Interview with Ryosuke Nanjo, the 2014 Japanese Champion

by Junta

There are three Japanese players on the country's active list rated above 2300.
I've written posts on the #1 ranked, Shōgi master Yoshiharu Habu here and here, and the #2 ranked full-time chess professional, Shinya Kojima here. I interviewed the #3 ranked player, Nanjō, after he showed a dominant performance in the Japanese Championships in May. From his words and games, one can sense his creativity and striving to always give his all at the board, strong character, objectivity, and a yet unfulfilled potential.

Name: Ryōsuke Nanjō (Japanese: 南條遼介)
DOB: September 27th, 1988
Title: FM
Current FIDE: 2344
Graduated from Azabu High School, 2007
Studied at the University of Tōkyō
Currently in final year of studies at Keiō University

At the closing of this year's Japanese Championships, Photo: Yumi Hiebert

First of all, congratulations on winning the 2014 Japanese Championships! 10.5/11 is a phenomenal score, and is in fact the new record. Did you feel that you were playing well?

Thanks! I was playing okay, but I didn’t feel I was playing especially strong. I’m kicking myself for not getting that last half-point rather than parading on victory.

The top seed in FIDE ratings, Shinya Kojima was half a point behind you for most of the tournament. Did this have an effect to spur you on?

No, as I’m a player who tries to win every single game regardless of the tournament situation. The last time I noticed Kojima’s existence during the tournament was when he faced me on the board; I was too busy thinking what to do against other opponents after that. (And I think it’s the right reaction; does Usain Bolt look back during the 100-metre dash just because 7 other guys are trailing him by a tenth of a second?)

You have now won the Japanese Championships three times. How important is the national title for you?

For me it’s just another national tournament. Just because I won this tournament doesn’t mean I can lose every single tournament I enter this year and still say “I’m the strongest player in Japan” with a smile on my face.

It’s true that it is one of the only two FIDE-rated tournaments held in Japan, but it’s also true that this tournament has no GMs or IMs.

Please share your best or favourite game/s from the event with us.

My best game was the one in round 6 against CM Tomohiko Matsuo, a former national champion.

You are a member of the Japanese team who will play at the Tromsø Olympiad in August. Has the board order already been decided?

Yes it has. I’ll just say that I’ll be playing on Board 1.

You already have some experience of playing at the Olympiad – how will you train before the event? Will you play any other tournaments in Europe?

I’ll be working mainly on books, it’s what I usually do. I’ll probably have some training sessions with our team coach GM Mihajlo Stojanovic online, maybe some training games with Japan’s top players too, but I won’t be doing anything exhausting.

About my tournament schedule, as I have exams in late July, I won’t be going anywhere before the Olympiad. But I’m thinking about going to the Riga Technical University Open right after Tromsø.

What do you look forward to the most about this Olympiad? Do you have any goals?

Playing strong opponents, it’s what makes my heart rush. Being the first board of this team, I can expect to play 7 GMs at least, which gets me really excited. I haven’t set any goals, but since my score against GM opposition was 40% at the Cappelle la Grande this year, I suppose breaking that record would be a sign of progress.

What advice could you give to someone playing their first Olympiad? Playing on a team for your country must be very different from playing in an ordinary tournament as an individual.

One thing that makes team competitions different from other tournaments is that you need to keep in mind what your role is and what the team is asking you to do. You may be able to get norms by thinking about only yourself, but you won’t be able to get category medals without teamwork.

Most of the chess ‘elite’ will also fly north to play for their own countries. Do you have any favourites or players you see as role models in the current elite?

I try to learn most from the games of Magnus Carlsen, of course. It’s the Carlsen Era, and while it may not be the ultimate answer to chess, it’s something special and the wisdom in his chess may be difficult to learn if not now.

Who are your favourite players through chess history, and why?

I have many favorites, but I guess if I had to pick one it would be Alexander Alekhine. I like the way he blends logic and passion to create beauty on the board in many different shapes. If I were to choose another one, David Bronstein would be my pick.

You were born in the USA, and I believe you hold dual citizenship. When did you move to Japan? Did you ever consider moving back to the States again?

I moved to Japan in August 1999, when I was a ten year-old, and I’ve lived in this country ever since, although I’ve travelled to more than a dozen countries to play chess.

I actually wanted to enter a university in the US, but couldn’t get the financial support. Maybe I can move back by getting a job there, it’s another option I’ve been pondering on.

You attended the Azabu High School in Tokyo, well known in the Japanese chess scene for having a school club which has produced many of the current top players in the country. Please tell us about the club and the time you spent there.

I entered Azabu junior-high in 2001, because it was the only school with a chess club in Japan back then. I was both lucky and unlucky; lucky because I met players who were much stronger than I was (such as Masahiro Baba and Tomu Sano), unlucky because all of them were 3 or 4 years older than me and quickly stopped playing to prepare for university entrance exams. I had a golden first year with them, during which I rapidly grew to qualify as a member of team Japan at the 2002 Bled Olympiad, and then I had to do everything on my own. For the next five years I dedicated myself to giving back what I learned to other club members, while trying to find a way to improve all by myself.

