Yasuhiro Masuda | |
---|---|
Native name | 増田康宏 |
Born | November 4, 1997 |
Hometown | Akishima, Tokyo |
Career | |
Achieved professional status | October 1, 2014 | (aged 16)
Badge Number | 297 |
Rank | 8-dan |
Teacher | Taku Morishita (9-dan) |
Tournaments won | 2 |
Meijin class | A |
Ryūō class | 2 |
Websites | |
JSA profile page |
Yasuhiro Masuda (増田 康宏, Masuda Yasuhiro, born November 4, 1997) is a Japanese professional shogi player ranked 8-dan.
Yasuhiro Masuda was born on November 4, 1997, in Akishima, Tokyo.[1][a] He learned shogi when he was about five years old after his mother brought home a board game box which included a shogi set.[3] Masuda won the upper-grade section of the Elementary School Student Kurashiki Ōshō Tournament as an elementary school fourth-grade student in 2007,[2][4][5] and the following year finished tied for third place in the Elementary School Student Meijin Tournament .[6]
In September 2008, Masuda entered the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū under the guidance of shogi professional Taku Morishita. He was promoted to the rank of 3-dan in April 2012, and obtained full professional status and the rank of 4-dan in October 2014 while a second-year high school student[2] after finishing tied for first in the 55th 3-dan League with a record of 13 wins and 5 losses.[7][3]
In October 2016, Masuda won his first professional shogi tournament when he defeated Naohiro Ishida 2 games to none to win the 47th Shinjin-Ō title.[8][9] He repeated the feat the following year when he defeated Daichi Sasaki 2 games to none to win the 48th Shinjin-Ō, thus becoming the first repeat winner since Takeshi Fujii in 1997.[10] Masuda also advanced to the championship match of the 50th Shinjin-Ō tournament in October 2019 against Satoshi Takano and his attempt to become just the second three-time winner of the tournament started promising by winning Game 1; Takano, however, came back to win the next two games and the match.[11]
On June 26, 2017, Masuda lost to Sōta Fujii in Ryūō ranking class game which was streamed live online and had received much pre-game press coverage both within Japan and internationally because a Fujii victory would allow him to set a new professional shogi record of 29 consecutive wins.[12]
The promotion history for Masuda is as follows:[13]
Masuda has yet to appear in a major title match, but he is a two-time winner of the Shinjin-Ō[14]
tournament.