Selection Criteria for Japan Chess Championship 2025

We will select the qualifiers for Japan Chess Championship 2025 according to the following criteria.

 

  1. Top 5 players from Japan Chess Championship 2024, and top female, top senior and top junior player.
  2. Top player in Japan Rapid Chess Championship 2024
  3. Top 5 players in Japan Chess Classic 2024
  4. Top 2 players in Japan Women’s Chess Championship 2024
  5. Top 2 players in Japan Senior Chess Championship 2024
  6. Top 5 players in Japan Open 2024
  7. Top 2 players in University Chess Championship 2024
    *For A through G, if the top player does not have a Japanese FIDE ID, the top player with a Japanese FIDE ID will also qualify. (We have deleted this statement this year.)
  8. Chess Olympiad 2024 members
  9. Top 20 players listed on January 2025 National Rating list
    (Active players only. (Note 1) Excluding qualified players from above A through H)
  10. One player for every 8 participants (including the players who had already qualified) at all qualifying tournaments held in 2025
    – One player for every 6 participants will be qualified outside the Kanto region.
    – If a qualified player declines, there will be no substitution.
    – In the Kanto region qualifiers, one of the aforementioned seed rights can be allocated to a participant under the “Jimotowaku.” (Note 2)
    – For qualifiers outside the Kanto region, in addition to the mentioned seed rights, 1 participant can receive seed rights under the “Jimotowaku” separately.
  11. Top players in Japan Youth Chess Championship 2025 in each U18, U16, and U14 category, with a win rate of 50% or higher
    *The above rules only apply to yearly members during the tournament or in the previous month of publication of the rating list. 1-time tournament members shall not be selected.

 

Notes

Note 1: Active Player – A player who has updated their national standard rating at least four times in the last 2 years between January 2023 and December 2024.
Note 2: Jimotowaku – A hosting club organizer can select one local participant as the extra qualifier.

 

If there is a discrepancy between English and Japanese, the Japanese version prevails.