Senko Cup

(SENKO CUPワールド碁女流最強戦) The Senko Cup or SENKO Cup (known on Go4Go as the Senko Cup World Go Women's Championship) ^[1] is an international tournament for female professionals, held since 2018. Note that there is a domestic Senko Cup (Female Strongest) started in 2016.

It’s an eight player knockout with a third place decision match. The 3rd and 4th editions were played online.

See the Go to Everyone! section for more information.

Ueno Asami’s victory in the 4th edition was the first time that a Japanese woman won an international tournament.

Her younger sister Ueno Risa repeated the feat in the 7th Edn.

7th Edn

Format and prizes

8-player single-game knockout, as usual. The time control is 2 hours for each player, with 5 1-minute byoyomi.

The prizes were among the highest for any women’s championship: Winner: 10 million yen (about $US62,000), Runner-up: ¥3M ($US20k), 3rd place ¥2M ($US13.5k), and 4th place ¥1M ($6.7k).

Results

The 7th Edn had a very uneven draw. All the top half had higher Dan rankings than all the bottom half. For example, the two finalists of the 7th Wu Qingyuan Cup, Ueno Asami 6p and Tang Jiawen met in the first round, with Tang gaining revenge (B+R). Choi Jung 9p beat Fujisawa Rina 7p in the first round with a dramatic comeback victory (B+R), then won the semifinal against Tang in a sharp game (B+R).

The final was contested between Choi Jung 9p and Ueno Risa 3p, the winner of the bottom half. It is the first time they have played an official game. Ueno had an upset win with some fine play (W+0.5). This was her first international title. According to Kobayashi Izumi 7p, the win was decided by a brilliant first line move (a monkey jump variant) that wiped out about 10 points of Choi’s right-side territory. Previously Choi looked to have a big territorial lead, but Ueno’s tesuji allowed her to win by half a point. Kobayashi wrote on her Twitter page:

Congratulations to Ueno Risa, the world’s best! ㊗️🎊✨

I was stunned by the ✨beautiful move that brought victory.

[1] John Power calls it the Senko Cup World Go Strongest Woman Player.

Photos

Official poster with all players in the 7th Senko Cup, 2025
Clockwise from top right: Ueno Asami, Lu Yuhua, Quynh Anh Ha, O Keii, Tang Jiawen, Choi Jung, Ueno Risa, Fujisawa Rina
(Image credit: nihonkiin.or.jp)