aforementioned seeds must win a preliminary tournament in order to advance to the main tournament. The tournaments are held at the Tokyo Shogi Kaikan and Kansai Shogi Kaikan. The preliminary tournaments are one-day tournaments open and, depending upon the number of players playing, the winner must win either two or three consecutive games to win the tournament.

Brackets

The preliminaries and the main tournament use a bracket system. The main tournament consists of six round. In Round 1, there are nine games played in each bracket and the winners of those games advance. In Round 2, there are eight games played in each bracket and the winners advance. In Round 3, the remaining eight players in each bracket compete for the right to advance to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinalists then play each other for a spot in the semifinals; and finally, the last four players face each other for a spot in the final. A total of 47 games are played in a tournament; However, this may end up being more if there are any games replayed because they ended in sennichite or impasse.

Time controls

The NHK Cup is a "quick play" tournament with time controls that are quite short in comparison to those of the major shogi titles. The entire game usually lasts no more than ninety minutes whereas a major title game often spans two days, and a single move can take hours. An analog chess clock is used to keep track of each player's first time control. Unlike professional chess tournaments, professional shogi players do not have to manage their own clocks or keep the game score. An official "game score keeper", typically a shōreikai member, keeps the official record of the game and keeps track of each player's time. In addition to the official game score keeper, there is also an "official game score reader" who announces each move after it is played as well as the total number of moves played and the final result once the game has finished. The official game score reader for main tournament games is typically a women's professional.

Preliminary tournaments

The first time control is 20 minutes per player followed by a byōyomi time control of 30 seconds per move. A player in byōyomi who fails to make their move within 30 seconds loses the game. The remaining seconds of byōyomi are counted down by the official game score keeper.

Main tournament (televised games)

The first time control is 10 minutes per player. Once this 10 minutes has been used up, a second time control of 10 one-minute periods of Time control#Japanese byo-yomi starts. When a player has used up all of their thinking time periods, a final byōyomi time control of 30 seconds per move begins. The official game score keeper counts down the remaining seconds of a thinking time period, announces when a player has used up one of these periods as well as the number of periods remaining, and counts down the remaining seconds of the byōyomi time control.

Tournament records

Most tournament championships: Yoshiharu Habu, 11
Youngest player to win a championship: Yoshiharu Habu, 18 years old, 38th NHK Cup
Oldest player to win a championship: Yasuharu Ōyama, 61 years old, 30th NHK Cup
Lowest ranked player to win championship: Yōichi Kushida, 4 dan, 39th NHK Cup
Most consecutive championships: Yoshiharu Habu, 4, the 58th to 61st NHK Cups
Oldest player to win a tournament game: Yūzō Maruta won his round 1 game of the 42nd NHK Cup at the age of 73.
Oldest player to qualify for the tournament: Michio Ariyoshi qualified for the 60th NHK Cup at the age of 75. He lost his first-round game.
Longest period between championships: 12 years, Hifumi Katō won the 43rd NHK Cup 12 years after winning the 31st NHK Cup
Fewest moves: 39, Tetsurō Itodani 5 dan vs. Tadahisa Maruyama 9 dan, semifinals 60th NHK Cup, March 20, 2011

Lifetime NHK Cup Champions

Players who win the tournament a total of 10 times qualify for the title "Lifetime NHK Cup Champion" and as such are granted a lifetime seed into all future NHK Cups. To date, only Yoshiharu Habu has qualified to be a Lifetime NHK Cup Champion Habu has won the tournament a total of 10 times. The next closest is Yasuharu Ōyama who won the tournament 8 times, and the next closest currently active player is Hifumi Katō who has won the tournament 7 times. Habu qualified for the title by beating Akira Watanabe to win the 61st NHK Cup on March 18, 2012.

Past winners

The following is a list of the winners and runners-up for past NHK Cup TV Shogi Tournaments. "No." refers to number of times the tournament had been held up until that time, and "year" refers to the year in which the tournament began. The number in parentheses next to the winner's name is the number of times that they had won the tournament up until that point.

