# 2023 Karuizawa International Curling Championships

The 2023 Karuizawa International Curling Championships were held from December 1 to 3 at the Karuizawa Ice Park in Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan. The total purse for the event was ¥ 1,500,000 on both the men's and women's sides.
The 2023 event featured five previous champion skips: Yusuke Morozumi (2011, 2012 & 2017), Jennifer Jones (2011 & 2014), Kim Chang-min (2014), Yuta Matsumura (2019) and Kim Eun-jung (2022). Kaitlyn Lawes who won both championships with Jones returned skipping her own team.
In the men's final, Brad Gushue and his Canadian championship team of Mark Nichols, E. J. Harnden and Geoff Walker capped off an undefeated run by defeating Sapporo International University's Hayato Sato 7–1. The team from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador dominated the championship game, getting out to an early three-point lead and stealing two in the seventh end to secure the win. Niklas Edin took third in the men's division with a 9–3 thrashing of Karuizawa's Yusuke Morozumi.
In the women's final, Chubu Electric Power snapped the ten-game win streak of South Korea's Kim Eun-jung to win their first tour event of the 2023–24 season. The team, including skip Ikue Kitazawa, Seina Nakajima, Ami Enami, Minori Suzuki and Hasumi Ishigooka took control of the final game with three in the fourth end and held on for a 7–6 victory. Canada's Kaitlyn Lawes won 7–4 over Team Yoshimura, skipped by Yuna Kotani, to take third. Surprisingly, the top ranked team coming into the event, Team Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, went winless in their three games.

## Men
### Teams

The teams are listed as follows:
| Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Locale |
| Niklas Edin | Oskar Eriksson | Rasmus Wranå | Christoffer Sundgren | | Karlstad, Sweden |
| Brad Gushue | Mark Nichols | E. J. Harnden | Geoff Walker | | St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada |
| Kohsuke Hirata | Shingo Usui | Ryota Meguro | Yoshiya Miura | Kosuke Aita | Kitami, Japan |
| Juon Ishimura (Fourth) | Youn Ishimura (Skip) | Yuto Nakagawa | Shunki Kudo | Kuya Kawamura | Aomori, Japan |
| Kim Soo-hyuk (Fourth) | Kim Chang-min (Skip) | Kim Hak-kyun | Jeon Jae-ik | | Uiseong, South Korea |
| Yusuke Morozumi | Yuta Matsumura | Ryotaro Shukuya | Masaki Iwai | Kosuke Morozumi | Karuizawa, Japan |
| Kotaro Noguchi | Yuto Kamada | Hiroshi Kato | Yuki Yoshimura | Hiromasa Yonehara | Sendai, Japan |
| Go Aoki (Fourth) | Hayato Sato (Skip) | Kouki Ogiwara | Kazushi Nino | Ayato Sasaki | Sapporo, Japan |

### Round robin standings

Final Round Robin Standings
Key :
* Teams to Playoffs
| Pool A | W | L | PF | PA | DSC |
| Brad Gushue | 3 | 0 | 22 | 8 | 65.68 |
| Yusuke Morozumi | 1 | 2 | 19 | 17 | 14.13 |
| Kim Chang-min | 1 | 2 | 9 | 19 | 89.05 |
| Kohsuke Hirata | 1 | 2 | 14 | 20 | 112.43 |
| Pool B | W | L | PF | PA | DSC |
| Hayato Sato | 3 | 0 | 21 | 12 | 90.33 |
| Niklas Edin | 2 | 1 | 26 | 16 | 21.17 |
| Kotaro Noguchi | 1 | 2 | 15 | 22 | 86.03 |
| Youn Ishimura | 0 | 3 | 12 | 24 | 79.03 |

### Round robin results

All draw times are listed in Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).

#### Draw 1

Friday, December 1, 9:00 am
| Sheet A | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kotaro Noguchi | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | X | 9 |
| Youn Ishimura | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 5 |
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Niklas Edin | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | 6 |
| Hayato Sato | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | X | 9 |
| Sheet F | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kim Chang-min | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 2 |
| Brad Gushue | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | X | 6 |

#### Draw 2

Friday, December 1, 1:00 pm
| Sheet B | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Hayato Sato | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 6 |
| Youn Ishimura | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 3 |
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Final |
| Yusuke Morozumi | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Kim Chang-min | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 |

#### Draw 3

Friday, December 1, 5:00 pm
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Brad Gushue | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | X | X | 9 |
| Kohsuke Hirata | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | X | 2 |

#### Draw 4

Saturday, December 2, 9:00 am
| Sheet A | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Yusuke Morozumi | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | X | X | 10 |
| Kohsuke Hirata | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | X | 4 |
| Sheet B | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Hayato Sato | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Kotaro Noguchi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Sheet F | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Youn Ishimura | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | X | X | 4 |
| Niklas Edin | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | X | X | 9 |

#### Draw 5

Saturday, December 2, 1:00 pm
| Sheet A | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Niklas Edin | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | X | X | X | 11 |
| Kotaro Noguchi | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | X | X | X | 3 |
| Sheet B | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kohsuke Hirata | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | X | X | X | 8 |
| Kim Chang-min | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | X | X | 1 |
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Brad Gushue | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | X | 7 |
| Yusuke Morozumi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 |

