New Shogi Association President

 

For the first time in its 101 year history the Japanese Shogi Association has elected a female president, Ichiyo Shimizu, 56, who holds a 7-dan “joryu kishi” ranking. (Shogi is also known as Japanese chess, but is a different game than chess). She is succeeding 54 year old Yoshiharu, a 9-dan professional, who is retiring. Shimizu is an active player whose term of office is two years. 

There are two types of professional shogi players: 

One is “kishi” who become professional after graduating from the “shorei-kai”, a training organization. 

The other is “joryu kishi”, where only women can become professional players under a separate system. 

Shimizu started playing shogi at the age of 8, and became a joryu kishi in 1985 at the age of 16. She won her first title, “joryu meijin” in 1988. In 1996, she became the first woman to win all four joryu crowns. In 2020, she was promoted to joryu 7-dan for the first time in the history of the game for her exceptional performance!