by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Most wins
Shibano Toramaru, the youthful new Meijin, topped this list for the third year in a row. Considering the level of his competition now, as he’s playing top-flight opponents in leagues and title matches, that’s a significant achievement and testimony to his great form for most of the year. Also significant are the two best results ever attained by female players, with Ueno Asami and Fujisawa Rina coming third and fourth respectively. In particular, their good results against male players show that the level of women’s go is steadily rising. Here are the top 12.
- Shibano Toramaru: 52 wins, 18 losses
- Ichiriki Ryo 8P: 47-14
- Ueno Asami, Women’s Honinbo: 44-25
- Mutsuura Yuta: 38-20; Fujisawa Rina, Women’s Hollyhock Cup: 38-28
- Otake Yu 3P: 36-12
- Kono Rin 9P: 35-18
- Iyama Yuta Kisei: 34-27
- Suzuki Shinji 7P: 33-15; Son Makoto 7P: 33-19
- Kyo Kagen 8P: 32-17
- Xie Yimin 6P: 31-23
Most successive wins
- Ichiriki Ryo, Fujita Akihiko 7P (twice): 16
- Kono Rin: 13
- Yokotsuka Riki 7P, Fujisawa Rina: 12
- Hane Naoki Gosei: 11
- Shibano Toramaru, Adachi Toshimasa 6P, Muramoto Wataru 2P (twice), Nyu Eiko 2P: 10
Best winning percentage
- Ichiriki: 77.05
- Otake Yu, Fujita Akihiko (30-10): 75
- Shibano Toramaru: 74.29
- Oomote Takuto 3P (20-7): 74.07
2019 Prize-money promotions
There are three ways to earn promotions. One is through cumulative wins, which is the slow way. The fast way is through a tournament success, which will enable a low-ranked player to skip some intervening ranks. The conditions are fairly complicated, so here is a summary. Promotion to 7-dan: challenging for one of the bottom four (Oza, Tengen, Gosei, Judan) of the top seven titles; winning the Agon Kiriyama Cup or the Ryusei tournament; winning a place in the Kisei S League or the Honinbo or Meijin League. To 8-dan: winning one of the bottom four of the top seven titles; challenging for one of the top three titles (Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo); coming second in an international tournament. To 9-dan: winning a top-three or an international title; winning one of the bottom four of the top seven titles a second time. In theory, a new 1-dan could go straight to 9-dan by this system. In practice, however, it’s unlikely because it would take close to two years to go from the first qualifying round to a top-three title match, during which time a player strong enough to do this would have already made 2-dan or 3-dan.
The third way to get promoted is by coming first or second in the prize-money list for each dan from 1-dan to 5-dan; the top 6-dan is also promoted. Only prize money won in the top seven titles is counted. These promotions take effect on January 1 and are based on the previous year. (Players who earn promotions through the cumulative-wins system are not considered.) The promotions for 2019 are given below.
To 7-dan: Adachi Toshimasa
To 6-dan: Terayama Rei, Yo Chito
To 5-dan: Onishi Ryuhei, Koike Yoshihiro
To 4-dan: Otake Yu, Hirose Yuichi
To 3-dan: Seki Kotaro, Torii Yuta
To 2-dan: Chotoku Tetsushi, Sakai Yuki
Top prize-money winners for 2019 (in yen)
- Iyama Yuta: 108,259,237 (about $984,000)
- Shibano Toramaru: 67,669,600
- Ichiriki Ryo: 36,847,129
- Cho U: 32,272,656
- Fujisawa Rina: 26,593,572
- Yamashita Keigo: 26,177,458
- Kono Rin: 25,230,600
- Hane Naoki: 21,004,400
- Ueno Asami: 20,777,172
- Kyo Kagen: 19,044,240
Top news of 2019
The readers of Go Weekly chose the following as the hottest news topics of the year.
- Shibano Toramaru’s breakthrough
- The blossoming of Nakamura Sumire
- The rising dragon Ueno Asami
- Iyama Yuta stays on top
- The new Gosei Hane Naoki
- Death of Ogawa Tomoko
- Busy year for Fujisawa Rina
- Retirement of Lee Sedol
- Cho U’s win in China-Japan Agon Kiriyama Cup
- Ichiriki’s success rapid-go titles
Just missing the top ten was Sakai Hideyuki retiring from go to resume his medical career.
Tomorrow: Iyama close to defending Kisei title; Iyama ahead in international final; Park wins New Year’s Cup
