New Champions crowned at Japan Cadets and Youth Chess Championships 2025
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 Cocora 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
The first weekend of April 2025 saw two chess championship events being held simultaneously at one of the most regular venues for Chess in Tokyo – at the Curian, in Oimachi. These tournaments decided the Champions in the Youth and Cadets categories for 2025. Both events were held over two days, the 5th and the 6th of April. These events give a very good glimpse into the health and future of chess in Japan. Both events were JCF rated events.
130 players participated in the two events combined, with the Youth tournament having 50 entries, while the rest were spread between U-8, U-10 and U-12 categories of the Cadets tournament.
Japan Youth Chess Championship 2025
Any player under the age of 18 was eligible to participate in this event. The event had three age categories – U-18, U-16 and U-14.
The tournament was conducted as a six round Swiss tournament, with a time control of 45 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1.
The top seed was CM Matsumura Cocoro in the U-18 category, while WCM Mitsuyama Rikka, who represented Japan in multiple Olympiads already, participated in the U-16 category.
CM Matsumura Cocoro won the tournament scoring 5.5/6 and thus became the Japan Youth Chess Champion 2025, with Okabe Yuma (U-18) and Endo Shuma (U-14) securing second and third places with scores of 5/6.
WCM Mitsuyama Rikka won the U-16 event, and was also the best female player.
Players from each category, who met the following criteria were seeded into the All Japan Chess Championship 2025, to be held in May 2025.
• 1st place in their respective category
• Achieved a win rate of 50% or higher
Results
U-18:
1st CM Matsumura Cocoro 5.5/6 (Japan Youth Chess Champion 2025)
2nd Okabe Yuma 5
3rd Kobayashi Hiroaki 4.5
4th Yamada Misaki 4
5th Tatsumi Kai 4
6th Kagitani Shun 4
Girl
1st Yamada Misaki 4
U-16:
1st WCM Mitsuyama Rikka 4/6
2nd Yamakawa Kazumasa 4
3rd Onuma Kota 4
4th Yamada Atsushi 3.5
5th Mandhadi Havish 3.5
6th Ryu Chanyue 3
Girl
1st WCM Mitsuyama Rikka 4
U-14:
1st Endo Shuma 5/6
2nd Moritani Sho 4.5
3rd Ng Alexander PN 4
4th Ozaki Hugo 4
5th Furuse Mizuki 4
6th Matsunaga Toma 3.5
Girl
1st Katayama Shiho Yula 2.5
2nd Jie Jingfei 2.5
3rd Inoue Satomi 2.5
Final standings in Youth
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | Gr | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | CM | Matsumura Cocoro | U18 | JPN | 2125 | 5,5 | 0 | 20 | 23 | 20,75 | 9180 | ||
| 2 | 3 | Okabe Yuma | U18 | JPN | 1984 | 5 | 0 | 19,5 | 22 | 16,50 | 8241 | |||
| 3 | 7 | Endo Shuma | U14 | JPN | 1725 | 5 | 0 | 17,5 | 20,5 | 17,00 | 8176 | |||
| 4 | 2 | Moritani Sho | U14 | JPN | 1997 | 4,5 | 0 | 19 | 19 | 12,25 | 8357 | |||
| 5 | 11 | Kobayashi Hiroaki | U18 | JPN | 1654 | 4,5 | 0 | 16 | 17,5 | 12,25 | 7876 | |||
| 6 | 35 | Ng Alexander PN | U14 | JPN | 1327 | 4 | 0 | 21 | 24,5 | 15,25 | 9054 | |||
| 7 | 15 | Yamada Misaki | U18 | w | JPN | 1594 | 4 | 0 | 21 | 23 | 14,50 | 8865 | ||
| 8 | 48 | Ozaki Hugo | U14 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 19 | 20,5 | 11,50 | 8163 | ||||
| 9 | 6 | WCM | Mitsuyama Rikka | U16 | w | JPN | 1732 | 4 | 0 | 18,5 | 20,5 | 12,50 | 7794 | |
| 10 | 9 | Furuse Mizuki | U14 | JPN | 1684 | 4 | 0 | 18,5 | 20 | 11,25 | 7738 |
Japan Cadets Chess Championship 2025
80 players under the age of twelve participated in this tournament, probably the highest number so far. They were separated into three age groups – Under-12, Under-10 and Under-8.
The tournament was conducted as a seven round Swiss tournament, with a time control of 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1.
The top seeds in each respective section were: Noda Ryo (U-12), Gokita Kensei (U-10), and Gokita Kosei (U-8).
