Othello News May 2014
7th Singapore Schools Othello Championship 2014 records breaking 104 players registered!
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Location: Singapore
Date: May 31st
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European Grand Prix Moscow May 31st - June 1st
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Final: ISHFAQ Muhammed 8 - 1 SAJAD Anwar
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Muhammed Ishfaq wins Pakistan Othello ChampionshipLocation: Pakistan
Date: May 29th Thirtytwo players battled to win the 2014 Pakistan Othello Championship. The first round was a knockout round. The sixteen players that won played a best of three in the second round to qualify for the quarter final. At the end of the day, Muhammed Ishfaq (who also won the championship in 2013) had played 25 games and he lost only 1 game. Congrats to the champion! Quarter finals: ISHFAQ Muhammed 5 - 0 KASHI Ilahi IMRAN Javed 3 - 2 SHAN Yousaf AZMAT Joiya 2 - 3 SAJAD Anwar IMARAN Khan 4 - 1 SALEEM Ali Semifinals: ISHFAQ Muhammed 7 - 0 IMRAN Javed SAJAD Anwar 4 - 3 IMARAN Khan Final: ISHFAQ Muhammed 8 - 1 SAJAD Anwar |
Alessandro Di Mattei wins Naples Othello OpenLocation: Naples, Italy
Date: May 25th Tourney format: 7 rounds Thanks to Biagio Privitera and the FNGO archive, we can show you a broadcast from TG3 on the 1984 Naples Othello tourney. I asked Biagio if he was in the video and maybe some other players we still know today: yes, I was in the video....30 yrs younger and there are some champions of the early years of Othello in Italy such as Vincenzo Peccerillo,1 time Italian Champion and 5 times finalist. Augusto Brusca,10 times in semifinal, 5 times in final and 2 times Italian champion. These are historical names of Italian Othello. |
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Alessandro Di Mattei won the Naples tourney with 7 wins. The Italian Grand Prix 2014 was allready his after the Ferrara tourney but he added another 100 points to his total. Gianluca Ilacqua finished second in Naples with 5 points. That proved to be a very valuable second place, the 70 grandprix points took him passed Francesco Marconi to the overall second place in the Italian Grand Prix. Thanks to his excellent rating, he received his first dan. Well done Gianluca!
Final results Naples Open
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Top 10 Grand Prix Italy 2014
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WOF website or WRF website?Lots of Othello players have found their way to the new and improved WOF website and we received lots of positive comments. In case you haven't visited it yet or always wondered why the boardgame is called both "Reversi" and "Othello", visit the WOF website and read the article by former Othello Worldchampion Ben Seeley (USA).
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click on image to go to WOF homepage
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Albert Kortendijk (NLD) wins the 9th Antwerpen Othello OpenLocation: Ekeren, Belgium
Date: May 18th Tourney format: 7 rounds Albert Kortendijk (NLD) won the 9th Antwerpen Othello Open after a rather dramatic finish. Tom Schotte was in the lead the whole tournament and remained unbeaten until the last round, where he lost to Michael May. Albert Kortendijk was behind in his last game against Marcel Sneek (until move ~53), but claimed his last game and the tournament in the "extra time". Frauke Van de Moortel won the tournament for beginners unbeaten and proved her strength in the advanced field in the afternoon. Report by Tom Schotte results: A tourney, beginners tourney |
Paris 2009: Kortendijk (l) to Leader (r), "sorry Sir, the dog ate my opening book"
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Marc and Thierry
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Marc Tastet wins Ile de France 4Location: Paris, France
Date: May 17th Tourney format: all round of 20 min pp Two players with 6 points at the end of round 7. Each played 6 games and got 1 bye. The picture was taken in round 7. Marc is counting his final moves. Thierry holds a disc in his hand, ready for the final kill? Marc lost this game 30 - 34. Allthough Thierry also gathered 6 points, this is another win for Marc Tastet, who also won the IdF1 in January. Takuji Kashiwabara won IdF2 and IdF3 was won by Emmanuel Lazard Tourney results: 1: 6 pts [291] TASTET Marc {FRA} [270] LEVY-ABEGNOLI Thierry {FRA} 3: 5 pts [298] LAZARD Emmanuel {FRA} [261] DELAUNAY Arnaud {FRA} 5: 2 pts [212] ANDRIANI Bintsa {FRA} [170] BENOIT Serge {FRA} [122] BUSUTTIL Michel {FRA} |
Francesco Esposito wins Ercolano Othello School TournamentLocation: Ercolano, Italy
Date: May 16th It was the largest Othello school-tournament ever played in Italy!
