Sota Fujii

Sōta Fujii (藤井 聡太, Fujii Sōta, born July 19, 2002 in Seto, Aichi) is a Japanese professional shogi player currently ranked 7-dan. He is the youngest person ever to be awarded professional status by the Japan Shogi Association and one of only five players to become professional while still a junior high school student, and is also the youngest player to have won a professional shogi tournament.

Fujii won his first 29 games as a professional to set a new Japanese professional shogi record for most consecutive games won.

Fujii was born in Seto, Aichi on July 19, 2002. His mother was a homemaker and his father was a company employee. He learned shogi at age 5 after being given a shogi set by his grandmother and started out playing games with his grandfather. Eventually he became too strong for his grandfather, so he started taking formal lessons at a neighborhood shogi school. As an elementary school student first-grade student, he began playing games against junior high school and senior high school students to test his skill.

Fujii's intense focus on surprised his mother and competitive spirit often led to crying outbursts when he lost. As a second-grade student, he got the opportunity to play a game against shogi professional Kōji Tanigawa as part of a simultaneous exhibition at a shogi event in Nagoya. Due to time limitations, Tanigawa offered Fujii a draw even though Fujii had a losing position. Upset by the offer, Fujii flipped the board and pieces, and then began crying until his mother came to take him away from the board.

Fujii was seven years old when met his future professional shogi mentor Masataka Sugimoto 7-dan for the first time. Sugimoto was amazed by the "marvelous perspective" and "insight" Fujii showed at such a young age and says that he is "the personification of fighting spirit" who "takes the frustration of defeat and directs it at the next match".

Fujii officially entered the shogi professional apprentice school as a 10-year-old under the sponsorship of Sugimoto with the rank of 6-kyū in September 2012. He became the youngest person ever to be promoted to 3-dan in October 2015 at the age of 13 years 2 months. Fujii competed in the "59th 3-dan league" with other 3-dan ranked apprentices from April to September 2017 and finished in first place with a 13-5 record to win promotion to the rank of professional 4-dan. He was only the eighth 3-dan player to be promoted to professional status after only one season in the "3-dan league" since 1987. Fujii's promotion to full professional status by the JSA became official on October 1, 2017.

Fujii's debut game as a professional was on December 24, 2016, and he defeated 76-year-old Hifumi Katō. Katō was at the time the oldest active shogi professional, and the age gap of 62 years and 6 months between the two players broke the previous record of 58 years and 7 months set in 1986 when 15-year-old Yoshiharu Habu played 74-year-old Seiichi Kobori [ja].

On April 4, 2017, Fujii defeated Hiroshi Kobayashi to win his 11th straight game since turning professional and break the previous record of 10 jointly held by Yoshiyuki Matsumoto and Masakazu Kondō.

Fujii won his 13th game in a row when he defeated Shōta Chida in the round one of the 67th NHK TV Shogi Tournament on April 17, 2017. The game result was posted the same day on the Japan Shogi Association's official website, even though the game was not broadcast on NHK-E until May 14, 2017. This is something which was highly unusual because NHK tournament games are pre-recorded, and game results are not made public until the game is actually broadcast.

Fujii became the fastest professional to reach 50 wins in official games on November 21, 2017, when he defeated Shingo Hirafuji. Fujii achieved his 50th win in his 56th official game in just ten months and twenty-nine days since his professional debut, surpassing the previous record held by Habu, who won his 50th game in his 66th game and took one year and two months.

Fujii's first official game against a reigning major title holder came on January 14, 2018, when he defeated Meijin Amahiko Satō in the quarterfinals of the 11th Asahi Cup Open [ja].

On February 1, 2018, Fujii defeated Hirotaka Kajiura in a Meijin Class C2 game to improve his league record to 9 wins and no losses and ensure his promotion to Meijin Class C1 in April 2018. Fujii's promotion to Class C1 also meant his promotion to the rank of 5-dan, thus making him the first junior high school student to ever be awarded the rank.

