Othello News January 2014
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Masaki Takizawa wins 2014 Niigata District Master
Location: Niigata, Japan
Date: January 26th Tourney format: 5 rounds Fifteen players came to this tourney, among them 3 first-timers. The tourney was won by former world champion Masaki Takizawa for the third time in a row. Masaki Takizawa was very happy with his result at the OWC and kept the winning mood alive for the Niigata Master Race Top three:
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link to results (in Japanese)
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After MidnigHt
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Michael Handel and the Meaningful Blunders! by Ben Seeley
As you may have read on our November 2013 page, Michael Handel died last year. Recently the British Othello Federation published an article by Ben Seeley in its newsletter. The BOF and Ben Seeley requested that it would also be available here at Othello News. Michael Handel was one of the top British players. He played at nine World Othello Championships: 1991, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 1992 and 1997 he was a member of the UK team that won the World Team Championship. Michael won the Cambridge Open and the British Grand Prix in 2003. The British National Championship title was his in 2009. Winner of the first Jakarta Othello Open in 2011. 
"In Othello, a capacity for spotting subtle and deep negatives is also clearly an asset, just as a capacity for spotting subtle and deep opportunities is also valuable… but I think for both of us in this particular game, because of the awkwardness and vague threats on the board, it was causing both of us to overestimate the potential for threats, and it blinded our opportunistic lenses." | ||
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HANDEL, Michael 28 - 36 SEELEY, Ben World Othello Championship 2002, Amsterdam |
SEELEY, Ben 28 - 36 SHAMAN, David World Othello Championship 2002, Amsterdam, final game 1 |
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Ben Seeley introduced his new blog / website a few weeks ago: "Honestly, I'm extremely nervous about this. Other than the people in my life, this is the stuff I care about more than anything... it's way more important to me than winning another world championship in Othello, for example. For all my Othello friends: none of these articles has anything directly to do with Othello, but I want to start writing about Othello again. Feel free to make requests for the kinds of Othello writing you are interested in seeing.
Of course, most Othello players are intelligent and creative people, so I think many of you guys will enjoy engaging with the non-Othello ideas on the website, too. It's worth noting that so far all of the ideas are "international" ideas, which could work in any country." |
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Jostein Danielsen wins Oslo OpenLocation: Oslo, Norway
Date: January 25th, 2014 Tourney format: 7 rounds and finals Martin played at the OWC in Singapore last week where he finished 22nd with 5.5 points out of 11 games. With all the high-level strategy that was played in Singapore, my bet for the Oslo Open was on Martin but I am never good at betting. With a perfect score of 7 points the tourney was won by Jostein Danielsen. The Oslo Open 2013 was won by Martin as Jostein lost 31 - 33 in the final game. At the WOC in Stockholm Jostein finished # 18 with 7 points. Martin finished 31st with 7 points. Ranking of the 12 players after round 7: 1: 7 pts [459] DANIELSEN Jostein 2: 6 pts [433] ODEGARD Martin 3: 5 pts [451] ALBRIGTSEN Vidar 4: 4 pts [380] SKOGEN Tor Birger [379] BOE Alexander [332] HOEL Adrian Eckbo 7: 3 pts [345] BERG Robert [328] TVEDT Sverre [292] NILSSEN Yngvar 10: 2 pts [292] OLSEN Pal Tore 11: 1 pt [243] STOLEN Peter 12: 0 pt [224] ORBECK-NILSSEN Kim Andre 
Martin Odegard at OWC in Singapore
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Jostein Danielsen at WOC 2013 in Stockholm
DANIELSEN, Jostein 41 - 23 ODEGARD, Martin Oslo Open |
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Marc Tastet wins Ile de France ILocation: Paris, France
Date: January 25th, 2014 Tourney format: 5 rounds A great start for Marc Tastet of his 31st year of Othello tournaments! 1: 5. pts [234] TASTET Marc (2) {FRA} 2: 3. pts [175] LAZARD Emmanuel (11) {FRA} 3: 2.5 pts [132] BUSUTTIL Michel (228) {FRA} 4: 2. pts [198] BENOIT Serge (3600) {FRA} 5: 1.5 pts [109] BETIN Dominique (419) {FRA} 6: 1. pt [112] CLUZON Gilles (3734) {FRA} 
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Marc Tastet: 30 years of Othello tournaments
Marc Tastet World Champion 1992
I played my first Othello tournament on January 22, 1984, (tournament École Polytechnique) that is thus exactly 30 years ago today!
I remember that my game strategy was very poor (I tried not to be the first to move out of the central 4x4 square, the so called “sweet sixteen”). Despite this, I won 3.5 points in 7 games. This means of course that the average level was not as high as it is now. However, there were already players playing very well. For example, Jean-Manuel Mascort, surprised me by going out of the central square at move 5 (he was black and he played the Heath opening) and beat me 62-2, which is (and hopefully will remain) my worst defeat in a tournament ever. In all other games played in competition for 30 years (over 3000 games), unless I am mistaken, I always saved at least 4 discs. Also present at this tournament were Manu Lazard and Bernard Daunas.
