Othello News September 2012
Fahmi Alathas wins Jakarta Othello Open
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*** jakarta othello club II ***, September 30th
Tourney format: RR 9 rounds Ranking of the 9 players after round 9: 
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Nicky van den Biggelaar wins 14th Dutch Open Championship
Bussum, Netherlands, September 30th
Tourney format: 7 rounds
Nicky van den Biggelaar won the National Dutch Othello Championship for the fifth time. He qualified for the WOC-team and so did Patrick Aubroeck. There will be a playoff on october 14th to determine the last two spots on the team, third player and female player.
Final results after 7 rounds:
Tourney format: 7 rounds
Nicky van den Biggelaar won the National Dutch Othello Championship for the fifth time. He qualified for the WOC-team and so did Patrick Aubroeck. There will be a playoff on october 14th to determine the last two spots on the team, third player and female player.
Final results after 7 rounds:
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Fabrício Silva wins Brazil Othello ChampionshipSão Paulo, Brazil, September 30th
Tourney format: 5 rounds folowed by semifinal and final Fabrício Silva , 2011 National Othello Champion, defended his title with succes and won the 2012 Brazilian Othello Championship. Unfortunately the internet connection was bad and none of the games was fully broadcasted on liveothello. Standings after round 5: 1 Ismael Rodriguez 5.0 2 Henrique Oliveira 4.0 3 Fabrício Silva 3.0 4 Jun Takemoto 3.0 5 Lucas de Camargo R 3.0 6 Roberto Iglesias 2.0 7 José Lucimério L Silva 2.0 8 Daniel Dantas 2.0 9 Lucas Araújo 1.0 10 Guilherme Palmas 0.0 Semifinal: Fabrício Silva 64 - 0 Henrique Oliveira Henrique Oliveira 27 - 37 Fabrício Silva Jun Takemoto 44 - 20 Ismael Rodriguez Ismael Rodriguez 53 - 11 Jun Takemoto Playoff 3rd / 4th place: Henrique Oliveira 37 - 27 Ismael Rodriguez Final: Fabrício Silva 2 - 1 Jun Takemoto |
ready for the final
semifinal and final on LiveOthello
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Christina Mitsi wins Greek National Championship
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29 September
1. MITSI Christina 5 points 2. THEODOSIOU Pandelis 4 points 3. MITSIS George 3 points -. SCHIZAS George 3 points 5. GIOUZELIS George 2 points -. MAMOURIS George 2 points -. PALAPANIDIS Christos 2 points -. LELLAS Ektor 2 points 9. KOTOPOULI Maria 1 point -. GIOUZELIS Alexandros 1 point Tie break for the 3rd place: MITSIS George - SCHIZAS George 1- 0 |
Christina Mitsi and George Mamouris George (in the background Christos and Maria)
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Emmanuel Caspard wins French ChampionshipParis, France, 22 - 23 September
Tourney format: 11 rounds + final This tourney is a qualifier for the WOC 2012 and counts for the French Grand Prix 2012-2013. Emmanuel Caspard had most wins after the first day, he won 5 games and had a draw against Marc Tastet. Only Emmanuel Lazard managed to steal a point from him. But the standings were shuffled by round 8 on sunday. Arthur Juigner won round 8 against Manu Caspard 36-28 and also round 9 against Marc Tastet 41-23. Arnaud Delaunay finshed first after 11 rounds with 8 points followed by two players with 7 points, Emmanuel Caspard and 2011 champion Takuji Kashiwabara. Caspard and Delaunay played the final and Caspard won his 4th French Championship title with 2-0. French WOC-team: Emmanuel Caspard, Arnaud Delaunay, Takuji Kashiwabara. 3rd / 4th playoff : KASHIWBARA Takuji 50 - 14 JUIGNER Arthur JUIGNER Arthur 14 - 50 KASHIWBARA Takuji Final: DELAUNAY Arnaud 30 - 34 CASPARD Emmanuel CASPARD Emmanuel 45 - 19 DELAUNAY Arnaud Top 3 Grand Prix de France after this tourney: Marc Tastet (230), Emmanuel Caspard (200), Takuji Kashiwabara (180). 
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Top 4 French Championship 2012
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Ashok Choudhary wins India Othello Championship
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Kolkata, India, 22 - 23 September
Tourney format: swiss system for the preliminary round and top 6, semifinals and final Top 6 after 5 rounds:
Amar Roy was out in the preliminary round after losing to Tuhin Paul.
