Following Iyama Yuta (no world ranking discussions)

[ez4u]

A quick table on Iyama's most frequent opponents over his career. Don't forget all the games he played against Cho U on the way up. The following 26 players (out of ~158 total in my database) played him six or more times and account for 2/3 of all his games. Why 26? That takes us far enough down the list to see Chen Yaoye and Yi Se-tol, the most frequent non-J opponents.

Iyama Main Opponents.jpg (128.71 KiB) Viewed 31722 times

[dsatkas]

@ez4u what does cummulative represent? Also, can put their head to head score? I know it's much work, but i think it would be cool and we could form a picture of his dominance.

[dfan]

@ez4u what does cummulative represent?

8.9% of Iyama's games were played against the first person on the list, 17.9% of his games were played against the first two people on the list, 26.2% of his games were played against the first three people on the list, etc.

[Uberdude]

Iyama beat Kono by 5.5 in an exciting game with lots of fighting and trades in Kisei title match game 2 today.

[kimidori]

Oh, he won indeed! When I looked at the game (around move 150), I feel that he was in a bad position.

[Uberdude]

Oh, he won indeed! When I looked at the game (around move 150), I feel that he was in a bad position.

With that group at the top side struggling I also thought it was hard for Iyama, but by move 150 when he ignored Kono's ko threat to pull out the cutting stones instead of resolving the ko I thought it reversed as the threat seemed a bit lame given all the aji on the surrounding wall Iyama had created plus the 2nd line backup connection (154). As white was super thick all over the board Kono lacked good ko threats so maybe Iyama wasn't nervous about his top group being ko; was it all read out when he played 110? 170 was a very nice tesuji too!

[kimidori]

Iyama surely has better calculation than any fellow Japanese players, however, it seems that he used to have bad position in the beginning in his recent games. Is that because he tries a lot of experimental moves?

[Uberdude]

I sometimes get the feeling he is experimenting, for example the slow but thick turn on move 21 and then invasion of 23 vs Takao in the Meijin final game 7 (viewtopic.php?p=212631#p212631). I'd really like to know what his thoughts are on those moves: I think they are bad and he surely knows they are on the slow side. Does he think they are still ok moves, or does he also think they are objectively bad but will lead to later fighting on the left side and as he's better at fighting than his opponents he can win despite these slow opening moves? However, the deciding game of a big title match you've come back from 0-3 down in and need to win to keep your septuple crown doesn't seem the place to be experimenting like this!

[gowan]

Back when Kobayashi Koichi was at his peak he often played moves that he liked but were criticized as slow, similar to that turning move Iyama played.

[John Fairbairn]

I sometimes get the feeling he is experimenting, for example the slow but thick turn on move 21 and then invasion of 23 vs Takao in the Meijin final game 7 (viewtopic.php?p=212631#p212631). I'd really like to know what his thoughts are on those moves: I think they are bad and he surely knows they are on the slow side.

I don't know what Iyama thought about the moves as Takao won and so got to do the commentary, but Takao at least didn't think them bad at all. Indeed, Black 21 made White's three stones into bad moves, he said, it was just the sort of move he likes to play. But it's a stylistic choice. Black would often be thinking of playing an approach in the upper left and consolidating there with J16, but in this case White O13 is very good (perhaps more so because of the "new" peep at P4?), and Takao assumed Iyama wanted to pre-empt that.

Black 23 was a natural follow-up and Black's 40-point territory in the upper right (Takao's figure) put a lot of pressure on White, according to Takao. But he got the big point of White 28 on the left side, so he didn't feel dissatisfied. However, a possible alternative for Black 23 was 28, to take the initiative on the left side, and this would have been more usual, he said.

There is no reference to slowness as such, but Black 55 was perhaps too solid a way of playing (the sacrifice was to restrict White's range of responses). Takao suggested E2 instead, but then gives some mind-boggling variations. [Another case of thickness not really being thick?]

Black 79 might seem slow but Takao seemed to approve in the sense that he rubbished the alternative an amateur might play (79 at 80). But 80 was still good for White and by 112 he had the lead.

Since we are talking about slow/thick/solid moves, note White 108 "a thick move typical of Takao."

There don't seem to have been any glaring errors (both used most or all their 8 hours each), but White getting the centre despite Black's solidity in the lower left seems to have been the deciding factor.

[Uberdude]

Thanks for the comments John, though I don't understand 55 at e2 instead, allowing white to capture the 2 stones in a ladder.

Approaching the top left corner (from either side) or splitting the left are the moves I expected and have seen in other pro games recently. No one (in waltheri) played the turn that early before Iyama. There are 6 games without the p4 peep (3 approach from left, 2 from top, 1 split), and 11 with the peep (9 approach on top, only 3 wins, 2 approach on left). I can see that there is some logic to consider the turn more seriously because white has double 4-4s so a move on the left side is less urgent than if there were 3-4s with shimaris to make. Let's see if anyone else plays it.

[John Fairbairn]

though I don't understand 55 at e2 instead

A typo (mine) for b2 (hane).

[xiayun]

As posted in the Ke Jie thread, Iyama Yuta beat Ke Jie to advance to the final of Chinese New Year Invitational. Very much look forward to this next month or so as Iyama Yuta finally gets to play against top players from other countries (besides online).

[ewan1971]

As posted in the Ke Jie thread, Iyama Yuta beat Ke Jie to advance to the final of Chinese New Year Invitational. Very much look forward to this next month or so as Iyama Yuta finally gets to play against top players from other countries (besides online).

When did Ke Jie get out of the hospital? I'd been worried for him for a while because he was playing to exhaustion. Sure enough, he was hospitalized earlier this month.

[hyperpape]

Iyama Yuta fan, and I admit to being surprised. I had thought that Iyama was struggling a bit recently. Though if it's Ke's first game after being in the hospital we don't know if his condition is great either.