Few weeks ago i noticed interestiong situation in current Meijin League, however i refrain to post information on this cuz it was possible that Kono Rin would just win his games and topic would end with natural dead. However now its possible (still chance is pretty low) that 5 players will end 5-3. I have no idea what is tie-breaker in league (in honinbo league there was 3 players tie, and 3rd player played 2nd, and winner played 1st, Kono Rin won in final with Shibano thus denying him automatic upgrade to 8dan).

So now thats how look table: https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/jp/meijin/44

If (number of points in brackets):
Hane Naoki(4) beats Iyama Yuta(5)
Yamashita Keigo(4) beats Kono Rin(5)
Suzuki Shinji(2) beats Shibano Toramaru(5)


All above players except Suzuki Shinji ends with 5-3 score!All games are scheduled for 1st august, so it will be pretty emotional day!I am looking forward to it.

These matches were finally played today (or yesterday, depending on where you are) and Iyama lost, meaning his chance of getting the Meijin back from Cho U is gone. Shibano and Kono won their games, meaning they both ended on 6 wins and 2 loses in the league. If I understand things correctly, they will play a play off game to decide who will end up challenging Cho U.

Iyama's woopsy of losing to Meijin league debutant Suzuki Shinji earlier comes back to bite him. I hope Shibano wins to make his first title match, would make a nice new vs old generation vs Cho U.

I could only look for Iyama Yuta vs Hane Naoki game (it was broadcasted by Fox), and Iyama was doing very well in the beginning according to FineArt (at move 67 he had 92,5% winrate, and kept about 80% lead till move 100) but after that he started to play slack (still according to FA ofc) and he was gradually going down, then there was few swings, and on move 149 it was almost even again (49% for white), but then he played overextension and went down to 32%. He managed once again to almost equal game (48,6%) but soon after made big mistake at move 170 (-20%) and couldnt recover. Pretty dramatic game, Hane Naoki made few bad choices in early game and Iyama punished him well, but then somehow crumbled, and move 170 looks really strange. Maybe he was in time trouble?

Anyway, Shibano will play one more time play-off game to advance to final match against Kono Rin, and this time i hope he will win and challenge Cho U.

According to the Asahi Shinbun (Meijin sponsor) the playoff will be next Thursday, August 8th in Tokyo.

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

Shibano won by half a point to make his first title match, and he doesn't even need to beat Iyama to get his first big title. Shibano has won both his games in the last year against Cho U, though I daresay Cho's experience in 2-day title matches will help him.