Fujii Souta is in a pinch due to the coronavirus

Fujii Souta continues with his incredible performance since he started as professional player in 2016. Every year his performance has been over 80% of victories and he has acquired many records like longest win streak, youngest 7th Dan. He has won already some small tournaments like the Asahi, twice, and the shinjin but he has not play any final game for the big tournaments (Ryuuou, Kiou, Ousho…).

【ヒューリック杯棋聖戦決勝トーナメント、ベスト4決定】

第91期ヒューリック杯棋聖戦決勝トーナメントはベスト4が揃いました。
準決勝、永瀬拓矢二冠VS山崎隆之八段戦、佐藤天彦九段VS藤井聡太七段戦が行われます。https://t.co/YN8e997m5L

— 日本将棋連盟【公式】 (@shogi_jsa) April 10, 2020

Nowadays the record for the youngest player to challenge the title holder was set by Yashiki on 1989 when he was 17 years old 10 months and 24 days. Now he is still missing two more victories to be able to challenge the actual title holder of the Kisei tournament (Watanabe Akira) but due to the corona-virus many shogi games are being suspended. The state of emergency in Japan will continue until the end of May so even if he can win the remaining 2 games it is quite unlikely that he will be able to play the first match before June 11 (the day he can get the record).

His next rival is the strong Satoh Amahiko who has won the Meijin title 3 times.