No.	Year	Winner	Runner-up
1	1951	Yoshio Kimura	Kōzō Masuda
2	1952	Kōzō Masuda	Yūzō Maruta
3	1953	Masao Tsukada	Motoji Hanamura
4	1954	Yasuharu Ōyama	Masao Tsukada
5	1955	Yasuharu Ōyama	Renshō Nada
6	1956	Yasuo Harada	Renshō Nada
7	1957	Kōzō Masuda	Renshō Nada
8	1958	Renshō Nada	Yasuharu Ōyama
9	1959	Yūzō Maruta	Genichi Ōno
10	1960	Hifumi Katō	Yasuharu Ōyama
11	1961	Yasuharu Ōyama	Hiroji Katō
12	1962	Renshō Nada	Kōzō Masuda
13	1963	Kōzō Masuda	Hifumi Katō
14	1964	Yasuharu Ōyama	Masao Tsukada
15	1965	Yūzō Maruta	Kōzō Masuda
16	1966	Hifumi Katō	Tatsuya Futagami
17	1967	Noboru Ōtomo	Tatsuya Futagami
18	1968	Yūzō Maruta	Michiyoshi Yamada
19	1969	Kunio Naitō	Shigeru Sekine
20	1970	Yasuharu Ōyama	Makoto Nakahara
21	1971	Hifumi Katō	Nobuyuki Ōuchi
22	1972	Yasuharu Ōyama	Kunio Yonenaga
23	1973	Hifumi Katō	Kunio Naitō
24	1974	Makoto Nakahara	Kunio Naitō
25	1975	Nobuyuki Ōuchi	Tatsuya Futagami
26	1976	Hifumi Katō	Kunio Yonenaga
27	1977	Makoto Nakahara	Hifumi Katō
28	1978	Kunio Yonenaga	Kazuo Manabe
29	1979	Yasuharu Ōyama	Keiji Mori
30	1980	Michio Ariyoshi	Makoto Nakahara
31	1981	Hifumi Katō	Hatasu Itō
32	1982	Makoto Nakahara	Teruichi Aono
33	1983	Yasuharu Ōyama	Hifumi Katō
34	1984	Torahiko Tanaka	Hifumi Katō
35	1985	Kōji Tanigawa	Kunio Naitō
36	1986	Yūji Maeda	Keiji Mori
37	1987	Makoto Nakahara	Osamu Nakamura
38	1988	Yoshiharu Habu	Makoto Nakahara
39	1989	Yōichi Kushida	Akira Shima
40	1990	Manabu Senzaki	Yoshikazu Minami
41	1991	Yoshiharu Habu	Yasuaki Tsukada
42	1992	Makoto Nakahara	Akira Shima
43	1993	Hifumi Katō	Yasumitsu Satō
44	1994	Makoto Nakahara	Kunio Yonenaga
45	1995	Yoshiharu Habu	Daisuke Nakagawa
46	1996	Toshiyuki Moriuchi	Nobuyuki Yashiki
47	1997	Yoshiharu Habu	Satoshi Murayama
48	1998	Yoshiharu Habu	Kazushiza Horiguchi
49	1999	Daisuke Suzuki	Masataka Gōda
50	2000	Yoshiharu Habu	Toshiaki Kubo
51	2001	Toshiyuki Moriuchi	Yasumitsu Satō
52	2002	Hiroyuki Miura	Manabu Senzaki
53	2003	Toshiaki Kubo	Yoshiharu Habu
54	2004	Takayuki Yamasaki	Yoshiharu Habu
55	2005	Tadahisa Maruyama	Akira Watanabe
56	2006	Yasumitsu Satō	Toshiyuki Moriuchi
57	2007	Yasumitsu Satō	Daisuke Suzuki
58	2008	Yoshiharu Habu	Toshiyuki Moriuchi
59	2009	Yoshiharu Habu	Tetsurō Itodani
60	2010	Yoshiharu Habu	Tetsurō Itodani
61	2011	Yoshiharu Habu	Akira Watanabe
62	2012	Akira Watanabe	Yoshiharu Habu
63	2013	Masataka Gōda	Tadahisa Maruyama
64	2014	Toshiyuki Moriuchi	Hisashi Namekata
65	2015	Yasuaki Murayama	Shōta Chida
66	2016	Yasumitsu Satō	Kazutoshi Satō
67	2017	Takayuki Yamasaki	Akira Inaba
68	2018	Yoshiharu Habu	Masataka Gōda
69	2019	Kōichi Fukaura	Akira Inaba
70	2020	Akira Inaba	Shintarō Saitō
71	2021	Masayuki Toyoshima	Ayumu Matsuo
72	2022	Sōta Fujii	Yūki Sasaki
73	2023	Yūki Sasaki	Sōta Fujii
74	2024	Sōta Fujii	Masataka Gōda

Women's professionals

Women's professionals have been participating in the tournament since the 43rd NHK Cup. The following table shows those who have participated in the tournament over the years as well as their opponents and results.

