Fujisawa Rina

Fujisawa Rina (藤沢里菜) is a Japanese professional 7-dan female go player, former prodigy, and currently (Jan 2024) the #2 female player in Japan. She has won the second most Women's titles—24, exceeded only by Xie Yimin's 27.

According to the 2024-01-02 rating update, Fujisawa is the #2 ranked female player in Japan (behind only Ueno Asami), #40 overall in Japan, #9 ranked female and #252 overall in the world. In the rating lists of 2022-01-01 and 2021-01-01, she was #4 female in the world and #1 female in Japan.

Table of contents Early life Title matches 2010s 2020s Victories over all-time greats Head-to-head scores against current female rivals Family Links Promotion record Career record: Books Videos Pictures

Early life

Rina was born 1998-09-18 in Tokyo, and passed a pro exam in 2010 while in the fifth grade of elementary school. On April 1st 2010, she received her professional diploma at the age of 11 years and 6 months, making her then the youngest person in Japan to become a professional ^[1].

The previous record was held by Cho Chikun who became a professional when he was 11 years 9 months old. Cho played a game with her to mark the occasion, and in a video commentary of her game with Rin Kanketsu in the NHK Cup, 2015, Cho said that she had a great future and could play any style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-Y1p2ZQDq0 Rina's record of youngest professional stood for 9 years until Nakamura Sumire broke it aged 10 years and 1 month in April 2019.

Fujisawa began learning Go at the age of 6 and studied under the tutelage of Hong Malk-eun Saem. She was promoted to 2 dan in 2013-02-14 (30 wins as 1 dan).

Rina started 2014 with 9 consecutive wins (as of 2014-02-15), extending her winning streak to 9 games.

Title matches

2010s

In 2014, she was part of Japan team at the 4th Huang Longshi Shuang Deng Cup. She won against Song Ronghui in the fourth game, but lost to Kim Hye-min in the fifth game. In the same year, she became the youngest Women's Honinbo in Go history by defeating Mukai Chiaki (title holder) 3–0 in the 33rd title match, at the age of 16 years and 1 month old. She lost the title to Xie Yimin 3–2 the next year, then regained it 3–1 the following year. Fujisawa has now won the Women's Honinbo title six times.

She was the winner of the 1st Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup (2014), beating Okuda Aya by resignation.

In 2016, Fujisawa won the 2nd Ibero-Japan Cup?, an U-18 tournament open to both sexes, the second female winner after Xie Yimin.

In 2017, she probably became the strongest female player in Japan. In March, Fujisawa won the Female Meijin, beating title-holder Xie Yimin 2–0, ending her streak of 9 wins in a row. In June, she beat the same opponent 2–1 to win the Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup (Female Tachiaoi Cup), and next month she beat Xie again to win the Senko Cup.

In 2018, Fujisawa defended her Female Meijin by beating Yashiro Kumiko 2–0, and her Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup title by defeating Xie Yimin 2-1.

2020s

Fujisawa won the Women's Honinbo three times in a row: 2020–2022. She continued winning the Women's Meijin five times in a row, 2017–2022, making her an Honorary Female Meijin. But she lost the title in 2023 to Ueno Asami, a pupil of Rina's father Fujisawa Kazunari. She also made it five-in-a-row in the Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup, 2016–2021, losing the title in 2022, again to Ueno Asami. But Fujisawa beat Ueno to win the 2021 Female Strongest. Ueno Asami is now a serious rival to Fujisawa as Japan's top active female player, and has even overtaken her on the rating list.

Fujisawa became the second female winner of the Hiroshima Arumi Cup, after Xie Yimin 14 years previously. The next two years were won by her rival Ueno Asami.

Fujisawa's accuracy in yose was strong enough to receive the nickname “Rina Zero”, a play on Leela Zero (Japanese: リーラ・ゼロ “Rīra Zero”). Fujisawa's strength in the final stage is “Rina Zero”. Women's Go regains Honinbo, nicknamed for accuracy of Yose, Asahi Shimbun Digital, 30 Nov 2020

In 2022, Fujisawa won her 5th Female Meijin title in a row by defending against the girl prodigy Nakamura Sumire, winning 2–0. But in 2023, she lost the title to Ueno Asami 0–2.

In 2023/4, Fujisawa won all her games in the 35th Female Meijin challengers to win the right to challenge the defending champion, Ueno Asami. Fujisawa regained the Female Meijin title, her sixth, by beating Ueno 2–0.

As can be seen from photos below, Fujisawa has a big-sisterly friendship with many younger leading female players. She is especially friendly with Jo Bun'en and with Nakamura Sumire, whom she mentored since she was very young.

Victories over all-time greats

(Based on Fujisawa Rina, Go Ratings and game list), as of 17 Apr 2024

In official games since 2010, Fujisawa has taken games off some of the greatest of a previous generation, e.g.:

• Cho Chikun: 2–1
• Takemiya Masaki: 1–0
• O Meien: 4–3
• Kono Rin: 2–1
• Yamashita Keigo: 1–1
• Cho U: 2–3
• Komatsu Hideki: 1–0
• Shibano Toramaru: 1–2
• Takao Shinji: 2–2
• Ichiriki Ryo: 2–13

Fujisawa has beaten some of the greatest female players of older generations. E.g. on 10 Feb 2011, she beat Ogawa Tomoko (aged 12 and 59), and on 13 Jan 2013, she beat Sugiuchi Kazuko (aged 14 and 85!).

