On May 10th and 11th, in the first round of this year's Japan Honinbo Challenge, Yuta Iyama, who has been a ten-year champion, went through an exhausting battle, and half-eye narrowly won the challenger's one-handed chess and won the opening. But for the long seven wins and losses, this is just the beginning. If the title of Ben Infang is regarded as an undecided attribution, then who can become the third-ranked winner of benyinfang this year, who ranks first in the seven chess battles vs. the second celebrity?
Ben has reached the 77th stage of the challenge, and the chess holy war has just produced the 46th winner this year. The first time in history that a chess saint challenged Honinbo was in 1990, when Kobayashi Koichi held the titles of chess saint, celebrity, and kiyoshi, and was the absolute first person in Japan. Zhao Zhixun had just recaptured Ben in fang from Masaki Takemiya the year before, and he had faced the challenge of his strongest opponent. As a result, Zhao Zhixun won one set first and then lost three consecutive sets, falling into a desperate situation. However, Zhixun, who has always been good at desperate situations, immediately went down to three cities in a row to complete the great reversal.
The following year, Kobayashi made a comeback and once again challenged Cho's position as ben. He started 2-0 and the situation was great. Zhao Zhixun launched a counterattack from the third set, returning a wave of four consecutive wins, 4-2, once again repelling the "love enemy of a lifetime".
A lifelong love enemy
The following year, Kobayashi Koichi, who refused to give up, once again killed the Honinfang War Circle and won the challenge for three consecutive years. This time, Kobayashi is determined to win, and he has achieved an absolute advantage of 3-0 from the beginning. But Zhao Zhixun is a tenacious "undead bird", and he likes to dance on the tip of the knife. From the fourth inning, Zhao Zhixun completely changed his appearance, won consecutively, and with a big reversal of three consecutive defeats and four consecutive wins, the dream of Kobayashi Hikari unifying the big three crowns was shattered again.
It was the most thrilling "Riptide Trilogy" of Japanese Go's best double pride after the "duel in a wheelchair", and the chess saint could not shake the throne of Ben infang for three consecutive years. Since then, Kobayashi has not stepped on the stage of the Honinbo Challenge. He challenged Ben Yinfang four times and lost all to Zhao Zhixun (the first time was a 2-4 defeat in the 37th issue of 1982), leaving a generation of kings with deep regrets.
Absolutely proud
After the Zhao vs Kobayashi trilogy, the scene of Qisheng challenging Ben Yinfang did not appear for a long time. The four kings of Heisei restrained each other, and none of them was able to gain the right to challenge Ben infang as a reigning chess saint. When Yuta Iyama was full of wings, he picked down Yamashita Keigo in 2012 to win the crown of Ben infang, and early the next year, he picked Zhang Xu to ascend to the chess sainthood, until last year, he firmly controlled these two titles in the hands of one person, and naturally there would be no situation of "challenging himself".
Yili Liao challenged Yuta Iyama's celebrity position last year, losing 3-4. At the beginning of this year, he defeated The Nine-League Champion Izuyama 4-3 at the Chess Challenge to win the Grand Treble for the first time. Then he successfully counterattacked in the circle of Ben in fang, defeated Yu Zhengqi in the extra round, won the challenge right of Ben in fang for the first time, and then fought against Jingshan. For the first time in history, the same two people played a three-time championship challenge in a row. In addition, Yili Liao currently has 3 wins and 2 losses in the new celebrity circle, tied for second place with Xu Jiayuan and Shida Tatsuya, and temporarily lags behind Shikino Tiger Maru, who is 4 wins and 1 loss, and also hopes to compete for the right to challenge again.
Thirty years later, the reappearance of the chess saint challenged Honinbo, which was the fourth and fourth time in history that the two three crown holders had a peak duel, unlike Cho Ji-hoon vs Kobayashi Koichi, when the celebrity golden crown belonged to the challenge kobayashi Koichi, and now it is worn on the head of the defensive Yuta Iyama. Judging from the weight of the three titles, this time the contrast between the two males is more balanced.
If Yuta Iyama succeeds in defending his title, he will surpass Cho Ji-hoon and enjoy the highest record of Japanese chess game streak with 11 consecutive championships. If The first time he stepped on the stage of Honinfang challenged the stage, he would make himself the honor of "Japan's first man" worthy of the name.
Iyama is in 11 consecutive reigns
Yili Liao challenged Ben Yinfang for the first time
Although the international competitiveness of Japanese chess players is not strong, the standardization and ritual of their domestic competitions are still enviable. This is the old age of Japanese Go, and it is also their persistence.