Othello News March 2015
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Alessandro Di Mattei wins Città di Roma stage 3Location: Rome, Italy
Date: March 29th Tourney format: 5 rounds Link to webalbum FNGO Alessandro recently lost two tourneys, Udine and Milan Open, but he is back on track with an undefeated tourney victory. Top 3 of 15 players: 1. Alessandro Di Mattei, 5 points 2. George Ortiz, 4 points 3. Biagio Privitera, 4 points Best Categoria A = Leonardo Caviola Best Categoria B = Chiara Gigliucci Best Categoria I = Alessandro Cacciatore |
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ORTIZ George 23-41 DI MATTEI Alessandro Città di Roma |
"My game against Alessandro di Mattei (which was not very flattering for me :), I responded to his chimney opening with a move I've never played before... so it was an experiment... and not a very good one!) : |
Piyanat Aunchulee wins 2015 Thailand Othello Championship
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link to games on LiveOthello
Top 4 Thailand Othello Championship 2015
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AUNCHULEE Piyanat 42-22 INTARANOP Warawut Thailand Othello Championship 2015, round 4 |
KRAIKOKIT Piamrat 29-35 AUNCHULEE Piyanat Thailand Othello Championship 2015, round 5 |
INTARANOP Warawut 30-34 KRAIKOKIT Piamrat Thailand Othello Championship 2015, round 7 |
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INTARANOP Warawut 34-30 PATTARAKUL Nida Thailand Othello Championship 2015, 3/4 playoff |
KRAIKOKIT Piamrat 15-49 AUNCHULEE Piyanat Thailand Othello Championship 2015, final game 1 |
AUNCHULEE 50-14 KRAIKOKIT Thailand Othello Championship 2015, final game 2 |
Yusuke Takanashi wins 99th Shinagawa Seaside OpenLocation: Shinagawa, Japan
Date: March 28th Tourney format: 6 rounds, 39 players Another victory for Yusuke, the 2015 Mejin-Sen winner. He won 5 games and lost 1, against the #2 Junya Ito. Four players with the same final score, just like the Ile de France tourney that took place on the same day. Top 4 of 39 players:
More results at JOA website |
tourney celebration, picture from JOA website
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Imre Leader wins Leicester-Oadby RegionalLocation: Oadby, England
Date: March 28th Tourney format: 7 rounds Final results: Imre Leader, 7/7 Iain Barrass, 5 Phil Marson, 5 Neil Stephenson, 4 Ben Pridmore, 3 Steve Rowe, 3 Roy Arnold, 1 Ken Stephenson, 0 |
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Quite an eventful tournament, for several reasons:
1) Imre's BOF rating surges past Garry's, to the top; 2) Imre's and Phil's number of rated games "surge" into four figures (just); 3) Neil Stephenson returns after an absence of about 23 years! There were no games on Liveothello so I emailed Imre and asked him to send me a transcript of one or two interesting games. "My most interesting game was in the last round, against Neil Stephenson -- he has not played in about 25 years. He is a former UK champion. His brother David Stephenson was also once UK Champion. And his dad, Ken Stephenson, is still playing (he was at this tournament) at age 80. " |
STEPHENSON Neil 15-49 LEADER Imre Oadby Regional, round 7 |
Four winners at Ile de France 3
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Location: Paris, France
Date: March 28th Tourney format: 7 rounds Report on FNGO website Four players tied for 1st place ! Thierry Lévy-Abégnoli, Marc Bertrandias, Emmanuel Lazard and MarcTastet all finished with 5 points. Jacques Ovion may have finished last, but he started the tourney with a victory against Marc Tastet! Thanks to Marc and Bintsa for the info and the pictures. 1: 5 pts [302] LEVY-ABEGNOLI Thierry (3598) {FRA} [284] BERTRANDIAS Marc (50075) {FRA} [273] LAZARD Emmanuel (11) {FRA} [235] TASTET Marc (2) {FRA} 5: 3 pts [221] ANDRIANI Bintsa (45) {MDG} [202] TOUCHENE Fouad (9025) {DZA} 7: 2 pts [107] OVION Jacques (275) {FRA} 
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the 4 IdF3 winners
link to games on LiveOthello
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TASTET Marc 31-33 OVION Jacques Ile de France 3, round 1 |
LAZARD Emmanuel 30-34 TASTET Marc Ile de France 3, round 2 |
TASTET Marc 14-50 BERTRANDIAS Marc Ile de France 3, round 3 |
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LÉVY-ABÉGNOLI Thierry 52-12 LAZARD Emmanuel Ile de France 3, round 6 |
LAZARD Emmanuel 33-31 ANDRIANI Bintsa Ile de France 3, round 7 |
OVION Jacques 19-45 TOUCHENE Fouad Ile de France 3, round 7 |
Othello History
Geoff Hubbard posted an interesting link on the British Othello Federation mailing list to an article written by David Levy that was published in the Creative Computer Magazine June 1981.
