In the Honinbo.

And then against Kyo Kagen, who can't be the challenger, but might the player deciding the challenger, because Iyama (6-0) still has to play him.

Next 2 games for Ichiriki will be Ichiyama again, in the Honinbo and the Gosei. And sometime soon, let's add also the Meijin league and who knows if a play-off.

Who was tired of these two?

Ah, yes. Not the Kisei.

I didn't notice when I looked at the schedule that next two were against Iyama. I didn't recognize Iyama's honinbo name. I have no idea if Google renders it correctly as "Fumihiro" but probably not as SL has "Monyū" as his honinbo name.



They play more official games together in a year than some pros total. It is a bit less exciting when they are playing so many overlapping matches together that everyone is confused, but the Honinbo match is producing some exciting games. They also seem to dominate almost all the other top pros in Japan. The drop in mamumamu from 1st place in Japan to 6th place (which is Cho U) is same as the drop from 6th place to 70th place, it is over 80-85% win rate for the stronger player.

I don't know if I should suspect that they would be even higher rated in the mamumamu if they played more with high rated players or if the difference with the 70th place is overestimated. Either way it seems they (and maybe three or so other players) are really on a level of their own in Japan.

I hadn't noticed, but Ichiriki (who just turned 26) is now ranked #1 in Mamumamu, with a rating over 10. Did Iyama ever reach 10? Surely, in his best years.

In the next few months they are going to fight over this position again.

I'm personally an ichiyama natch-up fan so . . .But maybe we might see Shibano who I'm a fan of even more

Iyama was just over 10 last August list and he was over 10 from November 2017 to September 2018. Also once in February 2016, which came on back of the the 24 winning streak in 2015.

Ichiriki was also over 10 from May 2021 to August 2021. I think I remember he was in a lot of title matches in 2021 but lost all the matches, but won NHK and became the challenger for Kisei (which he won in 2022), he was also in the semi-finals of the Ing cup. Still not so clear why he went above 10 for 4 months that year rather than any other year. Maybe the rating simply built up slowly but steadily in the months and years before.

I wonder if it is really possible for two players in Japan to get to 10 at the same time without a huge change in tournament organization or huge success in the rather few international games available. They seem to play so much with each other in a small group. An extreme case is Iyama in 2022 who apparently played 14 games with Ichiriki and 9 with Shibano but only played 51 (non-TV) games total. That makes 23/51 games with the same two players.

Ichiriki made it to the semi-final of the Asian games after beating Yang Dingxin. And that will be a rematch with Ke Jie.

Ichiriki Ryo won Tengen 49 and now has most major titles (Kisei, Oza, Tengen). Iyama Yuta (Oza, Gosei) and Shobano Toramaru (Meijin, Judan) have two each. Maybe you can say Iyama has 2.5, because he also has Ryusei.

You mean that Ichiriki is Honinbo, not Oza. Iyama is Oza, btw, for another year after succesfully defending against Yo Seiki.

Let's notice that the Kisei will begin soon with, surprise, Iyama as the challenger.

I think Ichiriki is favorite. Iyama seems to be making more mistakes lately, and Ichiriki seems to have gained some mental strength. Like Ogata against Kuwabara Honinbo, he seems to be gaining confidence.

Odds are 60-40 for Ichiriki, IMHO.

Ichiriki is pretty good. He is having great results in international tournaments now. He beat Ke Jie in a best of three match in the Ing cup and will be in the final. We need to revive this thread!

Looks like Ichiriki is off to a good start in the Ing cup final

They are calling him Da Liao on yike, it is literally Liao dynasty but it also works as nickname Big Ryo. I think they must like him The Chinese fans are a pretty tough crowd, I have seen some very negative comments on Xie Ke and Ke Jie while watchin Da Liao's games. It is quite a contrast to how they are lavishing Da Liao with praise.

Maybe it comes down to disappointment from the fans.

Personally, I think it will be amazing if Da Liao can win this game without offering real chances to Xie Ke. Maybe it speaks volumes that the fans anticipate just that.

