Kazuki Kimura (木村 一基,Kimura Kazuki, born June 23, 1973) is a Japaneseprofessional shogi player ranked 9-dan. He is a formerŌi title holder. He is also the oldest player to win amajor title for the first time.

Kimura was born inYotsukaidō,Chiba Prefecture on June 23, 1973.^[1] He learned how to play shogi at a friend's house when he was inkindergarten, and started regularly going to a local shogi club when he was asecond-grade elementary school student.^[2]

Kimura first met his futurementor shogi professionalYūji Sase [ja] when the two played a2-piece handicap game. Kimura soon began taking lessons from Sase at his house, where he occasionally played practice games againstHiroe Nakai, who was another one of Sase's students.^[2] In 1985, he advanced to the quarterfinals of the10th Elementary Student Meijin Tournament [ja] as sixth-grade elementary school student, and later that same year entered theJapan Shogi Association'sapprentice school under the guidance of Sase.^[2][3]

At first, Kimura progressed fairly quickly and was promoted to the rank of 3-dan in the fall of 1990 when he was aneleventh-grade high school student, but it took more than six years before he was able to obtain professional status and the rank of 4-dan in April 1997.^[2][3]

Kimura became the 52nd shogi professional to reach 600 career wins on December 21, 2017.^[4]

In June 2019, Kimura defeatedYoshiharu Habu to earn the right to challengeMasayuki Toyoshima for the 60thŌi title.^[5] In the title match against Toyoshima, Kimura lost the first two games before coming back to tie the score at two wins apiece. Toyoshima won Game 5 and needed just one more win to defend his title; Kimura, however, won the last two games to win the match 4 games to 3. The victory not only gave Kimura his first major title, but it also made him the oldest first time winner of a major title at the age of 46 years and 3 months, breaking the record of 37 years and 6 months set byMichio Ariyoshi in 1973.^[6]

In June–August 2020, Kimura was unable to defend his Ōi title againstSōta Fujii, losing the 61st Ōi title match 4 games to none.^[7][8]

In September–October 2021, Kimura challengedTakuya Nagase for the 69thŌza title, but lost the match 3 games to 1.^[9]

Thepromotion history for Kimura is as follows:^[10]

• 6-kyū: 1985
• 1-dan: 1988
• 4-dan: April 1, 1997
• 5-dan: April 1, 1999
• 6-dan: December 17, 2001
• 7-dan: April 1, 2003
• 8-dan: April 1, 2007
• 9-dan: June 26, 2017

Kimura has appeared in a major title match nine times, and has won one title;^[11] he has also won two non-major-title championships during his career.^[12]

Kimura has received a number of Japan Shogi AssociationAnnual Shogi Awards throughout his career. He won the ""Best New Player" award for 1997–1998; the "Best Winning Percentage" award for 1998–1999; the "Best Winning Percentage", "Most Games Won" and "Most games Played" awards for 2000–2001; the "Fighting-spirit" award for 2008–2009; and, the “Special Award” for 2019.^[13][14]

Kimura has finished in the "Top 10" of the JSA'syear-end prize money and game fee rankings [ja] nine times since turning professional.

• Note: All amounts are given inJapanese yen and include prize money and fees earned from official tournaments and games held from January 1 to December 31.

• ShogiHub:Professional Player Info · Kimura, Kazuki

• 1973 births
• Japanese shogi players
• Japan Shogi Association players
• Living people
• People from Yotsukaidō
• Professional shogi players from Chiba Prefecture
• Ōi (shogi)
• Shinjin-Ō

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• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
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