Japan Chess Federation hosted the 2025 edition of the annual Japan Teams Chess Championship, typically held in the pleasant weather of Autumn. When the Japan Open is held earlier in the year, the Teams event happens to be the last major event of the calendar year. This event holds a special memory, as the 2023 edition was my very first event as an arbiter. The experience led to bigger and better things, eventually leading to me becoming a FIDE Arbiter earlier this year. I may eventually want to play in this event, as well as arbitrate in future events. This year was the time to take a break and write about the event. Photo: Japan Chess Federation

Mayur Gondhalekar and his good friend, Sheldon Donaldson regularly keeps us updated about the Japan chess scene. Sheldon writes a blog about his experience of playing at Japan Chess Championship 2025. The Canadian origin, currently residing in Japan, Sheldon's article is full of high quality photos and some interesting moments from his games. He loves playing, analyzing and making us enjoy various moments from his games. Check out his account of the tournament which took place in Curian, Tokyo, Japan. IM Tu Thanh Tran won the tournament scoring an unbeaten 8/9. He finished 1.5 points ahead of the rest. Seven players scored 6.5/9. Out of them, Muxi Chen (CHN) and IM Ryosuke Nanjo secured second and third place according to tie-breaks. Photo: Sheldon Donaldson

The first weekend of April 2025, saw two events conducted simultaneous in Tokyo – The Japan Youth Chess Championship and the Japan Cadets Chess Championship. A total of 130 players participated in the two events combined. Mayur Gondhalekar writes about these two events. CM Cocoro Matsumura became the Youth (U-18) champion scoring an unbeaten 5.5/6. Misaki Yamada won among girls scoring 4/6. Check out the photos of names of various winners of U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14 and U-16 category. The winners of each category and those who achieved a win rate of 50% or higher, will be seeded at All Japan Championship 2025 which will take place this month. Photo: Japan Chess Federation

Axel Martin (FRA) and Nathan Summerville (JPN) scored 4.5/5 each at Golden Week Open 2024. Axel won the tournament due to better tie-breaks, Nathan was placed second. Shun Tokuni (JPN), Pei-Ti Wu (TPE) and Kei Sugita (JPN) scored 4/5 each. They were placed third to fifth respectively. In the Group A (Below 1700) section, Toby Curtis scored a perfect 5/5 to become the champion. Murugappan N, Yukihiko Yoshii (JPN), Kantaro Kohara (JPN) and Jie-Xin Lu (TPE) scored 3.5/5 each. They secured second to fifth place according to tie-breaks. The top three prizes in the Open were 20000, 15000 and 10000 Yen along with a plaque each. For Open A, the top three prizes were plaques with a Chessmood gift each. Photo: Japan Chess Federation

Japan Chess Federation conducts the Japan Team Chess Championship on an annual basis. The 2023 event was held in the middle of September, on the 17th and 18th, taking advantage of a 3-day long national holiday. This tournament saw a record high participation: 48 teams, each comprising either four or five members, which translated into 216 players. Mayur Gondhalekar brings a detailed report of the biggest tournament in Japan, in terms of the huge number of participants. This event also marked Mayur’s debut as an arbiter. He has obtained the FIDE license of National Arbiter. Read on to know more! Photo: Japan Chess Federation

We are already into the eighth month of 2023, a year that has seemingly just breezed by. Right at the end of July, we saw new champions added to the list, as Japan Women’s Chess Championship and Japan’s Senior Chess Championship came to a close. Both tournaments were conducted over two days - 29th and 30th July at Shinagawa-ku Kumin hall called ‘Curian’. Each followed the six round Swiss-league, 45 minutes + 30 secs from move no.1, Japan National Rated format. The top two finishers of both tournaments would earn an invite to Japan Chess Championship 2024, and the respective “Champion” title will be accorded only to the highest finishing players registered under Japan Federation. The top two boards in each of the tournaments played on DGT boards. The games were broadcast live on Japan Chess Federation’s youtube channel, and one could follow the moves on chess.com and Lichess. Photos: Japan Chess Federation

The previous year has been rather tumultuous, which forced me to miss quite a few chess tournament in Japan. One such was an extraordinary event on December 11 where I was hoping to celebrate the birthday of India’s GM Viswanathan Anand, with wine and chess! Come 2023, the tournament has taken up an official standing with the National Chess Society of Japan (NCS Japan). It is the “Osaka Wine Cup” organized by Mr. Leonard Brinkmann of the Kashiwara Chess Club, in Osaka, Japan. Check out a pictorial report written by Mayur Gondhalekar and also few games from the tournament. Photo: Leonard Brinkmann

The last couple of years saw the pandemic take its toll on Over-the-board events. This year has been far better. Travel has again become possible worldwide, with Japan also reopening to tourists from October. Sheldon Donaldson shares his thoughts with us again. Yet, the more things changed, the more they seem to have remained the same. IM Shinya Kojima pulled off yet another win at the Japan Open 2022. He won the previous edition early this year in January . Once again he remained undefeated. Check out the tournament report by Mayur Gondhalekar and his good friend Sheldon Donaldson who also took part in this event. Photo: National Chess Society of Japan

Come October, come chess festivals. A far simpler version than the Global Chess Festival, a festival of chess nonetheless, is conducted by NCS Japan in Tokyo. The instructions at the start were very clear - Play chess, Between games meet people, make new friends, Widen your circles and horizons annd Enjoy the festival. Thus began the one-day tournament called Tokyo Chess Festival 2022, after two years of cancellations due to the pandemic situation. Check out a pictorial report of the event written by Mayur Gondhalekar. Photo: National Chess Society of Japan

Every year Japan’s Chess calendar features one event specially as a competition between various teams. This year’s event definitely had shades of inspiration by the 44th Chess Olympiad held in India in July-August 2022. The Japan Team Chess Championship is a good opportunity for the various chess clubs in the country to cobble up a few teams and show who is the best in business. The event is not limited to existing chess clubs. Four or five players can get together, register a team and participate. Check out a pictorial report of the event written by Mayur Gondhalekar. Photo: Flipi Poggenpoel

12-year-old Rikka Mitsuyama scored an impressive 5/6 to become the newest Japan Women's Chess Champion 2022. She remained undefeated and finished a half point ahead of the competition. Melody Takayasu and WCM Azumi Sakai scored 4.5/6 and 4/6 respectively to secure second and third place respectively. Japan Senior Chess Championship 2022 also took place simultaneously, which was won by Takeshi Gishi. He started with five straight wins before splitting the point in the final round to win the tournament 5.5/6. Top seed of the tournament Teruomi Higashishiba and Seiichi Ogasa were placed second and third scoring 5/6 and 4.5/6 respectively. Mayur Gondhalekar writes the report of both events. Photo: National Chess Society of Japan

Japan, the “land of the rising sun” is very well known for its technological advances, the Shinkansen (bullet train), old temples, beautiful cherry blossoms and regular achievements at the Olympics. Yet, with its relatively small chess playing community, Japan is still something of an enigma in the chess world. The upcoming Chess Olympiad to be held in Chennai, India being in everyone’s focus, I am going to attempt to share a little about Japan’s diverse chess players who are representing their country at the Olympiad. All information, photos, achievements and introductions are based on the text provided by National Chess Society of Japan (NCS) with a few modifications from me where necessary. NCS has permitted use of all the information for this article. Photo: japanchess.org