Noda Ryo, won the U-12 tournament with a score of 6.5/7 and was awarded the title of Japan Cadets Chess Champion 2025. The participants received a lot of recognition for their efforts, which can only help chess grow in Japan. The top three finishers from each category were given trophies, and from rank fourth to tenth received certificates.
India born Neev Datta, who was seeded 21st in the U-10 category, had an impressive run to finish ninth with a score of 4/7. He started off with a loss on the first day but managed to end it at an even 2/4. The second day started off very well with two wins in the fifth and sixth rounds, before a loss in the final round confirmed the ninth place finish.
Results
U-12:
1st Noda Ryo 6.5/7
2nd Niori Toma 5.5
3rd Shimagaki Haruki 5.5
4th Okubo Kazuma 4.5
5th Goto Sota 4.5
6th Truong Vu Thien Binh 4.5
7th Oka Makoto 4.5
8th Nishiyama Taichi 4
9th Chih Tristan 4
10th Beal Yuri 4
Girl
1st Yamamoto Hiroko 2
2nd Son Mokuko 2
3rd Okabe Sana 1
Final standings in U-12
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | Gr | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Shirato Yukihide | 1227 | 7 | 0 | 27,5 | 29,5 | 29,50 | 5146 | ||||
| 2 | 21 | Watanabe Takaharu | JPN | 0 | 5,5 | 0 | 28,5 | 32 | 23,25 | 6373 | |||
| 3 | 6 | Liu Koukaku | 1181 | 5 | 0 | 29 | 30,5 | 18,00 | 2308 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | Okubo Sui | JPN | 1315 | 4,5 | 0 | 28 | 30 | 15,25 | 3762 |
U-10:
1st Nishida Eito 7/7
2nd Akiyama Kairi 6
3rd Gokita Kensei 5
4th Itokazu Antonio 5
5th Ichino Hiroaki 5
6th Kikuchi Saya 4.5
7th Murata Den 4.5
8th Inagaki Kenzo 4.5
9th Neev Datta 4
10th Truong Vu Minh Quang 4
Yotaro - Neev, Round 5
Neev - Shirato, Round 6
Girl
1st Kikuchi Saya 4.5
2nd Sugimoto Yuzuru 3
3rd Biju Pillai Nanma 3
4th Tashiro Kotoko 2
5th Omura Mikoto 1
Final standings in U-10
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | Gr | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | ACM | Nishida Eito | JPN | 1409 | 7 | 0 | 28 | 31 | 31,00 | 8413 | ||
| 2 | 3 | Akiyama Kairi | JPN | 1436 | 6 | 0 | 30,5 | 32,5 | 25,50 | 8301 | |||
| 3 | 1 | Gokita Kensei | JPN | 1633 | 5 | 0 | 30,5 | 33,5 | 20,50 | 8020 | |||
| 4 | 2 | Itokazu Antonio | JPN | 1531 | 5 | 0 | 28,5 | 30,5 | 17,50 | 7982 | |||
| 5 | 6 | Ichino Hiroaki | JPN | 1384 | 5 | 0 | 27,5 | 31 | 20,00 | 7824 | |||
| 6 | 14 | Kikuchi Saya | w | JPN | 1240 | 4,5 | 0 | 25 | 28 | 15,50 | 7541 |
U-8:
1st Shirato Yukihide 7/7
2nd Watanabe Takaharu 5.5
3rd Liu Koukaku 5
4th Okubo Sui 4.5
5th Hori Lihito 4.5
6th Watanabe Satoru 4.5
7th Kon Eisuke 4
8th Karthikeyan Sarvesh 4
9th Tejima Cohiba 4
10th Akiyama Kanata 4
Girl
1st Tejima Cohiba 4
2nd Solanki Samaira 2.5
3rd Shioguchi Yuika 2
4th Kono Emi 2
Final standings in U-8
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | Gr | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Shirato Yukihide | 1227 | 7 | 0 | 27,5 | 29,5 | 29,50 | 5146 | ||||
| 2 | 21 | Watanabe Takaharu | JPN | 0 | 5,5 | 0 | 28,5 | 32 | 23,25 | 6373 | |||
| 3 | 6 | Liu Koukaku | 1181 | 5 | 0 | 29 | 30,5 | 18,00 | 2308 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | Okubo Sui | JPN | 1315 | 4,5 | 0 | 28 | 30 | 15,25 | 3762 |
Links
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, USA and Japan. He has also been a top three finisher in a one-day OTB events in Japan in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 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.
