WOC 2013 Results
October 25th: Rounds 8 - 13
Round 8Team Netherlands was in very good spirits this morning, if you are interested, read the introduction by Jan de Graaf on the players page. An important member of the Dutch delegation is Martin Fransen who is table judge / referee at table 1. After the first 7 rounds Nicky van den Biggelaar has 6 points, Roel Hobo has 4 and Erwin van den Berg and Jiska Helmes have 3. For round 8 Nicky was paired with Kazuki Okamoto. Well you can't win them all. Nicky lost 27 - 37. One of the first players back in was Takuji, who won his game against Tikhon Dubov which brings his total score to 4. His teammembers Arnaud Delaunay and Marc Tastet were in not long after him, Arnaud lost against Paweł Pęczkowski 43 - 21 and Marc won 43 - 21 against Bartłomiej Sury. A big smile on Tom Schotte's face as he entered the coffee room now with a total of 6 points after a win 29 - 25 against Caroline Odsell.
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Round 9Top 5 after 9 rounds:
1:Kazuki Okamoto {JPN}7.5 Piyanat Aunchulee {THA}7.5 3.Nicky van den Biggelaar {NLD} 7 Takashi Yamakawa {JPN} 7 Marc Tastet {FRA} 7 And Othello News went to see the changing of the guard at the Royal Castle. Too bad I did not bring my recorder, there was a lot of shouting. UUUUmpppf Oewap!!!!!! |
Round 10For the Dutch and Thai team an exciting game, Piyanat Aunchulee 28 - 36 Nicky van den Biggelaar at table 1. Okamoto won his game against Marc Tastet 22 - 42. Takashi Yamakawa won against Kunihiko Tanida 34 - 30. So we got some changes at the top.
1.Kazuki Okamoto {JPN} 8.5(798) 2.Nicky van den Biggelaar {NLD} 8(757) Takashi Yamakawa {JPN} 8(723) 4.Piyanat Aunchulee {THA} 7.5 Best Lady after 10 rounds is Katie Wu, she has seven points. Caroline Odsell has 6 points. Will these two ladies be in the ladies final? Yoko Sano is third lady with 5 points. During lunch a very late arrival of the player from Ivory Coast, Jeannot Loh Ourega. Too bad that he had such trouble getting a visa, but he came anyway. |
Round 11Arthur Juigner took only 13 moves to beat his opponent Elena Averina. The downside of an early win is that you have to wait for the next game all by yourself.
Table 1: Michele Borassi 30 - 34 Kazuki Okamoto Michle Borassi laughed when i asked him about the game and said "my dreams of glory were gone but he suffered and only had a few seconds left on the clock. I am happy about the game, he is very strong" Table 2: Nicky van den Biggelaar 30 - 34 Takashi Yamakawa Table 3: Sky Chong 26 - 28 Piyanat Aunchulee TOP 6 1.Kazuki Okamoto {JPN} 9.5 2.Takashi Yamakawa {JPN} 9 3.Piyanat Aunchulee {THA} 8.5 4.Ben Seeley {USA} 8 Nicky van den Biggelaar {NLD} 8 Marc Tastet {FRA} 8 |
Round 12Table 1: Kazuki Okamoto 36 - 28 Brian Rose
Table 2: Ben Seeley 40 - 24 Takashi Yamakawa Table 3: Piyanat Aunchulee 36 - 28 Jostein Danielsen Table 4: Marc Tastet 25 - 39 Nicky van den Biggelaar Top 5: 1.Kazuki Okamoto {JPN} 10.5 2.Piyanat Aunchulee {THA} 9.5 3.Ben Seeley {USA} 9(1027) Nicky van den Biggelaar {NLD} 9 Takashi Yamakawa {JPN} 9 Ladies final tomorrow will be between Caroline Odsell and Katie Wu. As Katie now lives in Finland, it is a scandinavian battle. Veronica Stenberg won the Ladies Championship for Sweden last year, will Caroline succeed to keep the trophy for Sweden? |
Round 13Table 1: Sky Chong 26 - 38 Kazuki Okamoto
Table 2: Matthias Berg 19 - 45 Piyanat Aunchulee Table 3: Nicky van den Biggelaar 35 - 29 Ben Seeley Table 4: Takashi Yamakawa 32 - 32 Michele Borassi Table 5: Miroslav Voráček 26 - 38 Marc Tastet The game at table 3 between Ben Seeley and Nicky van den Biggelaar was a very interesting game and the winner was sure of a place in the semifinal. The half point that Takashi Kashiwabara won against Michele Borassi, was enough to keep Ben Seeley at bay. Marc Tastet also missed the semifinal by a hair, this former world champion played a very good tourney. Had he won against Nicky in round 12, the outcome would have been very different. |
BIGGELAAR Nicky van den 35 - 29 SEELEY Ben WOC 2013, round 13 |
Round 13: Nicky van den Biggelaar 35 - 29 Ben Seeley
Report by Nicky van den Biggelaar After my (lucky) win against Marc Tastet in round 12 I am still in the running for a place in the semifinals. This is a do-or-die match for Ben and me. Winner is in the semis, loser probably isn't. This was a totally different game I played than the 12 rounds before. A diagonal-opening and I was out of book at move 10 and I don't know if Ben was too. That's the reason we both used a lot of time in the opening. It was a pretty close game until move 37. There I made a mistake when I took g1 (-8). I wanted to force Ben to play in the south-east which he did at move 40 - d8 (+0). After that move I had a sequence in mind: f8g8g2f1d1g7b7. This sequence whould have given me diagonal control. I thought I would have been ahead after this sequence. But checking after the game it would have been -4 for me. So I guess after my 41-f8 he was afraid of the diagonal-control and decided to play 42-f1 which doesn't give me the diagonal-control. At move 45 I had to decide I would open up the north-west or force him to play b2 after a few moves. I wasn't able to count these lines because I didn't have much time left. But I knew it was going to be very close. I decided to play the 45-b7 which forced him to play b2 at move 50. My plan in the end was to get parity and hopefully I got enough discs. No matter what happens, g7 should be the last move. So I got my parity and move 60 was indeed g7. In an other sequence he could have saved his parity, but still means a win for me 33-31 or 34-30. With this win I got my place in the semifinals. |
Semi finalists for day 3: Kazuki Okamoto (JAPAN) 11.5 points Piyanat Aunchulee (THAILAND) 10.5 points Nicky van den Biggelaar (NETHERLANDS) 10 points Takashi Yamakawa (JAPAN) 9.5 points crosstable WOC 2013 |
Gamla Stan, Stockholm looks peaceful at the end of an unnerving day of Othello (pictures by Kunihiko Tanida)
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