is a Japanese professional Go player. In April 2016, he became the first player in Japanese history to hold all seven major titles simultaneously. In January 2018, Iyama became the first professional Go player to be awarded Japan's People's Honour Award.
Biography
Born in Osaka, Iyama became the first professional of the Heisei period. He began playing Go at the age of five and reached the rank of 3 dan amateur a year later. It was at this time Kunio Ishii became Iyama's teacher, with the two playing thousands of games online. He won the national elementary school championship twice, in 1997 and 1998. Iyama became an insei in October 1998 and challenged for a professional spot in 2001. He lost to Kohei Kawada. The following year, he challenged again and passed the qualifying test. At the time, Iyama was the fourth youngest professional behind Cho Chikun, Utaro Hashimoto and Satoshi Yuki.
Iyama was promoted to 2 dan on 4 September 2002. During the China-Japan Agon Cup in 2002, Iyama played an unofficial match with Chen Yaoye. Iyama lost the match by resignation. In June 2003, Iyama was promoted to 3 dan for his performances in the Oteai. Nearly two years later, Iyama was promoted to 4 dan under the newly revised promotion rules.
He met his rival, Daisuke Murakawa, a fellow player from the Kansai region, in the final section of the 30th Shinjin-O. Taking white, Iyama went on to win by 5.5 points. Iyama won the first major game of his career when he defeated Cho U by resignation in the 20th Agon Cup. He would go on to win the tournament, becoming the youngest title holder in Japanese history at 16 years and five months. The previous holder of the record was Cho Chikun, who won the Shin-Ei, a tournament open to young players only, at 17 years. As a result of winning the tournament, Iyama was directly promoted to 7 dan and became the youngest 7 dan in Japanese Go.
Before winning the Agon Cup, Iyama won the Nakano Cup, a privately sponsored unofficial tournament, and unsuccessfully challenged for the Shinjin-O title, losing to Kim Shushun. Iyama was a member of the Japanese team at the 6th Asian New Star Match, where he won one match. Japan finished in third place behind South Korea and China. Iyama participated in the China-Japan Agon Cup in 2006, losing to Gu Li by resignation.
Iyama won two awards for his performance during the 2005 season: the New Star award and an award for having the highest winning percentage (75.47%). In August 2006, Iyama made it to the last game of the 61st Honinbo preliminary stage. Facing Cho Sonjin (a former Honinbo), Iyama took black and lost by resignation. Had Iyama won, he would have been the youngest participant of the Honinbo league at 17 years. Three months after his unsuccessful Honinbo league bid, Iyama participated in the first edition of the Daiwa Cup, an internet tournament. Iyama qualified for the main tournament, but was unable to challenge for the title.
Iyama won his second official tournament when he defeated Kenichi Mochizuki in the Shinjin-O final. In September 2007, Iyama reached the challenger final of his first major title, the Tengen. Taking black, Iyama lost to Keigo Yamashita by 1.5 points and was unable to challenge title-holder Rin Kono. Iyama qualified for his first international tournament, the 21st Fujitsu Cup, by defeating Kanketsu Rin and Michihiro Morita in the preliminary stages. In the main tournament, Iyama defeated Taiwanese representative Zhou Junxun, but lost to Korea's Lee Sedol in the second round.
In March 2008, Iyama participated in the 1st Yugen Cup, a tournament pitting veteran professionals against newly promoted youngsters. He finished in 6th place, but won all six of his games. Iyama reached the final round of the preliminary tournament for the 13th LG Cup, but was unable to make the final tournament. No other Japanese players qualified.
Two months later, in July 2008, Iyama won the 33rd Meijin league. At the age of 19, Iyama became the youngest ever challenger for the Meijin title and the youngest challenger for any of the major titles. He broke a record held by Cho Chikun, who challenged for the Oza title in 1976 at the age of 20 years. As a result of winning the league, Iyama was directly promoted to 8 dan. Iyama's title bid was unsuccessful as he lost in seven games to title-holder Cho U.