The seventh game of the 66th Honinbo title match was played in Izu-Shi in Shizuoka Prefecture on 20 and 21 July 2011 and Yamashita (White) won by 4.5 points and succeeded in defending Honinbo title.
Yamashita made it the very hard way. He seemed to have the match all wrapped up when he swept to a 3-0 lead, but Hane Naoki made an extraordinary comeback, taking the next three games to set up a climactic showdown.
Hane Noki could not give him revenge for his failed defense of Honinbo title against Yamashita last year when he lost 4-1.
The 66th Honinbo Title Match
Yamashita Keigo defeated Hane Naoki (4-3)
| Yamashita Keigo HONINBO 4 - 3 Hane Naoki |
| Date(2011) |
Venue |
Result |
| 11, 12 May |
Shimane |
Yamashita (W) won by 7.5 |
| 24, 25 May |
Kagoshima |
Yamashita (B) won by resign |
| 2, 3 June |
Hokkaido |
Yamashita (W) won by 1.5 |
| 15, 16 June |
Ishikawa |
Hane (W) won by 0.5 |
| 29, 30 June |
Mie |
Hane (B) won by resign |
| 13, 14 July |
Chiba |
Hane (W) won by 7.5 |
| 20, 21 July |
Shizuoka |
Yamashita (W) won by 4.5 |
Cho Chikun won the brand new tournament.
The final game of 1st Masters Cup was held in The Nihon Ki-in on 23 July.
Cho Chikun (White) won by 1.5 points after 241 moves.
Cho Chikun and Kobayashi Koichi are disciples of Kitani Minoru and they kept lead between the late of 1980s and 1990s. Cho Chikun won 71 titles and Kobayashi Koichi won 59 titles.
Cho Chikun wins the total of 72 titles, breaking his record number.
At a meeting of the Go Hall of Fame Awards Committee, held at the Nihon Ki-in on 12 July 2011, to decide the 8th induction into the Hall of Fame, Iwamoto 9 dan(1902-1999) was chosen.
The persons nominated this time were Yasui Santetsu (also known as Shibukawa Shunkai or Harumi), Inoue (Gen'an) Inseki, Masaoka Shiki (a haiku poet who wrote many poems on go themes), Kita Fumiko, Iwamoto Kaoru, and Cho Nantetsu.
He got Honinbo title in 1946 and defended the title against the challenger Kitani Minoru in1947.
Iwamoto was assigned a chairman of The Nihon Ki-in in 1948.
He made huge contribution to spreading go internationally.
He founded ‘Iwamoto foundation' and established Go Centres in the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Brazil (Sao Paulo) and USA (New York and Seattle).
For the first time, top ten of America's youth players played against Japanese insei on the net. The friendly matches were held on the Japanese Yugen no Ma Go Server on 22 July in 2011. Six players from Insei in classes C through E selected and four of the top ten high school players in Tokyo were chosen.
As a result, Japan team got seven wins (lost three games).
After the games, one of the high school students who can speak English talked and reviewed the game with his opponent over skype.
