is a Japanese

professional shogi player A professional shogi player (将棋棋士 ''shōgi kishi'' or プロ棋士 ''puro kishi'' "professional player") is a shogi player who is usually a member of a professional guild of shogi players. There are two categories of professional player ...

ranked 5-

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, education and amateur shogi

Tanaka was born in

Nagano, Nagano is the capital and largest city of Nagano Prefecture, located in the Nagano Basin (Zenkoji Daira) in the central Chūbu region of Japan. Nagano is categorized as a core city of Japan. Nagano City is the highest prefectural capital in Japan, with ...

on March 14, 1985. He became interested in shogi as a fourth-grade elementary school student after watching some friends play and asked his father to teach him the rules. Shortly thereafter, he started frequenting a local shogi club to improve his skill. As a first-grade junior high school student in 1997, Tanaka finished third in the 18th . In September of the following year, he entered the

Japan Shogi Association The , or JSA, is the primary organizing body for professional shogi in Japan. The JSA sets the professional calendar, negotiates sponsorship and media promotion deals, helps organize tournaments and title matches, publishes shogi-related materia ...

's apprentice school as a student of shogi professional at the rank of 6-

kyū is a Japanese term used in modern martial arts as well as in tea ceremony, flower arranging, Go, shogi, academic tests and other similar activities to designate various grades, levels or degrees of proficiency or experience. In Mandarin Chin ...

. He obtained full professional status and the rank of 4-dan in April 2008 after finishing tied with

Akira Inaba is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 8-dan. Inaba, together with Tetsurō Itodani, Masayuki Toyoshima and Akihiro Murata, is one of four Kansai-based young shogi professionals who are collectively referred to as the "Young Kansai Big ...

in the 42nd 3-dan League (October 2007March 2008)with a record of 13 wins and 5 loses. Tanaka graduated from the Science Department of

Rikkyo University , also known as Saint Paul's University, is a private university, in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan. Rikkyo is known as one of the six leading universities in the field of sports in Tokyo (東京六大学 "Big Six" — Rikkyo University, University of ...

with a degree in mathematics in 2007.

Promotion history

The promotion history for Tanaka is as follows: * 6-

: September 1998 * 4-dan: April 1, 2008 * 5-dan: October 23, 2014

References

External links

*ShogiHub
Professional Player Info · Tanaka, Yuichi
Japanese shogi players Living people Professional shogi players Rikkyo University alumni Professional shogi players from Nagano Prefecture 1985 births People from Nagano (city) {{Shogi-stub