is a Japanese

professional shogi player A professional shogi player (将棋棋士 ''shōgi kishi'' or プロ棋士 ''puro kishi'' "professional player") is a shogi player who is usually a member of a professional guild of shogi players. There are two categories of professional playe ...

ranked 8-

dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa ** Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivo ...

Early life, amateur shogi and apprenticeship

Kensuke Kitahama was born in

Ebina, Kanagawa is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan., the city had an estimated population of 141,276 and a population density of 5300 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Ebina is located approximately 50 kilometers from centr ...

on December 28, 1975. As a sixth-grade elementary school student, he finished runner-up to Kōsuke Tamura in the in 1987. In September 1988, Kitahama entered the

Japan Shogi Association The , or JSA, is the primary organizing body for professional shogi in Japan. The JSA sets the professional calendar, negotiates sponsorship and media promotion deals, helps organize tournaments and title matches, publishes shogi-related materia ...

's apprentice school at the rank of 6-

kyū is a Japanese language, Japanese term used in modern martial arts as well as in Japanese tea ceremony, tea ceremony, ikebana, flower arranging, Go (game), Go, shogi, academic tests and other similar activities to designate various grades, leve ...

under the sponsorship of shogi professional . He was promoted to 1-dan in 1992 and obtained full professional status and the rank of 4-dan in April 1994.

Shogi professional

Promotion history

The promotion history for Kitahama is as follows: * 6-

: 1988 * 1-dan: 1992 * 4-dan: April 1, 1994 * 5-dan: April 1, 1996 * 6-dan: April 1, 1998 * 7-dan: April 1, 2003 * 8-dan: March 7, 2013

Personal life

Kitahama graduated from

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

in 2000.

References

External links

*ShogiHub
Professional Player Info · Kitahama, Kensuke
1975 births Japanese shogi players Japan Shogi Association players Living people Waseda University alumni Professional shogi players from Kanagawa Prefecture People from Ebina, Kanagawa {{Shogi-stub