WOC 2015 Results and Reports

October 31st
meetings semifinals, playoffs, finals and victory dinner
​

A busy day with focus on the games interrupted by meetings. Quite a crowd that gathered to watch the games together. Imre leader and Karsten Feldborg did a great job at analyzing the games. 
7.5 hour video, semis and final

semifinals



BORASSI 22-42 TAKANASHI (Semi-final, game 1)
39th WOC Cambridge


TAKANASHI 20-26 BORASSI (Semi-final, game 2)
39th WOC Cambridge


VAN DEN BIGGELAAR 22-42 SUEKUNI (Semi-final, game 1)
39th WOC Cambridge


SUEKUNI 27-37 VAN DEN BIGGELAAR (Semi-final, game 2)
39th WOC Cambridge


VAN DEN BIGGELAAR 29-35 SUEKUNI (Semi-final, game 3)
39th WOC Cambridge

playoff 3rd / 4th place
Nicky van den Biggelaar and Michele Borassi



VAN DEN BIGGELAAR 35-29 BORASSI, 3/4 playoff (one game)
39th WOC Cambridge

finals
​the champions: Yusuke Takanashi and Yoko Sano Rose

Yusuke Takanashi (JPN), three times World Othello Champion, was on 6th place at the end of round 7, he lost against Arthur Juigner and Takuji Kashiwabara and won against Arnaud Delaunay, Nicky van den Biggelaar, Erik Lund Jensen, Imre Leader and Roel Hobo, In round 8-13 he won all his games, his game against Makoto Suekuni in round 10 scored an enormous amount of viewers on Liveothello. His other opponents in round 8-13: Roman Kraczyk, Jacky Fu, Ben Seeley, David Hand and Karsten Feldborg. Yusuke defeated Makoto Suekuni in the final 2-0. What a fantastic champion.
​Congrats Yusuke!!!
Makoto Suekuni (JPN), the defending World Champion, lost only 2 games in the swiss rounds, against Arthur Juigner in round 6 and Yusuke Takanashi in round 10. He started round 8-13 with a win against Nicky van den Biggelaar and collected more points from Takuji Kashiwabara, Junya Ito, Karsten Feldborg and Francesco Marconi. Suekuni lost to Takanashi  in the Swiss rounds and he played a very nervewrecking 3-game semifinal against Nicky van den Biggelaar. The World Champion of 1997 and 2014 fought hard to win the title for the third time but Yusuke Takanashi proved too strong for him in the final.
Nicky van den Biggelaar (NLD) was one of the top three with 6 points after round 1-7 (van den Biggelaar, Takuji Kashiwabara and Makoto Suekuni). He lost against  Yusuke Takanashi in round 2 but finished the first day with two great games against Junya Ito and Ben Seeley. Round 8-13 started with a loss against Makoto Suekuni and he lost against Karsten Feldborg in round 11. The rest of his games were all wins against Niklas Wettergren, Takuji Kashiwabara, Arnaud Delaunay and Piyanat Aunchulee. The semifinal vs. Makoto Suekuni was a real thriller. Nicky lost the first game but came back strong in the second one. The third game, the tension in the media room was enormous. There was a +2 win for Nicky as late as move 49 but ..... Anyway a great third place for Nicky.
Michele Borassi (ITA) scored 4 wins in the 7 rounds on day 1, less than he had bargained for. He felt that the race to the top was over for him and his plan was to just focus on playing interesting and rewarding games in round 8 to 13. But, he only lost in round 9 against Piyanat Aunchulee, collected 5 more points against Matthias Berg, Sittisak Tantiprasongchai, Marcus Fronmark, Niklas Wettergren and Ben Seeley. He defeated Takuji Kashiwabara in the playoff for a spot in the semis. I guess, when you have been World Champion, you want to play in the finals and win. But to get to the semifinals and play against Yusuke, was more than Michele had hoped for on thursday evening. He lost the semis in two games and lost the playoff for 3rd place against Nicky van den Biggelaar, but he was very happy with his fantastic fourth place.


SUEKUNI Makoto 28-36 TAKANASHI Yusuke (Final (game 1))
39th WOC Cambridge


TAKANASHI Yusuke 36-28 SUEKUNI Makoto (Final (game 2))
39th WOC Cambridge


PATTARAKUL Nida 25-39 SANO Yoko (Women's final)
39th WOC Cambridge

The Ladies: Yoko Sano Female Champion, runner-up Nida Pattarakul 

Yoko Sano (USA) collected 4 points in round 1-7 and was ranked best female player at 16th place. Three more wins for her in round 8-13 and she finished as best lady on rank 20 with 7 points after the Swiss rounds.
Nida Pattarakul (THA) had 3 wins and a draw in round 1-7 and 3 more wins in round 8-13. In the overall ranking of the Swiss rounds she finished 30th.
Picture
World Othello Champion Yusuke Takanashi and Female Champion Yoko Sano
In short who won
​Yusuke Takanashi (JPN) won the 2015 World Othello Championship.  He won the final in two games against the defending champion Makoto Suekuni (JPN). This was the fourth time that Yusuke competed at the Worlds and the fourth time he won the World Championship. He previously won in 2009, 2010 and 2012. Third place for Nicky van den Biggelaar and fourth place for Michele Borassi.
Yoko Sano Rose (USA) won the title of Ladies Champion for the first time. She won second place in 2011 (playing for Japan). Second place for Nida Pattarakul (THA).

The Victory Dinner and Award Ceremony
The Victory Dinner  was at a more than perfect location, Trinity Hall hall. We were welcomed with a glass of bubbles and then sat down to a 4 course dinner.  After dessert it was time for the Award Ceremony. At some point the crowd seemed not to be able to stop applauding, it was a great tribute to all who fought and worked so hard to get to the Othello "Top Of The World".

A big thanks to Francois Juigner for all the wonderful pictures
Pictures by Zen Thammatorn can be found here: oct 28th, oct 29th, oct 30th, oct 31st