Othello News April 2016

Swiss Othello Championship: Takuji Kashiwabara wins the tournament, Arthur Juigner is Swiss Othello Champion

Location: Vésenaz, Switzerland
Date: April 30th
Tourney format: 5 rounds and final
​Link: Swiss Othello Federation
​
We played a round-robin with Italian order (the stronger players play against each other for the last round). As expected, Takuji and Arthur ended at the 2 first ranks. Arthur lost all his games against Takuji, so the European Champion won this tournament. Arthur is Swiss champion for 2016.

We had the pleasure to have with us Christophe Lanuit, a good former french player who won the third place. Working near Geneva, he might move to Switzerland and play for us next year. And we hope to have a children championship in 2017 too !

Report by François Juigner
Final:
Takuji Kashiwabra 48-16 Arthur Juigner
Arthur Juigner 28-36 Takuji Kashiwabara

Jan C. de Graaf wins 81st Dutch Othello Open

Location: Bussum, Netherlands
Date: April 24th 
Tourney format: 7 rounds
​Link: NOV website, LiveOthello

Two players finished with 6 points out of 7 games. Nicky defeated Jan in round two but lost 40 - 24 against Roel Hobo in round 4. 
The name of the winner..... Jan C. de Graaf. Well done Jan!


VAN DEN BIGGELAAR Nicky 35-29 DE GRAAF Jan C.
81st Dutch Open, round 3


HOBO Roel 40 - 24 VAN DEN BIGGELAAR Nicky
81st Dutch Open, round 4


SNEEK Marcel 28-36 DE GRAAF Jan C.
81st Dutch Open, round 4

Joungmok Oh wins 2nd Myeong-in

Location: Wadong gym, Ansan,  South Korea
Date: April 24th 2016
Tourney format: 2nd Myeong-in (Masters) 6 rounds, 8 players

Joungmok Oh won the 2nd Myeong-in with a perfect score of 6 wins. Joungmok Oh is the driving force behind Othello in South Korea. I expect in years to come we will see more and more Korean players in the top of international tourneys.

Sungwoo Nam wins 12th Yipdan

Location: Wadong gym, Ansan,  South Korea
​Date: April 24th 2016
Tourney format: 12th Yipdan (Beginners) 5 rounds, 10 players

Three players finished with 4 points at this tournament for beginners. The trophy went to Sungwoo Nam.
Picture
crosstable 2nd Myeong-in (masters)
Picture
crosstable 12th Yipdan (beginners)


OH Joungmok 44-20 SHIN Dukchul
2nd Myeong-in, round 4


OH Joungmok 46-18 HONG Jaeseong
2nd Myeong-in, round 6
Two Othello tournaments and in the background a Go tournament for children.  Great place to promote Othello.

Paolo Scognamiglio wins stage 2 of the Città di Roma

Location : Rome, Italy
Date: April 23rd

Paolo Scognamiglio won the tournament in a  battle against George Ortiz and Michele Diodati (the two other "Othello Masters" present).
​Leonardo Caviola was best in Category A, Alessandro Cacciatore was best in Category B and  Gaia Pieragostini was the best player under 19.
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winner: Paolo Scognamiglio

Imre Leader wins Cambridge Regional

Location : Cambridge, UK
Date: April 23rd
​
Round-by-round results:

Imre LEADER 58 - 6 Roy ARNOLD
Iain BARRASS 31 - 33 Imre LEADER
Roy ARNOLD 10 - 54 Iain BARRASS
Roy ARNOLD 18 - 46 Imre LEADER
Imre LEADER 51 - 13 Iain BARRASS
Iain BARRASS 51 - 13 Roy ARNOLD
There was a huge upsurge in activity in Cambridge Othello: the Cambridge Regional attracted 50 percent more players than the Cambridge Xmas Friendly. This may be due to good publicity, good location, who knows? So we had a grand total of 3 players. All play all twice.
Results:
1. 4/4 Imre Leader 
2. 2/4 Iain Barrass
3. 0/4 Roy Arnold

Best wishes,
Imre

Tomáš Douda wins stage 5 of Czech Othello Grand Prix

Brazil Othello School Cup

The first official competition between schools from Nova Odessa, to win the School Othello Cup. The champions of this tournament: Andrielem Thawany Aparecida dos Santos (9ºB) and Pedro de Moraes Custódio (7ºA). Congrats!

Anouk de Vries wins 9th Burijn school tournament.