Fujii became the youngest player to win a professional shogi tournament on February 17, 2018, when he defeated Akihito Hirose in the final of the 11th Asahi Cup Open. Fujii advanced to the final by defeating the reigning Ryūō and Kisei title holder Yoshiharu Habu in the semi-finals held earlier that same day. Fujii's victory at age 15 years and 6 months broke the previous record of 15 years and 10 months set by Hifumi Katō in 1955. Fujii's victory also meant automatic promotion to the rank of 6-dan, thus making him the youngest player to ever be awarded such a rank by breaking the previous record (also held by Katō) of 16 years and 3 months.

On March 15, 2018, Fujii defeated Tatsuya Sanmaidō to finish Class 2 play undefeated at 10 wins and no losses. Fujii became the first player in six years to finish Class 2 play undefeated. The victory was Fujii's 15th in a row, which made him the holder of the two longest consecutive winning streaks for the 2017 shogi season. Fujii's victory was also his 60th victory overall in a single year which made him not only the 4th player ever to reach 60 wins, but also the youngest player ever to do so.

On March 28, 2018, Fujii played his final game as a junior high school student and of the 2017 shogi season when he faced Keita Inoue in a third round preliminary round game for the 68th Ōshō Tournament. The game was broadcast live by the Igo & Shogi Channel as part of its "Shogi Premium" service. Inoue won the game in 137 moves, thus becoming the first player aged 50 or older to defeat Fujii in an official game. Inoue's victory also stopped Fujii's 16 game winning streak. Fujii's winning streak began after a loss to on Takahiro Ōhashi on January 6, 2018, and included wins over the reigning Meijin title holder Satō, the reigning Ryūō title holder Habu, former Ōshō title holder Hirose, former Ryūō title holder Tetsurō Itodani as well as his first official game against his mentor Sugimoto.

Fujii became the youngest player to be promoted to 7-dan when he defeated Kōhei Funae on May 18, 2018. Fujii's win in the championship game for Ryūō Class 5 meant that he achieved Ryōū ranking class promotion for two consecutive years, thus satisfying the promotion criteria for 7-dan. Fujii's record of reaching 7-dan at age 15 years 9 months broke the previous record of 17 years 3 months set by Hifumi Katō in 1957.

In October 2018, Fujii won his second shogi championship when he defeated apprentice professional Wakamu Deguchi 3-dan 2 games to none to win the 49th Shinjin-Ō [ja] tournament. Fujii's victory made him the youngest player ever to win the tournament at 16 years and 2 months, breaking the 31-year-old record of 17 years and 0 months set by Toshiyuki Moriuchi in 1987.

Fujii at age 16 became the youngest player to win 100 official games as a professional on December 12, 2018. Fujii's victory also made him the fastest (two years and two months since turning professional) to achieve such a result, and his winning percentage of .847 (100 wins and 18 losses) is also the highest of any player to have previously won 100 games.

On January 8, 2019, Fujii defeated Eisaku Tomioka in Mejin Class C1 league play. The win was Fujii's 18 consecutive win in Meijin League play since debuting as a shogi professional which tied the record set by Makoto Nakahara 52 years earlier. Fujii, however, was defeated by Seiya Kondō in his next league game on February 5, 2019, to end the winning streak.

In February 2019, Fujii successfully defended his Asahi Cup title when he defeated Kiō title holder Akira Watanabe to win the 12th Asahi Cup Open tournament.

After defeating Katō to win his debut game, Fujii proceeded to win his next 28 official games before losing to Yūki Sasaki on July 2, 2017. His 29 consecutive wins broke the previous record of 28 set by Hiroshi Kamiya in 1987.

Opponents

Impact

Fujii's winning streak was widely covered by Japanese media and also by overseas media outlets as well. His promotion to professional status and his subsequent success was viewed as helping the Japan Shogi Association recover from the scandal of the 29th Ryūō challenger controversy; a scandal which had ultimately led to the resignation of the JSA's president in January 2017, the removal of several directors in February 2017, and a general loss of public confidence.

