Photo/Illutration Sota Fujii holds up his writing of Hachikan, the eight shogi titles he has won, on Oct. 11 in Kyoto. (Takeshi Iwashita)

KYOTO--Shogi prodigy Sota Fujii made history again, becoming the first player to win all eight major titles of the board game on Oct. 11.

Fujii, 21, defeated Takuya Nagase, 31, the Oza holder, for the third and deciding win in the best-of-five series held here.

He clinched his victory in a tight, unpredictable match in 138 moves at 8:59 p.m., nearly 12 hours after Nagase made his first move.

“It’s been a really tough series, and I’m going to use this experience to make myself even stronger,” said Fujii, who has won all 18 title matches he has ever played.

“I need to keep growing as I’m not good enough to deserve the honor (of the eight titles),” Fujii added.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Oct. 12 that he would honor Fujii with a prime minister’s award.

“I truly admire his hard work and achievements,” said Kishida. “By making shogi more popular and greater, Mr. Fujii made a great contribution to the development of Japanese culture.”

The prize will be presented in November, making Fujii the second shogi player to receive the honor following Yoshiharu Habu, who won the award in 1996.

At 14 years and two months, Fujii became the youngest ever professional shogi player in 2016.

He broke another record by winning his first 29 official matches. He took his first title, Kisei, in 2020.

Fujii also became the youngest to hold seven major shogi titles at the same time when he won the Meijin title in June at 20 years and 10 months.

He broke the record set in 1996 by Habu, the only other shogi pro to have simultaneously held the seven titles.

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