Kōichi Fukaura

Fukaura was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 14, 1972.[1] As a young boy, he defeated Kōji Tanigawa, who was the reigning Meijin title holder at the time, in a Rook handicap game at a shogi event in Fukuoka in 1983. Shortly thereafter, he went to stay with relatives in Ōmiya, Saitama in order to be closer to Tokyo and study under shogi professional Motoji Hanamura. In 1984, Fukaura entered the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school in 1984 at the rank of 6-kyū under the guidance of Hanamura. Although promotion to 5-kyū took a year, he progressed more rapidly up the ranks after that and obtained full-professional status in October 1991 at the age of 19.[2]

Fukaura's first tournament victory as a professional came in his first tournament as professional when he defeated Kunio Yonenaga 3 games to 2 in the final of the 1992 All Nihon Pro Shogi Tournament.[2]

In 1993, he won the Hayazashi Senshuken and Quick Play Young Professionals Tournament tournaments. He would win the Quick Play Young Professionals Tournament three more times from 1999 to 2001, becoming the only player to win the tournament three years in a row.[2][3]

In 2002, Fukaura defeated defending champion Kazushiza Horiguchi 3 games to 1 to win the 21st Asahi Open tournament. Fukaura advanced to the championship match by defeating Habu in the final game of the challenger tournament.[3] The following year, however, Fukaura was unable to repeat his result, when lost the 22nd Asahi Open and his title to Habu three games to two.[4]

Fukaura's first appearance in a major title match came in 1996 when he challenged Yoshiharu Habu for the 37th Ōi title, but was defeated 4 games to 1.[2] His next major title appearance came more than 10 years later in 2007 when he once again challenged Habu for the Ōi title. Fukaura defeated reigning Ryūō title holder Akira Watanabe to win the right to challenge Habu for the 48th Ōi title,[5] and then went on to beat Habu 4 games to 3 to capture his first major title.[6] Fukaura successfully defended his Ōi title against Habu in 2008 (4 games to 3),[7] and then again in 2009 against Kazuki Kimura (4 games to 3). Fukaura lost the first three games to Kimura before coming back to win the final four and defend his title, thus becoming only the second player to ever come back from such a deficit in a 7-game match.[8] He was, however, unable to defend his title for the third consecutive time when he lost the 51st Ōi match to Akihito Hirose 4 games to 2 in 2010.[9][10]

In January 2009, Fukaura became the 39th player to reach 600 wins in official games when he defeated Daisuke Nakagawa in the 2nd Asahi Cup Open tournament. His winning percentage of .681 was the fourth highest of all professionals who had previously achieved the same result.[11] That same year, Fukaura and Habu met once again in the 58th Ōshō title match. Fukaura was actually leading the match 3 games to 2 before Habu won the final two games to defend his title.[12] The two met again in the title matches of the 81st Kisei (in 2010) and 82nd Kisei (in 2011) with Habu defending his title each time by the score of 3 games to 0.[13][14] Game 2 of the 82nd Kisei had to actually be replayed with colors reversed because the first game ended in sennichite. The replay game lasted 206 moves before Habu won.[15]

In November 2017, Fukaura became the 19th player to win 800 official games when he defeated Shintarō Saitō in a 67th Ōshō challenger league game.[16]

Fukaura defeated Akira Inaba to win the 69th NHK Cup in March 2020.[17]

Fukaura was selected to be a non-executive director for a two-year term at the 63rd JSA Annual General Meeting held in June 2012.[34] He served in this capacity until June 2014.[35]

• ShogiHub: Professional Player Info · Fukaura, Koichi