In recent days, some tournament games reminded me of a question that I had asked myself from the beginning: why is it better to win with a maximum of discs? Basically, the game rule says that you must have more discs than your opponent, not necessarily many more!
Because the total disc-count is taken into account in the tie-break (and in some countries is a factor in the ranking system) usually players try to get the maximum amount of discs. However, in tournaments where there is no tie-break, players can choose to win differently.
For example, during the Christmas tournament, in my game against Serge Benoit, I deliberately chose to play a move 58 which loses three pieces because I had another goal. Indeed, since my move 38, I made sure Black had exactly one legal move when it was his turn (which means that I controlled the game completely) trying to set a record for the length of such a sequence. Up to you to beat it.
I remember that my game strategy was very poor (I tried not to be the first to move out of the central 4x4 square, the so called “sweet sixteen”). Despite this, I won 3.5 points in 7 games. This means of course that the average level was not as high as it is now. However, there were already players playing very well. For example, Jean-Manuel Mascort, surprised me by going out of the central square at move 5 (he was black and he played the Heath opening) and beat me 62-2, which is (and hopefully will remain) my worst defeat in a tournament ever. In all other games played in competition for 30 years (over 3000 games), unless I am mistaken, I always saved at least 4 discs. Also present at this tournament were Manu Lazard and Bernard Daunas.
In recent days, some tournament games reminded me of a question that I had asked myself from the beginning: why is it better to win with a maximum of discs? Basically, the game rule says that you must have more discs than your opponent, not necessarily many more!
Because the total disc-count is taken into account in the tie-break (and in some countries is a factor in the ranking system) usually players try to get the maximum amount of discs. However, in tournaments where there is no tie-break, players can choose to win differently.
For example, during the Christmas tournament, in my game against Serge Benoit, I deliberately chose to play a move 58 which loses three pieces because I had another goal. Indeed, since my move 38, I made sure Black had exactly one legal move when it was his turn (which means that I controlled the game completely) trying to set a record for the length of such a sequence. Up to you to beat it.
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BENOIT Serge 23 - 41 TASTET, Marc Tournoi de Noël 2013, round 1 |
 Marc Tastet |
Takuji Kashiwabara and Marc Tastet at WOC 2013
At the last tournament of 2013 in Grenoble, Takuji Kashiwabara tried to win his games by sacrificing the 4 corners. This worked against Doris in round 1: Takuji 37-27 Doris
Then, against Félix: Félix 28-36 Takuji. We can see here that Takuji plays move 58 which loses many discs, but it is because he wants to force Félix to take all 4 corners.
By the way, if Félix had understood this, he could have played 59G7 which admittedly would give him less discs but would prevent his opponent to reach his goal !
Finally, against Caroline: Takuji 35-29 Caroline. Again, it is clear that move 56 voluntarily sacrificed discs to give the last corner to the opponent.
Unfortunately, in the last two games, Takuji won but without sacrificing the 4 corners. That said, 3 out of 5 games in the same tournament won by sacrificing the 4 corners, that’s a record hard to beat !
comment by Takuji: I had a second goal. To win each game with one less disc than the previous game. I did not succeed either, but I still made five games with five consecutive scores (certainly in disorder): 37, 36, 35, 39, 38.
There are plenty of ways to have fun with Othello. Try to find your own way!
Marc Tastet
January 22nd 2014, Liste FFO
note: Marc Tastet was World Othello Champion in 1992. He won the French National Championship in 1991, 2004 and in 2008. Also winner of the European Grand Prix in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997. Tournament director of the World Othello Championship in 1998.
Then, against Félix: Félix 28-36 Takuji. We can see here that Takuji plays move 58 which loses many discs, but it is because he wants to force Félix to take all 4 corners.
By the way, if Félix had understood this, he could have played 59G7 which admittedly would give him less discs but would prevent his opponent to reach his goal !
Finally, against Caroline: Takuji 35-29 Caroline. Again, it is clear that move 56 voluntarily sacrificed discs to give the last corner to the opponent.
Unfortunately, in the last two games, Takuji won but without sacrificing the 4 corners. That said, 3 out of 5 games in the same tournament won by sacrificing the 4 corners, that’s a record hard to beat !
comment by Takuji: I had a second goal. To win each game with one less disc than the previous game. I did not succeed either, but I still made five games with five consecutive scores (certainly in disorder): 37, 36, 35, 39, 38.
There are plenty of ways to have fun with Othello. Try to find your own way!
