Ichiken

Thanks to John Fairbairn for providing the information for this article. See his L19 thread for more.

Pictured: A meeting of the Ichiken. From left to right: Fujisawa Rina, Nakamura Sumire, Ichiriki Ryo and Fukuoka Kotaro.

The Ichiken, or Ichiriki Kenkyukai (Ichiriki Study Group), is a Tokyo study group created in May 2022 by Ichiriki Ryo, following his taking of the Kisei title from Iyama Yuta (who had held it since 2013).

The group has only four members. Two are established top players, Ichiriki Ryo and Female Honinbo Fujisawa Rina. The other two are the young talents Fukuoka Kotaro and Nakamura Sumire, respectively the most promising male and female teenage professionals of Japan.

(Since) these are busy players and getting them together at the same time is problematical, they will meet once a month and play each other in fast games, 30 seconds a move. ... Ichiriki's desire is to get Japan back near the peaks of international go (over the next) 5 to 10 years. -- Fairbairn