This school tournament was held on Apil 19th in Alkmaar, The Netherlands. Jan de Graaf en Marcel Sneek are the Othello promoters at this elementaryschool.
Final results can be found here.

Start of the 7th edition of the African Othello Grand Prix

According to the pictures on the Ivory Coast Othello Association's FaceBook page, a lot of people were present at this event, including quite a number of officials. The Ivory Coast Othello Association has great plans for the future. For the near future they aim to attend the next WOC in Mito with a team of 4 players.
I inform you that I organize a large caravan of promotion and popularization of Othello, in Etablissements Educational and Teaching Techniques, from the inside of the Ivory Coast.
it starts with the Region Loh Djiboua ie: Divo; Lakota; Guitry; Zikisso Tuesday 10th to Friday, May 13, 2016.
then in San Pedro and Sassandra regions from May 30 to 5 June 2016
******** There will be on the agenda:
1) installing leagues Othello
2) inauguration of new clubs Othello
3) Conference on the impact of Othello in academic achievement and entrepreneurship Learners for an Ivorian school quality.
4) I send you the press release of the "North South" newspaper published this Saturday, April 23, 2016, on the promotion Othello in Ivory Coast. I beg you to read
​
Best regards,
OUREGA Jeannot

Yutaka Hagikura wins 168th Nagareyama open

Location: Nagareyama, Japan
Date: April 17th
​Tourney format: 6  rounds, 27 players
Link: JOA website

Yutaka Hagikura won the tournament with 5 wins and 1 loss. Second place for former World Othello Champion Kazuki Okamoto. Even the number 3, Ryota Kameda scored 5 wins. Kazuki Okamoto lost to Tsubasa Tayama in round 2, Yutaka Hagikura lost to Ryota Kameda in round 3, Ryota Kameda lost to Kazuki Okamoto in round 4. That's how the 3 of them finished with 5 points. 


YAMAKAWA Takashi 32-32 TAYAMA Tsubasa
168th Nagareyama Open, round 4


YAMAKAWA Takashi 24-40 HAGIKURA Yutaka
168th Nagareyama Open, round 6
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Takamune Iijima (l) lost against Masaki Wada (r) in round 1

Kenta Saito wins 84th Sendai Open

Location: Sendai, Japan
Date: April 17th
​Tourney format: 6  rounds
Link: JOA website

Kenta Saito won the tournament with 5 wins and 1 loss. Second place for Takanori Oshimizu with the same score. Kenta lost in round 5 against the number 3, Takamune Iijima who finished with 4 wins.


WADA Masaki 43-21 IIJIMA Takamune
84th Sendai Open, round 1


SAITO Kenta 21-43 IIJIMA Takamune
84th Sendai Open, round 5

​Thierry Lévy-Abégnoli wins the Ile de France 3

Location: Paris, France
Date: April 16th
​Tourney format: 5 rounds
A nice crowd for this third Île-de-France tournament in 2016. 17 players had indeed made the trip, including four juniors and Manu Lazard, French National Othello Champion in 2016 since April 3rd. It also marked the return of Stéphane Nicolet and the presence of Frederic Nicholls, a Belgian player who played his first tournament in France and his second tournament ever.

Thierry Lévy-Abégnoli won all his games,  including a win against Manu Lazard (who suffered his first loss since becoming French National Champion) and  against Stéphane Nicolet. But Thierry  did not get to play against Marc Tastet, who himself did not play against Stéphane. Clearly, given the number of players, the ranking would have deserved to be refined with a round or two more. Anyway, Marc also finished undefeated but there was one draw game against Manu Lazard.

Among the juniors, Rémi Tastet was the best, he finished with 2.5 points, thanks to a draw against Monique Lecat, who certainly did not play to her level in the last two tournaments.

​report on FFO website
 1:   5.  pts  [245]   LEVY-ABEGNOLI Thierry (3598) {FRA}
  2:   4.5 pts [225]   TASTET Marc (2) {FRA}
  3:   4.  pts  [230]   NICOLET Stephane (433) {FRA}
  4:   3.5 pts [177]   LAZARD Emmanuel (11) {FRA}
  5:   3.  pts  [204]   BETIN Dominique (419) {FRA}
                     [187]   COLLAY Frederic (478) {FRA}
                     [180]   BERTRANDIAS Marc (50075) {FRA}
                     [154]   BUSUTTIL Michel (228) {FRA}
                     [135]   BENOIT Serge (3600) {FRA}
 10:   2.5 pts [154]   TASTET Remi (50053) {FRA}
 11:   2.  pts [194]   ANDRIANI Bintsa (45) {FRA}
                     [181]   NICHOLLS Frederic (270024) {BEL}
                     [113]   COLLAY Arthur (50093) {FRA}
 14:   1.5 pts [114]   LECAT Monique (2788) {BEL}
 15:   1.  pt   [104]   TASTET Sophie (50081) {FRA}
                      [91]   BRUIANT Jacky (50028) {FRA}
                      [72]   COLLAY Jeanne (50094) {FRA}