Marc Tastet
January 22nd 2014, Liste FFO
note: Marc Tastet was World Othello Champion in 1992. He won the French National Championship in 1991, 2004 and in 2008. Also winner of the European Grand Prix in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997. Tournament director of the World Othello Championship in 1998.
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KASHIWABARA Takuji 37 - 27 SCHNEIDER, Doris Tournoi Fin d'Année, round 1 |
JUIGNER Félix 28 - 36 KASHIWABARA, Takuji Tournoi Fin d'Année, round 2 |
KASHIWABARA, Takuji 35 - 29 NICOLAS,Caroline Tournoi Fin d'Année, round 3 |
Jens Aagaard-Hansen is winner of the 1st Rørby Othello Open
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Location: Rørby, Denmark
Date: January 18th The first Othello tournament in Western Zealand (Sjælland), Denmark, that has ever been arranged, was held in the village Rørby, 5 km south of Kalundborg on Saturday, January 18. Winner of this tournament was Jens Aagaard-Hansen, Greve Othello Forening, with club companion Palle Badsted on second place. Jens and Palle got the same number of victories, but Jens had a slightly better disc difference in total, and won with only two discs. Berit Paludan from Rørby became third in her second tournament in total, finishing before Mikael Mårtensson, Greve, and Peter Michaelsen and Kristian Frederiksen from Rørby. Kristian became the best junior player and also won the debutant prize. Report by Peter Michaelsen, Link to report in local newspaper Nordvestnyt 
Jens Aagaard-Hansen, Berit Paludan and Palle Badsted
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Kristian Frederiksen and Jens Aagaard-Hansen. Picture by Peter Andersen for Nordvestnyt
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38th World Othello Championship in Thailand
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World Othello Federations plans for World Othello Championship 2014 - 2016
World Othello Federation
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The World Othello Federation (WOF) and Megahouse have had several meetings and discussed how to cooperate in order to promote Othello all over the World. Megahouse wants to support and sponsor World Othello Federation activities. At the Victory Dinner at Othello World Cup 2014 in Singapore, the World Othello Federation announced that WOF will arrange the 38th World Othello Championship (WOC) in Thailand.
2014 - Thailand, date and location will be announced later 2015 - Europe, no host official yet. 2016 - Japan, no city and date official yet |
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Othello World Cup 2014
OWC 2014 Top 4: #4 Masaki Takizawa, #2 Kenta Tominaga, #1 Yan Song, #3 Yusuke Takanashi
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Interviews with Yan Song and Zhen Dong, King and Queen of Othello and the winners of the third day events on OWC interview page
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SONG, Yan 35 - 29 TAKANASHI Yusuke OWC 2014, round 9 |
Yan Song (CHN) is the new "King of Othello". Zhen Dong (HKG) is the "Queen of Othello"
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LEE, Choong Fong 35 - 29 DONG Zhen OWC 2014, round 4 |
OWC 2014 staff and players
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bye bye Singapore!
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Alessandro Di Mattei wins Città di Roma, stage 1Location: Rome, Italy
Date: January 12th Tourney format: 5 rounds Players: 22 This is an open Othello tournament (masters, masters candidates, caterogia A, B, I, etc..). Extra addition to the tournament formula is that the players will be placed in teams. Team result depends on the number of victories of the individual players. The tourney was won by Alessandro Di Mattei, he won all 5 games. Round 5 was maybe the hardest game, Alessandro won 33 - 31 against Paolo Scognamiglo. For more data and replayable games, check the FNGO page. Best team was the "Squadra Azzurra", with Michele Diodati, Carlo Alami, Giulia Debertolis and Diego Gestri. The team had a total score of 55. For more team results check the FNGO team page. After the tourney I had a short conversation with Biagio Privitera, the new president of the Italian Othello Federation, FNGO. Besides Othello, he has a real passion for photography, check out his pictures of the event at FB. "My key priority as new President is to enlarge the base. To avoid that Othello becomes a niche game only for good players playing among themselves. |
Final results after 5 rounds
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SPERANDIO Roberto 43 - 21 DIODATI, Michele Città di Roma I, round 2 |
DI MATTEI, Alessandro 39 - 25 SPERANDIO Damiano Città di Roma I, round 3 |
ORTIZ, George 31 - 33 SPERANDIO, Roberto Città di Roma I, round 5 |
Alessandro di Mattei and Leonardo Caviola promote Othello.
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Play Othello at Belgian Othello Association tourneys for fun....... and money
Most people seem to think that Othello and money don't go together very well but the Belgian Othello Association just posted their Othello calendar for 2014 and in 2014 there is money to be won at Othello on top of the marvellous bottles of Belgian beer. I think Tom Schotte came up with a brilliant plan that will attract more Belgian and foreign players.
