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Taking place in Tokyo from March 14 to 16th, the SENKO Cup World Go Women's Championship is a thrilling event sponsored by SENKO Holdings and organised by the Nihon Ki-In, the Japanese Go Association. We surely hope the European representatives will have a wonderful experience, and better results than last year's participants (for a massive refresh, you can re-read here)!
First of all, let's introduce our players to you, and then we'll discuss the tournament a little.
This year, Rita Pocsai 5d (Hungary), Manja Marz 4d (Germany) and Olesia Malko 4d (Ukraine) will fight for Europe!
They all qualified thanks to their strong performances at the Women's Championship 2024.
Who are they?!
If somehow you don't already know them, here are a few lines about our ladies.
Olesia 4d, from Ukraine, is the youngest. Just recently, she won the European Youth Go Championship in the U18 category!! She is a very talented player improving very fast and studying seriously. At the last edition of the European Women's Championship, she was 3rd. No doubt that it will be super interesting to see if she can obtain a new title in less than 10 days!
Rita 5d, from Hungary, is an experienced player. She has been European Woman Champion already and is one of the toughest women players in Europe. She finished 4th at the Women's championship 2024. She has been less active in recent years, at least compared to Manja and Olesia, but her go skills are very sharp, with accurate reading and very solid style. She will offer us great games to follow for sure.
Manja 4d, from Germany, is one of the most active players of all. Perhaps you have heard of her go school JIGS (Jena International Go School)! In the last EWGC she was 2nd, just after Li Ting 1p, but she had won that championship in the past too.
In short, Manja is at the top of the women's go scene! She has a very deep go knowledge and never shys away from difficult reading or a complicated fight in a game, so her games will be super exciting!
Who are their opponents?
It is difficult to say. In the past we were used to seeing the same familiar faces, with levels ranging from European 1d to 6d. But this year there are many fresh faces in the line up, and thus many unknowns!
Some faces are familiar though, for instance we recognize Amy Song 5d, from Australia, who had won the competition a couple of years ago. Last year, she was playing in the pro SENKO Cup. Dawn Sum from Singapore has also played in the competition a few times, it seems now she is 4d.
I can hear you, dear reader, asking out loud in your mind if we have good chances to win this event for the first time.
Well, let me answer: YES, very high chances!
In fact, this year is probably the most promising year of all, because not only are our players there super strong, but the multiple-time winner of the SENKO Cup, the Vietnamese Quynh Anh Ha 6d, who seemed invincible in this championship, is playing in the pro version instead.
Now, you are surely wondering why do we speak of a pro tournament. Simple explanation - the SENKO Cup has an amateur tournament, in which our players play in rather rapid games over a single day; and a pro tournament, with the top 4 Japanese female pro players, Korea, Taiwan, China number ones, and the winner of the previous amateur SENKO Cup.
That's it!
Now, some practical information, and then we will wait for updates from Japan!
Let's cheer for our girls!
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WHERE TO FOLLOW
We'll update this section once we have more to share on that topic, SGFs and so on, or make a separate report. So stay tuned!Usually, games are broadcast on WBaduk (cyberoro) and possibly on Tygem as well, and pro games are commented live on TV channels, so you could follow on Nihon Ki in channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxvEKRavla4 or even Baduk TV.
AMATEUR SENKO CUP player list:
Rita Pocsai 5D (Hungary)
Manja Marz 4D (Germany)
Olesia Malko 4D (Ukraine)
Amy Song 5D (Australia)
Seowoo Wang 4D (USA)
Dawn Sum 4D (Singapore)
Paramita Sutheerat 2D+ (Thailand)
Yan Ying Tan 1k+ (Malaysia)
Tournament rules and schedule:
The tournament is a direct knock-out. Japanese rules of course, and time settings a bit complicated but NHK byo-yomi, so it's like 30 seconds per move and 10 times periods of 1 minute (but once you lose a period, the new first one becomes 30 seconds etc)
Played on March 14th
Round 1 - 10:00 Japanese time (2:00 AM CET)
Semi-finals - 13:00 Japanese time (5:00 AM CET)
Final: 15:30 Japanese time (7:30 CET).
Pro SENKO CUP player list:
Rina Fujisawa 7p (Japan)
Asami Ueno 6p (Japan)
Jing Yi Wang 4p (Japan)
Risa Ueno 3p (Japan)
Jiawen Tang 6p (China)
Jeong Choi 9p (Korea)
Yu Hua Lu 5p (Taiwan)
Quynh Anh Ha 6d (Vietnam, winner of the Amateur SENKO Cup 2024)
Tournament rules and schedule:
2 hours main time and periods of 60 seconds for the last 5 minutes.
Round 1 - March 14th, 11:00 (3:00 AM CET)
Semi-Finals - March 15th, same
Final and small final: March - 16th, same
More information (Japanese): https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/special/senkocup/2025/