EGP Madrid 2015
winner: Miroslav Voracek
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At the request of the European players the Spanish EGP was moved from Barcelona to Madrid. The organisation hoped the tourney would atract more domestic and foreign players.
Date: weekend of 18 and 19 April. Location: Calle Martinez Villergas, 8. Check our EGP Statistics pages for interesting EGP facts. Thanks to Tom Schotte, who edits that section of Othello News, we did not miss the fact that the EGP Madrid is Marc Tastet's 100th EGP tourney. Well done Marc! Another fact by Tom: Did you know that Imre Leader's appearance in Madrid is the 500th appearance of a UK player at a European Grand Prix tournament? Only France (795), The Netherlands (697) and Italy (524) have done better. |
link to official EGP website
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100th EGP tourney for Marc Tastet, here in Madrid.
Marc Tastet World Champion 1992
Marc Tastet (FRA) 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. Eight EGP stage victories. EGP Madrid was Marc's 100th EGP tourney! Marc is a true Othello Champion, always willing to help other players and a very important source of information for Othello News. He enjoys the game and the friends and is one of the nicest players I have met. Victory or loss, who cares, as the french say..... ppppfffff
> Marc, you won the EGP 4 times, the last time in 1997. You won 8 stages. Which was your sweetest victory?
Maybe Milan 1992 which was my first EGP win, or Barcelone 2013 which was my latest.
> Last year there were only 4 players who played in 4 or more EGP stages and the year before that the score was 5. You are about to play in your 100th tourney. What drives you? How can we attract more players? Maybe change the EGP system? You have any ideas?
I think many players would like to join EGP tournaments, because it's always great fun to play EGP tournaments. I'm always happy to meet good friends that I have been meeting several times a year for many years and play very interesting games with them.
I heard some players say: OK, if I could go to EGP tournaments, I would win all of them easily, but I don't have time nor money to go to EGP tournaments. About time, I think you have to make choices: if you are really interested, you can find time to go to EGP tournaments. About money, it's not that expensive. Usually, I can find a return ticket by plane or by train for between 70 and 120 euros. Then, you can share a hotel room with other players, or even sometimes have free private accomodation at some players' home. As only the best 4 results are taken into account, if you are really strong, going to 4 tournaments or even 3 is enough to win the EGP. So why not have a try?
> So many different stages in the EGP, is there one, outside of France, that is your absolute favourite?
Many EGPs are very exciting. Maybe my favourite is Barcelone because I always win there. :-) But Prague is always great (and cheap). I also keep a very good souvenir of tournaments which were played on a site where everybody stayed to play, eat and sleep, like Oslo (Moss) 2011 or Netherlands (Texel island) 2014.
> You played your first otb tournament in 1984 and you won the WOC eight years later in 1992. You have seen many players come and go. Who were your Othello heroes in those early years? Who left his/her mark on the Othello World?
I guess Hideshi Tamenori is the player who most impressed me. I remember the WOC 1988 in Paris, when I was a table judge of a Murakami-Tamenori game. At some point, Tamenori thought for a while. Then he played a semi-forced sequence quickly and at the end of the sequence, he had a clearly winning position that I hadn't anticipated.
And Hideshi Tamenori left his mark on the Othello World, by winning the WOC 7 times over a 20-year period.
> Former champions often reinvent themselves. You did not play in Bangkok last year, but at the Stockholm WOC in 2013 you came pretty close to the semifinals and ended 5th place ex aequo with Ben Seeley. Is the EGP your idea of a WOC training session?
I didn't play in Bangkok because I never liked jet lag and it's not going to be better as I'm getting older. EGP is an interesting competition in itself. Of course, it can help training for the WOC but it's more than that.