Some of the comments:
"I'm a bit baffled by some of the moves of the human British Champion player vs. the Moor. a2 was doubtful, but a6 was simply unbelievable. I truly wonder what the playing conditions were. Was the human player not allowed to see the board?"
Jan C. de Graaf
'If it was a `British Champion' and the article is from 1981 then there is a good chance that they are referring to the 1980 champion. For the 1980 British Championships, there was a competition in the Gamer magazine (a competition not about good Othello moves!), and from the very many correct answers the sponsors randomly selected 4 to play in a national final!!! So it is not a surprise that that year was not so strong. In particular, no known players from then (Alan Woch, John Ball, John Parker, Ian Turner) were among the 4. Before 1980, there was a big tournament, with well-attended regional selection tournaments. Then came 1980. In 1981 it was again a competition in a newspapers, but this time the finals were for 64 players, so all the known players were there. And from 1982 onwards it was by regional selection tournaments and then a national final."
Imre Leader
"Awesome! I remember this article from its reproduction in his book on computer game-playing that I read in 1984, and which inspired me to do my undergraduate research project on that topic. The paragraph above the diagram (note: on page 1) is priceless."
Aubrey de Grey
Some of the comments:
"I'm a bit baffled by some of the moves of the human British Champion player vs. the Moor. a2 was doubtful, but a6 was simply unbelievable. I truly wonder what the playing conditions were. Was the human player not allowed to see the board?"
Jan C. de Graaf
'If it was a `British Champion' and the article is from 1981 then there is a good chance that they are referring to the 1980 champion. For the 1980 British Championships, there was a competition in the Gamer magazine (a competition not about good Othello moves!), and from the very many correct answers the sponsors randomly selected 4 to play in a national final!!! So it is not a surprise that that year was not so strong. In particular, no known players from then (Alan Woch, John Ball, John Parker, Ian Turner) were among the 4. Before 1980, there was a big tournament, with well-attended regional selection tournaments. Then came 1980. In 1981 it was again a competition in a newspapers, but this time the finals were for 64 players, so all the known players were there. And from 1982 onwards it was by regional selection tournaments and then a national final."
Imre Leader
"Awesome! I remember this article from its reproduction in his book on computer game-playing that I read in 1984, and which inspired me to do my undergraduate research project on that topic. The paragraph above the diagram (note: on page 1) is priceless."
Aubrey de Grey
Miroslav (2nd), Nicky (winner), Takuji (3rd), Matthias (4th)
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Nicky van den Biggelaar wins European Grand Prix BerlinEGP Berlin, March 21st - 22nd. The first stage of the EGP 2015 was played in Prague on February 14th - 15th. This weekend the second stage in Berlin. Results, games and pictures are posted on Othello New's special EGP Berlin page.
Top 4 European Grand Prix Berlin:
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Yusuke Takanashi wins 36th Meijin-Sen
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Location: Osaka, Japan
Date: March 21st - 22nd Tourney format: Competitions for Ladies, High School Students, Junior High School Students and Elementary School Students on the first day of this Meijin-weekend. On Sunday the battle for the Meijin title and trophy. Link: Meijin-Sen on Facebook and Japan Othello Association's renewed website 
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The 36th Meijin-sen women's semi finals were played by Satomi Takahashi vs Yoko Sano and Yamanaka Mami vs Saito Aya. Satomi and Mami qualified for the final.
