47 Facts About Yoshiharu Habu

Yoshiharu Habu is a professional shogi player and a chess FIDE Master.

Yoshiharu Habu is a former holder of the Ryuo, Meijin, Oi, Oza, Kio, Osho and Kisei major titles.

Yoshiharu Habu was the first person to simultaneously hold seven major professional shogi titles at the same time and is the only person to qualify as a lifetime title holder for seven major titles.

In January 2018, Habu became the first professional shogi player to be awarded Japan's People's Honour Award.

Yoshiharu Habu was born in Tokorozawa, Saitama in 1970 and moved to Hachioji, Tokyo before entering kindergarten.

Yoshiharu Habu first encountered shogi in his first year of elementary school, when his classmates taught him how the shogi pieces move.

Yoshiharu Habu was so fascinated by the game that his mother entered him in a shogi tournament held at the Hachioji Shogi Club in the summer of 1978.

Yoshiharu Habu improved so rapidly that he was promoted to amateur 5-dan in October 1981 at the age of eleven.

At these tournaments, Yoshiharu Habu played against several children of the same age who became professional players, including Toshiyuki Moriuchi, Yasumitsu Sato and Manabu Senzaki.

Those players born around 1970 are now known as the Yoshiharu Habu generation, not just because they were born in the same year, but due to their outstanding achievements as players.

Yoshiharu Habu expressed his desire to become a professional player and asked advice from Katsuyasu Nakajima, the owner of the Hachioji Shogi Club and a student of Tatsuya Futakami.

Yoshiharu Habu applied for admission into the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school as Futakami's student and was accepted as a member in 1982.

Yoshiharu Habu became a 4-dan professional in 1985 at the age of 14.

Yoshiharu Habu was the third junior high school kid professional in shogi history following Hifumi Kato and Koji Tanigawa.

In 1989, at the age of 19, Yoshiharu Habu 6-dan won the Ryuo championship, defeating Akira Shima who led a 4-person shogi study group "Shimaken" in which Yoshiharu Habu himself took part.

Yoshiharu Habu was officially promoted to 9-dan on April 1,1994.

In 1992 Yoshiharu Habu won the Oza championship defeating Bungo Fukusaki to hold two titles simultaneously.

Yoshiharu Habu went on to hold the Oza title for 19 terms in a row.

In 1996, Yoshiharu Habu became the first professional to ever hold seven major titles at the same time.

In July 2012, Yoshiharu Habu won his 81st shogi title overall when he won in the Kisei title, becoming 1st on the all-time title-winners list, and surpassing the 80 of Yasuharu Oyama.

In June 2014, Yoshiharu Habu defeated the defending Meijin Toshiyuki Moriuchi 4 games to none to become the 72nd Meijin.

Yoshiharu Habu lost his Meijin title to Moriuchi in 2011 and was unable to defeat Moriuchi and regain the title in both 2012 and 2013.

In November 2014, Yoshiharu Habu won his 1300 official game, becoming the fourth player to do so, the youngest player to do so and the fastest player to do since turning professional.

Yoshiharu Habu's win came in his 1801 game as a professional and his winning percentage of 72.3 percent at the time is the all-time highest of any professional player to reach 1300 wins to date.

In December 2017, Yoshiharu Habu defeated defending champion Akira Watanabe to win the 30th Ryuo title.

On January 5,2018, Yoshiharu Habu became the first shogi professional to be awarded Japan's People's Honor Award.

On November 21,2018, Yoshiharu Habu became the seventh shogi professional to play 2000 official games.

At age 48 years and 1 month, Yoshiharu Habu is the youngest to achieve the feat.

Yoshiharu Habu accomplished it in 32 years and 11 months since obtaining professional status, thus becoming the fastest to do so.

On December 21,2018, Yoshiharu Habu lost the 31st Ryuo title to challenger Akihito Hirose 4 games to 3.

The loss of the Ryuo title marked the first time in 27 years that Yoshiharu Habu was a not one of professional shogi's major titleholders.

Yoshiharu Habu defeated Masataka Goda on March 17,2019, to win the 68th NHK Cup tournament.

On June 4,2019, Yoshiharu Habu defeated Takuya Nagase to become the shogi professional with the most victories of all time with 1,434 wins.

In 2022, Yoshiharu Habu was demoted to B1 class after 29 consecutive terms ranked A class or higher.

On June 16,2022, in the first round of the 81st Meijin B1 ranking league, Yoshiharu Habu defeated Takayuki Yamasaki to become the first shogi professional with 1,500 wins, extending his record for most wins by a shogi professional and giving him an overall winning percentage of 0.696.

Yoshiharu Habu won all six of his games in the 72nd Osho Challenger League to earn the right to challenger Sota Fujii for the later's Osho title in the 72nd Osho title match.

Yoshiharu Habu is an outstanding player of Static Rook strategies in both attack and defense, whether in early fight or slow game circumstances, but has used Ranging Rook openings on occasion.

Yoshiharu Habu's winning percentage when dropping golds and silvers on the squares 23 and 83 is said to be high even though winning after such drops is generally considered to be quite difficult.

Yoshiharu Habu is well known for playing superb moves in disadvantageous positions in the endgame, with peculiar brinkmate sequences that other players seem unable to come up with, a characteristic that many young players called "Habu's magic", a label under which he has published a series of books.

Yoshiharu Habu is completely obsessed with not letting there be any big difference in playing strength between himself and other shogi professionals.

Yoshiharu Habu has received the following awards in recognition of his accomplishments throughout his career.

Since 1993, Yoshiharu Habu has finished at the top of the year-end prize money rankings a total of 23 times, second twice, third once, fifth three times, sixth once and tenth once.

Yoshiharu Habu did not finish in the Top Ten in 2022, marking the first time he did not do so since 1993.

Later that same day, Yoshiharu Habu released a statement through the JSA stating that he had submitted his application to be a candidate for the JSA board of directors scheduled to be selected at the next general meeting in June 2023.

Yoshiharu Habu's candidacy was approved by the board of directors election preparatory committee on April 26, and he was formally elected to the JSA board of directors and then subsequently selected to be JSA president by the other members of the board at the 74th JSA general meeting held on June 9,2023.

Yoshiharu Habu achieved the title of FIDE Master in 2004, and had a peak Elo rating of 2415 in February 2014.

In March 1996, Yoshiharu Habu married actress and singer Rie Hatada at Hato no Mori Hachiman Shrine in Sendagaya, Tokyo, not far from the head office of the Japan Shogi Association.