Background
Yonenaga was born in Masuho, Yamanashi in 1943.
米長 邦雄
Yonenaga was born in Masuho, Yamanashi in 1943.
He became a disciple of shogi professional Yūji Sase and moved to Tokyo to live with his teacher to become a professional.
He received an honorary title "Eisei Kisei" (Lifetime Kisei) due to his remarkable results in Kisei title tournament. Yonenaga became a professional in 1963, and was promoted to 9 dan in 1979. Yonenaga was regarded as one of the best shogi players through the 1970s and 1980s.
Yonenaga retired in 2003.
He was also an education board member for Tokyo. In 2008 Yonenaga announced he had suffered cancer since 2008 spring.
He reported his cancer diagnosis on his website occasionally which later turned into a book Cancer Note (published in 2009). Yonenaga was one of early shogi professionals who played with computer shogi publicly.
In 2012, he played a game with bonkras(ja:ボンクラーズ (コンピュータ将棋), a computer shogi software, and lost lieutenant
Yonenaga authored I lost about this game, which was eventually his last book Yonenaga died on December 18 2012 from prostate cancer at a hospital in Tokyo. He was succeeded by the professional Koji Tanigawa.
