He just won Judan, and is now the first person EVER to hold all SEVEN Japanese major titles simultaneously. Historic moment!

That's the exact sentence of me, I feel bad that I am the cause of this false news (which I got from a user here) now it's spreading non-stop

What?! You posted the false news on reddit during game 3 when someone joked(?) on here that Iyama won the 3rd game whilst it was still in progress. The 4th game has now finished and Iyama won, so he has achieved the simultaneous big 7. Just check news for yourself on wbaduk/IGS/Nihon Ki-in's facebook*/whatever before posting...

* https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... ry_index=0

Time to retire from the Japanese scene and play international tournaments only. And Chinese City League.

I just tweeted that I have a very mixed feeling about this achievement, in particular when this was achieved on the same day when all other strongest Go players were competing the prestigious Ing Cup (which is held only once every 4 years!) and he was not part of it. Surely as one of the top players up there, he has some sort of responsibility to help promote the game. If I were one of the international tournament sponsors I would feel rather upset that he repeatedly refused to participate and I would make it clear that participating is not necessarily an automatic right that one can exercise at will.

How are professional go tournaments scheduled? Is there any co-operation between the various organising parties. Do the pro go associations maintain some list of tournaments and when they are, so that if I were say a Chinese mattress manufacturer wanting to start a new tournament I could find a good time that didn't clash with existing tournaments. That would obviously be a good idea, to avoid the Judan 4th game being at the same time as the Ing. Maybe there is a matter of politics and pride though, who should move their tournament for whom, maybe neither party wants to concede they are subservient to the other. I've also wondered how pro go players organise their schedules, does their association have a load of secretaries who manage their diaries, book flights/hotels etc for their players, or do they do it themselves or have a manager/assistant for that?

Responsibility to promote the game is second to getting along with the Nihon Kiin, making sure he earns as much as possible for his family. It is not his refusal to participate, but the NHK deciding where he can or cannot participate.

This is obvious a great achievement and congratulations to him. But a part of me wonders if it is done because the quality of the opposition has declined.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Congratulations to Iyama. He's now undoubtedly the top koi in a small koi pound. Now it's time for Iyama to swim out to the shark-infested ocean to seek better competition. Good luck!

Wow. What an incredible moment and what an incredible time for Go in general.

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Slava Ukraini!

I really don't know why I'm missing the news over and over again, but he finally won.

As awesome as it is to see this historic moment, it's also highlights the state of Japanese Go, in relation to the rest of the world. Iyama Yuta is by far their strongest player, and deserves the 7 titles, but what has Japan done in recent years to foster the kind of strength necessary to challenge Iyama Yuta, let alone Korea and China?

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Go Books

Go has been on the decline in Japan for decades. Youngsters would rather read manga and play video games than playing Go. When the base of active players is shrinking, naturally the competition level drops in tandem.

The same is now happening in S. Korea as well. In China, on the other hand, the game has been becoming more popular, and given her very large population, this translates into more intense competition.

Competition is the key to improving the level of play.

Again, what has Japan done to foster growth? The younger generation, all over the world, is more interested in video games and comic books, but that doesn't mean that growth can't be fostered. Kids have more interests than just video games and comic books, that's selling them short. Growth requires action to reach out to youth on a wide scale.

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Go Books

While I'd also like to see what Iyama could do if he focused on international competition, I think it's worth being thankful for what Japanese go provides. There's rarely this level of Western interest in domestic competition in China or Korea, and John Fairbairn has pointed out that the relatively stable sponsorship situation in Japan has some benefits for amateurs.

I doubt Iyama will ever snub the domestic competitions that have been so good for his reputation and bank account. I think our only hope of seeing him focus on the international stage during his peak is if domestic sponsors and/or the Nihon Ki-in decide that putting Iyama into a larger spotlight is better for their bottom line than his continued dominance of the domestic scene. They could, for instance, offer him a sabbatical from domestic competition in order to focus on international events. However, this would be quite a gamble (what if he didn't do well?) and a huge deviation from tradition, so I don't expect it to happen. I suspect we'll always be left to wonder what could have been, which fuels the sort of speculation that keeps internet go forums running.

The only other scenario that I could imagine that would push him onto the international scene is if domestic sponsorship in Japan suffered a dramatic collapse. Even if that pushed more Japanese players to focus on international competition, I think that would be a huge loss to the go community.

I would say the quality of his opposition has gotten higher in Japan, but nowhere near as high as in Korea and China.

Nobody protests when European golfers attend the Masters, nor when US PGA golfers attend the British Open.* These are major international tournaments.

It's the 21st century. Any organizer or sponsor that gets between Iyama and major international titles is being insular and backward. Schedules can be shifted and Iyama and the Nihon-Kiin should take a stand. This Ing Cup should be the last major international tournament he is forced to missed.

Of course, if Iyama prefers to stay home that is another story. But then there can be no whining when people say he can't be rated with the best because he refuses to play with them.


* Never call it that to a British golf fan, they think it's the only Open.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

Well, Japan is an island...

Does anyone recall the China-Japan Super-match series in which top pros from China and Japan duked it out annually? The last time this competition took place was 15 years ago. The Japanese cancelled the series because the results were becoming embarrassingly lopsided.

Instead of embracing tougher international competition so as to improve her own level of play, Japan chose to walk the isolationist path and turned inward. Iyama's not participating in international tournament is in keeping with this tradition of isolationism: no point in playing if its players are not going to do well.

Of course, Japanese players are not going to improve unless they play against stronger Korean and Chinese pros; but saving face is apparently more important.

Little wonder why Japanese Go is on a continuous decline. To reverse it, Japanese players must adopt a different attitude: no pain, no gain.

With AI in the next few years it'll be possible to walk the isolation path and still improve. But still I want Japanese pros to have more international match for only one reason, it'll help making and calibrating an accurate pro ranking, nothing more than that, assuming that Japan Go organization can survive on its own domestic scene.