Teenagers are making history in Japan in various walks of life: Tomokazu Harimoto in table tennis, Sota Fujii in Shogi and now Keisuke Fukuchi in Othello. Keisuke Fukuchi was just crowned King of Othello at 42nd
World Othello Championships in Plague, Czechoslovakia – the youngest ever to achieve the feat.

Tomokazu Harimoto is a rising super player in table tennis at age 15 and a near cinch for gold medal in 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He hits the fastest ball ever at his age and downed a while back the current top-ranker, Fan Zhendong of China, who later confided Harimoto would inevitably be a formidable threat to China.

Sota Fujii, 15, is a prodigy with virtually no contemporaries to challenge his might in the game of Shogi. He is already a 7-dan ranker – the youngest ever to rise to that height. Like Harimoto, he is a near cinch for major title holder rather soon.

Now, this feat in Othello is rather hard for me to comment on since I do not play the game and can only assume the gravity of Tukuchi’s feat by an amusing episode that goes as follows:

Keisuke was on board a triumphant flight back home off the Dusseldorf Airport, when the captain made an ad hoc message:

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are honored to have the new Othello world champion on board this flight in the person of Keisuke Fukuchi….”

Passengers responded with warm smiles and searching glances at the 11-year-old boy from Japan now reigning the world of Othello. Captain went on to make a rather astounding comment to highlight the occasion:

“Fukuchi-kun just broke my own record marked in 1982 at age 15 b by a rather large margin. My heartfelt congratulations!”

Captain Kunihiko Tanita made himself the world’s youngest Othello champion at age 15 in 1982. Captain Tanita was himself a Othello legend and just had his record held for 36 years now broken by 11-year-old Keisuke Fukuchi. Tanita and Fukuchi have played four games so far and split 2-2.

The entire flight was a package of enthusiastic applauses. Tanita and Fukuchi greeted face to face after landing. Captain Tanita told his 11-year-old rival not to “feel bad about breaking my record”.

—Sponsered Link—