Head-to-head scores against current female rivals

• Xie Yimin, 7p, her predecessor as #1 female in Japan: 27–16
• Ueno Asami, 5p, according to rating list, #5 female and #200 overall in the world, and #1 female and #27 overall in Japan: 22–17
• Ueno Risa, 2p, Asami's younger sister, #21 female and #3 female teenager in world, #3 female in Japan, [Female Kisei: 8–3
• Nakamura Sumire, 3p, girl prodigy, #22 ranked female and #4 female teenager in the world, #4 ranked female in Japan, once Female Kisei: 4–3
• Aoki Kikuyo, 8p, 5× Women's Meijin, 4× Women's Kakusei, once Female Kisei: 4–2
• Yoshida Mika, 8p, 4× Women's Honinbo, 4× Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Women's Kakusei: 1–0
• Chinen Kaori, 6p, 5× Female Kisei, 4× Women's Honinbo: 4–0
• Kobayashi Izumi, 7p, 3× Female Honinbo], 3× Female Meijin, 2× Female Kisei, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 1–0
• Kato Keiko, 6p, once Women's Meijin, once Female Strongest: 3–1
• Yashiro Kumiko, 6p, 2× Women's Honinbo, 3–0
• Umezawa Yukari, 6p, 3× Female Kisei: 1–0
• Suzuki Ayumi, 7p, #7 female in Japan, #33 female in world, twice Female Strongest, once Female Kisei: 10–1
• Koyama Terumi, 6p, 4× Women's Meijin: 3–0
• Nyu Eiko, 4p, 2× Female Strongest: 7–0
• Konishi Kazuko, 8p, once Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 1–0
• Mukai Chiaki, 6p, once Women's Honinbo: 9–2
• Mannami Kana, 4p, 2× Female Kisei: 1–0
• Mannami Nao, 4p, Kana's younger sister, once Female Strongest: 3–1
• Joanne Missingham, 7p, aka Hei Jiajia, #1 female in Taiwan, #39 female in world: 4–3
• Yang Zixuan, #2 female in Taiwan: 4–2
• Rui Naiwei, 9p, long-time world female #1: 1–0
• Choi Jeong, 9p, current Korean and World #1 female: 4–12
• Yu Zhiying, 6p, current China #1 and World #2 female: 3–10
• Zhou Hongyu, 7p, current World #4 female: 2–4
• Lu Minquan, 6p, #6 female in world, #3 female in China: 1–1
• Song Ronghui, 5p, #49 female in world: 3–0
• Li He, 5p, #10 female in world, #4 female in China: 2–4
• Wu Yiming, 4p, #11 female and #2 female teenager in world, #5 female in China: 0–0
• Cho Hyeyeon, 9p, once World #1 and often World #2 behind Rui Naiwei: 1–2
• Kim Chaeyeong, 8p, #8 female in world, #4 female in South Korea, once Women's Kuksu, 3–1
• Kim Dayoung, 5p, Kim Chaeyeong's younger sister, #27 ranked female in the world and #9 female in Korea: 0–1
• O Yujin, 9p, #7 female in world, #3 female in South Korea: 1–5
• Cho Seunga, 6p, #12 ranked female player and #304 overall, and #5 ranked player in Korea: 2–0
• Wang Chenxing, 5p, #16 female in world, #8 female in China: 3–4
• Kim Hye-min, 9p, #25 female in the world, #8 female player in Korea: 0–3
• Kim Eunji, 9p, the highest rated female teenager in the world, and #3 ranked of all female players (as of 2023-12-22): 0–1
• O Jeonga, 5p: 1–4
• Kim Eunsun, 4p: 1–1

Family

• Daughter of Fujisawa Kazunari.
• Granddaugther of Fujisawa Hideyuki.

Links

• Mainichi article (Japanese) on Fujisawa Rina's promotion to 1-dan professional
• Nihon Ki-in player profile
• Article on debut match. (dead link) Archived version of article
• Fujisawa Rina, Japanese Wikipedia
• Fujisawa Rina, Twitter/X

Promotion record

• 2 dan in 2015
• 3 dan in 2017
• 4 dan in 2020
• 5 dan in 2021
• 6 dan in 2022
• 7 dan in 2023

Career record:

• 2010: 13 games, 6-7
• 2011: 23 games, 8-15
• 2012: 26 games, 13-13
• 2013: 36 games, 23-13
• 2014: 58 games, 42-16

[1] : Nihon Ki-in professional selection slot for female players used to have a restriction: the player must be 15 years or older. This restriction was abolished in 2003, and Fujisawa became the first professional for whom the new rules applied.

Books

• 藤沢里菜実戦集 ―女流四冠への軌跡― (Fujisawa Rina match collection - path to 4 women's crowns). Includes self-commentary, commentary by Takao Shinji, pictures, and articles.

Videos

A pre-game YouTube link and post-game YouTube link interviews (both her and Oh Yujin before and after 2023 Korean Women Baduk Team's evaluational matches against invited players from Japan and China in August 2023.

Pictures

fujisawa rina female meijin 2021 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

fujisawa rina li he asian games 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

Fujisawa Rina posing with the new star Nakamura Sumire during the latter's early years.

From bottom left, clockwise: Ueno Asami, Nakamura Sumire, Fujisawa Rina, Nyu Eiko, and Ueno Risa (Image credit: Fujisawa Rina Twitter)

From back to front of the line: Nyu Eiko, Nakamura Sumire, Ueno Risa, Fujisawa Rina, and Ueno Asami (2023) (Image credit: Fujisawa Rina Twitter)

Front, left to right: Jo Bun'en, Fujisawa Rina, Ueno Asami, and Ueno Risa (2023) (Image credit: Fujisawa Rina Twitter)

Ueno Asami selfie with (L→R) Mukai Chiaki, Ueno Risa, Nakamura Sumire, and Fujisawa Rina, Tachioi Cup, 2023 (Image credit: nikkansports.com

Fujisawa Rina (right) travelling with her good friend Jo Bun'en, (31 Dec 2023) (Image credit: Fujisawa Rina Twitter)