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 KeyTeams to Playoffs Pool A W L PF PA 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 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

Draw 2 Friday, December 1, 1:00 pm

Draw 3 Friday, December 1, 5:00 pm

Draw 4 Saturday, December 2, 9:00 am

Draw 5 Saturday, December 2, 1:00 pm

Playoffs

Source:

Semifinals Saturday, December 2, 5:00 pm

Third place game Sunday, December 3, 9:00 am

Final Sunday, December 3, 1:00 pm

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 You-been 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 KeyTeams to Playoffs Pool A W L PF PA 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 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 You-been 0 3 7 23 98.52