is one of the eight major title tournaments in
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...
shogi
, also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...
. The word means the 'king of shogi' (棋 ''ki'' 'shogi' + 王 ''ō'' 'king').
Overview
The tournament started in 1974 as a continuation of the
Saikyōshakettei tournament (最強者決定戦), which was held from 1961 to 1973. (The Saikyōshakettei itself was a continuation of the 九、八、七段戦
954–1956and the 日本一杯争奪戦
957–1960) The Kiō tournament was promoted to a title tournament in 1975. The championship match is held from February to March. The challenger for the Kiō title is determined by the first and second preliminary rounds. In the second round, the losers in the semi-finals and final play consolation games, then the winners of the final and consolation-final advance to a two-game playoff. The winner of the consolation games has to win both games to become the challenger while the winner of the final has to win only one of the two games. The first player to win three games in the championship becomes the new Kiō titleholder.
Lifetime Kiō
Lifetime (''Eisei'') Kiō is the title given to a player who won the championship five times in a row. Active players may qualify for this title, but it is only officially awarded upon their retirement or death. In 1995 (the 20th Kiō Match),
Yoshiharu Habu
is a professional shogi player and a chess FIDE Master. His master is Tatsuya Futakami. He is the only person to simultaneously hold seven major professional shogi titles at the same time and is also the only person to qualify as a lifetime tit ...
won his fifth Kiō title in a row, thus becoming the first professional to qualify for the title. In 2017,
Akira Watanabe won his fifth title in a row to join Habu as the only professionals to have accomplished this feat.
Winners
The following table shows a list of past winners.
Records
* Most titles overall: Yoshiharu Habu, 13
* Most consecutive titles: Yoshiharu Habu, 12 in a row (1991-2002)
References
External links
Kiō Match Official Site by
Kyodo News
is a nonprofit cooperative news agency based in Minato, Tokyo. It was established in November 1945 and it distributes news to almost all newspapers, and radio and television networks in Japan. The newspapers using its news have about 50 millio ...
and the Japanese Shogi Association
{{Shogi title tournaments
Shogi tournaments