Chess does not have a large following in Japan, there being two other board games which are much more popular (Shōgi and Gō). In fact, in 2013 there were only two FIDE-rated tournaments in the country. Do you think there is a good market for chess in Japan? How do you think chess could be popularised?

There is certainly something to be said about Japan’s potential; there are not many countries which can parallel Japan’s high level of population, economy and social stability. The main problem is we have a national organization with ridiculously low skills, which means that we have to do everything as individuals and that there’s no room for new players even if we succeed in our rogue campaigns. About possible solutions please ask someone else, as I’m a player and not a politician.

Have you played Shōgi and Gō yourself? How similar or different is Shōgi in comparison to chess?

I was never a Shōgi player nor a Gō player, because I lived my first ten years in the US and discovered chess there. I know the rules for both of them, but nothing more.

Shōgi is a sibling of chess, but I believe they are completely different games. The ability to use captive pieces makes Shōgi much more mindboggling than chess in tactics, while the existence of draws makes chess strategically more difficult to win.

Which tournament performances would you rank as your best?

I suppose my 8.0/8 at the Japan Open last year, which includes a win over Yoshiharu Habu, a true legend.

Please share with us one or more of the best games you’ve played.

What aspects of chess attract you to the game?

One thing that I really love about chess is I keep find something new and interesting about it. And it comes with different shapes and sizes, from astonishing ideas played in top level games to unpleasant opening novelties unleashed on me. That makes it better.

From the Japan Open in November 2013, Photo: Yasunori Honma

What would you say are the most important qualities for a chess player to have?

I would say courage. You can’t play difficult moves without courage to believe in yourself, you can’t improve unless you have courage to be honest and objective; you basically can’t do anything without it.

How would you describe your chess ‘style’?

I am an idealist, and I constantly try to make the most out of my position. With such meager opening preparation I suppose it isn’t a wise tournament decision not to back down, but I keep forgetting to do so and try to learn from my scars and burns instead.

Please tell us about your studies and what your plans after graduation are.

I’m in my final year studying financial econometrics, and I’ll be working at a securities company from next April.

How do you work on your chess nowadays?

Analyze my games with engines, look at games from the latest tournament, read books.

You are currently ranked 3^rd in Japan, and you will surely be one of the top players for many years to come. Do you have particular goals in chess?

I’d like to play good games in general, so that if there were a collection of my best games it would need to be revised constantly.

Last but not least, I heard you have a Russian girlfriend you met through chess…?

It’s true, but it’s also supposed to be a secret…

Thank you very much for answering the questions. I look forward to seeing how you perform at the Olympiad!

Shōgi master Yoshiharu Habu @ Kyoto University

"If you are guaranteed to succeed by challenging yourself to achieve something, no doubt anyone would do it. But persisting with the same passion, energy and motivation somewhere where there is no guarantee of success - is extremely difficult, and this is what I believe talent to be."

- Yoshiharu Habu

by Junta

On Sunday the 7th of July, I had the honour of meeting shōgi (Japanese chess) master Yoshiharu Habu as he made a visit to Kyoto University. Although inactive since 2007 due to being busy with his main profession, Mr. Habu holds the highest FIDE rating in Japan (2404), having achieved an initial rating of 2342 in 2001 and having played less than 100 FIDE-rated games!

Mr. Habu (born in 1970) is arguably the best shōgi player ever, and certainly the most famous since the second half of the 90's. In the world of shōgi in Japan, where there are around 150 players on the professional circuit, there are 7 traditional 'titles' players compete for each year (with a match between the champion vs. challenger who won through the gruelling qualifying stages) in classical time controls, as opposed to chess just having the World Championships.

After turning pro at the age of 14, Mr. Habu won his first title at the age of 19, and 'Habu' became a household name in 1996 when he won the 'Ōsho' title, thus becoming the first player to hold all 7 titles at once, covering the front of newspapers nationwide the following day! In 2012, he broke a long-standing record, achieving the number of 81 for total titles won (currently 83). Today he holds 3 of the 7 titles, and aged 42, will no doubt stay one of the top shōgi players for years to come.



Mr. Habu playing an simultaneous chess / shōgi exhibition match against French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

On Sunday evening, we played two rapid (25 minutes + 10 seconds/move) games in a classroom. In the first game, a Sicilian Kan with 5.Nc3 b5 was reached - I had played two games with this line as Black in the Japanese Championships in May, and Mr. Habu had prepared a natural-looking Nc3-d5-sacrifice against it. It is unpleasant to have to deal with such a novelty in a rapid game, but I was able to find enough logical moves, and although it was possible for White to play on with an initiative, the game concluded peacefully in the early middlegame.

In analysis, Mr. Habu proposed an interesting alternative for Black (which I hadn't seen) after accepting the knight sacrifice: retreating the c6-knight to d8, and then giving back the piece with Nd8-e6, reaching a balanced position!