NICOLET Stéphane 29-35 LEVY-ABEGNOLI Thierry
IDF3, round 4

Guy Plowman wins Oxfordshire Regional Othello Tournament

Location: Witney, UK
Date: April 16th
​Tourney format: 7 rounds
Link: FB event page

​First place for Guy Plowman with a great score of 7 wins. Runner-up Imre Leader with 6 wins and third place for Iain Barrass with 5 wins.
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final score

Another attempt by Tom Schotte to freeze my brain with Othello Stats :)

  • Dmitriy Atamanov is the first Russian player to win an EGP tournament. Russia is the 16th country and Dmitriy Atamanov is the 53rd player in the list of winners.
  • Leonid, Ilya and Michael Shifman are the first grandfather, father and son to participate in an EGP tournament. I cannot recall another similar event. In any case they scored 15 points (7+6+2).
  • Eldar Abibullaiev is the first player from Ukrain to participate (and score points) in an EGP tournament.
  • Luigi Puzzo (68) missed the play-off on tie-break and would have been the oldest player in the top 4. It was a very close call.
  • It was circumstantial, but this tournament was the first since Prague 2009 without a French player. France now missed 13 of the 189 tournaments. United Kingdom is the first 'chaser' with 117 participations.
  • Russia now has participated with more different players (28) than e.g. Denmark (26), Germany (25), Norway (19) and many more traditional countries. Russia only participated 4 tournaments in history while for example Denmark played 67.
  • Dmitriy Atamanov joins a list of 15 players who won all finals they played. Michele Borassi has the most won finals without a loss (9). With this victory, he also stays in the list of 8 players who got into the top 3 of every tournament they played. The others 7 players are Japanese.
  • Russia (758 points scored by Russian players in EPG history) goes from 19th position to 16th position in the ranking of scored points by players for a particular country in EGP history, while Belgium (2825 points scored by Belgian players in EPG history) heads in to the top 10 by overtaking Japan (2783 points scored by Japanese players in EPG history).
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you did it again Tom!

Brasil Othello Online - Etapa 2

Open Online Othello Tournament on PlayOK
Date: April 11th
Registration: 19:00 to 19:20 UTC-03
Tourney starts: 19:30 UTC-03
Playing time: 5 min
Hosted by Moises Correia Jr

Dmitriy Atamanov wins EGP St. Petersburg

Top 4 EGP St. Petersburg:
  1. Dmitriy Atamanov (RUS)
  2. Tom Schotte (BEL)
  3. Viacheslav Kobzev (RUS)
  4. Konstantin Tsikin (RUS) 
The final results will be checked later this week, but for now we have to go with the info we got. ​Read more on our EGP St. Petersburg page
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the final: Tom Schotte - Dmitriy Atamanov
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EGP 2016 after 3 stages

FNGO promoted Othello at Romics fair

hallo, in Rome there was "Romics - Comics & Games convention" and we play othello with a lot of fantastic characters from World of Warcraft, Harry Potter, Yattaman, Games of Thrones, Aladin (Jafar !!), Captain America from Avengers and Captain Kirk from Star Trek, Joker from Batman, Jack Sparrow, Tiger Man and a lot others fantastic saga. Beautiful experience !!!

report by Leonardo Caviola
more pictures of the event can be found here

​​Stage 3 EGP St. Petersburg,  9-10 April

Francesco Marconi and Tom Schotte lead the 2016 EGP with 200 points after stage 2 in Cambridge.. As far as I can tell now, 5 foreigners will show up at this tournament: Luigi Puzzo (ITA), Leonid Shifman (ISR), Ilya Shifman (ISR), Uladzimir Khlebnikau (BLR) and Tom Schotte (BEL). Marc Tastet planned to come but regretfully had to cancel for family reasons.
​Tom Schotte posted  a short article on the BOA website and he seems very eager to defend his top position. Good luck Tom!

