Ryūō (also Ryu-O,ūō Ryu-oh, Ryuuou; in Japanese 龍王, 竜王, lit. "Dragon King") is an annual Japanese professional shogi tournament and the title of its winner. The current Ryūō title holder is Sōta Fujii.
The Ryūō Tournament (Ryūō-sen 竜王戦) is sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun as well as the title awarded to its winner. It is one of the eight major professional shogi title matches and was first held in 1988. Among the eight titles in the professional shogi titleholder system, Ryūō and Meijin are the most prestigious ones. However, the Ryūō title gives out the highest monetary prizeeven more than the Meijin title. Cash prizes are ¥44,000,000 for the winner of championship and new Ryūō titleholder, and ¥16,500,000 for the loser. Additional compensation includes ¥14,500,000 for the previous titleholder and ¥7,000,000 for the challenger.
This title should not be confused with that of Amateur Ryūō which is awarded each year to the winner of the Amateur Ryūō Tournament.
Name
The basic meaning of ryūō is a "promoted rook". It can move as both a rook (hisha 飛車) and a silver (ginshō 銀将) during a turn and is one of the two most powerful pieces in shogi.
Tournament structure
The tournament consists of six class tournaments and one ladder-format challenger tournament. All currently active professional shogi players as well as qualifying women's professionals, apprentice professionals and amateurs are assigned to one of six classes. There are roughly 16 players each in Class 1 to Class 3, 32 players in Class 4 and Class 5, and then all remaining players are assigned to Class 6. The top players in these class tournaments (the top five players from Class 1, the top two from Class 2, and the top player from Class 3, Class 4, Class 5 and Class 6) are then seeded into the challenger tournament. The two players advancing to the final of the challenger tournament play a three-game match to determine the overall winner. In the title match, the first player to win four out of seven championship games becomes the new titleholder.
History
The Ryūō is a continuation of the earlier Tenth Dan (十段戦 jū-dan sen) title tournament. The Tenth Dan (1962–1987) itself is a continuation of the Ninth Dan (九段戦, 1956–1961) and the earlier 全日本選手権戦 (1948–1955) tournaments, which were also sponsored by the same Yomiuri Shimbun. The 全日本選手権 tournament became a title tournament in 1950, where the title was known as the Ninth Dan (九段) title. (At this time, the highest dan rank in shogi was 8-dan unlike the current ranking system.) Considering this lineage, the Ryūō is second historical title and the longest running title tournament apart from the Meijin title.
Lifetime Ryūō
"Lifetime Ryūō" (Eisei Ryūō) is the title awarded to a player who wins the championship five times in a row or seven times in total. Active players may qualify for this title, but it is only officially awarded upon their retirement or death.
Only two players have qualified for the Lifetime Ryūō title: Akira Watanabe and Yoshiharu Habu. Watanabe qualified for the title by winning his fifth championship in a row in 2008 (he has also won the title eleven times), whereas Habu qualified by winning his 7th title overall in 2017. Both players will be officially designated Lifetime Ryūō upon retirement or death.
Winners
The number in parentheses represents the cumulative times the player had won the title to date.
Records
Most titles overall: Akira Watanabe, 11
Most consecutive titles: Akira Watanabe, 9 in a row (2004–2012) Most times recapturing title: Yoshiharu Habu, 4 Longest period between titles: Yoshiharu Habu, 15 years (2003–2017) Oldest person to win title: Yoshiharu Habu, 47 years and 2 months Youngest person to win title: Yoshiharu Habu, 19 years and 2 months.
Games played outside Japan
The first game of each of the following Ryūō title matches was played outside of Japan.