History of Topics 2011

  Yamashita takes Meijin title from Iyama, becoming the seventh Meijin-Honinbo in modern tournament history. He achieved it by defeating Iyama 4-2 in the 36th Meijin title match. The sixth game of the title match was played in Shizuoka prefecture on 27 and 28 October. Playing white, Yamashita won by 3.5 points.

The full results of the series are given as follows:
 Game 1 (1, 2 September). Yamashita (B) by 5.5 points
 Game 2 (14, 15 September). Iyama (B) by resignation
 Game 3 (21, 22 September). Yamashita (B) by resignation
 Game 4 (5, 6 October). Yamashita (W) by resignation
 Game 5 (13, 14 October). Iyama (W) by resignation.
 Game 6 (27, 28 October) Yamashita (W) 3.5 points

  Iyama defeated the titleholder, Yuki Satoshi of The Kansai Ki-in, with straight wins.
  The third game was played in Fukuoka prefecture on 17 November. Playing white, Iyama won by resignation.

The full results of the series are given as follows:
 Game 1 (24 October) Iyama (W) by resignation
 Game 2 (8 November) Iyama (B) by half a point
 Game 3 (17 November) Iyama(W) by resignation

  Cho U has successfully completed his defence of Oza title. He defeated Hane Naoki (Gosei) with straight wins. This is Cho's seventh Oza title. He also won it four years in a row.

The full results of the series are given as follows:
 Game 1 (20 October) Cho U (W) by 3.5 points
 Game 2 (11 November) Cho U (B) by 1.5 points
 Game 3 (24 November) Cho U (W) by resignation

  The playoff match to decide the challenger to Cho U was played between Iyama Yuta and Takao Shinji at The Nihon Ki-in in Osaka on 11 November 2011.
  Takao (W) defeated Iyama by half a point and will play for Kisei title match for his first time. In 2006 Takao held Meijin and Honinbo titles simultaneously becoming the sixth Meijin-Honinbo in modern tournament history. His teacher, Fujisawa Shuko, was awarded Honorary Kisei since he won it for six consecutive terms from the 1st Kisei title. So Takao is very keen to get Kisei as his teacher did.

  We received a gratitude email from Mr. Sugawara who could just open a temporary go club at the end of October in earthquake-affected area, Kesennuma-Shi.
  The Kesennuma go club was completely destroyed by the huge Tsunami on 11 March 2011. The Nihon Ki-in set up Takefu Foundation in April 2011 for the people in earthquake-affected area of North East Japan. The Nihon Ki-in donated 10 sets of gobans and stones to the go club to help it reopened.

  He has got the 2nd place at D class with 18 wins out of 22 games in November. Accordingly, he gets promotion to C class.
  He also starts to study at a youth go school which is organised by Mimura Tomoyasu 9 dan pro who is one of the disciples of Fujisawa Shuko Honorary Kisei. Some of insei students are also studying at Mimura go school.