Tadahisa Maruyama 9-dan defeats Sota Fujii Ginga in the Shogi/Ginga match, becoming the first Shogi player in his 50s to win the tournament.

It has been announced that Tadahisa Maruyama, 9th Dan, defeated the previous year's winner, Sota Fujii Ginga, to win the final of the 31st Ginga Tournament, a fast-playing tournament for all Shogi players sponsored by Go Shogi Channel. Maruyama 9-dan is advancing to the finals for the first time in 13 years, and this is the first time a shogi player in his 50s has won the Ginga tournament.

Shogi - Galaxy Battle | Go/Shogi Channel Homepage

At the 31st Ginga Tournament, Tadahisa Maruyama (9th Dan) defeated Sota Fujii (8th Crown) to win his first victory. He was all smiles as he received the trophy from President Yoshiharu Hanyu, who is the same age as him.
He is the first person in his 50s to win the Galaxy Championship. ``The good points of young people are different from the good points of older people. I thought that if I could bring out my strengths, I would have a chance.'' pic.twitter.com/1fKqF8AevI

— Chunichi Shimbun Tokyo Shimbun Shogi [Official] (@chunichishogi) December 23, 2023

Galaxy Tournament is a shogi tournament in which all players participate, consisting of qualifying rounds, block matches, and final tournaments. You have 25 minutes for the preliminaries, and once you run out of time, each move takes 30 seconds. Block matches and final tournaments have 15 minutes, and once they are used up, each move takes 30 seconds, but each move takes 1 minute to consider, making it a fast-paced shogi match with a total of 10 moves.

One of the features is that not only the winner of the block battle, but also the person with the most wins in the block other than the winner will advance to the final tournament.

In the 31st round, Sota Fujii Gingka, the winner of the previous term, and Tadahisa Maruyama, 9-dan, who has been a Meijin 2nd and 1st Kioh, made it through the final tournament.

In the match, Maruyama 9-dan caught the flow in the middle and won with 99 moves without allowing Fujii Ginga to take advantage of the gap. Maruyama 9-dan was born in 1970 and is 53 years old, making him the first player in his 50s to win the Ginga Tournament.

In addition, Ginga Fujii won all eight titles in 2022, achieving eight crowns.

Sota Fujii Ryuo Meijin defeats Takuya Nagase to take the title and complete eight crowns - GIGAZINE

In addition to this, he also won four general shogi tournaments: the Asahi Cup Shogi Open Tournament, the Galaxy Tournament, the NHK Cup Shogi Tournament, and the Shogi Nippon Series JT Professional Official Tournament, achieving the feat of dominating all the shogi tournaments in the year. One corner of it will be collapsed.

In addition to being pre-distributed on YouTube from December 23rd (Saturday), the game will also be broadcast on the Go/Shogi Channel from 21:00 on December 26th (Tuesday).

[Free Premier Release] 31st Ginga Tournament Final Tournament Final Match Sota Fujii Ginga vs Tadahisa Maruyama 9th Dan - YouTube

????Finally the finale of this season????
Consecutive victories? ? First win! ?
12/26 (Tue) 21:00~
31st #Galaxy Battle Final Tournament Final #Souta Fujii Galaxy vs #Tadahisa Maruyama 9th Dan

Commentary: #Yasumitsu Sato 9th Dan Listener: #Aya Fujita Female 2nd Dan #Go/Shogi Channel #Shogi #Quick Pointing https://t.co/NsTX915dCt pic.twitter.com/CsUDYWhVko

— Shogi@Go/Shogi Channel (@shogi_net) December 21, 2023