The European Shogi Championship 2026 took place in Paderborn from 6 to 9 August 2026. Over four intense days, six different tournaments were held, bringing together shogi players from across Europe and Japan.
The event began on Thursday with the Team Tournament, in which teams of three players competed against each other. With four match victories, JDF2, consisting of Jean Fortin, Dmitry Belous, and Frederik Wiethölter, won the tournament. Four teams finished with three match victories, with Army of Tokins taking second place and Sannin no Ocha finishing third.
In the evening, the Blitz Tournament followed, played with a reduced time control of eight minutes per player. Professional player Shohei Takada and honorary guest Noboru Kosaku from the Osaka University of Commerce participated in the tournament, giving their opponents handicaps of up to two pieces. In the end, three players shared six out of seven possible points. Anton Starykevich took first place, followed by Yusei Hijikata in second and Kensuke Tsutsui in third.
On Friday, the day began with the official opening ceremony. Special guests General Consul Yoshitaka Tsunoda from Düsseldorf, Shohei Takada, representing the Nihon Shogi Renmei, and Masahiro Kita, representing the International Shogi Popularisation Society, greeted the participants and wished them a successful tournament.
The European Shogi Championship itself was played over five rounds in a knockout format among the 32 strongest European participants. After four rounds, the finalists were Eduard Panko and Anton Starykevich. Despite Anton being the clear favourite based on rating, Eduard prevailed in the final and became European Shogi Champion 2026. In the match for third place, Thomas Leiter defeated Janik Kruse.
Friday also saw the final of the Kishin Tournament, in which eight pre-qualified players competed on the Shogi Wars app. Live commentary was provided by Yasushi Ishikawa and Frederik Wiethölter on YouTube, and many participants followed the livestream from the main playing hall. The Kishin final was contested between Anton Starykevich and Jean Fortin, with Anton winning the match. In the third-place match, Janik Kruse defeated Kanta Okuda.
Introduction of the 8 finalists :
Live stream :
This year also marked the debut of the Rising Dragons Cup, a new tournament for kyu players with a rating below 1460. A total of 22 players competed for the trophies. Raaf van Beusekom dominated the tournament with a perfect winning streak, finishing with nine out of nine possible points. Three players followed with seven points each, with Yin Linglun taking second place and Nikodim Marinov finishing third.
The World Open Shogi Championship remained open until the very end, with several important decisions being made in the final round. Anton Borysov entered the last round one point ahead of the field and faced tournament favourite Anton Starykevich. In an intense battle, Anton Borysov ultimately emerged victorious. With eight out of nine possible points, he secured the title of World Open Shogi Champion. Frederyk Makolski-Toho and Dmitry Belous followed with seven victories each.
During the traditional dinner on Saturday evening, participants had the opportunity to discuss the championships, play shogi and shogi variants, and enjoy other board games. As a special event, teaching professional Tetsuaki Sanada played a chess and shogi match against chess grandmaster Emil Mirzoiev. Both games were closely contested, but in the end, the match ended 1-1, each player defeating their opponent in their respective stronger game.
A special thanks goes to the organising team from Shogi Deutschland, led by Uwe Frischmuth, Daniel Többens, Richard Rödel, Oliver Orschiedt, and Janik Kruse. Many thanks also go to Mariusz Stanaszek and Justyna Zawadzka from Poland, who supported the event as tournament directors for the Team Tournament and Rising Dragons Cup, respectively. We also thank our Japanese guests Shohei Takada, Noboru Kosaku, Yasushi Ishikawa, and Tetsuaki Sanada, who played teaching games with the participants and analysed their games.
Some more pictures here :
