World Othello Championship

The World Othello Championship typically takes place over several days and determines titles including the World Othello Champion, the Women’s World Othello Champion, the Youth World Othello Champion, and team champions. The tournament format usually includes multiple rounds of play where competitors meet in a Swiss or round‑robin system to determine final standings.^[2]

The championship is open to players from all WOF member nations, with federations entitled to send a set number of competitors. In recent years the number of participants has reached around 90–100 players, reflecting the growing global interest in competitive Othello. The event is also often hosted in conjunction with other WOF activities such as annual general meetings or confederation events.^[3]

The first World Othello Championship was contested in Tokyo, Japan in 1977, with Hiroshi Inoue becoming the inaugural world champion. Early editions of the tournament featured a small number of competitors, but by the late 1980s the event expanded to include players from over 20 countries and added team competition categories.^[1]

Throughout its history, the World Othello Championship has been hosted in a variety of countries and regions. For example, the 2024 championship was held in Hangzhou, China, where Seiya Kurita emerged as the World Othello Champion after finishing atop the standings in a field of international competitors.^[4]

Over time the organisation of the championship became more formalised under the World Othello Federation, which was established in 2005 to promote the game worldwide and oversee international competitions. The WOF continues to coordinate the annual championship along with regional and confederation Othello events to foster competitive play at all levels.^[5]

The World Othello Championship (WOC), which started in 1977, was first organized by the Japan Othello Association. From 1978 until 2004, the World Othello Championship was organized by the Othello TD group and Anjar Co. In 2005, the World Othello Federation took over the responsibility for the WOC.

From 1977 to 1986, each country could send one player to participate in the WOC. From 1987, each country could send up to three players to participate. In 1987, the title WOC team championship started. In 2005, a female championship category was added to the WOC. From 2006, each World Othello Federation member could send a full team of up to four players. In 2016, a youth champion title was added to the WOC.^[6] The WOC was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More information Year, Location ...

Year	Location	World Champion	Team	Runner-up	Female Champion	Youth Champion
1977	Tokyo	Hiroshi Inoue	—N/a	Thomas Heiberg	—N/a	—N/a
1978	New York City	Hidenori Maruoka	—N/a	Carol Jacobs	—N/a	—N/a
1979	Rome	Hiroshi Inoue	—N/a	Jonathan Cerf	—N/a	—N/a
1980	London	Jonathan Cerf	—N/a	Takuya Mimura	—N/a	—N/a
1981	Brussels	Hidenori Maruoka	—N/a	Brian Rose	—N/a	—N/a
1982	Stockholm	Kunihiko Tanida	—N/a	David Shaman	—N/a	—N/a
1983	Paris	Ken'Ichi Ishii	—N/a	Imre Leader	—N/a	—N/a
1984	Melbourne	Paul Ralle	—N/a	Ryoichi Taniguchi	—N/a	—N/a
1985	Athens	Masaki Takizawa	—N/a	Paolo Ghirardato	—N/a	—N/a
1986	Tokyo	Hideshi Tamenori	—N/a	Paul Ralle	—N/a	—N/a
1987	Milan	Ken'Ichi Ishii	United States	Paul Ralle	—N/a	—N/a
1988	Paris	Hideshi Tamenori	United Kingdom	Graham Brightwell	—N/a	—N/a
1989	Warsaw	Hideshi Tamenori	United Kingdom	Graham Brightwell	—N/a	—N/a
1990	Stockholm	Hideshi Tamenori	France	Didier Piau	—N/a	—N/a
1991	New York City	Shigeru Kaneda	United States	Paul Ralle	—N/a	—N/a
1992	Barcelona	Marc Tastet	United Kingdom	David Shaman	—N/a	—N/a
1993	London	David Shaman	United States	Emmanuel Caspard	—N/a	—N/a
1994	Paris	Masaki Takizawa	France	Karsten Feldborg	—N/a	—N/a
1995	Melbourne	Hideshi Tamenori	United States	David Shaman	—N/a	—N/a
1996	Tokyo	Takeshi Murakami	United Kingdom	Stéphane Nicolet	—N/a	—N/a
1997	Athens	Makoto Suekuni	United Kingdom	Graham Brightwell	—N/a	—N/a
1998	Barcelona	Takeshi Murakami	France	Emmanuel Caspard	—N/a	—N/a
1999	Milan	David Shaman	Japan	Tetsuya Nakajima	—N/a	—N/a
2000	Copenhagen	Takeshi Murakami	United States	Brian Rose	—N/a	—N/a
2001	New York City	Brian Rose	United States	Raphael Schreiber	—N/a	—N/a
2002	Amsterdam	David Shaman	United States	Ben Seeley	—N/a	—N/a
2003	Stockholm	Ben Seeley	Japan	Makoto Suekuni	—N/a	—N/a
2004	London	Ben Seeley	United States	Makoto Suekuni	—N/a	—N/a
2005	Reykjavík	Hideshi Tamenori	Japan	Kwangwook Lee	Hisako Kinoshita	—N/a
2006	Mito	Hideshi Tamenori	Japan	Makoto Suekuni[7]	Toshimi Tsuji	—N/a
2007	Athens	Kenta Tominaga	Japan	Stéphane Nicolet	Yukiko Tatsumi	—N/a
2008	Oslo	Michele Borassi	Japan	Tamaki Miyaoka	Liya Ye	—N/a
2009	Ghent	Yusuke Takanashi	Japan	Matthias Berg	Mei Urashima	—N/a
2010	Rome	Yusuke Takanashi	Japan	Michele Borassi	Jiska Helmes	—N/a
2011	Newark	Hiroki Nobukawa	Japan	Piyanat Aunchulee	Jian Cai	—N/a
2012	Leeuwarden	Yusuke Takanashi	Japan	Kazuki Okamoto	Veronica Stenberg	—N/a
2013	Stockholm	Kazuki Okamoto	Japan	Piyanat Aunchulee	Katie Wu	—N/a
2014	Bangkok	Makoto Suekuni	Japan	Ben Seeley	Joanna William	—N/a
2015	Cambridge	Yusuke Takanashi	Japan	Makoto Suekuni	Yoko Sano Rose	—N/a
2016	Mito	Piyanat Aunchulee	Japan	Yan Song	Zhen Dong	Masaki Wada
2017	Ghent	Yusuke Takanashi	Japan	Akihiro Takahashi	Misa Sugawara	Akihiro Takahashi
2018	Prague	Keisuke Fukuchi	Japan	Piyanat Aunchulee	Misa Sugawara	Keisuke Fukuchi
2019	Tokyo	Akihiro Takahashi	Japan	Yusuke Takanashi	Joanna William	Akihiro Takahashi
2020	Cancelled
2021	Cancelled
2022[8]	Paris	Kento Urano	Japan	Arthur Juigner	Katie Pihlajapuro	Fuyumi Okudaira
2023[9]	Rome	Yasushi Nagano	Japan	Rujipas Aunchulee	Hisako Kinoshita	Osuke Kawazoe
2024[10]	Hangzhou	Seiya Kurita	Japan	Yusuke Takanashi	Hisako Kinoshita	Yo Tomita
2025[11]	Ankara	Seiya Kurita	Japan	Yusuke Takanashi	Miu Hisamatsu	Calvin Koh Ding Sheng

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