Today, Hane Naoki 9p defeated O Rissei 9p in the last round of Honinbo league and secured the right to challenge Yamashita Honinbo (to whom he lost the title last year).

final standings:
1. Hane Naoki 9p - 6:1
2. Iyama Yuta 9p - 4:3
3. Cho U 9p - 4:3
4. Seto Taiki 7p - 4:3
d. O Rissei 9p - 3:4
d. Kobayashi Satoru 9p - 3:4
d. Takao Shinji 9p - 2:5
d. Cho Sonjin 9p - 2:5

Best of 7 match between Yamashita and Hane should start in May.

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Spilling gasoline feels good.

I might be wrong, but probably not.

If I understand the league system correctly (big if), the player with the higher seed wins when there are ties. So even if Hane had lost, and gone 5-2, he would have still won the right to challenge Yamashita.

Hane is also doing really well in the Meijin. He's 4-1 and in the lead, but is seeded 7th. The next best competitors are Yamashita Keigo and Yuki Satoshi at 3-1. Yuki is seeded higher.

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Occupy Babel!

5-2 is still better than 4-3 irrespective of that rule

there would have been tie if Hane lost and Cho won against Seto Taiki. both Hane and Cho would had have 5:2


i am not really sure about this. generally, i would 100% agree. but last year there was a tie for the first place, with Yamashita and Iyama both at 6:1 and the tie was broken by an additional game. however, for demotion it seems that higher seed is strong enough as a tiebreaker (63rd Honinbo, Yoda Norimoto and Cho U, both with 3:4; or 35th Meijin, Cho Chikun and O Meien both with 3:5)

to make things more complicated, Kisei apparently use only seed (35th Kisei, Iyama Yuta - Yamashiro Hiroshi, 4:1) and secondary also mutual game (32nd Kisei, Takao Shinji - Yamashiro Hiroshi, 2:3) as a tiebreaker for both challenging and demoting, with adding no more games

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Spilling gasoline feels good.

I might be wrong, but probably not.

Of course, but the second phrase [edit - clarification added later: "and Cho won against Seto Taiki"] was not in hyperpape's post commented by me ("if Hane had lost, and gone 5-2, he would have still won the right to challenge Yamashita")

I can add now more if's (like you did it) and show you that "there would have been tie if Hane lost and Cho won against Seto Taiki" is not valid anymore but ... what's the point?

I don't understand your comment, Adrian.

What I was thinking is "Hane had locked the Honinbo already--he would have won no matter what happened in this last round, win or lose." Obviously, I didn't quite say that.

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Occupy Babel!

What you were thinking is according to what I was trying to say in my comment (the first one). However, I didn't know what you were thinking. All I knew was what you have written and that was quite different in my understanding (and maybe in yours... "Obviously, I didn't quite say that"). That's all

Not quite. Ranking by seeding applies except in the case of a two-way tie for first place. Then they play-off. But if there is a three-way tie for first seeding is first applied to weed out the lowest, then the remaining two play off.

This is for the Honinbo. Other leagues have different tweaks.