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Ashok Choudhary
Ashok Choudhary, Mehul Vyas, Somnath Panigrahi
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Milosz Cupial wins Polish Othello Championship
Kasia Zieba is Female Champion
eight trophy winners, among them 6-year old Piotrek Pawinsky
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Warszawa, Poland, 22 - 23 September
Tourney format: 11 rounds + final 2011 Polish Champion Bartłomiej Sury won all his games in the 11 rounds but he lost the semifinal against Milosz Cupial. He won the playoff for 3rd place with 1.5 point against Roman Kraczyk. Dominik Nowak and Milosz Cupialon played in the final. After a very close 31 - 33, Milosz also won the last game 37 - 27 and is Polish Othello Champion 2012. Semifinal: Milosz Cupial 43 - 21 Bartłomiej Sury Bartłomiej Sury 30 - 34 Milosz Cupial Dominic Novak 40 - 24 Roman Kraczyk Roman Kraczyk 17 - 47 Dominic Novak 3rd / 4th Playoff: Bartłomiej Sury 32 - 32 Roman Kraczyk Roman Kraczyk 18 - 46 Bartłomiej Sury Final: Dominik Nowak 31 - 33 Milosz Cupial Milosz Cupial 37 - 27 Dominik Nowak Final Women Kasia Zieba 56 - 8 Bozena Wrzosek 
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NOWAK Dominik - CUPIAL Milosz Polish Championship 2012 Final Game 1 |
CUPIAL Milosz - NOWAK Dominik Polish Championship 2012 Final Game 2 |
Andrey Malnev wins 2012 Israeli Championship
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RADZIVILOVSKI Pavel - MALNEV Andrey Israeli Championship 2012 round 1 |
Ramat-Gan, Irsael, 22 September
Tourney format: RR 5 rounds.
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Borja Moreno Fernández wins British National Othello Championship
Helen Starkey wins Ladies Final
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Attenborough, England, 15 - 16 September
Tourney format: 9 rounds, 3rd / 4th play-off and final 2011 British Champion Guy Plowman was not present to defend his title Day 1 17 players at this touney. Borja Moreno Fernández leads with 4 points after 4 rounds. Day 2 Final: Moreno vs Leader. Moreno chose white. Womens Final: Lightman vs Starkey. Lightman chose black. Lightman 25 - 39 Helen Starkey Imre Leader 28 - 36 Borja Moreno Fernández
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Attenborough Nature reserve, what a beautiful location for a Championship
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Helen Starkey wins Ladies Final against Marie Lightman
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How I won the British National Othello Championship final by Borja Moreno Fernández, December 30, 2012 "There is no pressure, no pressure at all" - I told myself. "You won all your games so far, and you are going to play in the final, that's already more than you had hoped for! It's no biggie if you lose." - I insisted, to no avail. As I sat on my chair nervously bouncing my legs, I realized having reached the final was no longer enough. I wanted to win. My opponent was the formidable Imre Leader, ten times British National Othello Champion and a much better player than I was. Still, I knew I had a chance. I had beaten him before some times (and been beaten by him many times…). I was playing White. Last year I was living in Cambridge, the same city Imre lives in. As good Othello enthusiasts, we met a few times to play. Each time we would meet for an hour or two and play a few blitz games. When I played White, the game would very often start like this: f5d6c3d3c4f4f6f3e6e7d7c5c6g6f8c7c8b4e3e2d2, and very often I would lose. Back home, I would learn the opening a bit deeper, and try to give Imre more of a challenge next time. By the last time Imre and I met for some friendly games, I had memorized a 32-move opening, which (continuing from the sequence above) went like this: f2b3b5c2d1g5h6g4g3c1e1. But I was pretty sure Imre knew that line at least as well as I did, for he would play it confidently and fast, and beat me almost every single time. So I thought it would be wise to look at this line in a bit more detail before the tournament. |
LEADER Imre - MORENO Borja British Championship 2012 Final Game |
After 32.e1, Imre and I usually went on to play f1f7a6a5a4b6g8, which seemed to invariably lead to horrible deaths for me. But all my moves felt right... where did I go wrong? With some computer assistance, I was surprised to find out that 34.f7 is a losing (-4) move. In fact 34.b6 is the only non-losing move for White (+0). Never had I considered playing b6 instead of f7 at that position. 34.f7 was a perfectly quiet move, flipping only interior discs, which still gave me the chance to play b6 later. 34.b6, on the other hand, took away my access to f7. Surely f7 should be played before b6, I had always naively thought. Well, no (and I am still not sure I understand why). So I knew that the next time we got to that position, I had to play 34.b6. After 34.b6, Black's only non-losing move is a6, so I memorized White's reply to that, 36.a5. After that, I thought Imre was likely to play either 37.a4 or 37.f7, so I familiarized myself with both. During the final, we got to this position, and 37.a4, 38.a2, 39.f7 was played. 40.b7 was my last book move, which Imre quickly countered with 41.a8 (surely aiming to secure his a8a7 swindle).
