November 13, 2016
Akahata on November 12 and 13 held its 53rd national competitions of “go” and “shogi”, the two major traditional board games in Japan. Top amateur players who had survived regional qualifying rounds competed in the annual tournament in Tokyo.
This event is one of the biggest open amateur championships in the country, with around 10,000 players taking part in the preliminary rounds held at more than 250 locations across the country.
Chief editor of Akahata Kogiso Yoji gave a speech at the opening ceremony on the first day and said, “Akahata will continue to promote the games of go and shogi, which have been an important aspect of Japanese traditional culture.”
This year’s national contest was attended by a total of 56 players each for go and shogi: 54 players who got through the prefectural trials and one male and one female guest players. The youngest participant was a twelve-year-old boy (shogi) from Fukui Prefecture and the oldest was an 80-year-old man (go) from Ehime.
This year, women players waged a good fight against men in the male-dominated games. A record high of three women survived the regional eliminations to enter the national competition: two female go players and one shogi player. These three women and two female guest players (champions of major championships for amateur go and shogi players) are all in their teens or 20s.
Yanagida Tomoya from Kyoto won the go tournament and Yokoyama Daiki from Hokkaido won the shogi tournament. Yanagida will have a chance to play a game with the 2016 champion of Akahata’s professional go tournament and Yokoyama will be entitled to compete in Akahata’s professional shogi tournament next year.
For more than four decades, Akahata has been hosting the annual championships for a rookie award for professional go and shogi players in their early 20s or younger. Young pros attach great importance to this contest because it carries great weight in the community.
This event is one of the biggest open amateur championships in the country, with around 10,000 players taking part in the preliminary rounds held at more than 250 locations across the country.
Chief editor of Akahata Kogiso Yoji gave a speech at the opening ceremony on the first day and said, “Akahata will continue to promote the games of go and shogi, which have been an important aspect of Japanese traditional culture.”
This year’s national contest was attended by a total of 56 players each for go and shogi: 54 players who got through the prefectural trials and one male and one female guest players. The youngest participant was a twelve-year-old boy (shogi) from Fukui Prefecture and the oldest was an 80-year-old man (go) from Ehime.
This year, women players waged a good fight against men in the male-dominated games. A record high of three women survived the regional eliminations to enter the national competition: two female go players and one shogi player. These three women and two female guest players (champions of major championships for amateur go and shogi players) are all in their teens or 20s.
Yanagida Tomoya from Kyoto won the go tournament and Yokoyama Daiki from Hokkaido won the shogi tournament. Yanagida will have a chance to play a game with the 2016 champion of Akahata’s professional go tournament and Yokoyama will be entitled to compete in Akahata’s professional shogi tournament next year.
For more than four decades, Akahata has been hosting the annual championships for a rookie award for professional go and shogi players in their early 20s or younger. Young pros attach great importance to this contest because it carries great weight in the community.
