The Firsthand Experience
Coming right on the heels of the Olympiad in Uzbekistan, it would have certainly helped capture the desire of so many amateurs wanting to experience the team game.
I was part of the Tokyo Check Mates Aka team. Tokyo Check Mates is a club that meets every Wednesday at the Aldgate bar in Shibuya, Tokyo. This club has a history of participating in the Teams event, sometimes with multiple teams. This year, Tokyo Checkmates fielded four teams – Kuro (black), Shiro (white), Ao (blue) and Aka (red).
The tournament
Japan Chess Federation’s “Japan Team Chess Championship” is a two-day event, featuring six rounds (three per day), with a time control of 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move from move 1. Recording of moves is compulsory. While the tournament itself is JCF-rated, FIDE rules are followed.
This year the Open category saw 45 teams, while the U1400 category saw 25 teams, with more than 250 participants registered, including non-playing captains, and teams with 5 players.
Open Section
In the open section, top seed team Tiger Kings Osaka won all 6 matches they played and scored a perfect 12/12. 8x8 Blunders secured 2nd place with 5 wins and 1 loss with 10/12 points. Kyodai Chess Circle A also scored 10/12 points with 4 wins and 2 draws to secure 3rd place.
Like the Hanshin Tigers baseball team winning in 2026, Tiger Kings Osaka secured 1st place in the Japan Team Chess Championship 2026 with a dominant performance
The Open Prizes were as follows:
Team prizes:
1st – 50000 yen, 2nd – 40000 yen, 3rd – 30000 yen, 4th – 25000 yen, and 5th – 20000 yen
Japan Collegiate Chess Federation Member circles: 1st prize 20000 yen
Board prizes: Total of four winners with the highest score on each of the boards 1~4 receive 5000 yen, and Chessmood prizes each
Photos of Tokyo Chess Mate team: (credit Tokyo Check Mates)
Replay Available Games
Final Ranking Open Section
Rk. | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 23 | 0 | |
2 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 18 | 0 | |
3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 17 | 0 | |
4 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 16 | 0 | |
5 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 15,5 | 0 | |
6 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 14,5 | 0 | |
7 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 0 | |
8 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 13,5 | 0 | |
9 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 13,5 | 0 | |
10 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 0 |
Thoughts
This year’s tournament featured more than 250 players of many different nationalities. In a way, it resembled the recently concluded Chess Olympiad itself; the only difference being that these players of different nationalities often played together as a team. My team, Tokyo Check Mates Aka, had 5 members of 5 different nations, all united by “Red”. I took up the challenge of playing Board 1, which, frankly, is freedom to experiment.
My first game over the board, after quite a few years, was hard-fought, where I ended up in a better position, but, with 20 seconds left ended up seeing half a tactic … that led to one of the worst blunders possible. This also meant a 0-4 start to the event, instead of what could have been a 1-3 loss. The second round also didn’t go our way, but the team and the captain were very supportive of each other. This certainly helped focus in the last round of day 1, which I won after going a piece up. This helped Team Aka draw the round and go into the following day with a positive mindset.
A noticeable difference was that being a player, especially with my games going the full distance, it was harder to interact with players from other teams, than it is as an arbiter. This time I can only appreciate the victory of Tiger Kings Osaka from a distance (of around 20 tables). Scoring 6 wins in 6 rounds is fantastic. Being the top seed always has some amount of pressure, but they breezed through, winning 23/24 game points, giving away only one drawn game in each of rounds 4 and 5 which were their toughest opponents (seeded 3 and 2).
This win was special to IM Tran Thanh Tu (score 6/6), who has now won every single major tournament in Japan.
The Tiger Kings Osaka team was perhaps modeled after one of the strongest and most dominant teams in Japan’s baseball league – the Hanshin Tigers – who won their championship around the same time. Two Tigers, two dominant, victorious teams. Perhaps a sponsorship could be considered?
What's next?
Japan will host its second Japan Open invitational Masters and open Challengers – the Japan Open 2026 – between November 21 and November 25 this year, featuring two rounds on most days. Time control is the classical 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1.
The venue is Makuhari Messe, Chiba area, near Tokyo.
Details can be found here: Japan Chess Info Link
Contact email: japanopen.chess@gmail.com
November is a great time to visit Japan. Cool, pleasant weather, autumn foliage, clearer skies, and tasty food.
Let's make this tournament a grand success.
About the Author
Mayur is an IT engineer and a chess enthusiast from Mumbai, working in Japan since 2013. He has played over-the-board tournaments in India, the USA, and Japan. He has also been a top-three finisher in one-day OTB events in Japan in 2013, 2015, 2017, and in online blitz in 2020. Currently, he is making use of online platforms for chess improvement and learning Ayurveda. He loves salsa dancing, reading, traveling, and teaching.
