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.