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"Great Othello Tourney organized by the Italian Federation (FNGO) at a school near Naples. Hundreds of students involved in previous weeks for the qualification rounds (2 students qualified for each of 16 classes of the school), and then Final Day for the best 32 players on Friday May 16th. Really a great success, with so many enthusiastic students that now love Othello. |
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"I just _could not_ think", Imre leader about the final game of the Cambridge EGP
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Many players have asked me: `Why didn't you count the position at move 56 in the Cambridge Final?'.
The answer is not that I looked at the position and decided not to count it. And it is not that I counted it but got it wrong. Rather, it is that I was so exhausted that there was just no question of counting it. As evidence that this is not too uncommon in final games of EGP tournaments, I recommend reading an article written by Graham Brightwell for the British Othello Newsletter back in 1991. It is called `It's 1-1 and the tension is mounting', and is exactly about what happens at the end of the 14th game of an EGP tournament. Here is Graham talking about Paris 1989, when it was his turn to play at move 56 in the final game. He has two possible moves, and decides to count the more forcing line. "Half-way through counting it, I stopped, and started trying to count the other one. I aborted that too, and went back to check what the two possibilities were. I looked at both the lines, and told myself that all I had to do was count one. I looked at the clock: enough time. Started to count: failed. Tried the other line: I couldn't get beyond the second move of the sequence. Looked at the clock. Of course the entire room was gathered around watching, and one thing I was able to think was that at least ten people knew what the right move was. Cursed inwardly. Looked at the clock. Not so much time now. So I played one." [He chose the wrong one, but then his opponent, Murakami, lost on time at move 59!] When I went back to read this article, I saw one thing that made me laugh a lot. Graham quotes a player in this situation as saying "I just _could not_ think". And that player is me. Imre Leader, May 12th 2014 |
BIGGELAAR Nicky van den 33 - 31 LEADER Imre EGP Cambridge, final game 3 |
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Alessandro Di Mattei wins Città di Roma IVLocation: Rome, Italy
Date: May 11th Tourney format: 5 rounds, 17 players Tourney results and games on FNGO website Another win for Alessandro, so far he won all 4 stages of the Città di Roma and gathered 80 points. Second in the general standing is Michele Diodati with 68 points. Third George Ortiz with 63 points. Today Maria Serena Vecchi was the best player of Category A (well done since she was only recently promoted to this category) and Patrick Serpe was the best player of the BIE category . 
link to Città di Roma team and individual results
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Nicky van den Biggelaar wins 71st Dutch OpenLocation: Hilversum, Netherlands
Date: May 11th Tourney format: 7 rounds, 7 players Round 6 was a lucky draw game for Nicky, Jan was ahead for most of the game, lost a few discs at move 47, but was still ahead. Move 53 H7 was a drawing move, G2 would have won the game 33 - 31. Final results:
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link to NOV website
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BERG Erwin van den 25 - 39 BIGGELAAR Nicky van den 71st Dutch Open, round 2 |
HOBO Roel 28 - 36 AUBROECK Patrick 71st Dutch Open, round 5 |
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GRAAF Jan de 32 - 32 BIGGELAAR Nicky van den 71st Dutch Open, round 6 |
FRANSEN Martin 30 - 34 HOBO Roel 71st Dutch Open, round 7 |
click on image to go to WOF homepage
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click on image to read the entire bulletin
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Roy Arnold wins 2014 Newcastle-upon-Tyne RegionalLocation: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Great-Britain
Date: May 10th Tourney format: 7 rounds, 5 players Ranking of the 5 players after round 7: 1: 6 pts [551] ARNOLD Roy (2006) {GBR} 2: 4 pts [532] LIGHTMAN Marie (100004) {GBR} [524] BALKAN Gökçe (100020) {GBR} [515] STEPHENSON Ken (2001) {GBR} 5: 3 pts [468] HORTON John (2089) {GBR} |
John Horton and Roy Arnold at Whitley Bay Regional in 2012
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Makoto Suekuni wins 92nd Shinagawa Seaside Open
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Date: May 10th
Tourney format: 6 rounds, 23 players
Tetsuya Nakajima won the 2013 91st Shinagawa Seaside open undefeated, but this year Makoto Suekuni won with a perfect score of 6 wins. Makoto won a lot of tourneys recently. He won the WOC in 1997, maybe 2014 will prove to be his year again. He is well on his way.
