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Junko
Nakamura | Mrs. Nakamura Defeats Mr. Nakamura To Become 36th Japanese
Backgammon Champion
10
November 2006
by Kazuhiko Shiotani
The final of this year's Japan
Backgammon Championship was held between Junko Nakamura and Yukio
Nakamura, with Junko defeating her two-time Japan Champion husband
to become the first woman to take the title. There were 128 entries
for this year's Championship class. Junko is currently ranked 24th
in Japan while her husband is ranked 6th.
This was the second
time in JBL history that wife and husband met at the final of the
championship, the first time was 21 years ago when Mr. Kazuhiro
Shino (semi-finalist at this years world championships) won the
title in 1985.
In an interview with the Japanese Backgammon
League (JBL) Monthly Magazine, Junko said;" I have been playing the
game for more than 20 years. I remember seeing that final in 1985
and thinking to myself how great it would be if I could play my
husband at the final like that. But when I actually sat across the
table from Yukio before the match started, it felt awkward and I
could not get my motivation up. I asked him how he was handling it
and he said, "We are both representing all the players we beat along
the way and so we should do our best to focus on winning." That made
me feel much better and I ended up winning the match."
The
fist prize for the Championship will be a fully paid trip to the
World Championships in Monaco next year. The Nakamura family has
been busy traveling recently as 12 year old daughter Yuri won the
beginner's class in 2005 to win a trip to Norway which her mother
chaperoned. On the prize, Junko said, "I am happy that I can go for
myself this time."
When asked about what the next goal was
for the Nakamura family was, Junko said "To have one of our
daughters win the intermediate and have a championship in all
classes."
The Backgammon Festival was held from October 6th
to 9th in the Nakano Sunplaza attracting 600 people from all over
Japan as well as abroad. One of our guests from the United States
was Japan Open Consolation B winner Paul Weaver who also hosted a
lecture to introduce his new book "Backgammon Openings Book A" which
he recently finished writing with Nack Ballard. Jake Jacobs also
joined us again this year and won the Monte Carlo Open side event.
Winner of the Japan Open was Kazuhide Niki, who is currently
ranked 2nd in Japan, won a well deserved first major title.
Photo Gallery
 Japanese 2006 Champion Junko Nakamura
Japanese 2006 Champion Junko
Nakamura
Japanese 2006 Runner-Up Yukio
Nakamura
 Nakamura Family
 Japan Open 2006 Winner Kazuhide Niki
 Japan Open 2006 Finalist Susumu Mizutani
 Japan Open 2006 Final Match
 Japan
Open 2006 Final Match
Results of the Main
Events
Japan Championship and Open
2006
(Oct 6-9,Nakano Sunplaza. All entry numbers
include re-entries)
Japanese
Championships
Championship Class
(128)
1-Junko Nakamura
2-Yukio Nakamura,
3/4-Masayuki Mochizuki/Tsuyoshi
Minakami
Intermediate Class (128)
1-Yu-suke Itagaki
2-Kazuma Ishioka
3/4-Yu-ki
Takahashi/Hiroyuki Mori
Beginner Class (128)
1-Yasushi Itoh
2-Kumi Naka
3/4-Morio Takeda/Tsutomu
Suzuki
Japan Open
(53)
Main:
1-Kazuhide Niki
2-Susumu Mizutani
3/4-Masayuki Mochizuki/Yousuke Takahashi
Consolation A: 1-Hironobu Yazawa, 2-Kazuhiko Yotsushika
Consolation B: 1-Paul Weaver, 2-Masahiko
Nasu
Team Match (16Team)
1-Komagome BG
(Akiko Abe & Takumitsu Suzuki & Sinichiroh Kaneko &
Hironobu Yazawa)
2-Nerima(Raizoh Ishizuka & Takashi Uno
& Ryuzoh Suzuki & Chitose Okamura)
Consolation: 1-Team
Dice (Masakazu Matsushima & Teruyuki Suzuki & Takeshi Yorita
& Miwa Hashizume)
Ladies Tournament(16)
1-Michiko Matsumiya
2-Hiromi Funahashi
3-Aoi Wakayama
4-Yuriko Kondoh
Mixed Doubles (32Pairs)
1-Shinichiroh Kaneko & Hiromi Funahashi
2-Tomoko Tachikawa & Masahiro Yamaguchi
Blitz
(80)
1-Hironobu Yazawa
2-Yuji
Sumi
Round Robin (62)
1-Keiichi Sasaki
2-Tadanori Nakayama
3-Kanta Terao
1p Match
(128)
1-Raizoh Ishizuka
2-Takashi
Uno
Monte Carlo Tournament (32)
1-Jake
Jacobs
2-Nozomu Kawazoe
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