Atsuya Yamamichi wins first edition of Kansai Rapid Masters convincingly！

On a sunny day with wonderful spring temperatures 14 players gathered at Suminoe Hall to play in what marks the beginning of a new tournament series organized by Caissa Osaka Chess Club.

Players getting ready for their games

The tournament featured a format of 4 double rounds (8 games), therefore every player would get to play one game with white and one with black against the same opponent in a row. This is a new format that guarantees perfect color balance and the chance after every game to strike back.

We were honored to be joined by two players from France who picked our tournament as one of their activities during their travel in Japan. Especially Hugo showed impressive chess skills for his age.

To mention just a few highlights from an organizer viewpoint. Hugo started very strong, winning his first two games. Next round he got paired with Melody. Both games led to razer-sharp positions where any result seemed possible, especially with clock times running down. In a series of tactical blows, he emerged victorious in the first game as he found the right moves to stop a dangerous passed pawn that Melody had pushed down the g-file. In the second game Melody had the upper hand playing a rook and knight against rook ending with pawns running on both sides. Again, he was very resourceful finding ways to keep the position tricky but eventually overlooked a mate in one that Melody had prepared beautifully by a strong knight maneuver. A well fought and deserved 1-1 was the result of their encounter.

Sheldon's resilience and focus proved to be key to his trophy (as far as we can tell)

Another remarkable observation was the performance of Sheldon. After two rounds (4 games, the first half) of the tournament he was at 50%. Two wins against Jeremie were followed by two tough losses against Ryosuke, who would later claim 2nd price. But he didn't let these two results get to his head and played very solidly in the following two games against Aaradh which brought him back in striking distance for a trophy. The real test waited for him in the final two games as had to play against Sounosuke who seemed to be in good shape and high spirits having just won two games against Kazufumi before that. The 7th game of the day: a win for Sheldon. The 8th game: Sheldon secured an extra bishop in a queen endgame. After Sounosuke successfully activated his queen it seemed like there might have been a way to further infiltrate with checkmating ideas, but Sounosuke also showed his skills keeping the position together with a queen and pawns that both protect his king to the necessary minimum while keeping options for possible consecutive checks.

Beautiful trophies with a less than beautiful photo background.

Last but not least of course the performance of Atsuya has to be highlighted. He was going into the tournament as the clear rating favorite with more than 100 rating points to his name then his closest rival Ryosuke who got 2nd place. Atsuya having just finished on 18th place in the Japan Chess Championship one week before this tournament lived up to his expectations. He dominated the tournament from start to finish. It seemed he might even finish the day with a perfect score, but in round 7 Yoshiaki held him to a draw. Yoshiaki can be proud of his achievement of playing such a strong player and be able to secure a hard-fought draw.

Today's best three. First place: Atsuya (in the middle), Second Place: Ryosuke (on the left), Third Place: Sheldon (on the right)

We find it was a wonderful experience for players and organizers to try this kind of unheard-in-Japan double round format. Many thanks to Yuki who did a wonderful job arbitrating and JCF for helping us with technicalities to make this tournament happen. We are looking forward to seeing many of you and many more players again soon.