Ichiriki Ryo

Ichiriki Ryo (一力遼, b. 10 June 1997) is a Japanese professional 9-dan of the Nihon Kiin and one of the top players. He was a pupil of So Kofuku.

On the rating list in 2024, Ichiriki overtook Iyama Yuta as Japan’s #1 player, and is #9 in the world. Ichiriki has won 24 titles. He has also topped Japan’s Go prize money for the second year in a row, winning ¥121.8 million ($US785,000), over double the second placed Iyama Yuta’s ¥57.44 million ($US370,000).

Ichiriki is known as one of the Three Crows of the Reiwa Era 令和三羽烏, along with Kyo Kagen and Shibano Toramaru.

Table of contents Achievements Rank Promotion Titles Runners-up Career Statistics Fun Facts Links Videos Pictures Notes

Achievements

He holds the records of youngest challenger for the Kisei, Oza, and Tengen tournaments.

In a game of the 4th Yugen Cup (played 2010-08-09), when he was still an Insei, Ichiriki beat Ishida Atsushi 9d in only 125 moves. In another game of the same tournament (played 2010-10-04) he beat Kono Rin (B+0.5).

Ichiriki’s 2013 record, as of August 15th, is 20 wins & 2 losses. Of those wins is a 16-win streak, in which he defeated several notable players (including O Rissei, Nakamura Shinya, Yamashiro Hiroshi, Michael Redmond, Cho Chikun, Kono Rin, and Yuki Satoshi). He won the 4th Okage defeating Anzai Nobuaki, and reached the Agon Cup semifinals losing to Shida Tatsuya; then, in November, he won his first official title, the 8th Hiroshima Arumi Cup.

Ichiriki started 2014 with 11 consecutive wins (as of 2014-03-27), extending his winning streak to 16 games; as of 2014-03-21 he entered the Kisei League (at 16 years, 9 months, youngest ever). He won the 1st Globis Cup (U20 international championship) on 2014-05-11.

In 2016, he beat Yamashita Keigo, and challenged Iyama Yuta for the Tengen, making him the second teenager to challenge for a big title. In addition, he beat Iyama Yuta to win the Ryusei.

In 2017, he challenged Iyama for the Oza and Tengen but lost all the games. He played 3 games in the 2017 Chinese A League as a guest player of Team Chongqing, but lost them all. In 2018 he made his debut in 2-day title matches with the Kisei, but again Iyama Yuta proved too strong.

In 2020, he challenged Hane Naoki for the Gosei title and won 3–0. He also challenged Iyama Yuta for the Tengen and won 3–2.

In international competitions, he has had solid results. 2020 in particular has been a good year. He reached the third round (quarterfinals) of the MLily Cup before losing to Xie Ke. He reached the quarterfinals of the Samsung Cup after beating Gu Zihao and Shin Minjun, before losing to Xie Erhao. He beat Mi Yuting, An Sungjoon, and Tao Xinran in the Ing Cup before losing to Xie Ke in the semifinals. All told, he tied for 8th in the international win-loss ratings with a score of 5–3.

In 2023, he won the Honinbo title, beating Iyama Yuta 4–3. This victory ended Iyama’s winning streak of 11 consecutive titles (the previous year, beating Ichiriki 4–0). It was his first Honinbo title. He successfully defended it the next year, beating Yo Seiki 3–0.

In 2024. he won the 10th Ing Cup. This was the first Japanese victory in an leading international tournament in some years. The Ing Cup, nicknamed the Go Olympics, has the highest prize money for a Go tournament, $400,000 for winner, $100,000 for runner-up. Ichiriki beat Xie Ke 3–0 in the final, after beating Ke Jie 2–1 in the semifinal. (The previous year’s winner, World #1 ranked player Shin Jinseo, lost in the first round to Wang Xinghao 9p, who was then eliminated by Ke Jie.)

Rank Promotion

• 2010-09: 1-dan, qualified as the 1st place insei
• 2012-02-01: 2-dan
• 2013: 3-dan
• 2014: 4 dan
• 2014: 7 dan (on 21 March, entering the 39th Kisei League, beating Cho U)
• 2017-11: 8 dan (150 wins as 7 dan)
• 2020: 9 dan

bugcat: I seem to remember hearing it suggested, some time in that 2018-20 period, that he was the world's strongest 8p.

