 
Just after finishing their battle for the 75th Honinbo title
Shibano Toramaru and Iyama Yuta meet again for the 45th Meijin title.
This time the role of title hlder and challenger are reversed though.
Iyama had to work hard to become challenger. He needed to win all
his league games to stay ahead of Ichiriki Ryo who ended 2nd with 7 out of 8 wins.
For both an astonishing accomplishment.
It's just amazing: Iyama took the Honinbo title for the 9th time in a row.
The challenger, Shibano Toramaru, put up a great fight but in the end was
only able to take the 4th game. We cannot wait for the next edition of this
tournament.
After a very exciting game challenger Kyo Kagen took the lead against title holder Iyama Yuta.
However, the 2nd game soon became favorable for the title holder. Several ko fights complicated
things but not the outcome.
The 3rd game showed some complicated fighting which turned out favorable for the challenger.
The 4th game again featured interesting fighting with some remarkable furikawari as a result.
So the 5th game was all deciding...
The match everyone was waiting for: Iyama Yuta versus Shibano Toramaru.
They play for the Oza title, Iyama defending it, Shibano challenging.
One day before his 20th birthday Shibano Toramaru gave himself a great
present: the 44th Meijin title.
In an exciting game with large exchanges a huge ko decided the outcome
of the game. And although Cho U played some more endgame the outcome was inevitable.
Cho U, title holder of the Meijin title faces kadoban against challenger
Shibano Toramaru. The score: 3-1, so one more loss and Shibano will be the
new Meijin at the age of 20 years.
Hane Naoki has taken the 44th Gosei title by winning the exciting final game
of the best-of-five match.
The Gosei title match will go all the way this year. By winning the fourth game Kyo Kagen
leveled the score (2-2) against challenger Hane Naoki.
To be continued on the 23rd of August.
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