No.	Year	Name	Round	Opponent	Result
43	1993	Hiroe Nakai	1	Manabu Senzaki 5d	L
44	1994	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Shingo Hirafuji 4d	L
45	1995	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Naruyuki Hatakeyama 5d	L
46	1996	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Hiroki Iizuka 4d	L
47	1997	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Kōichi Fukaura 5d	L
48	1998	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Kensuke Kitahama 6d	L
49	1999	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Akio Ishikawa 6d	L
50	2000	Hiroe Nakai	1	Hirotaka Nozuki 4d	L
51	2001	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Naruyuki Hatakeyama 6d	L
52	2002	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Jun'ichi Kase 6d	L
53	2003	Hiroe Nakai	1	Mamoru Hatakeyama 6d	W
53	2003	Hiroe Nakai	2	Teruichi Aono 9d	W
53	2003	Hiroe Nakai	3	Makoto Nakahara Lifetime 10d	L
54	2004	Hiroe Nakai	1	Shūji Satō 6d	W
54	2004	Hiroe Nakai	2	Yasumitsu Satō Kisei	L
55	2005	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Takeshi Kawakami 5d	L
56	2006	Ryoko Chiba	1	Isao Nakata 7d	L
57	2007	Ryoko Chiba	1	Kazutoshi Satō 4d	L
58	2008	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Tetsurō Itodani 4d	L
59	2009	Rieko Yauchi	1	Yōichi Kushida 6d	L
60	2010	Kana Satomi	1	Hiroshi Kobayashi 6d	L
60	2010	Ichiyo Shimizu	1	Kazushiza Horiguchi 7d	L
61	2011	Tomomi Kai	1	Akira Shima 9d	L
62	2012	Tomomi Kai	1	Hirotaka Nozuki 7d	L
63	2013	Hatsumi Ueda	1	Kazuhiro Nishikawa 4d	L
64	2014	Manao Kagawa	1	Manabu Kumasaka 5d	L
65	2015	Tomomi Kai	1	Tetsuya Fujimori 4d	L
66	2016	Momoko Katō	1	Kazutoshi Satō 6d	L
67	2017	Momoko Katō	1	Seiya Kondō 5d	L
68	2018	Momoko Katō	1	Takuma Oikawa 6d	W
68	2018	Momoko Katō	2	Toshiyuki Moriuchi 9d	L
69	2019	Kana Satomi	1	Issei Takazaki 6d	W
69	2019	Kana Satomi	2	Akira Inaba 8d	L
70	2020		1	Makoto Sasaki 7d	L
71	2021		1	Wataru Yashiro 7d	L
72	2022	Kana Satomi	1	Kenji Imaizumi 5d	L
73	2023	Kana Satomi	1	Kohei Funae 6d	W
73	2023	Kana Satomi	2	Toshiaki Kubo 9d	L
74	2024	Tomoka Nishiyama	1	Kazuki Kimura 9d	W
74	2024	Tomoka Nishiyama	2	Sōta Fujii 7-crown	L

Note: "W" stands for "win" and "L" stands for "loss".

Preliminaries

From 2005 until 2015, the participating women's professional was determined by a playoff between the reigning women's title holders; however, the selection process was revised in 2016 for the 66th NHK Cup so that the women's professional was determined based upon the recommendation of the Japan Shogi Association, but reverted to a playoff format for the 67th NHK Cup. The name of each year's qualifier is indicated in bold.

