Masayuki Toyoshima, left, plays his opening move in the fourth game of the Ryuo title match against Sota Fujii in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, on Nov. 12, 2021. (Pool photo)

       OSAKA -- Teen shogi sensation Sota Fujii headed into the fourth game of the best-of-seven Ryuo title match in the western Japan prefecture of Yamaguchi on Nov. 12, with his sights set on claiming his fourth straight win and becoming the youngest person to hold four major shogi titles.

       Fujii, aged 19 years and three months, currently leads three games to none in his challenge against Masayuki Toyoshima, 31, for the Ryuo title. If Fujii wins the fourth game, he will become champion and earn the honor of being the youngest to hold four major shogi titles. The title would follow victories that earned him the Kisei, Oi, and Eio crowns. If Toyoshima loses, it will be his first time without a title in three years.

       The game began at 9 a.m., with Toyoshima making the first move and the position unfolding into a bishop exchange with both players proceeding cautiously. At 6 p.m., the game will be adjourned after the next move by a player is sealed in an envelope, and the game will resume at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13 when the sealed move is unveiled. The game is expected to conclude by the evening of the same day.

       The current youngest shogi player to have held four major titles is 51-year-old Yoshiharu Habu, who achieved the feat aged 22 years and nine months. To date just five players have held four titles: the late 15th Lifetime Meijin Yasuhiro Oyama; the 16th Lifetime Meijin Makoto Nakahara, 74; the late Lifetime Kisei Kunio Yonenaga; the ninth-dan player Koji Tanigawa, 59; and Habu.

       (Japanese original by Hiroaki Niidoi, Osaka Cultural News Department)

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