A game to challenge one of the eight major shogi titles, the "Meijin Battle", was held in Tokyo on the 8th, and Sota Fujii Five Crowns (20) defeated Akihito Hirose 8th Dan (36) for the first time. I decided to challenge the Meijin match.
If he wins the 7th game starting next month, he will set a new record for being the youngest to acquire a 'Meijin', and will be attracting attention.
Fujii went to the league match to decide the challenger of the "Meijin Match" from June last year, finished with 7 wins and 2 losses, and tied with Hirose 8th Dan for the first place.
For this reason, a playoff against Hirose 8dan was held at the Shogi Kaikan in Tokyo on the 8th, and Fujii Gokan, the first player, defeated Hirose 8dan and won the right to challenge the "Meijin Battle".
From next month, I will challenge the seventh game with Akira Watanabe (38) who holds the title.
The Meijin Battle is the oldest of the eight major titles.
The youngest record to acquire a “master” is Koji Tanigawa, the 17th master (60), who is “21 years and 2 months”, and when the 20-year-old Fujii Five Crown wins the “master match”, the youngest record will be 40 years. I will update for the first time in a while.
In addition, Fujii's five crowns are currently facing the "Osho Battle" and "Ki King Battle", and if he wins the "Meijin Battle" in addition to the two title battles, he will be the first to win the "Seven Crowns" since Yoshiharu Hanyu 9th Dan (52). There is also the possibility of achieving the “youngest”, and it is attracting attention.
After the game, Fujii Gokan said, "I think it's an honor to be able to challenge the record of the 17th Tanigawa master. It's a long game, so I want to do my best to put out a good performance." .
On the other hand, Hirose 8dan, who lost, said, "I did well with 7 wins and 2 losses in the league match, but I was a little short of the 'Meijin Match', so I would like to address it in the future."