The first Russian EGP, 2014 in Moscow, had 20 players. The Russian players Elena Averina and Dmitriy Atamanov played a very good tourney and were well on their way to secure a spot in the final. But all went wrong for them in round 11. The two finalists were Italian player Francesco Marconi (winner) and Marc Tastet from France. Will it be different this year, with 1 or 2 home-players in the final? удачи! good luck!

The offical EGP website by the European Othello Confederation can be found here. It links to  Facebook for all latest news about the tournament.
The page you really need to check ofcourse is our own EGP St. Petersburg page :)

Last update:  Dmitriy Atamanov wins EGP St. Petersburg, runner-up Tom Schotte
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EGP 2016 standings after 2 stages
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Meijin 2016: Masaya Kasai

Masaya Kasai wins 4th Yokohama Othello Tournament

Location: Yokohama, Japan
Date: April 3rd
​Tourney format: 6 rounds
Link: JOA website

A total of 28 players at this tournament. Only six of them got the honour to play against the winner of the 2016 Meijin, Masaya Kasai. Nobody was able to defeat him, but there was 1 draw game. Masaya won the tournament with 5 wins and 1 draw (against Riki Saito). Second place for Riki Saito who scored 4 wins, 1 loss (against Keisuke Fukuchi) and 1 draw.
Another great result for 8-year old Keisuke Fukuchi, he finished 3rd also with 4 wins, a loss (against Masaya Kasai) and a draw.

Takashi Izumi wins 53rd Mito Othello Tournament

Location: Mito, Japan
Date: April 3rd
​Tourney format: 5 rounds
Link: JOA website
​
​Another victory for Takeshi Izumi who won the tournament with 5 wins. Runnerup Kouichiro Sato finished with 4 wins, 1 loss. Total number of players: 15

Japan Othello Elementary School Grand Prix 2016

Oskar Eklund wins Lund Open

Just 3 players at the Lund Open in Sweden, last year there were 5. I wonder if there will be another Lund Open in 2017.
​
1. Oskar Eklund 4-198
2. Robin Ragnarsson 1-110
3. Daniel Rignell 1-76

Masaki Takizawa wins 70th Niigata Othello Open

Location: Niigata, Japan
Date: April 3rd
​Tourney format: 5 rounds
Link: Niigata FB, JOA website

Masaki Takizawa, World Othello Champion 1985 and 1994 won this tournament with 5 solid wins. Second place for Hidekazu Nagasaki with 4 wins and 1 loss.
​
優勝 滝沢九段 Masaki Takizawa 5勝0敗
2位 長崎六段 Hidekazu Nagasaki 4勝1敗
3位 行方初段 Hiroki Namekata 3勝2敗
4位 梅沢五段 Yoshinori Umezawa 3勝2敗
5位 佐藤四段 Hisakazu Sato 3勝2敗
6位 阿部四段 Yura Abe 3勝2敗
7位 長尾六段 Hiroto Nagao 3勝2敗
8位 藍原三段 Shigeaki Aihara 3勝2敗
9位 神田四段 Yoshihiro Kanda 2勝3敗
10位 小原初段 Hiroto Obara 2勝3敗
11位 小林二段 Manabu Kobayashi 2勝3敗
12位 梅澤1級 Shiho Umezawa 2勝3敗
13位 梅澤1級 Riho Umezawa 2勝3敗
14位 岩坂初段 Ryu-ji Iwasaka 2勝3敗
15位 田辺1級 Tomoki Tanabe 1勝4敗
16位 小林1級 Kano Kobayashi 0勝5敗

Tomáš Douda wins stage 4 of Czech Othello Grand Prix

Emmanuel Lazard wins French Othello Championship 2016

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Location: Grenoble, France
Date: April 2-3
​Tourney format: 9 rounds, semifinal and final 
Link: LiveOthello, FFO website

Emmanuel Caspard won the French Othello Championship in September 2015. Runner-up was Arthur Juigner. You can find the complete list of French Champions from as early as 1981 here.