Ichiriki Ryo is white

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He has 4 points of penalty and Xie Ke has 1.5 left on the clock, but he is winning. Not only winning, he is killing that dragon that escaped so easily before

What is this penalty about?

The time control is 3.5 hours and after that the players get 35 minutes of extra time for a 2 point penalty, up to three times.

The general Ing time control formula is that there are 3 overtime periods that are 1/6th of the main time and there is a 2 point penalty for using an overtime period.

Big Ryo got 2 points of penalty in the first game and 4 points in the second game.

In the first game he was the one living with the dragon and then he won by 3 points before the 2 point penalty was subtracted. In the second game he went for a killing attack around move 100 and used 5-6 minutes per move on average until he had used up the main time at move 140. There was also a 30 minute lunch break at move 96. It is clear he made a choice around that time to accept multiple penalties.

Even though the attack seemed to fail to be decisive the game was very close, but the penalty could have meant it was over. Black was still under lot of pressure and reciprocated with move 141, which the commentator had just called out as a possible mistake to make. After that the penalty didn't seem to matter. Finally Big Ryo won by 13 points before the 4 point penalty.

Is Kyo Kagen (aka. Xu Jiayuan) Big Ryo's second?

I'm watching what looks like an attempt by Kim Myung-hoon at killing Ke Jie's dragon in the Nongshim cup. The commentator, San Yuniao (three tweeting birds?), was asked why Japan will field Iyama tomorrow and not someone like Kyo Kagen. To make it short, the answer was that "Ryo can't be without Kagen, like Gu Zihao can't be without big Shen", which I think is Shin Minjun. He said "this is part of winning the championship"!

So, according to this comment by Chirping Birb, Iyama is to go forth in the Nongshim cup tomorrow since Kyo Kagen needs to be available for Ichiriki Ryo who will be resuming his Ing cup match

Interesting? If true and otherwise.

I don't know whether there is any formal arrangement between Ichiriki and Kyo, but in the earlier stage of the Ing Cup, in August, Ichiriki said he had a very hectic schedule when he had to launch the new Ichiriki Cup in his home base of Sendai then fly straight to Chongqing. To make sure he stayed in good condition, he stayed in his hotel room between Games 1 and 2 and invited Kyo up to study fusekis for the the following day's game.

I would expect the primary reason Kyo was there was to act as Ichiriki's interpreter, but the Nihon Ki-in would have to be blind not to notice how much back-up other countries, China especially, give their stars in international competitions. The fact that they are giving a huge and free public airing of the upcoming Game 3 in Tokyo (reminiscent of the great Yomiuri games of the 1930s) suggests to me they've got their eyes wide open.

Ichiriki won the third game. While he was at it he demonstrated how this game is never about computer percentages. He may have collected his fourth time penalty for the match while he was at it.

I imagine that there is a sizable entourage traveling with Ichiriki. There would be officials from Nihon Kiin, both as observers and to represent the player if, if needed, and also as guests. The press and the online servers would want to send someone on site. For a match like this it is probably a large delegation than it would be for some other events.

This entourage would be the players assistants by default. However it would make sense if the people the player was already working with were traveling with them.

I have no idea who the commentator on Yike is. It looks like Chirping Birb and Mushroom are the same person. A she, according to Weibo, that comments Go on Yike and plays Dota2 on Steam. I guess if she was a pro then Yike would introduce that fact, not only some usernames, but then I could be the only one that doesn't know

Ichiriki won by resignation on move 237 with 55 minutes left on his clock, so I don't think he needed a time penalty

It was 2 penalties in the third game. 5 penalties or ten points in three games. I was confused somehow, thinking it was only a single penalty. The Nihon kiin stream of the third games shows clocks that had the extra time already added. 3 hours and 30 minutes plus three times 35 minutes is 5 hours and 15 minutes. When the game ends he had 54 minutes left on his clock, which is well past the 3.5 hour of penalty free time.