The Japan Chess Championship 2025 and What I Realized There
Doing my best impression of Akira Kurosawa's film, "Ran".

The Japan Chess Championship 2025 and What I Realized There

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Free yourself from the result.

Belal Muhammad, UFC Champion.

Welcome everybody to another, free yourself from fear, self-doubt and stressing over the result, edition of the Osaka Papers.

The Japan Chess Championship 2025 took place in Tokyo, Japan, Friday May 2nd through Tuesday May 6th. A total of 85 players from all over Japan competed in a 9 round swiss-system, to decide who would be crowned the champion of Japanese chess. A prize fund of 280,000 yen (~$1,900USD), with 100,000 yen (~$700USD) going to the winner, was up for grabs. Not to mention, a spot on the next Japanese Olympiad team.

Being ranked 67th in this field, meant that I was in contention for absolutely none of these laurels, and would have to satisfy myself with the humble goal of not losing every single game...

In truth, the chances of me losing every single game were rather slim, but my two prior entrees to this tourney had ended with a dismal two and a half points over 9 rounds. My goal was simple...better than that!!

Yet, before we get to the tournament results, how about a few pics to prove that any of this happened.


Curian Hall, the site of many Japan Chess Championships.
The fabled Argentina Cup.
IM Tu Thanh Tran receives the Best player award from JCF President Hiroshi Manabe. IM Tu's laurels, include representing Japan at the Budapest Olympiad, where he defeated 3 GMs and gained his final norm in order to become an International Master.

Two time Japan Chess Champion Jacques Pineau was entered into the Japan Chess Hall of Fame. Here he makes the cermonial first move in the 5th round game between IM Ryosuke Nanjo and IM Tu Thanh Tran.

In round one, I was paired with an opponent who out-rated me by nearly 300 points, although the game was not a total blow-out, he did manage to slowly crush me...

Let's skip past that tragedy and look at a game that featured less of a rating mismatch.



Light on the Dark Squares


Round two saw me paired with Sameer Sharma, I had seen him at various chess events, throughout the years, but this would be our first encounter over the board. 

One of the bad things about playing chess in Japan is the fact that everyone knows everyone, and in my case, this is doubly true, as I post detailed annotations of my games, hence my opponents know my prep more than I do...

So, I decided to give my opponents a little surprise, but playing 1.b3 instead of my usual 1.e4...big mistake.  I simply was not well enough versed on the intricacies of the positions arising from 1.b3 to play effectively. Sameer saw my positional frailties and exploited them ruthlessly. 

The king's safety has been fatally compromised, can you see how to exploit this fact.

Black to move. 

                       


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               


Trompowsky Trouble




 

There are three openings I cannot stand, the London (of course), the Bowdler (it's that stupid Sicilian where they play 1.e4 c5 2. Bc4), and the Trompowsky. I hate the Trompowsky most of all...

And it just so happens, that my round 3 opponent is a proponent of this opening. Luckily for me, I'm a follower of IM Miodrag Perunovic "The Butcher" of YouTube fame, who has a great repertoire against the Trompowsky.

On move 17 of the game, White decided to take a free pawn...big mistake, the pawn is poisoned, but can you see why?

Black to move.


In round 4 and 5, I played higher rated opponents and was unceremoniously butchered. but worse in round 6 I lost to a player rated lower than myself (Yes, such players were present at this tournament). So, I found myself with only one win from six rounds of play...if I was to improve on my previous Japan Chess Championship results, it was now or never. 


Check First



I have said it before, and I will say it again, I'm terrified of playing against children. It's the worse, if you win, well, you just beat some 10-year-old, congratulations, and if you lose then congratulations you just lost to a 10-year-old, there is no upside.

In round 7, I was faced with this dilemma, paired with a child who I have seen crush several grown men, I knew I could not take the little guy lightly.

My queen is under attack, but there is an important nuance to the position involving the b-file, can you see it?

Black to move.


The Magician's Path


In the 8th round, I once again employed 1.b3, to my astonishment my opponent replied with 1...d5 2. Bb2 Bg4, the Magician's Path, so named as it was the preferred response of the legendary Mikhail Tal, when faced with the Nimzo-Larsen.

I played an aggressive tactical style, pushing harry the h-pawn up the board early in the game. The gambit worked and by move 33 it was all but over.

Can you see how I finished things off?

White to move.


The Chess Gods



The Chess Gods giveth and the Chess Gods taketh away.

~ SheldonOfOsaka 2025

The 9th and final round found me paired against a slightly higher rated player, what's more, it found me free of stress and self-doubt, with three points I knew whatever happened in this game I had achieved my goal and surpassed my tally of 2 and a half points from previous years. 

My confidence was high coming into this game...but I soon found out that confidence can be a two-edged sword, it's nice to have, but you can get cut.


                                                    


The Top Board


In the 8th round the decisive game of the tournament was played between FM Kohei Yamada, who was on 5 and a half points and IM Tu Thanh Tran, who had 6 and a half points. I win for IM Tu would make his lead insurmountable.

With my 8th round game finishing early, I had the pleasure of watching the endgame live. I will not pretend to understand all the nuances of the moves played, so I will keep my annotations light and allow you, my dear reader to simply enjoy a masterclass game.


The Champions


L to R: Women's 1st place Melody Takayasu, Youth (U18) 1st Place Rion Okuno, Senior(O50) 1st place CM Matsuo Tomohiko.

Top row L to R: JCF President Hiroshi Manabe, 6th place Soichiro Yamamoto, 7th place Rion Okuno, 8th place Koya Matsuyama, 9th place FM Kohei Yamada, 10th place CM Atsuhiko Kobayashi, His Excellency Eduardo Tempone, Argentine Ambassador to Japan. Bottom row L to R, 4th place FM Shou Otsuka, 2nd place Muxi Chen, 1st place IM Tu Thanh Tran, 3rd place IM Ryosuke Nanjo, 5th place IM Shinya Kojima.

L to R: JCF President Hiroshi Manabe, 1st place IM Tu Thanh Tran, His Excellency Eduardo Tempone Argentine Ambassador to Japan.

Postmortem



And that was it, that was the Japan Chess Championship 2025, but what did I realize...?

At over-the-board chess tournaments, the chessboards are set up in descending order, with the top performing players, playing on the top boards, while the poorly performing players, play on the bottom boards. 

At this particular tournament, board 1 was at the head of the hall, raised on a special platform, boards 2 through 7 were on the far right, boards 8 through 16 to the left of that, boards 17 through 28 to the left of that, and 29 through 42 were on the extreme left.

I spent much of my tourney on the extreme left, playing on the bottom boards. All I kept thinking during the tournament is how nice it would be to play on the middle boards, I just wish I was playing on those boards.

But it was not until I was at the bullet train station on my way home that I came to my realization. I ran into a participant in the Golden Week Open, a concurrent 5-round tournament, for players who were not able to qualify for the JCC.

I asked him how he did in the tournament, and he said he scored 3 and a half points, I laughed and self-deprecatingly said "me too."

He turned to me, and said, "I just wish I was qualified for that tournament."

However badly you think you're doing, there is someone out there who would give everything just to have half of what you have. Don't be dejected about your shortcomings, be grateful for your achievements.

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to share these tactics and games with your friends down by the library or bar.

Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.

P.S. I have a bunch of chess merchandise available at my online shop, if that is of interest to you invite the "Click Button" to a friendly game of chess, only play the Trompowsky Attack...

"The Click Button"