In the second game, I played a line against Black's Semi-Slav structure involving Rg1 and g2-g4, which I am quite fond of. This time, my opponent was unfamiliar with the variation, and after a perhaps premature 8...dxc4 and slow 10...Re8, was faced with a strong attack on the kingside.

We had a lot of fun analysing after each game

Mr. Habu was also kind enough to visit the Kyoto University Shōgi Club after the chess, and I couldn't help smiling, seeing the excitement and awe on the club members' faces as their idol all the way back from childhood had really come - it is like Anand visiting students at a chess club in India!

Since my early teens, I have read one of Mr. Habu's bestsellers, 「決断力」(Ketsudanryoku = 'The Power of Deciding', or 'Decisiveness') many times, and I recently bought another of his books where he gives many deep and insightful thoughts about shōgi which can also apply to chess. It was a real delight to meet him in person and be able to hear his views on different things. I hope I will have another opportunity to meet him again in the future.

The first Japanese IM? FM Shinya Kojima

by Junta

Today I'm writing about a friend and chess rival of mine, FM Shinya Kojima of Japan -
5-time Japanese national champion and #1 active player.

Born November 15th 1988 in the Kanagawa prefecture, Shinya only became interested in chess towards the end of primary school, but began playing competitively in high school. Even with a national chess scene lacking significantly both in quality and quantity compared to here in Australia, he steadily improved, attaining his first FIDE rating of 2047 in 2005 at the age of 16, when he won the Japanese Championships, the youngest ever to do so at the time.

Mostly playing in Japan and occasionally playing overseas, Shinya's rating climbed above 2300 in 2009, and he become the 5th Japanese player to achieve the FM title. Although his rating has fluctuated around 2300 (on the current September list, he leads the Japanese active players list with 2320) since then, I believe he will break 2350 soon.

Although World #5 Hikaru Nakamura is half Japanese (with an American mother), no Japanese player has achieved the IM title to the present day. In fact, Japan's best Shogi (Japanese chess) player, Habu Yoshiharu, holds the highest FIDE rating at 2404 as a FM (I believe, only after a few years of taking up the game and a small number of international tournaments!), but he is too busy with his main profession to play chess actively - so Shinya and I are two players who are aiming to become the first Japanese IM, although we both have a long way to go.

Since graduating from Keiō University last year, Shinya has been actively playing and also contributing greatly to chess in Japan, travelling around the country giving numerous lectures and coaching sessions. He was the instigator of a major chess exhibition labelled 'Checkmate Lounge' in Japan in April, featuring Nigel Short!
He has also published a couple of chess books (2010, 2011) for the Japanese market. At the start of May this year, he flew to Hungary - to play in IM round robin tournaments every month until the Olympiad, in the quest for IM norms.

Although coming close in a couple of events, the ever difficult IM norm has eluded him thus far - and after those 7 gruelling tournaments, he flew to Istanbul to take up his position on Board 1 on the Japanese team. Taking a well deserved rest in tonight's Round 8, he might still have some chances of scoring his maiden IM norm in the remaining 3 rounds from tomorrow.

Although Shinya and I were both at the World Youth U/16 Olympiad in Singapore in 2007 (I played for Australia while he was the Japan team's coach), we only became acquainted in June last year at the Philadelphia International and World Open tournaments. I wasn't old enough to be a guarantor in booking the hotel in the US then, so I was very grateful for him to agree to fly over to the States from Japan to help me for that (although it turned out an adult wasn't required!) and play as well (beating me convincingly in Round 3 of the World Open). Later last year in August we met again at the Malaysian Open, where some of the Australian contingent and the Japanese players went around the city together on the rest day.

At the Kuala Lumpur Tower, completely unprovoked, we were shocked to see him swiftly encroach on an iguana's personal space. Thanks to his efforts though, the keeper approached us and forced encouraged each of us to take photos with the iguanas in our hands and on our heads 

In terms of his play, I believe his openings are at a level of an IM, and he is quite proficient at thinking schematically, in plans, ideas and positional play (while being very capable tactically as well). As far as I can see from looking through his games (and reading his post-game analyses on his blog, which I'll write about in another post soon), he has sometimes let the position slip at the critical moment of a game, when the tension is often at its height and the fate of the whole game may balance on one or two tactical nuances, or a difficult, decisive line. I'm not really in a position to judge, but once he is able to improve this aspect of conversion, I see no reason why he can't score three norms and reach 2400 in the next 6 months.

After the Olympiad, he is planning to return to Hungary to play in more events and fight for the norms - with the mix of battle-hardened veteran masters and young players from around the world hungry for success, playing in such an environment for an extended period, away from home, is not for the faint-hearted. He is a very friendly and polite person, and I wish Shinya every success in his road to the IM title - I'm sure our chess paths will cross again in the near future!

Update: in late 2013, Shinya has achieved all three IM norms in Europe, and is now just required to surpass the 2400-mark to achieve the title.

Thanks to Shinya for providing some of the photos for this post himself.
Biographical and rating info were collected from the links below.
http://shinyakojima-profile.blogspot.com.au/
http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=7000812