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