Titles

• 2012-10-28: 9th Nakano Cup d. Son Makoto
• 2013-05-16: 4th Okage d. Anzai Nobuaki
• 2013-11-17: 8th Hiroshima Arumi Cup d. Fujita Akihiko
• 2014-05-11: 1st Globis Cup d. Kyo Kagen
• 2014-05-16: 5th Okage d. Seto Taiki
• 2014: 39th Shinjin O d. Shida Tatsuya
• 2016: 25th Ryusei d. Iyama Yuta
• 2018: 25th Agon Cup d. Shibano Toramaru
• 2018 27th Ryusei d. Motoki Katsuya
• 2019 28th Ryusei d. Ueno Asami
• 2020 29th Ryusei d. Iyama Yuta
• 2020 45th Gosei d. Hane Naoki 3–0
• 2020 46th Tengen d. Iyama Yuta 3–2
• 2022 46th Kisei d. Iyama Yuta 4–3
• 2023 47th Kisei Shibano Toramaru 4–2
• 2023 78th Honinbo d. Iyama Yuta 4–3
• 2023 49th Tengen d. Seki Kotaro 3–1
• 2024 48th Kisei d. Iyama Yuta 4–3
• 2024 79th Honinbo d. Yo Seiki (Yu Zhengqi) 3–0
• 2024 10th Ing Cup, his first full international title (Globis Cup was a youth title)
• 2024 50th Tengen d. Shibano Toramaru 3–1
• 2024 49th Meijin d. Shibano Toramaru 4–2

Runners-up

• 2016: 42nd Tengen to Iyama Yuta
• 2017: 65th Oza to Iyama Yuta 2–3
• 2017: 43rd Tengen to Iyama Yuta 0–3
• 2018: 42nd Kisei to Iyama Yuta 0–4
• 2021: 46th Gosei to Iyama Yuta 2–3
• 2021: 47th Tengen to Seki Kotaro 1–3
• 2022: 47th Gosei to Iyama Yuta 0–3
• 2023: 48th Gosei to Iyama Yuta 0–3

Career Statistics

http://igokisen.web.fc2.com/jp/japan.html

valerio: igokisen records are unofficial. Official records are in the table above.

Fun Facts

• He is a Waseda University alumnus (where Aragaki Miki, Fujiwara Akiko, Shimosaka Miori and Aoba Kaori graduated).
• He is also a journalist. His family founded the Kahoku Shimpo newspaper and Tohoku Broadcasting. He is a beat journalist and Go columnist for the Kahoku Shimpo.
• When posing for photos, he often holds up one index finger to mean “one”, the meaning of the first character of his family name 一 (ichi). The second character 力 (riki, or chikara when it’s on its own), means “force” or “power”.
• He is a good friend of one of his fellow Three Crows of the Reiwa Era, Kyo Kagen. Kyo was both research assistant and Chinese interpreter when Ichiriki won the 10th Ing Cup in Sept 2024. Ichiriki said that Kyo was “ a major driving force behind his victory.”

Links

• English Wikipedia
• Japanese Wikipedia
• Nihon Ki-in player profile
• Go4Go
• Go Ratings and Games

Videos

• 24 minutes long interview in May 2023, a week before the first game of the 78th Honinbo title match. “Can he get his first Honinbou title before it’s too late?”^[1] YouTube link
• He was a guest in Ponnuki Jouhoukyoku episode in August 2023 with Moro Arisa and Yokotsuka Riki hosting the show. YouTube link

Pictures

ichiriki ryo winning his first honinbo jul2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

liao yuanhe ichiriki ryo mlily 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

ichiriki ryo mlily 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

ichiriki ryo mlily 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

ichiriki ryo lian xiao mlily 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

ichiriki ryo asian games 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

Notes

[1] The 78th Honinbou is the last Honinbou as a Major title in Japan. The title match won't be best of 7 anymore. YouTube Link to Pro Go Baduk Weiqi Podcast episode https://youtube.com/live/X99LX6DFDWE