### Playoffs

Source:
| Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final | Final |
| A1 | Brad Gushue | 6 | | | |
| B2 | Niklas Edin | 4 | | | |
| B2 | Niklas Edin | 4 | A1 | Brad Gushue | 7 |
| | | | B1 | Hayato Sato | 1 |
| B1 | Hayato Sato | 5 | B1 | Hayato Sato | 1 |
| A2 | Yusuke Morozumi | 2 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | B2 | Niklas Edin | 9 |
| | | | A2 | Yusuke Morozumi | 3 |

#### Semifinals

Saturday, December 2, 5:00 pm
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Hayato Sato | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 5 |
| Yusuke Morozumi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | X | 2 |
| Sheet F | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Brad Gushue | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Niklas Edin | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |

#### Third place game

Sunday, December 3, 9:00 am
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Niklas Edin | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | X | X | 9 |
| Yusuke Morozumi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | X | 3 |

#### Final

Sunday, December 3, 1:00 pm
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Brad Gushue | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | X | 7 |
| Hayato Sato | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 |

## Women
### Teams

The teams are listed as follows:
| Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Locale |
| Jennifer Jones | Karlee Burgess | Emily Zacharias | Lauren Lenentine | | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Kim Eun-jung | Kim Kyeong-ae | Kim Cho-hi | Kim Seon-yeong | Kim Yeong-mi | Gangneung, South Korea |
| Ikue Kitazawa | Seina Nakajima | Ami Enami | Minori Suzuki | Hasumi Ishigooka | Nagano, Japan |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | Selena Njegovan | Jocelyn Peterman | Kristin MacCuish | | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Park Yu-bin | Lee Eun-chae | Yang Seung-hee | Kim Ji-yoon | | Seoul, South Korea |
| Honoka Sasaki | Mari Motohashi | Miki Hayashi | Mayumi Saito | Yako Matsuzawa | Kitami, Japan |
| Miyu Ueno | Asuka Kanai | Junko Nishimuro | Yui Ueno | Mone Ryokawa | Karuizawa, Japan |
| Yuna Kotani | Kaho Onodera | Anna Ohmiya | Mina Kobayashi | | Sapporo, Japan |

### Round robin standings

Final Round Robin Standings
Key :
* Teams to Playoffs
| Pool A | W | L | PF | PA | DSC |
| Kim Eun-jung | 3 | 0 | 25 | 7 | 72.47 |
| Ikue Kitazawa | 2 | 1 | 21 | 21 | 63.43 |
| Honoka Sasaki | 1 | 2 | 16 | 27 | 82.35 |
| Jennifer Jones | 0 | 3 | 15 | 22 | 31.70 |
| Pool B | W | L | PF | PA | DSC |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | 3 | 0 | 19 | 10 | 49.32 |
| Team Yoshimura | 2 | 1 | 19 | 13 | 59.88 |
| Miyu Ueno | 1 | 2 | 15 | 14 | 41.28 |
| Park Yu-bin | 0 | 3 | 7 | 23 | 98.52 |

### Round robin results

All draw times are listed in Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).

#### Draw 1

Friday, December 1, 9:00 am
| Sheet B | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Miyu Ueno | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kim Eun-jung | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | X | X | 11 |
| Honoka Sasaki | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | X | 2 |

#### Draw 2

Friday, December 1, 1:00 pm
| Sheet A | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Team Yoshimura | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | X | 9 |
| Park Yu-bin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 |
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kim Eun-jung | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | X | X | 8 |
| Ikue Kitazawa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | X | X | 2 |
| Sheet F | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Final |
| Honoka Sasaki | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Jennifer Jones | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |

#### Draw 3

Friday, December 1, 5:00 pm
| Sheet B | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Final |
| Jennifer Jones | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Ikue Kitazawa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Team Yoshimura | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Sheet F | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Miyu Ueno | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | X | 7 |
| Park Yu-bin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 2 |

#### Draw 4

Saturday, December 2, 9:00 am
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Jennifer Jones | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 3 |
| Kim Eun-jung | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | X | 6 |
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Final |
| Ikue Kitazawa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Honoka Sasaki | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |

#### Draw 5

Saturday, December 2, 1:00 pm
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Team Yoshimura | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 6 |
| Miyu Ueno | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 3 |
| Sheet F | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Park Yu-bin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | X | 1 |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | X | X | 7 |

### Playoffs

Source:
| Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final | Final |
| A1 | Kim Eun-jung | 6 | | | |
| B2 | Team Yoshimura | 2 | | | |
| B2 | Team Yoshimura | 2 | A1 | Kim Eun-jung | 6 |
| | | | A2 | Ikue Kitazawa | 7 |
| B1 | Kaitlyn Lawes | 2 | A2 | Ikue Kitazawa | 7 |
| A2 | Ikue Kitazawa | 7 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | B2 | Team Yoshimura | 4 |
| | | | B1 | Kaitlyn Lawes | 7 |

#### Semifinals

Saturday, December 2, 5:00 pm
| Sheet B | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kim Eun-jung | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | X | 6 |
| Team Yoshimura | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 2 |
| Sheet C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 2 |
| Ikue Kitazawa | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | X | 7 |

#### Third place game

Sunday, December 3, 9:00 am
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Team Yoshimura | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | X | 4 |
| Kaitlyn Lawes | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 7 |

#### Final

Sunday, December 3, 1:00 pm
| Sheet E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
| Kim Eun-jung | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Ikue Kitazawa | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 |