By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Here is a statistical overview of Japanese go in 2021
Most prize money won
The Nihon Ki-in published the list of top prize-money winners on January 24. There were few surprises. Iyama Yuta took first place for the 11th year in a row and topped 100,000,000 (called “ichi-oku”) yen for the 10th year in a row. Only four players have reached this impressive figure, the others being Kobayashi Koichi (three times), Cho Chikun (four times), and Cho U (also four times).
1. Iyama Yuta: ¥133,849,290 ($1,160,073 at $1 = ¥115.38)
2. Ichiriki Ryo: ¥44,285,702
3. Shibano Toramaru: ¥41,139,960
4. Kyo Kagen: ¥37,422,211
5.Fujisawa Rina: ¥31,993,482
6. Ueno Asami: ¥23,509,352
7. Kono Rin: ¥20,784,000
8. Seki Kotaro: ¥17,824,300
9. Hane Naoki: ¥13,609,000
10. Motoki Katsuya: ¥11,285,600
Most wins
Ueno Asami, Women’s Kisei, had the lead in the list of most wins for most of the year, helped, of course, by the boom in women’s go tournaments but also by her good results against male players. Sumire, boosted by her astonishing winning streak of 13 at the beginning of the year, kept her company. Even so, other players were in the running until the end of the year, when Ueno suddenly built a big lead. She is the first woman player to top this list. Below are the top ten.
1. Ueno Asami: 54 wins, 25 losses
2. Kyo Kagen Judan: 45-21
3. Nakamura Sumire 2-dan: 43-18
4. Fukuoka Kotaro 3-dan: 39-12; Ichiriki Ryo 9-dan: 39-20; Shibano Toramaru 9-dan: 39-24
7. Fujisawa Rina, Women’s Honinbo: 38-15
8. Seki Kotaro Tengen: 37-14; Iyama Yuta Kisei: 37-16
10. Nyu Eiko 4-dan: 34-17
Most successive wins
14: Ichiriki Ryo
13: Fukuoka Kotaro, Nakamura Sumire
12: Ichiriki
11: Kyo Kagen, Fujisawa Rina, Tsuneishi Takashi
10: Seki Kotaro, Ogata Masaki 9-dan, Horimoto Mitsunari, Nakamura Sumire
Best winning percentage
Restricted to players with 24+ wins.
1. Tsuneishi Takashi: 76.92% (30-9)
2. Fukuoka Kotaro: 76.47% (39-12)
3. Shida Tatsuya 8-dan: 75% (30-10)
4. Ogata Masaki: 74.36% (29-10)
5. Yamamori Tadanao 7-dan: 73.08% (19-7)
6. Komatsu Hideki 9-dan: 72.73% (24-9)
7. Seki Kotaro: 72.55% (37-14)
8. Son Makoto 7-dan, Sakai Yuki 3-dan: 72.22% (26-10),
10. Matsumoto Takehisa 8-dan, Horimoto Mitsunari 5P: 71.88% (23-9)
Prizemoney promotions
Every January there are eleven automatic promotions based on prizemoney won in the top-seven titles. To be specific, the top two 1-dans to 5-dans and the top 6-dan are promoted. Players who earned promotion in other ways are excluded. The 2021 promotions were announced early in January and are given below.
To 7-dan: Koike Yoshihiro
To 6-dan: Hirose Yuichi, Otake Yu
To 5-dan: Tsuneishi Takashi, Cho Zuiketsu
To 4-dan: (Ms.) Nyu Eiko, Muramoto Wataru
To 3-dan: Fukuoka Kotaro, Nishioka Masao
To 2-dan: (Ms.) Tsuji Hana, Chan Fukan (from Malaysia)