THE POWER REPORT: Ueno Asami defends Hollyhock Cup; Yang Kaiwen wins Chunlan Cup; Ichiriki defends 8
Chris Garlock | Published on 10/15/2025
Mid-Year 2025 Update #4
Ueno Asami defends Hollyhock Cup
In the 12th Aizu Central Hospital Women’s Hollyhock Cup, Fujisawa Rina challenged Ueno Asami for the title. It was the fifth time for this pairing and the honors were even, at two victories each. All games were played at the Konjakutei inn in Aizu Wakamatsu city, Fukushima Prefecture. The results follow.
Game 1 (June 21). Ueno (B) by resig.
Game 2 (June 22). Fujisawa (B) by 1.5 points.
Game 3 (June 23). Ueno (W) by resig.
This was Ueno’s fourth victory in a row. Fujisawa won the previous five terms and the first term; the second and third terms were won by O Keii and Xie Yimin respectively.
First prize is 7,000,000 yen.
At this point, the “top six” women titles were shared among four players, as follows:
Women’s Honinbo: Fujisawa 7-dan
Women’s Meijin, Hollyhock: Ueno Asami 6-dan
Women’s Kisei, SENKO: Ueno Risa 3-dan
Teikei Group Women Legends: Kobayashi Izumi 7-dan.
Yang Kaiwen wins Chunlan Cup
The 15th Chunlan Cup has been spread out over a long period, with the two opening rounds being held in March 2024. In June this year, the tournament finally reached its best-of-three final. Yang Kaiwen 9-dan of China beat Park Junghwan 9-dan of Korea 2-1.
The results:
Game 1 (June 20). Yang (B) by resig.
Game 2 (June 22). Park (B) by 3.5 points.
Game 3 (June 23). Yang (B) by resig.
First prize is $150,000. Shibano Toramaru 9-dan of Japan did best for Japan, making it to the semifinals, but he lost there to Park. Yang beat the favorite, Shin Jinseo, in round 2.
Ichiriki defends 80th Honinbo
Shibano Toramaru was making his second challenge in a row for the Honinbo title. He improved on his performance last year, when he couldn’t pick up a game, but still fell short despite surviving two kadobans. This was the first title match between these two that went the full distance.
The results:
Game 1 (May 14; played at Tokiwa Hotel, Kofu City). Ichiriki (W) by resig.
Game 2 (May 25; Old Restaurant Kaneyu, Noshiro City, Akita Prefecture).
Ichiriki (B) by resig.
Game 3 (June 6; Hotel Agora Osaka Moriguchi, Moriguchi City, Osaka
Prefecture). Shibano (B) by resig.
Game 4 (June 18; Todaya [a hot spring hotel], Toba City, Mie Prefecture).
Shibano (W) by resig.
Game 5 (July 2; Hotel Kagetsuen, Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture). Ichiriki
(B) by 2.5 points.
This is Ichiriki’s third victory in a row, but last year the title was downgraded. It is now 5th in the top seven and first prize is 8,500,000.
Ueno Risa wins the Senko Cup
The Senko Cup is the second richest of the domestic women’s titles, with a first prize of 8,000,000. It is not based on the defender/challenger system, being a straight knockout 
tournament with 16 players in the main tournament.
The latter started in April this year; the semifinals and final were held at the Akekure Hotel in East Omi City, Shiga Prefecture on July 11 and 13. Ueno Risa 3-dan beat Kato Chie 3-dan in one semifinal and Fujisawa Rina 7-dan beat Ueno Asami 6-dan in the other. In the final, Ueno (B) played well in the endgame and beat Fujisawa by 5.5 points. Ueno was all the more happy to win this title for the first time as this broke an eight-game losing streak she was in.
Iyama defends Gosei
Otake Yu 7-dan scored a big win when he beat Ichiriki Kisei in the semifinal of the 50th Gosei Title (held on May 8), but in the final (May 29) he lost to Shibano Toramaru, so he missed his first chance to challenge for a top-seven title.
In the title match, Shibano took the lead, but Iyama Yuta made a good recovery and succeeded in defending his title. This is no. 6 in the top seven titles and has a first prize of 8,000,000 yen.
The results follow (all games were played at the Nihon Ki-in headquarters in
Tokyo):
Game 1 (June 25). Shibano (B) by resig.
Game 2 (July 9). Iyama (B) by resig.
Game 3 (July 18). Shibano (B) by resig.
Game 4 (August 1). Iyama (B) by resig.
Game 5 (August 20). Iyama (B) by resig.
Tomorrow: Promotions, Retirements & Obituaries