> For those who never heard about it, please explain your "sous-marin" strategy :)
There are some cases when it's good to have a bad start in a tournament to make a come-back in the end. This strategy is specially useful when you don't feel well on the Saturday and hope to feel better on the Sunday. It's important not to lose to too many top players on Saturday so as to be able to beat and overtake them on Sunday. You also need to have enough weak players in the tournament, so that you can beat them with large scores to have a good tie-break. The best situation is when there is a player who has won everything and you meet him at the last round when he is already sure to make it to the final. You beat him and get to play the final vs. him.
> Thanks Marc, good luck in the next tourneys!
And Hideshi Tamenori left his mark on the Othello World, by winning the WOC 7 times over a 20-year period.
> Former champions often reinvent themselves. You did not play in Bangkok last year, but at the Stockholm WOC in 2013 you came pretty close to the semifinals and ended 5th place ex aequo with Ben Seeley. Is the EGP your idea of a WOC training session?
I didn't play in Bangkok because I never liked jet lag and it's not going to be better as I'm getting older. EGP is an interesting competition in itself. Of course, it can help training for the WOC but it's more than that.
> For those who never heard about it, please explain your "sous-marin" strategy :)
There are some cases when it's good to have a bad start in a tournament to make a come-back in the end. This strategy is specially useful when you don't feel well on the Saturday and hope to feel better on the Sunday. It's important not to lose to too many top players on Saturday so as to be able to beat and overtake them on Sunday. You also need to have enough weak players in the tournament, so that you can beat them with large scores to have a good tie-break. The best situation is when there is a player who has won everything and you meet him at the last round when he is already sure to make it to the final. You beat him and get to play the final vs. him.
> Thanks Marc, good luck in the next tourneys!
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Marc Tastet reported that the players decided to play a round robin (10 players, 9 rounds) on the first day. Tomorrow will be semifinals and final. I can always rely on Marc for standings and so here is his resume:
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Standings after 4 rounds:
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Francesco lost against Marc in round 4. Takuji lost against Francesco and Mirek. Imre lost against Sergio and Mark. Javier lost against Takuji and Mark. Sergio lost against Francesco and Mirek. |
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Standings after 9 rounds:
1. Mirek Voracek, 9 points, 585 2. Imre Leader, 6 points, 594 Francesco Marconi, 6 points, 586 Takuji Kashiwabara, 6 points, 565 Sergio Ramirez, 6 points, 534 6. Marc Tastet, 5.5 points, 535 7. Òscar Martínez, 2.5 points, 481 8. Hideki Watanabe, 2 points, 512 Javier Martín, 2 points, 508 10. Ricardo Budiño, 0 points, 406 |
Francesco, Imre and Ricardo
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A fabulous first day of tourney for Mirek Voracek with 9 victories. The other 3 players that qualified for the semifinals, no big surprise there. A pitty that Marc did not make the semifinals at his 100th EGP, but the 5 games in the afternoon did not go too well for him. A loss against Mirek (well, everybody lost against Mirek), Sergio and Takuji. A win against Hideki and a draw against Oscar. Semifinals on Sunday: Mirek Voracek -Takuji Kashiwabara Imre Leader -Francesco Marconi |
There was no WiFi at the venue where the tourney was held, thanks to Marc, who sent results to the FFO mailing list, we had some idea of what was happening.
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Semifinals:
Mirek Voracek 39-25 Takuji Kashiwabara Takuji Kashiwabara31-33 Mirek Voracek Francesco Marconi 40-24 Imre Leader Imre Leader 48-16 Francesco Marconi Francesco Marconi 40-24 Imre Leader Match 3/4 Takuji Kashiwabara 28-36 Imre Leader Final : Mirek Voracek 46-18 Francesco Marconi Francesco Marconi 25-39 Mirek Voracek Top 4 EGP Madrid:
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KASHIWABARA Takuji 28-36 LEADER Imre EGP Madrid, playoff 3/4 |
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VORACEK Miroslav 46-18 MARCONI Francesco EGP Madrid, final game 1 |
MARCONI Francesco 25-39 VORACEK Miroslav EGP Madrid, final game 2 |
