to Gu Li by resignation. Iyama won two awards for his performance during the 2005 season: the New Star award and an award for having the highest winning percentage (75.47%). In August 2006, Iyama made it to the last game of the 61st Honinbo preliminary stage. Facing Cho Sonjin (a former Honinbo), Iyama took black and lost by resignation. Had Iyama won, he would have been the youngest participant of the Honinbo league at 17 years. Three months after his unsuccessful Honinbo league bid, Iyama participated in the first edition of the Daiwa Cup, an internet tournament. Iyama qualified for the main tournament, but was unable to challenge for the title. Iyama won his second official tournament when he defeated Kenichi Mochizuki in the Shinjin-O final. In September 2007, Iyama reached the challenger final of his first major title, the Tengen. Taking black, Iyama lost to Keigo Yamashita by 1.5 points and was unable to challenge title-holder Rin Kono. Iyama qualified for his first international tournament, the 21st Fujitsu Cup, by defeating Kanketsu Rin and Michihiro Morita in the preliminary stages. In the main tournament, Iyama defeated Taiwanese representative Zhou Junxun, but lost to Korea's Lee Sedol in the second round. In March 2008, Iyama participated in the 1st Yugen Cup, a tournament pitting veteran professionals against newly promoted youngsters. He finished in 6th place, but won all six of his games. Iyama reached the final round of the preliminary tournament for the 13th LG Cup, but was unable to make the final tournament. No other Japanese players qualified. Two months later, in July 2008, Iyama won the 33rd Meijin league. At the age of 19, Iyama became the youngest ever challenger for the Meijin title and the youngest challenger for any of the major titles. He broke a record held by Cho Chikun, who challenged for the Oza title in 1976 at the age of 20 years. As a result of winning the league, Iyama was directly promoted to 8 dan. Iyama's title bid was unsuccessful as he lost in seven games to title-holder Cho U. A few days after earning the right to challenge for the 33rd Meijin, Iyama defeated Cho U in the final of the 1st Daiwa Cup Grand Champion, an internet tournament for winners of the other Daiwa Cup tournaments. Iyama was also a part of the Japanese team at the 1st World Mind Sports