Satomi Takahashi won the final against Mami Yamanaka (female Mejin-Sen in 2003 and 2012) and is the 2015 Female Meijin-Sen champion. Third pace is for Yoko Sano (female Meijin-Sen in 2004)
Winner Female division - Satomi Takahashi
Winner High School division - Miyasaka Kiyotaka
Winner Junior High School division - Kurahashi Satoshi
Winner Elementary School division - Fukuchi Keisuke
Satomi Takahashi won the final against Mami Yamanaka (female Mejin-Sen in 2003 and 2012) and is the 2015 Female Meijin-Sen champion. Third pace is for Yoko Sano (female Meijin-Sen in 2004)
Winner Female division - Satomi Takahashi
Winner High School division - Miyasaka Kiyotaka
Winner Junior High School division - Kurahashi Satoshi
Winner Elementary School division - Fukuchi Keisuke
The Meijin-Sen 2014 finalists were Makoto Suekuni (winner) and Takashi Yamakawa (runner-up). A great achievement by Takashi to qualify again for the final in this field of 142 players. This time his opponent was the current #1 of the WOF rating and 2009, 20010 and 2012 Othello World Champion Yusuke Takanashi. The game was broadcasted on the Meijin 2015 live stream channel. Two very talented young Othello players, both undefeated in the preliminary rounds and semi, fought for the titlle and Yusuke won. This is Yusuke's third Meijin-Sen title (2009, 2010 and 2015). Yusuke was very disappointed that he did not qualify for the WOC in Thailand last year. Now he is looking forward to have some fun in Europe at the 2015 World Championship. Maybe Takashi will succeed in winning one of the two remaining spots on the Japanese team later this year. Third place Takanori Oshimizu, fourth place was for Sohei Sasaki.
Link to final results of all players (in japanese)
Link to final results of all players (in japanese)
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YAMAKAWA, Takashi 38-26 TAMENORI, Hideshi Meijin-Sen 2015 |
YAMAKAWA, Takashi 41-23 TSUCHIDA, Daisuke Meijin-Sen 2015 |
KANOU, Yuki 28-35 ASAHINA Satoshi Meijin-Sen 2015 |
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YAMAKAWA, Takashi 40-24 ASAHINA, Satoshi Meijin-Sen 2015 |
OSHIMIZU, Takanori 24 - 40 TAKANASHI, Yusuke Meijin-Sen 2015 |
Yusuke Takanashi
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YAMAKAWA, Takashi 21-43 TAKANASHI, Yusuke Meijin-Sen 2015, final |
Matyas Racek wins Czech GP Othello 3
Takuji Kashiwabara wins Torneo di Udine
Location: Udine, Italy
Date: March 15th
Tourney format: 7 rounds
Takuji Kashiwabara won the Italian Grand Prix in 2005. Too early in the season to tell who will win this year, but right now the full 100 GP points went to Takuji. Winner of the first GP stage in Milan earlier this month, Francesco Marconi, finished 3rd.
Final result:
Date: March 15th
Tourney format: 7 rounds
Takuji Kashiwabara won the Italian Grand Prix in 2005. Too early in the season to tell who will win this year, but right now the full 100 GP points went to Takuji. Winner of the first GP stage in Milan earlier this month, Francesco Marconi, finished 3rd.
Final result:
- Takuji Kashiwabara, 7 points
- Alessandro Di Mattei, 6 points
- Francesco Marconi, 5 points
- Gianluca Ilacqua, 4 points
- Marino Carpignano and Chiara Gigliucci, 3 points
- Furio Honsell, Paolo Arcudi and Sabrina D'Amato, 2 points
- Laura Buccione, Silvano Feragotto, and Emilio Zampa, 1 point.
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DI MATTEI, Alessandro 44-20 MARCONI, Francesco Torneo di Udine |
KASHIWABARA, Takuji 37-27 MARCONI, Francesco Torneo di Udine |
more pictures of the event were posted by Marino Carpignano at Facebook
Karsten Feldborg wins Lund Othello Open
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Location: Lund, Sweden
Date: March 14th Tourney format: 10 rounds Karsten Feldborg (DNK) won the tourney with 8.5 points. He won all games up till round 9 which was a draw against Robin Ragnarsson and that game was followed by a loss in round 10 against Daniel Rignell. Runner-up with 8 points, Niklas Wettergren. The picture on the right was taken on October 22nd, 1982 at the 6th WOC in Stockholm, preliminary round 2 KunihikoTanida versus Karsten Feldborg. Referee was Tetsuzo Yamamoto. |
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FELDBORG Karsten 44-20 WETTERGREN Niklas Lund Othello Open, round 7 |
Karsten Feldborg - Daniel Rignell
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RIGNEL Daniel 44-20 FELDBORG Karsten Lund Othello Open, round 10 |
Othello Belgium at Made in Asia Expo
For the fourth year in a row, the Belgian Othello Association have a stand at the Made In Asia Expo. for the 3rd year in a row.
Several members of the Belgian Otello Association will be present to promote the game. What better way to start your Othello career than with a game against 6-times Belgian national champion Tom Schotte. Just like last year, some of the players were fabulously dressed!
Several members of the Belgian Otello Association will be present to promote the game. What better way to start your Othello career than with a game against 6-times Belgian national champion Tom Schotte. Just like last year, some of the players were fabulously dressed!
