On May 16th and 17th the first round of the 68th Honinbo Final took place in Oda, Japan, the birthplace of the Go Saint Honinbo Dosaku. Challenger Takao Shinji won seven games in the qualifiers to challenge for the title. The game, which can be found here with comments by Kono Rin 9p, started out with a new joseki after Iyama's attack on the bottom. After giving up some territory on the bottom to take sente, Takao managed to take the initiative and things looked tough for the title defender. Iyama unleashed a  do-or-die move to try and change the outcome of the game and it succeeded!

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