THE POWER REPORT: Ueno Risa defends 28th Women’s Kisei; Korea wins 26th Nongshim Cup; Shin Jinseo wi
Chris Garlock | Published on 10/13/2025
Mid-Year 2025 Update #2
Ueno Risa defends 28th Women’s Kisei
Ueno Risa (born on June 24, 2006) is the younger sister of Ueno Asami (born on October 26, 2001), who, along with Fujisawa Rina, has dominated women’s go in Japan in the last six or seven years. In January last year Risa won the Dokomo Cup Women’s Kisei title from Nakamura Sumire, so she achieved parity with her sister as a title-holder (this match was Sumire’s farewell to Japan).
In 2025, the challenger for this title was Mukai Chiaki 6-dan, who won the Women’s Honinbo title in 2013. Born on December 24, 1987, Mukai has been doing well recently; her record in 2024 was an excellent 30 wins to 16 losses; so far this year, it’s a respectable 20-14. Mukai started well in the title match, taking the lead in the first game, but then she suffered an upset. The second game was a convincing win for the defender. First prize is 5,000,000 yen (about $33,806 at $1 = 147.9 yen). Results follow:
Game 1 (Jan. 16). Ueno (B) won by resig. (Played at the Hotel Sunlife Garden
in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture.)
Game 2 (Jan. 23). Ueno (W) won by resig. (Played in the Ryusei Studio in the
basement of the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo.)
Korea wins 26th Nongshim Cup
It’s very hard to beat Korea in a team tournament if they are fielding their ace player Shin Jinseo. The third and final round of the 26th Nongshim Spicy Noodles Cup was held in Shanghai in mid-February. At this stage, Japan had one player left, China three, and Korea two. The tournament 
went the full distance, but, thanks to Shin, Korea won it for the fifth time in a row. His task was not as great as in the 25th cup, when he beat six players in a row.
Results follow:
Game 10 (Feb. 17). Shibano Toramaru 9-dan (Japan) (B) beat Xie Erhao 9-dan
(China) by resig.
Game 11 (Feb. 18). Park Junghwan 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Shibano by resig.
Game 12 (Feb. 19). Li Jianhao 9-dan (China) (W) beat Park by resig.
Game 13 (Feb. 20). Shin Jinseo 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Li by resig.
Game 14 (Feb. 21). Shin (W) beat Ding Hao 9-dan (China) by resig.
Shin has now won 12 games in a row in this tournament. Korea has won the
tournament 17 times.
Shin Jinseo wins 1st Nanyang Cup
The 1st Nanyang Cup World Weiqi Masters is a new international tournament organized jointly by the China Weiqi Association and the Singapore Weiqi Association. First prize is 250,000 Singapore dollars ($195,000; at $1S = 80 cents US).
This tournament has been reported on in detail on the net, including in this journal. Here I record just the details of the best-of-three final. In Game 1 (Feb. 26), Shin Jinseo 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Wang Xinghao 9-dan (China) by resig. in Game 2 (Feb. 28), Shin (B) beat Wang by resig.
Tomorrow: Ichiriki defends 49th Kisei title; Ueno Risa wins SENKO CUP; Yo Seiki wins NHK Cup