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ROAD TO 1800: JAPAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Why is the Japan Chess Championship known as the Argentina Cup?? Answers to these and other questions in a later Blog.

ROAD TO 1800: JAPAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

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SheldonOfOsaka
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Hello, my fellow Road to 1800 travelers, and welcome to my latest blog. The Japan Chess Championship was held in Tokyo over the course of 5 days. The tournament included 9 rounds, each game having a time control of 90 minutes | 30 seconds.

I qualified for the tournament under somewhat dubious grounds...so I arrived with the attitude that even one or two wins would be a good showing; however I got two wins out of my first 3 games, with a start like that I had my sights set on scoring 4 or 5 points...I ended up with 2 and a half...O_o...

It was perhaps the greatest chess collapse since Nepo faced Carlsen...but more on that later, first how about some pics to prove that any of this actually happened.

The Locale

Room 1...where the Big Dogs played.

Room 2...where the rest of us played...

Room 3...the relegation zone.

Tokyo by night.

It wouldn't be Tokyo without a Godzilla sighting.

Now, on to the Chess. I have put together 3 puzzles taken from my games; they are all fairly difficult, so hats off to anyone who can solve them all in one go.

Round 1

Can you find a direct way of winning a piece by first exchanging a piece...?

Round 2.

Can you use a deflection technique to utilize the pin...?

Round 4

Can you use the pressure down the long diagonal to win a pawn and maybe more...?

As I said before, I utterly collapsed in the latter stages of this tournament...4 losses in a row, Jesus Chr!st!? Yet, playing this next game, well, in my mind it makes up for all of it.

Round 3...the Flawed Brillancy.

My results...this is what disappointment looks like.
Congrats to, L to R, WCM Azumi Sakai, Yuma Okabe and Takeshi Gishi for winning the top Women's, Junior and Senior categories respectively.

And Congratulations to the Top Finishers, L to R, IM Shinya Kojima 4th, CM Tu Thanh Tran 2nd, FM Mirai Aoshima 1st, FM Kohie Yamada 3rd, Atsuhiko Kobayashi 5th.


And that was it, that was the Japan Chess Championship 2022. What did we learn: it doesn't matter how you start, it's how you finish, never underestimate your opponent, no matter how low their rating or how dubious their opening and, for the love of God, study more Endgame!!

Feel free to share these games and puzzles with your friends down at the Library or Bar.

As always thanks for reading, SheldonOfOsaka.