Shibano Toramaru

[gaius]

Very interesting topic and nice to see that a young Japanese pro is doing so well!

I came here after a Google search, because I wanted to know who that young lad was that convincingly beat Cho U in an NHK Cup YouTube video from earlier this year. For those interested, a nice video of the Cho vs. Shibano game is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMNtX3zqnxM

[TheCannyOnion]

In 2017, he played 66 games and scored 53-13. This included a 16-game winning streak. That almost matched his first full year (2015) when he scored 81%. So far this year, in which he is now obviously facing a much better class of opponent, he has scored 20-9 (70%). This is Go Seigen level. For comparison, Iyama is currently on 15-8 (65%).

Go Seigen level. Wow. I find this vaguely offensive.

[silviu22]

Shibano Toramaru got some help from Koike Yoshihiro(3p) who defeated O Meien(9p) in Kisei B-2 league. This means Toramaru wins league B2 regardless of result of his last game.

This qualifies him for challenger tournament and ensures his promotion to league A for next year.

[Uberdude]

Shibano made it to the final of the Agon cup, but lost to Ichiriki Ryo



In the Kisei he finished 7-0 in league B2 and then in the challenger tournament beat league B1 winner Akiyama Jiro but then lost to another talented youngster Onishi Ryuhei 3p.

[hyperpape]

The Kisei structure is quite complex. Let's see if I've got this right: as champion of C league, Onishi will move up to B* league...where he'll probably face tougher competition and have to win one more game against other league champions to become challenger. Shibano will move up to A, where he'll only have to win four in a row after winning the A league. Not a tournament for the teens.

* Not sure what happens if he manages to win five in a row and become challenger.

[Ian Butler]

Firstly, yes, I admit that Shibano was brought to my attention by dwyrin. Guilty as charged. But, of course, he wouldn't hold my attention if he didn't have a very interesting style.

I very much like his style and I loved to watch his game against Cho Chikun on the NHK cup (you can watch it on YouTube), and was even more amazed at seeing him win it!
Checking the results for 2018, he is currently Japanese #1 in terms of won games, which is fairly impressive. He's still relatively young and I think he might have a very bright future.
Of course, guys like Ke Jie and Park Junghwan were more successful at a younger age, but I don't think it's a general rule you have to be that young, even if that's the trend in Go at the moment.

Anyway, the 44th Meijin is about to start and he's in the League, so I'm very excited to see some of those games. Especially looking forward to his game against Iyama - in February - and (another young Japanese 7d) Matsuura Yuta - in May -.
I'd say he's definitely going to win some big leagues in his career, but let's wait and see.
Though is he strong enough to bring Japan back on track? I hope so, but chances are against it I'm afraid.

[John Fairbairn]

Shibano Toramaru has won two of the Kido prizes for the 2018 Japanese season.

He was top of the list for most wins (the category most favoured by Japanese pros) with 46. Ichiriki Ryo was second with 43, and Iyama was joint 9th with 35. Notable was Fujisawa Rina's appearance in 3rd place with 43 wins (which included an 11-game winning streak).

Shibano also won the prize for most games (esteemed because it implies getting through many stages in KO tournaments). He has 69 games, again ahead of Ichiriki who had 66.

But Shibano's winning ratio (49-23) was not sufficient to get him even into the top ten. Indeed, the entire top ten list (for those with a minimum of 25 games) was filled by lesser known names. Top of these was Fujita Akihiko, who won the Young Carp Cup. He scored 41-8 (83.7%).

Koike Yoshihiro 4-dan won the prize for the longest winning streak - 19 games.

Fujisawa Rina win the Ladies Prize, but with Ueno Asami winning a Newcomers Prize and already pushing Fujisawa hard, we can expect to see women's go in Japan flourish even further. Asami's sister Risa has also just become pro.

Obviously the main Kido prize for Top Pro went again to Iyama Yuta, to mark holding five crowns (Kisei, Honinbo, Oza, Tengen, Judan). His game score for the yar was 35-26.

[Arcaress]

Shibano Toramaru won Okage Cup.

Here he is: https://twitter.com/naonao_myu/status/1 ... 4874990593

Here's the tournament bracket: https://twitter.com/Nihonkiin_pr/status ... 7641381889

Here's video broadcast: https://youtu.be/iz5vJjrv6dg

Final game:



Edit: trophy https://twitter.com/Nihonkiin_pr/status ... 3064230912

[Zenit]

Shibano frequently plays on Fox Go Server and his winning record is very impressive. I noticed today that he finally got his 1000th win. His record atm is 1002 wins to 470 loses. Incredibly impressive since he mostly/always plays against other pros, and not just Japanese pros either. It also seems like he has quite a few fans in China, the (Chinese) chat seem to be more cordial when he plays than other Japanese pros. He also always thanks the opponent for the game in Chinese if his opponent is Chinese, which people also seem to appreciate.

[Uberdude]

For example, Shibano (white) beating Chen Yaoye on Fox 2 months ago.

[silviu22]

It was nice to see Shibano in the top 50 world players on go4go.com. This is the first time I have seen 3 Japanese players in the top 50. It used to be only Iyama Yuta, but I now I see Ichiriki Ryo and Shibano both squeezed in ahead of Iyama in these rankings.

Shibano also seems to holding his own against Iyama in Oza.

[ez4u]

Shibano beat Ichiriki on Halloween in the opening round of the Honinbo League.

[John Fairbairn]

I was just reading some of the transcript of Shibano's press conference after he won the Meijin as the youngest ever.

Someone asked him hw he started in go, and he said it was prompted first by Hikaru no Go but then he wanted to be with his elder brother so went with him to the dojo of Hong Mal-keun Saem. He kept losing even with a handicap and wanted to give up, but his father bought him about a thousand go books. Toramaru said, "I think I read almost all of them."

So, do something really, really weird in your life for once. You may become a Meijin.

BUY A BOOK!

[Uberdude]

Shibano beat iyama in the Judan challenger decision match so he's surely favourite against holder Murukawa to add another title to his collection.

[AloneAgainstAll]

So...2019 ends pretty good for Shibano:

He won 2 Titles.In 2020 he will play to defend both Meijin(33m yen= about 300 000 USD) and Oza(14m yen=about 128 000 USD).In others tournaments his situation is as follows (in order of cash prizes, i used Sensei info)

1. Kisei (45m yen=about 410 000 USD)
Unfortunately for Shibano, in 2019 he was demoted from A league to B-1 league (despite scoring 4-3 as other 3 players, but others had higher position, so Shibano was only one demoted, pretty sad).He should have played 2 games in that league already, but dont know what is result yet. Its very hard to win Kisei from that position.

2. Honinbo (32m yen=about 290 000 USD)
He is co-leader of league with 3-1 along with Hane Naoki, Ichiriki Ryo and Kyo Kagen. His prospects challenging Iyama looks not bad (especially that he already played with all co-leaders losing only to Hane Naoki).

3. Tengen (13m yen=about 118 000 USD)
Unfortunately Shibano was eliminated in preliminaries by Fujita Akihiko.

4. Gosei (8m yen=about 73 000 USD)
Shibano got eliminated in 2nd round of last preliminary tournament by Motoki Katsuya.

5. Judan (7m yen about 64 000 USD)
He won challenger decisive game against Iyama Yuta, and will play title match against Murakawa Daisuke, first game in 3rd of march.

Funny thing is that winning Kisei gives you more cash than winning Oza,Judan,Tengen and Gosei combined!