Yuta Iyama

Yuta Iyama Kisei, Honinbo, Meijin, Gosei (井山 裕太, Iyama Yūta, born 24 May 1989) is a Japanese professional Go player. He was the first player to simultaneously hold six of the top seven major titles in Japan, holding Kisei, Honinbo, Tengen, Oza, Gosei, Judan between March 2013 and April 2013. He lost the Judan title on April 26, 2013. After gaining the Meijin title on October 17, 2013 he again holds six titles: Kisei, Honinbo, Tengen, Oza, Gosei, Meijin.

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.