TOKYO -- World Go Championship 2018 is set to be held in Tokyo, according to a Friday announcement by Nihon Ki-in, the Japanese organization hosting the event.

The world's top players are expected to vie in the tournament, supported by Nikkei Inc., including Yuta Iyama, the 28-year-old Japanese phenom who shocked the game by having won all seven major Japanese titles.

He will be joined by South Korea's champion from last year, Park Jeong-hwan, 24. China will send Ke Jie, 20, reputed to be the world's strongest player.

Rounding out the ranks of the six-man tournament will be Taiwan's Wang Yuanjyun, South Korea's Shin Jin-seo and another player from Japan, the latter the winner of a four-person elimination match.

The event will be held March 17-19 in Tokyo at Nihon Ki-in.

Games will be played under Japanese rules, which limit each player to three-hours for making all their moves. The rules also give the second player 6.5 points in order to compensate for not having the first move.

DeepZenGo, a computer equipped with artificial intelligence technology that played in World Go Championship 2017, will not participate. However, its technology will be used to judge the progress of matches and analyze positions.

The champion will walk away with 20 million yen ($178,000) in prize money and a Nike award.

World Go Championship 2018 is also sponsored by NTT Docomo, Sumitomo Mitsui Card, Hankyu and Igo & Shogi Channel.

(Nikkei)

Nothing personal, I know it's in the English version of the Nikkei article.
The original version reads "日経賞", which means a Nikkei award.

From John Power in American Go Association, Iyama Yuta and Park Junghwan are seeded into the second round (out of three rounds). I don't think we need seed system here.

Another Japanese representative is Keigo Yamashita, I'll put on voting poll soon

He lost, but I thought this way of dealing with the moyo was pretty crazy/cool/creative from Ichiriki:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

The organizer is a bit naughty to use the name "World Championship" for such a small tournament.

The term "World Championship" has been used for years to describe ordinary international tournaments. In practice it simply means an international tournament. When it is over will the "World Champion" then hold the title and defend it in multi-game matches against challengers who fight their way through a tournament system to become challenger? The fact that this is not at any point an open tournament is also a problem. Aren't the players to some extent selected by the sponsors? And how was it decided that Iyama and Park were seeded into the second round?

Park Junghwan was seeded because he's the winner of 2017.
In Iyama Yuta case, I think it's pretty clear that they try to make a shortcut for him to be world title holder.
Though if I'm the sponsor, I'll eliminate the seed system and add pro from AGA and EGF.

Without any prefix/qualifier? I've seen events like the LG Cup called "The LG Cup World Baduk Championship", but not having the audacity to call themselves "The <No adjectives> World Go Championship". I recall in the 1st edition of this event JF said the Japanese name was less self-aggrandising and more like just "an international championship", but it seems like the overly grand English name has stuck.

As to to poll for who I think will win, whichever of Ke Jie and Park Junghwan gets to be white in the final (but I picked Park as being seeded means fewer chances to lose).

This time round the Japanese are calling it by the English name World Go Championship 2018 in both English and kana: ワ―ルド碁チャンピオンシップ. But the Nihon Ki-in seems a little ambivalent. As far as I can see, it's not listing the event in the tournament roster or giving news items about it. They only give dates in the game schedule.

There is a dedicated but rubbishy site: http://www.worldgochampionship.net/. There, they also use the phrase World's Strongest and that is the phrase used in the Chinese name.

For the first term I ended up using the name 1st Nihon Ki-in World Go Championship (as far as I can tell the Kansai Ki-in is excluded). At present I'm inclined to stick with that.

The whole business of naming events is a pig's breakfast, with titles, cups, sponsors and frequency changing willy-nilly with little regard for what has gone before. And the rules and time limits change just as often.

Not the case, it is listed as one of the International tournament on http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/

The 3rd item from the list.

Ah, OK, thanks. But that's terrible page design in the page to get there: Kokusai Kisen looks like a column heading same as the first two columns. I'm too old to belong to the click-and-see generation.

Starting soon! (17th)

Yes, I think it's time to start hyping the match

English version of official website is up, but there's not much information as Japanese one
http://www.worldgochampionship.net/en.html

This page shows many ways you can watch live, I might go with Nico if it shows more detail of AI analysis than Youtube
http://www.worldgochampionship.net/live.html

And this year will have not only one but three AIs! DeepZenGo, TianRang, and CGI. If watching through Fox Go Server then you'll have FineArt evaluation there, not counting LeelaZero and AQ independently run by computer Go fans all around the world.
http://www.worldgochampionship.net/ai.html

What a happy coincidence!

Key for people who can't read Japanese/Chinese

I: Iyama Yuta (Japan) - Seeded player
II: Park Jeong-Hwan (Korea) - Seeded player
A: Wang Yuan Jyun (Chinese Taipei)
B: Yamashita Keigo (Japan)
C: Shin Jin Seo (Korea)
D: Ke Jie (China)

The best way to seed Iyama to the final...

Clear win for Yamashita Keigo
Ke Jie win but I don't know what's going on, bot estimation put Ke Jie lead but it's not set in the stone and Shin Jinseo timeout or resign?

Semifinals:
Park Junghwan vs Ke Jie. They need to read Get Strong at Nigiri: white has won 13 of their 14 games.
Iyama Yuta vs Yamashita Keigo.

White's lead is less than 2 points - probably at their levels (and at 1 minute per move) this gap is too big too catch up.