Othello knockouts!
Roel Hobo at WOC 2014
link to results per round on NOV website
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Roel Hobo wins 74th Dutch Othello OpenLocation: Bussum, The Netherlands
Date: March 8th Tourney format: 7 rounds Sunday March 8th was a lovely spring day in The Netherlands. A great day for a walk, or a cycling trip, or to enjoy a beer in the garden. But 10 people sat indoors and played Othello. Roel started the tourney with a draw against Patrick Aubroeck. He lost against Nicky van de Biggelaar in round 4 but won 5 other games. This is Roel's second victory this year, he won the 73rd Othello Open in January. Roel is number 1 in the Dutch 2015 Grand Prix Othello. Second place for both Nicky van den Biggelaar and Albert Kortendijk. Nicky had 5 points after 5 rounds but then lost two consecutive games against Martin Fransen and Linda Praseptyo. Albert only just won in the first round against Linda, he lost against Nicky in round 3 and lost against Roel in round 5. Results after 7 rounds: 1. Roel Hobo, 5.5 pnts 2. Nicky van den Biggelaar, 5 pnts Albert Kortendijk, 5 pnts 4. Patrick Aubroeck, 4.5 pnts 5. Martin Fransen, 4 pnts 6. Linda Praseptyo, 3 pnts Jan de Graaf, 3 pnts Erwin van den Berg, 3 pnts 9. Marcel Sneek, 1 pnt Jarl Ilbrink, 1 pnt |
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FRANSEN Martin 27-37 DE GRAAF Jan C. 74th Dutch Othello Open, round 1 |
VAN DEN BIGGELAAR Nicky 38-26 HOBO Roel 74th Dutch Othello Open, round 4 |
DE GRAAF Jan C. 28-32 PRASEPTYO Linda 74th Dutch Othello Open, round 4 |
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VAN DEN BIGGELAAR Nicky 44-20 DE GRAAF Jan C. 74th Dutch Othello Open, round 5 |
HOBO Roel 42-22 KORTENDIJK Albert 74th Dutch Othello Open, round 5 |
FRANSEN Martin 33-31 VAN DEN BIGGELAAR Nicky 74th Dutch Othello Open, round 6 |
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Tae Eung Lee wins 10th Korea Othello YipdanLocation: Seoul, South Korea
Date: March 1st Tourney format: 5 rounds The Othello Association of Korea organised a tourney for beginners on the first day of March. Tae Eung LEE won all his games and was awarded 1st Dan. Also 1st DAN for the runner-up Ki Pil KIM. LEE, Tae Eung, KOR, 5, 229 KIM, Ki Pil, KOR, 4, 216 KIM, Dongil, KOR, 3.5, 190 HONG, Hyungbum, KOR, 3.5, 179 KIM, Donghyeon, KOR, 3, 187 PARK, Jeonghyun, KOR, 3, 176 KIM Hyeon, ah, KOR, 3, 165 KO, Junhyoung, KOR, 3, 165 KIM, Taehwa, KOR, 2, 164 KIM, Gyejin, KOR, 2, 152 JEON, Gunsoo, KOR, 2, 149 HA, Hyosik, KOR, 2, 119 KIM Soo, Ah, KOR, 1, 138 CHOI, Inae, KOR, 1, 126 KIM, Wangnyeon, KOR, 1, 107 LEE, Jinsung, KOR, 1, 98 |
Websites and pictures
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The Othello federations of France and Finland have completely restyled their websites. Have a look at the Fédération Française d'Othello and Othello Suomi.
The Finnish website features my most favourite Othello picture ever. On the picture Akkelien de Boer with her sunglasses on, reflected in the glasses the othello board and her opponent Josbert van de Zande. A perfect picture made by Linda Praseptyo at the 8th Zonhoven Othello Open June 22nd 2014. The Belgium Othello Association held a best Othello picture 2014 poll and the result was published last week in the latest issue of their newsletter and most votes, including mine, went to this picture. 
this shows more of the setting
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best Othello picture 2014
Do you have a special Othello picture that you think would be perfect for the header of the Othello News homepage? Send your picture to Othello News. |
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Francesco Marconi wins Milan OpenLocation: Milan, Italy
Date: March 1st Tourney format: 7 rounds Link to results on FNGO website The first stage of the Italian Gran Prix Othello was a victory for Francesco Marconi. A very good start of the Othello year for Francesco. He finished 2nd at the EGP in Prague 2 weeks ago and now he starts the Italian Grand Prix with the full 100 points. Francesco won the tourney undefeated with 7 points, second place for Alessandro Di Mattei with 4.5 points. 
