Takashi Abe


Takashi Abe is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan.

Early life

Takashi Abe was born in Osaka Prefecture on August 25, 1967. Although it was said that Abe was more passionate about "yakyū" than shogi as a young boy, he entered the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū under the guidance of shogi professional during his second year of junior high school in December 1981. Abe rapidly progressed through the apprentice school, being promoted to the rank of 1-dan in 1983 and then obtaining full professional status and the rank of 4-dan in June 1985, just 3 years and 7 months after becoming an apprentice.

Shogi professional

In 1986, Abe participated in a special three-game match against Yoshiharu Habu called the ""Young Prodigy 3-game Clash", which was a special project pitting the most promising young professional from Western Japan against the most promising young professional from Eastern Japan. Even though Abe ended up losing the match, his play received high praise with professional even stating that Abe was more talented than Habu.
Abe's first shogi championship as a professional came in 1993 when he defeated Hiroki Nakata 3 games to 2 to win the 12th.
Abe's only appearance in a major title match to date came in 2002 when he challenged Habu for the 15th Ryūō title. Abe advanced to the title match by defeating his 12th All Nihon Pro opponent Nakata 2 games to 1 to win the best-of-three challenger playoff. In the title match against Habu, Abe lost the first two games before winning the next three to take a 3 games to 2 lead. Habu, however, went on to win Games 6 and 7 to defend his title.
On August 31, 2007, Abe defeated Keita Inoue in a Meijin Class B1 ranking game to become the 34th shogi professional to win 600 official games.

Promotion history

The promotion history for Abe is as follows:
Abe's only appearance in a major title match was in 2002 when he was the challenger for the Ryūō title. Abe has won two non-major shogi championships during his career: the 12th and the 20th .

Awards and honors

Abe received the Japan Shogi Association Annual Shogi Awards for "Most Games Won" and "Most Games Played" in 1996. In addition, Abe received the JSA's "Shogi Honor Award" in 2007 for winning 600 games as a professional and "25 Years Service Award" in 2010 for being an active professional for 25 years.

Year-end prize money and game fee ranking

Abe has finished in the "Top 10" of the JSA's three times since 1993: he earned a total of JPY 24,780,000 to rank seventh in 1994, JPY 25,630,000 to rank ninth in 2002 and JPY 20,490,000 to rank eighth in 2003.