No.	Year	Name	Note
55	2005	Ichiyo Shimizu and Hiroe Nakai	Shimizu, Nakai
56	2006	Ryoko Chiba and Ichiyo Shimizu	Chiba, Shimizu
57	2007	Ryoko Chiba, Ichiyo Shimizu, Rieko Yauchi and Haruko Saida	Chiba, Shimizu, Yauchi and Saida. Chiba beat Saida and Shimizu beat Yauchi in Rd. 1. Chiba then beat Shimizu in Rd. 2.
58	2008	Ichiyo Shimizu, Rieko Yauchi and Sachio Ishibashi	Shimizu, Yauchi, Ishibashi. Shimizu given bye and Yauchi beat Ishibashi in Rd. 1. Shimizu then beat Yauchi in Rd. 2.
59	2009	Rieko Yauchi, Sachio Ishibashi and Ichiyo Shimizu, Kana Satomi	Yauchi, Ishibashi, Shimizu, Satomi. Yauchi beat Shimizu and Ishibashi beat Satomi in Rd. 1. Yauchi then beat Ishibashi in Rd. 2.
60	2010	Ichiyo Shimizu, Kana Satomi and Rieko Yauchi	Shimizu, Satomi, Yauchi. Double-elimination tournament used since two spots available: Yauchi lost first game to Satomi and second game to Shimizu.
61	2011	Tomomi Kai and Kana Satomi	Kai, Satomi
62	2012	Tomomi Kai and Hatsumi Ueda	Kai, Ueda
63	2013	Hatsumi Ueda	Ueda
64	2014	Manao Kagawa and Tomomi Kai	Kagawa, Kai.
65	2015	Tomomi Kai and Manao Kagawa	Kai, Kagawa.
66	2016	Momoko Katō	Katō.
67	2017	Momoko Katō, Sae Itō, Yuki Muroya, Manao Kagawa, Shinobu Iwane and Ichiyo Shimizu	Katō was the winner of a playoff tournament involving five other women's professionals.
68	2018	Momoko Katō, Sae Itō and Hatsumi Ueda	Katō was the winner of a playoff tournament involving two other women's professionals.
69	2019	Kana Satomi, Mana Watanabe and Tomoka Nishiyama	A two-round qualifying tournament involving women's major title holders Satomi, Watanabe and Nishiyama was won by Satomi. Satomi given a bye, and Nishiyama defeated Watanabe in Rd. 1; Satomi then defeated Nishiyama in Rd. 2.
70	2020	Tomoka Nishiyama and Kana Satomi	Single game between the only two women's major title holders Satomi 4-crown and Nishiyama 3-crown won by Nishiyama.
71	2021	Tomoka Nishiyama and Kana Satomi	Single game between the only two women's major title holders Satomi 4-crown and Nishiyama 3-crown won by Nishiyama.
72	2022	Kana Satomi, Tomoka Nishiyama and Momoko Katō	A two-round qualifying tournament involving women's major title holders Satomi 5-crown, Nishiyama 2-crown and Katō Seirei was won by Satomi. Katō defeated Nishiyama in the first round, but then lost to Satomi in the second round.
73	2023	Kana Satomi, Tomoka Nishiyama and Sae Itō	A two-round qualifying tournament involving women's major title holders Satomi 5-crown, Nishiyama 2-crown and Itō Women's Meijin was won by Satomi. Nishiyama defeated Itō in the first round, but then lost to Satomi in the second round.
74	2024	Tomoka Nishiyama and Kana Fukuma	Single game between the only two women's major title holders Fukuma 5-crown and Nishiyama 3-crown won by Nishiyama.
75	2025	Tomoka Nishiyama and Kana Fukuma	Single game between the only two women's major title holders Fukuma 5-crown and Nishiyama 3-crown won by Nishiyama.

Broadcasts

Television

The tournament lasts roughly one year from April to the following March. Tournament games are televised each Sunday from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm Japan Standard Time on NHK Educational TV and live commentary and analysis is provided by two commentators : A women's professional who serves as the tournament's host and a professional who serves as the guest display board analyst.
The games are recorded in advance for broadcast at a later date. Before each game, the host briefly interviews each player and asks them about the upcoming game. The players typically sit across from each other seiza-style on zabutons placed on tatami mats in a Japanese-style room while the two commentators stand before a display board in another studio. Although the player who moves first sits on the left, the higher ranked player still takes the ōshō regardless of the result of the piece toss. Sitting parallel to board at a small table are the official time keeper and the official game score reader. Multiple cameras are used to provide overhead shots of the board, particularly when a player makes a move, wide shots or close-ups of both players when thinking and of the two commentators. 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. The following table shows the hosts since 1991.

Nos.	Years	Host
4143	19911993	Harue Tanikawa
4446	19941996	Kumi Yamada
4749	19971999	Natsuko Fujimori
5052	20002002	Akiko Nakakura
5355	20032005	Ryoko Chiba
5658	20062008	Hiromi Nakakura
5963	20092013	Rieko Yauchi
6465	20142015	Ichiyo Shimizu
6668	20162018	Aya Fujita
6971	20192021	Co-hosted by Aya Fujita and Momoko Nakamura
7273	20222023	Co-hosted by Momoko Nakamura and Kanna Suzuki
74	2024	Co-hosted by Kanna Suzuki and Yuki Muroya

The tournament final is hosted by an NHK announcer. The two finalists are joined in a separate studio by the NHK announcer, the tournament's women's professional host and a guest analyst for interviews and some small talk. Each of the finalists is asked to comment on their play throughout the tournament and the upcoming final. The women's professional host and the guest analyst are also asked to give their impressions of tournament and thoughts on the final. Everyone gathers again in the same studio after the final has finished for the awards ceremony where a NHK executive presents the winner with the NHK Cup and a certificate, and the runner-up with a certificate. The NHK announcer then conducts some final interviews, and briefly previews the next NHK Cup before the broadcast ends.