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DI MATTEI Alessandro 30 - 34 MARCONI Francesco Milan Othello Open, round 3 |
ILAQUA Gianluca 44 - 20 KASHIWABARA Takuji Milan Othello Open, round 7 |
Remember this?The Othello Wiki Book Project maybe looked a bit outdated by the time it shut down in 2012, but the information was always very up to date and available in many languages. Many years' effort was put into the Wiki, by a lot of devoted Othello players. Click on the image below and have a look at some of the archived pages. Not all the valuable Othello history is lost!
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Imre Leader wins Cambridge Othello Open
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Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Date: February 28th - March 1st Tourney format: 11 rounds and finals Further detail about the tournament can be found on BOF website. Matthias Berg (DEU) scored 10.5/11 in the Swiss rounds, There were quite a lot of beginners at the tourney and Matthias played 4 whipeout games. Needless to say that Matthias qualified to play in the final. His opponent in the final, Imre Leader, lost 21 - 43 against Matthias in round 3, but Imre finished the final in 2 games. Here below you can read the report Imre sent to the BOF Othello group. 
crosstable swiss rounds
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Final and playoff 3rd / 4th place
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The Cambridge Open was this weekend. There were 14 players, but without Guy Plowman and his relatives there would only have been 5 players! We had: me,
Matthias Berg, Chenying Li (Matthias' other half!), Pierluigi Stanzione, Phil Marson, Guy and three of his five children (Luke, Jessie, Mark) and Guy's brother-in-law Richard Brand and his four children (James, Sophie, Henry and Lucy).
The top few scores after the Swiss were:
1. Matthias Berg 10.5
2. Imre Leader 10
3. Guy Plowman 9
4. Pierluigi Stanzione 8.5
5. Phil Marson 7
6. Richard Brand 6
7. Mark Plowman 5 (Mark, aged 8, won the under-16 award!)
I lost to Matthias, and Guy lost to Matthias and me. Pierluigi drew with Matthias in a superbly exciting game. Richard almost beat Matthias: he played a very good x-square at a key moment, and followed it up with the right sequence, but could not find the right `final thing to do' at move 53.
3/4 Playoff: Guy beat Pierluigi 33-31 in a very close and exciting game. We thought Pierluigi had a win near the end, but we have not computer-checked this yet.
Final: In the first game, I was Black. Matthias played the Ralle move 8, as he had done against me in the Swiss. I managed to survive the opening (not easy against Matthias!), but around move 24-26 I felt the game was slipping away from me a bit. He ended up playing an x-square at 34, and I then had one of the longest and scariest thought-processes I have ever had. I had to give up loads around the opposite corner to get access to the corner whose x-square he had played. If I didn't find a good way to do this I would just die, but then again if I did not die then maybe _he_ would die (as if I got to that corner I had parity in another region. So I could not really tell if I was thinking to `stay alive and not just die horribly' or if I was thinking to `find my cool winning sequence'! Anyway, I got my access, and so got my corner, and then Matthias missed a thing I could do that got me _either_ trillions of stable discs _or_ the very corner that I had had to sacrifice to him (this was what I played at moves 45 and 47) and so it ended up not close.
In the second game, we followed a line we had played in the Xmas Friendly. In the Xmas Friendly, I had played a move 22, expecting an obvious move 23, and Matthias had amazed me by saying `I have five possible moves now' and had played a move 23 that I was not expecting, and looked weird, but I had played badly against it and gone on to lose horribly. This time I knew what to do against that move 23 (although not against any of the other ones!), and Matthias played it again. So I knew how to survive the next few moves. Then it looked like I was probably ahead, and a key gain of two tempos at move 38-40 essentially ended the game.
Matthias' opening knowledge makes him a very very scary person to play against. And when he gets an opening advantage his midgame and endgame play are great, so that he tends to keep that advantage right through the game. Those two games today are two of the very few times I've played him when, whether I have lost or won, my first comment to him after the game is not `OK, tell me where I went wrong in the opening'!!
Imre Leader, March 1st
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LEADER Imre 21 - 43 BERG Matthias Cambridge Othello Open, round 3 |
BERG Matthias 33-31 PLOWMAN Guy Cambridge Othello Open, round 4 |
STANZIONE Pierluigi 32-32 BERG Matthias Cambridge Othello Open, round 5 |
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LEADER Imre 42 - 22 BERG Matthias Cambridge Othello Open, final game 1 |
Top 4:
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BERG Matthias 27-37 LEADER Imre Cambridge Othello Open, final game 2 |