Date: May 10th
Tourney format: 6 rounds, 23 players
Tetsuya Nakajima won the 2013 91st Shinagawa Seaside open undefeated, but this year Makoto Suekuni won with a perfect score of 6 wins. Makoto won a lot of tourneys recently. He won the WOC in 1997, maybe 2014 will prove to be his year again. He is well on his way.
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Top 3 players:
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link to results (in Japanese)
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SUEKUNI Makoto 33 - 31 YABE Uma 92nd Shinagawa Seaside Open |
SUEKUNI Makoto 48 - 16 ASAHINA Satoshi 92nd Shinagawa Seaside Open |
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Roman Neuzil wins Czech Grand Prix stage 4Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Date: May 8th Tourney format: 7 rounds Thanks to Ján Rybárik for the ready to post results and pictures. A very succesful tournament with lots of young players from the Kapsa Cub. At the Club they play a lot of different board games. |
Top 20 WOF Ratinglist May 7th 2014
The new and improved website of the World Othello Federation will be up soon.
The entire WOF ratinglist can be found here. |
01: Yusuke TAKANASHI (JPN)
02: Kazuki OKAMOTO (JPN) 03: Kenta TOMINAGA (JPN) 04: Seiya KURITA (JPN) 05: Alexandr SYACHIN (RUS) 06: Makoto SUEKUNI (JPN) 07: Yan SONG (CHN) 08: Kyousuke KANAI (JPN) 09: Keisuke SASAKI (JPN) 10: Takashi YAMAKAWA (JPN) |
11: Tetsu SATANI (JPN)
12: Tetsuya NAKAJIMA (JPN) 13: Michele BORASSI (ITA) 14: Olli MAKKONEN (FIN) 15: Hideshi TAMENORI (JPN) 16: Tomohiro OHNO (JPN) 17: Yoshinori OHIKE (JPN) 18: Yusuke MAEHIRA (JPN) 19: Junya ITO (JPN) 20:Takahiro SUGASE (JPN) |
Takuji Kashiwabara (FRA) wins European Grand Prix in Denmark, May 3rd - 4th and takes the lead in the 2014 EGP
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continue to read on here on our special EGP Copenhagen page
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Final game Kashiwabara - Tastet
Marc Tastet (2nd), Takuji Kashiwabara (winner), Imre Leader (3rd) and Matthias Berg (4th)
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CHEN Xu and LIU Yaqing (Women's Group) win 5th Tianjin Othello Open
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Location: Tianjin, China
Date: May 2nd, 2014 Format: 7 rounds Swiss system, 2 X 20 mins. Semifinal and final games: 2 X 30 mins Top 4:
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players of the 5th Tianjin Othello Open
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WANG Wei 42 - 22 HUANG Shilin 5th Tianjin Championship, semifinal |
JIA Baolong 29 - 35 CHEN Xu 5th Tianjin Championship, semifinal |
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CHEN Xu 35 - 29 WANG Wei 5th Tianjin Championship, final |
JIA Baolong 40 - 24 HUANG Shilin 5th Tianjin Championship, 3rd/4th playoff |
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