The Magician of the Board: Yoshiharu Habu and the Unprecedented Seven Crowns
When he sits down before a shogi board, his expression is surprisingly soft — gentle, almost boyish. Yet once the game begins, opponent after opponent visibly flinches. A move no one can read, an idea that leaps past the established playbook — in time, people began to call it "Habu magic."
Yoshiharu Habu. The man who became a professional at fifteen, who became the first ever to hold all seven major titles at once, and the only person ever to complete the permanent Seven Crowns. In the world of shogi, a game with more than a thousand years of history, he has been writing legend itself.
This is the story of a player who, though a genius, never grew arrogant — and never stopped learning the game.
Only the Third Junior-High Professional in History
Yoshiharu Habu was born on September 27, 1970, in Tokorozawa, Saitama. His master was 9-dan Tatsuya Futakami. Rising through the apprentice ranks that serve as the gateway to professional play, he tore through the 3-dan league with a record of 13 wins and 4 losses.
Then, in December 1985, at just fifteen years old, he was promoted to 4-dan and debuted as a professional — only the third junior-high-school student in history to do so. The sight of a boy in a suit toppling grown professional players one after another sent a vivid shock through the shogi world of the day.
The very next season, he won both the Best Newcomer Award and the Highest Win-Rate Award. His remarkable ascent had begun.
A Nineteen-Year-Old Ryuo, Then Meijin
In 1989, Habu won the 2nd Ryuo title at nineteen years and two months of age — the youngest title holder in history at the time. His youthful brilliance was now plain to all.
In 1994, he defeated Kunio Yonehana to win the 52nd Meijin title, claiming for the first time what is considered the most prestigious crown in shogi. Holding both the Ryuo and the Meijin — the game's two greatest titles — while still young, Habu surged to the very center of his era.
But his journey would not stop there. A feat that would rewrite the history of the game itself was drawing near.
1996: Holding All Seven Titles at Once
In 1996, Yoshiharu Habu stood where no one in shogi had ever stood before. Ryuo, Meijin, Oi, Oza, Kioh, Osho, Kisei — every one of the seven titles that then existed, held simultaneously, by a single player.
It meant monopolizing the highest conceivable peaks of an entire discipline, alone. It was less like acing every subject on an exam than like winning every match in every competition all at once. That year, the word "seven crowns" became synonymous with one man.
Even people who knew nothing of shogi were swept up in the achievement. This near-social phenomenon remains a brilliant monument in the history of the game.
The Lifetime Seven Crowns — A Unique Summit
A player who wins a title the required number of times is granted a "lifetime" designation. In 2008, Habu became the first ever to earn six such lifetime designations. Only the Ryuo remained.
Then, in 2017, he defeated Akira Watanabe in the 30th Ryuo match to earn the right to the Lifetime Ryuo designation at last. With it, Habu became the only person in history to hold the Lifetime Seven Crowns. No player before or since has reached the lifetime designation in all seven titles.
The following year, in 2018, he was awarded the People's Honor Award for his accomplishments — the moment when a lifetime of moves on the board crystallized into an honor bestowed by the nation itself.
A Genius Who Keeps Learning — And Becomes the Association's President
Habu's greatness lies not only in his number of wins. Even hailed as a genius, he never grew arrogant; his true distinction is that he still strives to learn new shogi to this day. His words — "Talent is passion that endures" — capture his way of life exactly.
He is also an author, publishing works that probe the essence of thought, including Habu's Mind, The Power of Decision, The Power of Intuition, and The Big Picture. Curious about dialogue with artificial intelligence, he co-authored The Future of Humanity, the Future of AI, looking beyond shogi to the wider world.
In 2023, he became President of the Japan Shogi Association, stepping into a role of carrying the entire shogi world, not merely competing within it. As of 2024, he holds numerous all-time records, including 99 career title victories and more than 1,500 official wins.
Many players have been merely strong. But few have stayed at the very top for so long, and fewer still have been loved by so many.
Behind a gentle smile lies a move no one can read. A genius who never stops learning. Yoshiharu Habu is, quite simply, a treasure of the shogi world — a man who has continuously breathed new life into an ancient game on the board.