Kazuki Kimura

In June 2019, Kimura defeated Yoshiharu Habu to earn the right to challenge Masayuki Toyoshima for the 60th Ōi title. In the title match against Toyoshima, Kimura lost the first two games before coming back to tie the score at two wins apiece. Toyoshima won Game 5 and needed just one more win to defend his title; Kimura, however, won the last two games to win the match 4 games to 3. The victory not only gave Kimura his first major title, but it also made him the oldest first time winner of a major title at the age of 46 years and 3 months, breaking the record of 37 years and 6 months set by Michio Ariyoshi in 1973.

Kimura has received a number of Japan Shogi Association Annual Shogi Awards throughout his career. He won the ""Best New Player" award for 1997–1998; the "Best Winning Percentage" award for 1998–1999; the "Best Winning Percentage", "Most Games Won" and "Most games Played" awards for 2000–2001; the "Fighting-spirit" award for 2008–2009; and, the “Special Award” for 2019.

At first, Kimura progressed fairly quickly and was promoted to the rank of 3-dan in the fall of 1990 when he was an eleventh-grade high school student, but it took more than six years before he was able to obtain professional status and the rank of 4-dan in April 1997.

Kimura first met his future mentor shogi professional Yūji Sase [ja] when the two played a 2-piece handicap game. Kimura soon began taking lessons from Sase at his house, where he occasionally played practice games against Hiroe Nakai, who was another one of Sase's students. In 1985, he advanced to the quarterfinals of the 10th Elementary Student Meijin Tournament [ja] as sixth-grade elementary school student, and later that same year entered the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school under the guidance of Sase.

Kazuki Kimura (木村 一基 , Kimura Kazuki, born June 23, 1973) is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan. He is the current Ōi title holder. He is also the oldest player to win a major title for the first time.

Kimura was born in Yotsukaidō, Chiba Prefecture on June 23, 1973. He learned how to play shogi at a friend's house when he was in kindergarten, and started regularly going to a local shogi club when he was a second-grade elementary school student.