Takuya Nagase  Nagase was born in Yokohama on September 5, 1992. He learned how to play shogi at age six from his grandfather, and entered the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school in 2004 at the rank of 6-kyū under the guidance of shogi professional . He was promoted to 1-dan in 2007 and participated in the 3-dan League for the first time in April 2008, finishing with a record of 13 wins and 5 losses. Nagase obtained professional status and the rank of 4-dan on October 1, 2009, after winning the 45th 3-dan League (April 2009September 2009) with a record of 14 wins and 4 losses. In October 2012. Nagase won his first tournament since turning professional when he defeated Shingo Itō 2 games to none to win the 2nd , and followed that up by defeating Tetsuya Fujimori a few days later to win the 43rd by the score of 2 games to 1. Nagase's first appearance in a major title match came in June 2016 when he challenged Yoshiharu Habu for the 87th Kisei title. Nagase defeated Yasuaki Murayama in the challenger tournament final to advance to the title match against Habu, and was actually leading the best-of-five match 2 games to 1 before losing the final two games. In December 2017, Nagase defeated Reo Kurosawa in the 43rd Kiō challenger match to earn the right to challenge Akira Watanabe for the title. Nagase, however, was unable to capture his first major title, losing the match to Wantabe 3 games to 2 in March 2018. In February 2019, Nagase defeated Tatsuya Sugai 2 games to 1 in the challenger playoff round for the 4th Eiō tournament to earn the right to challenge Taichi Takami for the title. In the AprilMay 2019 title match, Nagase defeated Takami 4 games to none to win his first major title. In July 2019, Nagase defeated the reigning Mejin Masayuki Toyoshima in the final of the challenger tournament for the 67th Ōza title to earn the right to challenge the defending Ōza Shintarō Saitō. On October 1, 2019, Nagase won Game 3 of the 67th Ōza title match to complete a three game swept of Saitō. The win not only gave Nagase his first Ōza title and made him a 2-crown major title holder for the first time, but also meant he satisfied the promotion criteria for the rank of 8-dan.