Tomoka Nishiyama

Nishiyama finished the 66th 3-dan League (October 2019 – March 2020) in third place with a record of 14 wins and 4 losses. Going into the last day of league play, Nishiyama was in provisional third place with a record of 12 wins and 4 losses, trailing Hiroki Taniai (13 wins and 3 losses) and Shinichirō Hattori (12 wins and 4 losses). Since Nishiyama's league seed was the lowest of the three, she needed to win both of her games and finish at least one game ahead of one of the other two to obtain automatic promotion to the rank of professional 4-dan. Taniai lost one of his two games, but Hatori and Nishiyama won both of theirs which meant that all three finished league play with the same record. Although Nishiyama missed out on being promoted due to her lower seed, her result was good enough to earn her a promotion point for future league play and means she needs only one more promotion point to qualify for full-professional status.

Nishiyama won the Japan Shogi Association’s Annual Shogi Award for “Women’s Professional Game of the Year” for the 2019 shogi year (April 2019–March 2020).

Nishiyama and Katō met again in May 2018 in the 11th Women's Myavi Open Tournament [ja] and its Jo-Ō title. Nishiyama defeated the defending Jo-Ō Katō 3 games to 1 to win her first major title match. Nishiyama's victory also made her the second apprentice professional after Katō to win a women's professional shogi major title. Nishiyama successfully defended her Jo-Ō title the following year when she defeated women's professional shogi player Kana Satomi 3 games to 1 in May 2019.

After high school, Nishiyama moved to Tokyo to study environmental informatics at Keio University, but she has been on a leave of absence to focus on shogi since 2015.

Nishiyama was promoted to the rank of apprentice professional 1-dan in January 2014, becoming just the second woman to achieve that rank after Kana Satomi. Later that same year in September 2014, she became the second woman to be promoted to the rank of apprentice professional 2-dan (once gain after Satomi). Nishiyama was 19 years and 2 months old when she was promoted, thus breaking Satomi's record of 21 years and 4 months. In December 2015, Nishiyama was promoted to the rank of apprentice professional 3-dan, thus beoming the second woman (yet again following Satomi) to achieve such a rank. At age 20 years and 5 months, she also broke Satomi's record of 21 years and 9 months. With Satomi having to leave the 3-dan league in 2018, Nishiyama is now the only woman competing in the league as of August 2019.

Nishiyama has appeared in women's professional shogi major title matches a total of four times. Her first appearance came in 2014 when she challenged fellow appentice shogi professional Momoko Katō for the 4th Women's Ōza [ja] title, but she lost the match 3 games to none.

Nishiyama challenged Satomi for 41st Ōshō [ja] title in October – November 2019. She won the first game of the match, lost the second, but won the deciding third game to capture the title 2 games to 1. The victory made her a 2-crown title holder (二冠 , Ni kan) for the first time.

In October–December 2019, Nishiyama and Satomi met in the 9th Women's Ōza title match, their third major title match in six months. Nishiyama won the match 3 games to 1 to capture another of Satomi's titles and also become a 3-crown title holder for the first time.

Tomoka Nishiyama (西山 朋佳 , Nishiyama Tomoka, born June 27, 1995) is a Japanese apprentice shogi professional player ranked 3-dan. Nishiyama also participates in women's professional shogi tournaments and is the current holder of the Women's Jo-Ō [ja] , Ōshō [ja] and Ōza [ja] titles.

Nishiyama was born on June 27, 1995 in Ōsakasayama, Osaka. She first was exposed to shogi as a three-year-old by watching her father and older sister play but really learned how to play the game as a five-year-old first-grade elementary school student. She soon started attending a neighborhood shogi school three times a week and playing practice games on the Internet. In 2009, she won the girls' division of the 30th All Japan Junior High School Student Shogi Championship [ja] as a junior high school second-grade student and thereafter was accepted into the Japan Shogi Association's training group in Osaka. Nishiyama quickly progress through the training group system and was eventually was accepted into the JSA's apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū under the tutelage of shogi professional Hirofumi Itō.