Fujii's streak not only helped the JSA recover from the aforementioned scandal, but also provided an economic boost as well. The streak led to increased sales of shogi books, and other merchandise, etc. as well as a general increase in shogi's popularity nationwide, particularly among young children. Local merchants in Fujii's hometown of Seto held commemorative sales to honor him for the streak and for his 15th birthday, and it was estimated almost 7.4 million people watched the live webcast of Fujii's record-setting victory. Sensu (folding hand fans) signed by Fujii were sold by the JSA in both Tokyo and Osaka in an unusual move since such a thing is typically only reserved for major title holders; the fans, however, quickly sold out at both locations in less than an hour despite there being a limit set at one fan per person, with people lining up in advance to receive a numbered ticket to purchase a fan. Some of the fans sold subsequently showed up on online auction websites where bids up to JPY 15,600 were observed despite the original sale price of about JPY 2,300.

In December 2017, the JSA estimated that the over all impact of Fujii's streak on its advertizing revenue had been roughly 18.5 billion yen.

In March 2018, Fujii won the 15th Tsume Shogi Solving Competition, thus becoming the only person to win the competition four years in a row. Fujii was the only participant, which included both amateur and professional shogi players, to finish with a perfect score of 100 points. Fujii first won the competition in 2015 as a 12-year-old apprentice shogi professional 2-dan. He was the only participant to finish with a perfect score to become the youngest winner in the competition's history.

Fujii has been featured in several programs broadcast on the JSA's shogi channel of the Internet television station AbemaTV.

In March – April 2017, Fujii was featured in Sōta Fujii 4d The Blazing 7-game Match: New Generation Story [ja] in which he played seven games against top professionals selected by the JSA. The games were unofficial, which meant the results did not affect his official win-loss record, and his opponents were (in order) Yasuhiro Masuda, Takuya Nagase, Shintarō Saitō, Taichi Nakamura, Kōichi Fukaura, Yasumitsu Satō and Yoshiharu Habu. Fujii won all of the games except Game 2 against Nagase.

In October 2017, Fujii announced that it was his intention to enter senior high school after graduating from junior high school in the spring of 2018. Fujii said that he gave becoming a full-time shogi professional serious consideration but stated "I'd like to continue to progress and make every experience a positive one." Fujii decision was widely anticipated in Japan and was viewed favorably by fellow shogi professionals and some education critics. Fujii's decision to continue his education is the same one made by the other four shogi professionals who obtained professional status while still a junior high school student.

On March 20, 2018, Fujii graduated from Nagoya University Affiliated Lower Secondary School located in Nagoya. As of April 2018, he is enrolled as a student at Nagoya University AffiliatedUpper Secondary School.

The promotion history of Fujii is as follows:

• 2012, September: 6-kyū
• 2016, April: 3-dan 2
• 2016, October 1: 4-dan
• 2018, February 1: 5-dan
• 2018, February 17: 6-dan
• 2018, May 18: 7-dan

Fuji has yet to appear in any major title matches, but he has won three shogi non-title tournaments.

Other championships

On March 13, 2018, the JSA announced that Fujii had been confirmed to be the winner of its Annual Shogi Awards for "Most Games Won", "Best Winning Percentage", "Most Game Played" and "Most Consecutive Games Won" for his results during the 2017 professional shogi season (April 1, 2017  –March 31, 2018). Fujii is the youngest player to win those four major awards in the same year and only the third shogi professional to accomplish the feat since 1967.　On April 2, 2018, the JSA announces that Fujii had been awarded the "Best New Player"、the "Special Award" and the "Game of the Year Special Prize" awards as well.

In February 2018, Fujii received a special commendation from Aichi Prefecture for his victory in the 11th Aichi Cup Open and his other shogi accomplishments. Fujji is the youngest ever and only the sixth individual to have received said commendation. Fujii was awarded the Seto City's "Distinguished Citizen Award" in March 2018.

Annual Shogi Awards

• 45th Annual Shogi Awards (April 2017 – March 2018): Best New Player, Special Award, Best Winning Percentage, Most Games Won, Most Games Played, Most Consecutive Games Won, Game of the Year Special Prize
• 46th Annual Shogi Awards (April 2018 – March 2019): Kōzō Masuda Award

Other awards

• 2018: Seto City "Distinguished Citizen Award", Aichi Prefecture "Special Commendation"

Fujii has finished in the "Top 10" of the JSA's year-end prize money and game fee rankings [ja] once since turning professional: 9th place with JPY 21,080,000 in earnings for 2019.