Watanabe's first appearance in a
women's professional major title match came in May–June 2018 when she challenged
Kana Satomi for 29th
Women's Ōi [
ja] title, and she won the match 3 games to 1.[4] The two met again the following year in the 30th Women's Ōi title match (May–June 2019); Watanabe was, however, unable to successfully defend her title, losing 3 games to 1.[5]
Watanabe met
Tomoka Nishiyama in the title match of the 1st
Hakurei [
ja] title match in September–October 2021, but lost the match 4 games to none.[6]
Watanabe has appeared in major title matches three times and has won one major title. In addition, she has also won two other official women's professional shogi tournaments.[1]
Awards and honors
Watanabe received the
Japan Shogi Association's "Women's Professional Award", "Women's Professional Game of the Year", "Game of the Year Special Prize"
Annual Shogi Awards for the April 2018 – March 2019 shogi year.[7][8]
In addition, to Annual Shogi Awards, Watanabe received
Ōta, Tokyo's "Meritorious Resident Award" in 2019.[9]
Personal life
Watanabe is married to shogi professional
Hirotaka Nozuki. The two got married in January 2024. Watanabe stated that she will continue to complete professionally under her
maiden name.[10]
Notes: 1. No symbol denotes
JSA affiliation 2. An asterisk (*) denotes
LPSA affiliation 3. A cross (†) denotes unaffiliated. 4, A two-barred cross (‡) denotes a
JSA apprentice school player.
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