Radio

From the 1st NHK Cup until the 11th NHK Cup, the tournament was exclusively broadcast on NHK Radio. The radio broadcasts stopped, however, once the tournament switched to television in 1962 for the 12th NHK Cup.
The tournament returned to radio in 2011 when the final of the 60th NHK Cup was broadcast on NHK-1 Radio in honor of the 60th anniversary of the tournament. The program was hosted by an NHK announcer and commentary was provided by three professionals. NHK also created a website people could not only listen to the audio commentary, but could also follow the moves online. Even though the broadcast was not live, it proved to be fairly popular so NHK also did the same for the finals of both the 61st and 62nd NHK Cups as well. The player listed first was sente, and the winner's name is in bold.

Notable events

Habu beats four Meijins

In the 38th NHK Cup, 18-year-old Yoshiharu Habu, beat three former Meijin and the reigning Meijin in consecutive games on the way to his first NHK Cup championship. He defeated former Meijin Yasuharu Ōyama in Round 3, former Meijin Hifumi Katō in the quarterfinals, reigning Meijin Kōji Tanigawa in the semifinals and former Meijin Makoto Nakahara in the finals.

Women's professional wins

Hiroe Nakai became the first women's professional to win a NHK Cup game. She won her round 1 game of the 53rd NHK Cup against Mamoru Hatakeyama and then in round 2 won against Teruichi Aono. She lost in round 3 to Makoto Nakahara. The following year Nakai also qualified for the 54th NHK Cup and continued her high level of play by beating Shūji Satō in round 1. 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.
Momoko Katō became the second women's professional to win a NHK Cup game when she defeated Takuma Oikawa in Round 1 of the 68th NHK Cup on May 13, 2018. The following year, Kana Satomi became the third women's professional to win a NHK game when she defeated Issei Takazaki in Round 1 of the 69th NHK Cup on July 21, 2019. 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.

Same final four

The four semifinalists of the 59th NHK Cup were Yoshiharu Habu, Tetsurō Itodani, Tadahisa Maruyama and Akira Watanabe. Habu beat Maruyama in one semifinal and Itodani beat Watanabe in the other; Habu then beat Itodani in the final. The next year in the 60th NHK Cup, the same four players also made it to the semifinals. This time Habu beat Watanabe and Itodani beat Maruyama to make it to the finals where Habu once again beat Itodani to win the championship.

Disqualifications

In Round 3 of the 46th NHK Cup, Kenji Kobayashi lost on time to Nobuyuki Yashiki when he failed to complete his move within 30 seconds during byōyomi. Kobayashi picked up one of his pieces to make a move only to realize that said move would allow Yashiki to mate in one. Kobayashi tried to return the piece he was holding back to its original square and make a different move, but was unable to do so before the official time keeper for the game Hirotaka Nozuki had counted to 30 and the time is up buzzer sounded. This is the only time that a player has lost a NHK Cup game on time.
Takahiro Toyokawa in round 1 of the 54th NHK Cup, Ayumu Matsuo in round 1 of the 55th NHK Cup and Takanori Hashimoto in the semifinals of the 64th NHK Cup each lost games for making an illegal move called nifu.

Two sennichite

In the 61st NHK Cup, the Round 1 game between Takuya Nagase and Yasumitsu Satō ended in sennichite. Sente and gote were switched and the game was replayed. The second game also ended in sen'nichite. Sente and gote were switched again and a third game was played between the two which Nagase won.

Student vs. teacher

A young amateur player aspiring to become a professional typically asks a more experienced professional to formally become their sponsor and help them through the process. In some cases, the "student" may even decide to go live with their "teacher" and family. There have been two occasions in NHK Cup play where a student has played their teacher, and on both occasions the student won: Tatsuya Sugai beat Keita Inoue in round 2 of the 61st NHK Cup and Daisuke Nakagawa beat Kunio Yonenaga in quarterfinals of the 45th NHK Cup.