Sota Fujii, entitled 5 crowns of major tournaments this year, won the play off match in ranking league against Akihito Hirose, on 8th March. Fujii acquired the right to challenge to the current Master Akira Watanabe. The Master title match will start from 5th April 2023.
The ranking league is segregated into 5 classes: Class A, B1, B2, C1, C2. Fujii and Hirose were belonged in the highest class of A. Both players ended the league score as 7-2, so the play off game was held to decide the challenger to the Master. All the game scores were as the table below. The worst two players, Tetsuro Itotani and Yasumitsu Sato, will be demoted to lower rank of class B. Yasumitsu Sato, who is 53 years old, was enrolled to class A for total 26 times. His unique style of offense often attract many amateur players, so it was regrettable moment to see his demotion. Hope he will come back to class A, together with his rival of Yoshiharu Habu.
| Rank | Name | Win | Lose | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 | Shintaro Saito | 5 | 4 | ＼ | ○ | ○ | ● | ● | ● | ○ | ○ | ● | ○ | |
| Demotion | 2 | Tetsuro Itotani | 1 | 8 | ● | ＼ | ○ | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| 3 | Amahiko Sato | 3 | 6 | ● | ● | ＼ | ● | ○ | ● | ○ | ○ | ● | ● | |
| 4 | Masayuki Toyoshima | 6 | 3 | ○ | ○ | ○ | ＼ | ● | ● | ○ | ○ | ● | ○ | |
| 5 | Akihito Hirose | 7 | 2 | ○ | ○ | ● | ＼ | ○ | ○ | ○ | ● | ○ | ||
| 6 | Takuya Nagase | 6 | 3 | ○ | ○ | ○ | ○ | ● | ＼ | ○ | ● | ○ | ● | |
| Demotion | 7 | Yasumitsu Sato | 1 | 8 | ● | ○ | ● | ● | ● | ● | ＼ | ● | ● | ● |
| 8 | Tatsuya Sugai | 5 | 4 | ○ | ○ | ● | ● | ● | ○ | ○ | ＼ | ○ | ○ | |
| Winner | 9 | Sota Fujii | 7 | 2 | ○ | ○ | ○ | ○ | ○ | ● | ○ | ● | ＼ | ○ |
| 10 | Akira Inaba | 4 | 5 | ● | ○ | ○ | ● | ● | ○ | ○ | ● | ● | ＼ |
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