Results after 7 rounds: 

  1:   6.  pts [404]   LAZARD Emmanuel (11)
  2:   5.5 pts [463]   TASTET Marc (2)
               [416]   KASHIWABARA Takuji (839)
  4:   5.  pts [421]   DELAUNAY Arnaud (3518)
               [397]   JUIGNER Arthur (50030)
  6:   2.  pts [339]   JUIGNER Felix (50067)
               [335]   ANDRIANI Bintsa (45)
               [310]   CLUZON Gilles (3734)
  9:   1.  pt  [320]   BENOIT Serge (3600)
               [305]   MICHEL Stephane (125)
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round 2: Arthur won against Marc 40-24


TASTET Marc 53-11 LAZARD Emmanuel
French Othello Championship 2016, round 4


DELAUNAY Arnaud 32-32 KASHIWABARA Takuji
French Othello Championship 2016, round 6


KASHIWABARA Takuji 22-42 JUIGNER Arthur
French Othello Championship 2016, round 7
Top 5 after 8 rounds  
1:   7.  pts [479]   LAZARD Emmanuel (11)
  2:   6.5 pts [504]   KASHIWABARA Takuji (839)
  3:   6.  pts [484]   DELAUNAY Arnaud (3518)
               [483]   JUIGNER Arthur (50030)
  5:   5.5 pts [553]   TASTET Marc (2)
​
The tourney continued on sunday. Marc Tastet was the only player in the top 5 that lost his game in round 8, 27-37 against Takuji Kashiwbara. It seems like the fireworks in the round robin were saved for the last round: Kashiwabara-Lazard, Delaunay-A. Juigner. Still a chance for Marc Tastet to make it to the semis. 
Results after 9 rounds:
  1:   7.5 pts [608]   KASHIWABARA Takuji (839)
  2:   7.  pts [574]   LAZARD Emmanuel (11)
  3:   6.5 pts [579]   DELAUNAY Arnaud (3518)
               [578]   JUIGNER Arthur (50030)
  5:   5.5 pts [617]   TASTET Marc (2)
  6:   3.  pts [497]   ANDRIANI Bintsa (45)
               [491]   JUIGNER Felix (50067)
               [477]   CLUZON Gilles (3734)
  9:   2.  pts [438]   BENOIT Serge (3600)
 10:   1.  pt  [451]   MICHEL Stephane (125)​
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Top 4 French Othello Championship 2016:
 1. Emmanuel Lazard
 2. Arthur Juigner
 3. Takuji Kashiwabara
 4. Arnaud Delaunay
In the last round Takuji Kashiwabara won against Emmanuel Lazard 38-26 and the Delaunay-Juigner game was a draw. Marc Tastet lost against Gilles Cluzon 42-22.

Semifinals: 
Emmanuel Lazard 37-27 Arnaud Delaunay
Arnaud Delaunay 30-34 Emmanuel Lazard
Takuji Kashiwabara 25-39 Arthur Juigner
Arthur Juigner 34-30 Takuji Kashiwabara

Playoff 3rd 4th place:
Arnaud Delaunay 16-48 Takuji Kashiwabara

Finals:
​Emmanuel Lazard 20-44 Arthur Juigner
Arthur Juigner 30-34 Emmanuel Lazard
Emmanuel Lazard 34-30 Arthur Juigner

Congratulations Emmanuel Lazard with your third French Championship (note: he won the title in 1985 and 2009)
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Dear all,
 
I’m happy to announce that the 2016 Dutch EGP will be held September 10 and 11 in Amsterdam.
 
This is the 13th Dutch EGP since the first edition started in 2001 and will be the 7th and last stage of the European Grand Prix series 2016 where the winner of this year will be crowned.
 
The venue is Spelletjescafé 2 Klaveren, adres De Clercqstraat 136, 1052 NP Amsterdam
 
Amsterdam is most famously known for the canals, the home of Anne Frank, the home of Rembrandt, the red light district, the Rijksmuseum with “De Nachtwacht” (The Night Watch), the royal palace and much more.
 
The venue is easily accessible by both car and public transportation. There is a tram stop right across the street and several railway stations in the proximity including Amsterdam Central station (that serves international trains as well). Schiphol Amsterdam Airport is within 15 km. Parking is free on Sunday, but a parking fee is charged on Saturday. There are several Park+Ride facilities in the vicinity.
 
Lunches for two days (to be served at the venue) and some drinks will be included in the entry fee. We aim to keep the entry fee as low as possible. There will be some trophies, not only for the winner, but for other achievements as well. There will even be some prize money if the number of participants is sufficiently large.
 
Apologies for the late announcement. I really regret that I was not able to make the announcement much earlier. The next Dutch EGP (in 2018) will be announced in the preceding year, the latest December 31.
 
If you intend to join, please let me know by sending your intention or your subscription to [email protected] , so that I can anticipate on the number of players. We will keep you updated via the eurothfed-mailing list, Othello News and/or the yet to be created Facebook-event. If you have any question, don’t hesitate to contact me.
 
I hope to welcome many of you and together we will make it a great event! See you in September!
 
Sincerely yours,
Roel Hobo