We would call it the Kitani Memorial Tournament. The Japanese more allusively call it the Phoenix and Chicks Tournament of the Benevolent Wind Club. Either way, it's a unique event in memory of a great man and his wife, and the 9th term is about to start.

Its significance is that apprentice professionals are allowed to play against real pros. The background and the format are described below.

Round 1 was played on 20 May 2000. The final is on 17 June.

The full title of this event is the Jinfu-kai Hosu-sen. Jinfu is "benevolent wind" (or influence) and among its classical associations is an Imperial saying from the History of the Later Han that a "benevolent wind has an effect for 1,000 years." It was a favourite phrase of the great Kitani Minoru 9-dan, and he used to sign boards with it (including one of the boards used in the famous Kamakura games). It will therefore come as no surprise that it was adopted as the new name of the "Saturday Kitani Club" run by Kitani for many years until his death, and then by his wife Miharu until she died in 1991. This club, the Jinfu-kai, inaugurated the Hosu tournament in their memory.

Hosu is a phrase meaning something like phoenix and chicks, and has two meanings. In one, the phoenix is Kitani and the chicks his disciples. The other comes from the unique format of the event. The big birds are the 16 best-performing pros up to 5-dan inclusive, and the chicks are the 16 top inseis (apprentice pros). It is not restricted to Kitani's pupils. They play a straightforward knockout. All games are even games, but in games between a pro and an insei (which includes all the Round 1 games), the insei takes Black. In games between pros, the lower ranked takes Black.

It seems to have become a habit to play the final at the Takagi Bonsai Museum with a top pro giving a public commentary.

There is a money prize but we haven't seen the amount.

Time limits are 45 minutes each then 60 seconds/move overtime. For obvious reasons the games are played on a Saturday.

Jinfu should really be read as jinpu, but as that could be mistaken for a commoner word meaning a squall, the -fu sound has become accepted here.