Momoko Katō
is a Japanese women's professional shogi player ranked 3-dan. She is a former Women's and title holder.Early life
Katō was born in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture on October 6, 1993. She started playing shogi when she was about five years old. She started taking shogi lessons and was traveling outside of Shizuoka Prefecture to play in shogi tournaments by the time she was a third-grade elementary school student, and won a national shogi championship when she was a fifth-grade elementary school student.Katō entered the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū as a student of shogi professional in 2006 when she was eleven years old. She was promoted to the rank of apprentice professional 1-kyū in 2011 and then apprentice professional 1-dan in May 2014, becoming just the third woman to achieve that rank after Kana Satomi and Tomoka Nishiyama.
In March 2019, Katō decided to leave the apprentice school and petitioned the JSA to become a women's professional shogi player instead. In consideration of her past success in women's professional shogi tournaments, the JSA decided to award Katō the rank of 3-dan instead of her last rank as an apprentice professional which is the common practice for women apprentice professionals ranked 2-kyū or higher.Note: All ranks are women's professional ranks.Major titles
Katō has appeared in major title matches fifteen times and has won a total of eight titles. She has won the and the titles four times each.