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Belgian Othello Calendar 2014
01/02/2014: Marche-en-Famenne Othello Open 21/04/2014: Ghent Easter tournament 18/05/2014: 9th Antwerp Othello Open 22/06/2014: 8th Zonhoven Othello Open 07/09/2014: 31st Belgian Championship (Ghent) |
2014 prize money for tournament winners:
250€ winner of all 5 tournaments 200€ winner of 4 tournaments 150€ winner of 3 tournaments 100€ winner of 2 tournaments (unless someone wins 3 tournaments) 50€ if 2 players both win 2 tournaments |
I asked Tom about the how and why of this initiative.
The idea of introducing prize money is to add a little extra to our Belgian tournaments. The funding of this new thing is actually the Belgian Othello Association itself. Though it was a very challenging year 2013, with the European Grand Prix tournament where we spent quite some money, we were able to keep some spare money from the remaining tournaments as we had a high number of players. Therefore we will not raise the entry fee for tournaments at all. The system will be evaluated at the end of the season and if that evaluation is positive, we plan to extend it for 2015. For the moment we do not have a sponsor for this prize money, but it could be an idea to look for one!
Of course we are hoping to attract more top players to our tournaments. Several players who are capable of winning Belgian tournaments only play one or two tournaments a year. If we can convince those players in some way to compete more often, it could benefit the general level of play. These players often bring along other players so that the number of players in all levels of play can be guaranteed. We do not expect to have a full refund of our 'investment', but it could lead to more competition in both the Belgian Grand Prix and Foreigners Grand Prix as well. One of my secret wishes is to have Nicky van den Biggelaar on the list of honor of the Foreigners Grand Prix, but unfortunately he is only playing 1 or 2 tournaments in Belgium every year. And to compete in the Foreigners Grand Prix participating in 3 tournaments is a must.
The approach for new players and players with little experience remains unchanged. In 2013 we were able to attract several new players to try the Othello on the board and we are hoping that these players will come back and play in 2014. As last year we have scheduled a mix of tournaments to convince different type of players to join. The Ghent Easter tournament and Antwerp promising tournament are two examples how we try to make it more convenient for less experienced players to participate tournaments. Also we try to lower the barrier to play in tournaments as new players and promising players (with a rating below 1000) play for free. Though we have introduced prize money, this approach will not be changed in the near future. Additionally we are planning to have a promotion stand on the expo Made In Asia for the third consecutive year. With the exposition in March and the two most attractive tournaments for new and experienced players scheduled in April and May, we are aiming to get again some players from there.
Tom Schotte, Belgian Othello Association
January 6th, 2014
New York Winter Tournament
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Location: New York, USA
Date: 4 January Too much snow in New York for the scheduled Winter Tournament. The few players that showed up, ended up doing freeform Othello play including a simultaneous 3 way play by Brian Rose. The tourney was played at the 875 3rd Avenue Atrium in Manhattan, a free public space. Just after the picture at the left was taken, guards came up to check that they were not playing for money. 
Avenue A, Manhattan, NY
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Tetsu Satani wins 86th Kanagawa Open
Top 4:
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Location: Kanagawa, Japan
Date: 5 January Tourney format: 6 round Swiss system (20 min) Tetsu played a perfect tourney and defeated Yusuke Takanashi in the final round 26 - 38. It was the first time in 5 years time that Tetsu won against Yusuke in an official tourney. Enough reason to be very happy and proud. Bring it on Tetsu in Singapore at the OWC!!!! TAKANASHI,Yusuke 26 - 38 SATANI, Tetsu 86th Kanagawa Open, round 6 |
Makoto Suekuni wins Shinagawa New Year's Cup 2014Location: Tokyo, Japan
Date: 3 January Tourney format: 7 rounds, 72 players Makoto Suekuni won all his games. Runnerup Takamune Iijima won 6 games. Third place Riki Saito also with 6 wins. Yusuke Takanashi had 5 wins and took 4th place. Another loss for WOF #1 players Yusuke Takanashi against Makoto Suekuni. At the 90th Shinagawa Open on December 14th, Yusuke lost 43 - 21 Makoto Suekuni will be at the Othello World Cup in Singapore to help the tournament staff. Too bad he does not play there, he sure is a candidate for first place. 
link to results (in Japanese)
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品川ニューイヤーズカップ2014
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SUEKUNI, Makoto 39 - 25 MURAKAMI, Takeshi Shinagawa New Years Cup 2014 |
SUEKUNI, Makoto 34 - 30 TAKANASHI, Yusuke Shinagawa New Years Cup 2014 |
SUEKUNI, Makoto 35 - 29 IIJIMA, Takamune Shinagawa New Years Cup 2014 |
15th Small-middle school Othello master raceLocation: Mito, Japan
Date: 3 January Tourney format: 39 players 
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Kinoshita Takao winner, Hama Kouta 2nd place
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