On 13–18 August 2025 Moscow hosted the I International Forum “Karate and Society” and the I World Masters Cup — an international event under the motto “Friendship without borders”. The Forum gathered at the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples (RUDN) the teachers and mentors, the holders of black belts from 37 countries, for the exchange of pedagogical and cultural experience; the competition, the World Masters Cup, took place in the Irina Viner Gymnastics Palace in Luzhniki, one of the most modern venues in the capital.
According to the organizers, the competition was attended by 190 masters from 18 countries as part of more than 20 kyokushinkai federations and organizations. The fights and demonstrations were held in 5 disciplines — kumite, kata, tameshivari, bunkai and iken hisatsu kumite — across 45 categories, split by age (from 18 to 70), weight and gender. The organizers were the Russian Federation of Kyokushin Karate (SKKR), the “Open Kyokushin” alliance and the “BRICS House” (ANO).
The main idea of the event is a tribute to the teacher and attention to the role of the mentor in society: to bring together the masters who chose the path of the mentor. The Forum hosted an international conference on karate as a system of education and a cultural phenomenon that goes beyond the borders of countries. RUDN — a university with students from 170 countries — provided the conference hall and the simultaneous interpretation; each participant received a bilingual journal with the Forum materials, and the Forum concluded with the adoption of the Resolution.
The Forum also initiated the new international project “Cities of Sports Brotherhood”, the first agreement for which was signed at the general session, as well as the cooperation agreement between the Russian Federation of Kyokushin Karate and the “BRICS House” international public-business center.
The competition was held under the rules of the founder, Oya Masutatsu, identical to the rules of the Kyokushin Union, Kyokushin Pro, WKO, Shinkyokushin, So-Kyokushin, Zen-Kyokushin and Kyokushin Kenbukai organizations. The overall supervision of the Cup and the master classes was carried out by the “United Presidium” — the heads of the international organizations and the international-category referees.
The honorary ambassadors of the Forum and the Cup were four masters from different regions: Boris Morgunov (Russia) — the holder of the USSR Cup, a professor of the Higher School of Economics, 3 dan; Tadzhiburmat Naizabekov (Asia) — the president of the All-Kazakhstan Kyokushinkai Karate Organization, 7 dan; Bas van Stenis (Africa) — 8 dan, Cape Town, South Africa; Viktor Collao (South America) — the head of the national Kyokushin Karate organization of Chile, 6 dan.
The feature of the competition was a large color information scoreboard that showed the information from four tatami at the same time: the current category, the number and the names of the fighters, the score and the timer — all in real time. For the hall it was a real “wow-effect”: the audience and the coaches could see all four tatami on a single screen. The scoreboard was powered by the Tournament Expert software.
A close-up recording of the scoreboard:
For the accurate draw, the stable timing and the fast final results, the Cup was served by the Tournament Expert software. The system built the kumite and the kata brackets automatically, taking into account the age, weight and gender categories, and “spread” the fighters of one club across the different parts of the bracket so they would not meet in the first rounds. The electronic secretariat and the digital scoreboards helped the referees keep the pace, while the participants and the coaches could see the call order in real time. The bracket and the results are available on the Tournament Expert portal.
The Tournament Expert development team is grateful to the organizers — the Russian Federation of Kyokushin Karate, the “Open Kyokushin” alliance and the “BRICS House” — for the trust and for the choice of our system to support such a large international event. It is a great honor for us that our work was seen by the audience from dozens of countries at the venue of a world Forum and a world Cup of the masters.
Format: international event (Forum + competition)
Organizers: the Russian Federation of Kyokushin Karate (SKKR), the “Open Kyokushin” alliance, the “BRICS House” (ANO)
Location: Russia, Moscow, Luzhniki — the Irina Viner Gymnastics Palace; the Forum — at RUDN
Dates: 13–18 August 2025 | the World Masters Cup — 16 August, start 09:00
Disciplines: kumite, kata, tameshivari, bunkai, iken hisatsu kumite
Thanks to all the masters, the coaches, the referees and the organizing committee — see you at the next tournament!
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