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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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!

I'm so glad a super young guy is doing well in Japan. Also will we ever get a true successor to Hikaru no Go aka the greatest manga ever?

Shibano Toramaru beat Murakawa Daisuke in first game of Judan match. His situation in Honinbo league improved since he won his game and is 4-1. He played already all his crucial opponents and his last 2 games will be against 2 players who are currently doing worst in league. I have feeling that age of Iyama is slowly vanishing.

The Battle of Pride between Shibano Toramaru and Kim Unji
https://youtu.be/Zim5ZTn62u8

Murakawa Daisuke strikes back! After 310 moves he won with white by 2,5 points, 1-1 is current score.

These are fascinating times!

_________________
Slava Ukraini!

Shibano won his last game in the Honinbo League against Yokotsuka Riki (7d) the other day, finishing with 6 wins and 1 loss. Since Kyo Kagen also finished 6-1, the two will face off in a playoff game to decide who will challenge Iyama for the Honinbo title. This game will be played on Monday (6th of April).

Shibano won the playoff and will challenge Iyama for the Honinbo. Meanwhile Iyama leads the Meijin league with an undefeated 4-0. Will we see these two square off for back-to-back best-of-seven matches this year?

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

I don't follow these player threads all that much, but I had occasion to look at this one and was surprised to see there's no mention of his latest exploits (or is it elsewhere?).

Anyway, it seems worth recording he is now 2-1 up in the Judan, and the next game - could be the decisive one - is scheduled for 26 June.

1. Shibano lost Game 2 of the Honinbo on 14 June.

2. To get international experience, and noting the shrinking opportunities to do so, from July 2020 he will play in the China Weiqi League, Division A, in a Shandong team with JIang Weijie, Fan Yuting and Zhou Ruiyang.

And Shibano lost game 3 of the Honinbo too, in a rather amusing, almost KGS style, 3-3 invasion dying locally, running out, but still dying. So whilst he took the Oza off Iyama, and the Meijin with an easier opponent in Cho U than usual holder Iyama, Iyama is putting up a much stronger defence of the prestigious Honinbo title, which he's had the last 8 years. Do you get a special title for 10 in a row?