Yasuaki Murayama

Yasuaki Murayama (村山 慈明) is a Japanese professional shogi player ranked 8-dan.

Early life, amateur shogi and apprenticeship
Yasuaki Murayama was born on May 9, 1984, in Hino, Tokyo. He learned how to play shogi from his grandfather when he was 5 years old, and won the 20th Elementary School Student Meijin Tournament in 1995.

Murayama was accepted into the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū as a protegee of shogi professional Noboru Sakurai in September 1995 and was promoted to the rank of 1-dan in July 1998. Murayama obtained full professional status and the rank of 4-dan in October 2003 for winning the 33rd 3-dan League (April 2003 –September 2003) with a record of 15 wins and 3 losses.

Shogi professional
Murayama won his first tournament as a professional in October 2007 when he defeated Ryōsuke Nakamura 2 games to none to win the 38th Shinjin-Ō title. In March 2016, Murayama defeated Shōta Chida to win the 65th NHK Cup Shogi TV Tournament.

In 2015, Murayama was one of five shogi professional selected to play a match against the five top shogi computers in the "Shogi Denousen Final", the final part of the Denou series of matches. Murayama lost Game 4 in 97 moves to Ponanza.

Promotion history
The promotion history for Murayama is as follows:
 * 6-kyū: 1995
 * 1-dan: 1998
 * 4-dan: October 1, 2003
 * 5-dan: December 14, 2007
 * 6-dan: May 17, 2012
 * 7-dan: March 13, 2014
 * 8-dan: June 21, 2023

Titles and other championships
Murayama has won two non-major shogi championships during his career: the Shinjin-Ō in 2007 and NHK Cup Shogi TV Tournament in 2015.

Awards and honors
Murayama received the Japan Shogi Association Annual Shogi Awards for "Best New Player" (2007) and "Best Winning Percentage" (2007 and 2013).