Aya Imai

Aya Imai
Native name	今井 絢
Born	(2001-10-25) October 25, 2001 (age 23)
Hometown	Nagoya, Japan
Career
Achieved professional status	February 1, 2023(2023-02-01) (aged 21)
Badge Number	W-83
Rank	Women's 1-dan
Teacher	Masataka Sugimoto (8-dan)
Websites
JSA profile page

Aya Imai (今井 絢, Imai Aya, born October 25, 2001) is a Japanese women's professional shogi player ranked 1-dan. She is the first women's professional shogi player to come from Nagoya.

Early life and becoming a women's professional shogi player

Imai was born in Nagoya on October 25, 2001.^[1] She learned how to play shogi from her father when she was five years old.^[2][3] At first, she mainly played against her older brother and continued to improve to the point where she start attending a local shogi school.^[4] As a second-grade elementary school student, she entered the Tokai branch of the Japan Shogi Association's training group system under the tutelage of shogi professional Masataka Sugimoto.^[4] By June 2016, she had performed well enough in the training school system to qualify for women's professional status even though she was still a third-year junior high school student, but decided to enter the JSA's professional apprentice school instead to try and obtain regular professional status.^[2][4][5] At the end of November 2022, she decided to formally leave the apprentice school at the rank of 1-kyū because she did not feel she would be able to achieve promotion to the next rank of 1-dan in accordance with JSA apprentice school's rules which require that apprentice professionals achieve said rank within one year of turning 21 years old.^[3][5] She decided to switch over to women's professional shogi, and formally requested to be allowed do so in January 2023.^[5] The JSA accepted her request and awarded her the rank of women's professional 1-kyū since that rank she had achieved as an apprentice professional.^[2][3][5]

Women's shogi professional

Promotion history

Imai's promotion history is as follows.^[6]

• 1-kyū: February 1, 2023
• 1-dan: August 20, 2023

Note: All ranks are women's professional ranks.

Personal life

Imai is the first women's professional from Nagoya.^[3] As of February 2023,^[update] she is a third-year university student at Doshisha University.^[2][4]

References

1. "Joryū Kishi Dētabēsu: Imai Aya" 女流棋士データベース: 今井絢 [Women's Professional Shogi Player Database: Aya Imai] (in Japanese). Japan Shogi Association. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
2. "Imai Aya-san ga Nigatsu kara Joryūkishi Ikkyū ni" 今井絢さんが2月から女流棋士1級に [Aya Imai Kimura will be a women's professional 1-kyū from February] (in Japanese). Japan Shogi Association. January 31, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
3. "Shōgi no Imai Aya-san, Nagoya Hatsu no Joryū Kishi ni Fujii Sōta Gokan to Dōmon" 将棋の今井絢さん, 名古屋初の女流棋士に 藤井聡太五冠と同門 [Aya Imai becomes Nagoya's first women's professional shogi player; she has the same teacher as Sōta Fujii 5-crown]. Chunichi Shimbun (in Japanese). February 1, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
4. Seko, Hiroko (February 4, 2023). "Shoreikai no Rokunenhan ｢Ishiki Kaikaku｣" 奨励会の6年半 ｢意識改革｣ [Six-and-a-half years as an apprentice professional changed Aya Imai's way of thinking]. Chunichi Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved February 14, 2023.
5. Kitano, Arata (February 1, 2023). "Fujii Sōta Ryūō no Imōto Deshi ga Joryu Kishi ni Imai Aya-san ga Kataru ｢Fujii Sensei｣" 藤井聡太竜王の妹弟子が女流棋士に 今井絢さんが語る ｢藤井先生｣ [Aya Imai, who has the same shogi teacher as Sōta Fujii Ryūō, obtains women's professional status; she talks about "Fujii Sensei"]. Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved February 14, 2023.
6. "Joryū Kishi Dētabēsu: Imai Aya Shōdan Rireki" 女流棋士データベース: 今井絢 昇段履歴 [Women's Professional Shogi Player Database: Aya Imai Promotion History] (in Japanese). Japan Shogi Association. Retrieved August 22, 2023.