Kanta Masegi

is a Japanese professional shogi player ranked 5-dan.

Early life and amateur shogi Masegi was born in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture on February 18, 1998. He learned how to play shogi from his father.

Masegi entered the Japan Shogi Association (JSA) apprentice professional school at the rank of 6-kyū in September 2009 as a student of shogi professional Yūji Masuda. Masegi finished the 69th 3-dan League (AprilSeptember 2021) in third place with a record of 13 wins and 5 losses to earn a promotion point towards regular professional status. (The first and second place finishers of the 69th 3-dan League also finished with a record of 13 wins and 5 losses but were awarded regular professional status due to being higher seeded.) (As before, Masegi finished league play with the same record as the first and second place finishers but did not qualify for automatic promotion due to his lower seed.)

Shogi professional Masegi was one of the five most recently promoted regular professionals selected to be the for women's professional shogi player Tomoka Nishiyama during her best-of-five Professional Admission Test. Masegi was Nishiyama's opponent in Game 5 of the test played on January 22, 2025, at the JSA's Kansai Branch office. A win by Nishiyama would mean that she would become the first woman to be awarded regular professional status by the JSA, but Masegi won the game in 135 moves. Masegi and Nishiyama faced each five times in apprentice professional 3-dan League play, with Masegi winning each game; (Masegi had a winning percentage or around 0.500 prior to the Nishiyama game, but he had improved it to 0.735 by the time of the January 2026 Asahi Shimbun article.)

In October 2025, Masegi advanced to the finals of the 15th against Ryūma Yoshiike but lost the best-of-three championship match 2 games to 1.

In July 2026, Masegi defeated Takuya Nagase in the semi-finals of the 39th Ryūō Challenger Determination Tournament to advance the best-of-three final round against Shin'ichirō Hattori with the winner becoming the challenger to the reigning Ryūō Sōta Fujii. Game 1 was played on August 4, 2026, at the JSA's Kansai Branch Office; Masegi won the game in 71 moves. Hattori tied the match by winning Game 2 held at the JSA headquarters in Tokyo on August 13, 2026; Game 2 was actually two games: the "first" game, with Hattori as sente, ended in sennichite after 98 moves, and Hattori won the replay-game (with sente/gote reversed) in 113 moves. Game 3 played on August 24, 2026, at the JSA Headquarters in Tokyo was won by Hattori in 129 moves, and the loss meant that Masegi not only failed to qualify as the 39th Ryūō challenger but also missed out on being "leapfrog" promoted from 5-dan to 7-dan since challengers for the Ryūō title satisfy the criteria for immediate promotion to the rank of 7-dan.

Promotion history The promotion history for Masegi is as follows.

6-kyū: September 2009 3-dan: April 2016 4-dan: April 1, 2023 5-dan: May 20, 2026

Playing style In the 39th Ryūō Tournament player profile of Masegi on its official website, The Yomiuri Shimbun, the main sponsor of the Ryūō Tournament, describes Masegi as having mastered a wide-range of opening strategies and possessing a deep knowledge of the opening. It also calls him a fighter-type of professional who plays with lots of intensity and plays boldly in the endgame.

Awards and honors Masegi's first book published as a shogi professional, , won the 37th for technical writing in July 2025.

Personal life Masegi graduated from Nagoya University's School of Engineering. He subsequently enrolled in Nagoya University's Graduate School of Engineering but decided to leave school before finishing his degree to focus on becoming a shogi professional. He is the first professional shogi player to graduate from the university.