What is your source of number of titles?

I check that Iyama Yuta won't have to play anymore this year so I make a 2017 summarize for him

Iyama has won the 43rd Tengen, achieving six wins and breaking Rin Kaiho's record which has stood since 1993. I wonder how long Iyama's record will stand for? (excepting him breaking it himself).

John Power wrote a very good scoop on closing Iyama Yuta year end. In this article, he said Iyama Yuta has 48 titles.
I recommend everyone to read here http://www.usgo.org/news/2017/11/the-power-report-2/ but most people might already read it

Iyama Yuta received 1.5 million US dollar just from winning 7 crown + NHK cup alone. Combining with other source of income (book royalties, ads, etc.) I won't be surprised if he gets more than $2 million. He's not just big fish in a small pond, he's rich fish in a golden pond.

Excluding training games with bot, he wins 43 out of 58 games (74%)

the reason i'm asking is because there are different numbers on wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuta_Iyama

48 Titles is the way the Nihon Kiin counts them. See the "タイトル数 48" just to right of his picture on http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player/htm/ki000385.html. What is and is not included on each list is left as an exercise for the reader.

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

The figure I quoted was from Go World. That was a little out of date of course because that appeared before the latest couple of title matches. But in general the Nihon Ki-in tends to give figures only for what it counts as official and fully open and not-age-or-sex-restricted events. For example, that excludes e.g. Iyama's Super Meijin title because that was an invitational limited to three players, and it excludes playoffs between e.g. the Tengen in each country.

But even that's inconsistent because some events have changed over time. E.g. the NHK Cup is now open but it used to be an invitational event. It's also inconsistent, in my view, in that the Oteai is excluded, even though that used to be the only tournament in town (and also in that the Saikoi, an Oteai spin-off, is included). The Pro Best Ten was essentially invitational but open in that voters could vote for any player. Then how do we classify the Nihon Championship - a major event but open only to NK players? They count it. And they do include the age-restricted Shinjin-O. They count the NK Central Branch Saikoi (limited to Nagoya-based players - and they also include the NK Nagoya-based Okan) but do not count the much tougher Kansai Ki-in First Place. The NK is inconsistent in other ways, too - surprise, surprise.

As a guide, taking Sakata as an example because he is dead but spans the main countable era: he has 64 titles by the Nihon Ki-in count. These are: Honinbo x 7, Oza x 7, Judan x 5, NHK x 11, NEC x 1, Old Meijin x 2, Saikoi x 3, Saikyoi x 2, Pro Best Ten x 3, NK First Place x 4, NK Championship x 12, Igo Championship x 1, Hayago Championship x 1, Hayago Meijin x 1, Highest Dans x 1, Japan Series x 1, JAL Cup x 2.

Some of those were invitational (e.g. early NHK), restricted to high dans or to NK players, etc. And specially for Kirby, Hayago in those days meant 4 hours each (Hayago Meijin) or 3 hours each (some early NHK). Sakata's list above excludes the East Japan Hayago (limited to NK) and his several wins in the Oteai. I, more inclusively, count him as 71 and Cho Chikun at 81, but I'm inconsistent, too .

Iyama Yuta (alongside with the strongest Shogi player ever, Yoshiharu Habu) is now being considered by Japan Prime Minister if he can get national honorary award or not.

"I am just astonished and humbled by the undeserved honor," he said.

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/201 ... dm/059000c

Iyama is playing Lian Xiao of China today, but what event? Maybe Meijin vs Mingren match? Nongshim cup against Dang Yifei is in February.

Yes this is the so-called world Meijin competition, last held 3 year ago. This is the fifth edition.

Lian Xiao just beat him!

I don't understand 131, it seems to me that 132 is bigger, and also why did W reply at 134, do I miss something? Also for 147, isn't capturing the isolated W stone on 2nd line bigger? Or can W press B down and gain enough point. I slightly prefer W at that moment, but the game should be still playable.

I call it the Super Meijin, following Japanese practice - World Meijin sounds as if it could be open to anyone but Super Meijin carries the nuance of it being a very restricted invitational better. And it's not an annual match-up of the current Meijins, unfortunately.

You may recall that Iyama both won and lost in the final of the last term in 2015. His opponent had a seki with a point inside and under Japanese rules Iyama won, to the premature delight of watching Japanese fans, but the game was played in China, so he lost.

Apart from that, Iyama has never quite cut the mustard in this event despite having reasonably generous time limits of 2.5 hours.

I think black didn't want to connect at 132 because it is gote, and then white gets to play first on the right side (the last big macro endgame point - tedomari) : this whole sequence is a battle for black to get sente to play at 135. At first it looked to me like black's plan with 123 was to create an eye option at h14, which would mean white's blocking at 132 wouldn't be sente (black would have miai for 2nd eye on 2nd line and centre at h14, assuming white would cut f15 (is this false assumption?). But black 129 ruined that h14 (maybe) half eye, but did make the capture of 4 stones sente (yes there is something inside if white tenukis).

P.S. As the Korean Myeongin is defunct ( ), does this mean the event is already over and Lian Xiao wins?

I guess Lee Sedol qualifies as the eternal Myeongin... See http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match_news/match_info/1810_1.html

Cheers,
Vesa

Iyama lost to Lee Sedol too.

I don't like the "Super Meijin" translation. While it may be a more sensible use of language, the sponsor chose the name "世界围棋名人争霸赛“ so we should respect that. And this is an event with a Chinese sponsor so there's no reason to use a Japanese practice.

As winner of the OGS Meijin tournament can I play too?

Yes I think so. I was the Meijin of my university department so I can play too.

Lee Sedol managed to beat Lian Xiao in the final. I thought he was behind following a ko trade on the top side but he kept the game scrappy and killed a group at the end.