is a Japanese
women's professional shogi player ranked 2-
dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...
.
Early life
Watanabe was born in
Minneapolis in the United States on September 2, 1979.
Her father was an
economist and in the United States for work purposes.
She returned to
Minamiuonuma,
Niigata Prefecture with her family when she was eight years old.
She attended
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
,
junior high school
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...
, and
senior high school in Niigata Prefecture before enrolling in
Tokyo University.
After graduating from Tokyo University in 2002, Watanabe decided to continue her education and was accepted into the university's College of Arts and Sciences.
Although her initial goal was to become a
mathematician or
mathematical economist
Mathematical economics is the application of mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. Often, these applied methods are beyond simple geometry, and may include differential and integral calculus, difference an ...
, she found that there were many others more gifted than herself in those fields and eventually stopped attending class.
Although Watanabe knew the rules of shogi, she did not start becoming very interested in the game until she had re-enrolled in Tokyo University. She spent lots of time solving
tsume shogi problems online and joined the university's shogi club.
Uncertain about her future after deciding to leave college after completing her second year in 2005,
her parents suggested focusing on shogi and she entered the
Japan Shogi Association's
Women's Professional Apprentice League in 2006 under the guidance of shogi professional
Kazuharu Shoshi.
She obtained women's professional status in April 2009.
Women's shogi professional
Promotion history
Watanabe's
promotion history is as follows:
* 2-
kyū: April 1, 2009
* 1-kyū: March 3, 2011
* 1-dan: August 2, 2013
* 2-dan: March 20, 2023
Note: All ranks are
women's professional ranks.
Personal life
Watanabe graduated from the
Tokyo University's in 2002. She is the first graduate of the university to become a women's professional shogi player.
References
External links
* ShogiHub
Watanabe, Mio*
1979 births
Living people
Japanese shogi players
Women's professional shogi players
Professional shogi players from Niigata Prefecture
University of Tokyo alumni
{{Shogi-stub