Shinya Kojima perfect at Chubu Rapid Rating Open 2025
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 Chubu Rapid Rating Open 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, having fun, analyzing and making us enjoy various moments from his games. Check out his account of the tournament, which took place in Nagoya, Japan. Top seed of the tournament, Japan no.5, IM Shinya Kojima won the tournament scoring a perfect 5/5. Ryo Noda (JPN) and Teruomi Higashishiba (JPN) scored 4/5 each. They secured second and third place according to tie-breaks. Photos: Sheldon Donaldson
Racing My Way Through the Chubu Rapid Open
Welcome everyone, to another "...wait, did I just miss mate-in-one?" edition of the Osaka Papers
My most recent foray into the world of over-the-board chess, brought me to Japan's third city: Nagoya. I was there to participate in the Chubu Rapid Open 2025, which took place on Sunday June 15th.The Chubu Rapid Open 2025 was a five-round affair, with a prize fund of 80,000-yen, time control was 25 minutes with a 10 second bonus, the tourney has the special distinction of being the only FIDE rated rapid tournament in Japan.
I, being an avowed procrastinator, didn't quite register on time, and was told that the tourney was full, but as luck would have it, a few entries dropped out and I was informed of my inclusion a couple days before the event.
With so little time to prepare and study, my plan was clear: play aggressive coffee house chess, and don't bother worrying over the result.
I take any chance to play OTB chess seriously but seeing that these games only affect my rapid rating, a rating that had been inactive for the last year and half, I felt no need to stress over the result. My only concern was playing some fun aggressive chess.
But before we get to the chess, how about a few pics, to prove that any of this actually happened.
Missing Mate
In the first round I was up against a young competitor, my hatred for playing children is known by all, I would assume, so I will not belabor the point here, suffice to say, I fear the little monsters. One never knows what you're going to get. On the one hand, young players tend to blunder more frequently, on the other hand, their tactical vision is sometimes extraordinary.
One of the many ironies of chess is how common it is to miss winning moves, when you're winning. In such situations, one tends to simply play the least dangerous option and look for simplifications, rather than spend time searching for a precise move, I fell into this trap during the game.
Timofei - Sheldon, Round 1
I managed to get myself into a winning position, my only worry is White's a-pawn, which is one square away from queening, but as long I can get back to defend against that threat I should be fine...or maybe there is something better? Spoiler there is something better.
In the second round, I played an uninspired game against a higher rated opponent, as fun as it is to see me lose, let's skip past it and go onto an interesting position from the third round.
Tunnel Vision
In the third round, I faced another youngster and made another blunder. The game was relatively close, but I was able to equalize early on and took the initiative and advantage, all I had to do was convert the win... but of course that's the hardest part.
Tunnel vision is a horrible habit of mine, at times I focus on one part of the board or on one piece, instead of seeing the entire board and realizing that every square holds significance.
Itokazu - Sheldon, Round 3
The position of the black knight and queen makes for a dangerous attack on the white king, but if you look closely, you'll notice an even better move.
Making the Most of a Worse Position
Despite throwing away a won position in the previous round, I was confident heading into the fourth. Overall, I felt I had been playing well, and the quick turnaround time between games meant there wasn't much time to dwell on my mistakes... there was however time enough to make new ones...
The important lesson I learned from this game, is that one should not dwell on the mistakes you make during a game, instead simply make the best out of what you have.
Seeing Ghosts
In the fifth and final round I was up against Show Kitagami, a strong player who convincingly crushed me the last time we played.
In such games, it's normal to overestimate your opponent's talents, and to start seeing ghosts in the position, i.e. believing that your opponent's attacks are stronger than they are... leading to overreacting, panicking and disaster... spoiler alert, that's how this game ends.
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Gr | FED | RtgI | RtgN | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | IM | Kojima, Shinya | JPN | 2278 | 2476 | 5 | 14 | 14,00 | 2684 | |
| 2 | 8 | Noda, Ryo | A | JPN | 1796 | 1747 | 4 | 17 | 12,00 | 2085 | |
| 3 | 4 | Higashishiba, Teruomi | JPN | 1907 | 1935 | 4 | 16,5 | 11,50 | 2074 | ||
| 4 | 2 | Scott, Tyler | JPN | 2000 | 2109 | 3,5 | 17,5 | 11,75 | 1941 | ||
| 5 | 7 | Patil, Rushad | A | JPN | 1797 | 1881 | 3,5 | 14,5 | 8,75 | 1972 | |
| 6 | 3 | Kitagami, Show | JPN | 1964 | 1971 | 3,5 | 14,5 | 8,75 | 1913 | ||
| 7 | 11 | Araki, Dai | A | JPN | 1771 | 1424 | 3,5 | 14 | 8,75 | 1835 | |
| 8 | 5 | Kinoshita, Akira | JPN | 1886 | 1884 | 3,5 | 13,5 | 8,25 | 1920 | ||
| 9 | 14 | Sawamura, Tetsushi | A/B | JPN | 1746 | 1599 | 3,5 | 12,5 | 7,25 | 1835 | |
| 10 | 23 | Ortiz, Orven | PHI | 0 | 1804 | 3,5 | 9,5 | 7,00 | 1831 |
Postmortem
And that was it, that was the Chubu Rapid Open 2025.
I scored two and a half points out of a possible five, Not Great, Not Terrible...
Overall, I look at this result as a learning experience, I made some rookie mistakes, but I also played well in certain situations, more importantly, I achieved my stated goal: to play aggressive and fun chess.
At the end of the day, chess is supposed to be fun, and if you're not playing for that aim, perhaps you have the wrong goals...
As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these games and tactics with your friends down at the Library or Bar.
Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.
About the Author
SheldonOfOsaka is a 43-year-old chess player originally from Canada, who has lived in Japan for the past 13 years; he took up chess 10 years ago, but only began to play over-the-board tournaments last year.