"Woah! You are never going to have a chance like this to win the British Nationals!" – I thought. I knew I was in a winning position, there were only 19 moves left, and I had something like 20 minutes on my clock. I "just" had to not mess up.
"Woah! You are never going to have a chance like this to win the British Nationals!" – I thought. I knew I was in a winning position, there were only 19 moves left, and I had something like 20 minutes on my clock. I "just" had to not mess up.
final Leader - Moreno
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As I usually do when it's my turn to move, I first had a look at my opponent's moves. "All of his moves to the East seem to be quite crap, so I want to force him to move there first. But how? There is an even region around a1… wait! Can I treat a1b1b2a3a7 as an odd region so that I am the last to play there and he has to go East first? I can! If I play b2 first and he follows with a1, I wedge in a3. Then it is his choice to go b1 or a7. I will take whichever he decides not to take and then he has to move East. If he decides to follow my b2 with a7 instead, I will go a3. There will be two squares left on the upper-left corner, so he still has to go East first!". And that's what happened in the game: b2a7a3h2. Dude, 15 moves left, and I’m pretty sure I am still ahead. Looking at the board, the only thing that worries me is that Imre could get a swindle at a1b1 if I am not careful. I must not clear the b column (by moving to b8 too early) or the white diagonal. That said, h3 seemed to be my only reasonable option, so I went for it, expecting Imre to follow with h4, after which my plan was to go h5h7g7. Instead, he surprised me with 47.a1. I replied with 48.b1 pretty quickly, for I didn't want him to get all those stable discs in the North edge. I was quite glad that he had decided to play a1, for the swindle threat was gone now. After that, he did play 49.h4.
To be fair, I was far from sure what to play next. Many moves seemed reasonable (and looking at it now on WZebra, many of them were, but I did not know that at the time). The clock was ticking and I couldn't make up my mind. I got this familiar feeling "if you do your next move right, you'll win - but you'll probably screw up". I ended up playing b8, to which Imre replied with g2. I knew I had to either play h1 (playing first into the g1h1h5 triple) or play g8 (taking his access away from h5), or play h5 myself, as otherwise he would play h5 and get parity both on h5's single-cell region and on the h1g1 region. 52.h1 I went, and after that we played g1h5. I had more discs than Imre at that point, there were 6 empties, it was his turn, and there were no swindles that I could see. Surely this was mine? It was. g7h8g8h7e8d8 and the game was over, 28-36 to me! |
pictures thanks to Jeremy Das and Helen Starkey
Miroslav Voráček wins Czech National Othello Championship
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Prague, Czech Republic, 15 - 16 September
Tourney format: 9 rounds + semifinals and final Tomáš Douda won his first national title in 2003. He won again in 2008 and the Czech Othello Championship title has been his up till now. Tomáš will have to wait another year to win his 5th National Championship. Miroslav Voráček played an excellent tourney. He won all his games in the 7 rounds, won both his games in the semifinals and won 2 out of the 3 games in the final against Douda. This is Miroslav's 8th National title. |
Miroslav Voráček
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Tomáš Douda
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Standings after 7 rounds:
1 Miroslav Voráček 7 pts 2 Tomáš Douda 6 pts 3 Ivo Rybárik 5 pts 4 Miroslav Neužil 4 pts 5 Ján Rybárik 3 pts 6 Jiřina Nováková 3 pts 7 Lukáš Roun 2 pts 8 Adam Moravec 2 pts 9 Adam Bily 2 pts 10 Petr Bily 1 pnt Semifinal:
Miroslav Voráček 64 - 0 Miroslav Neužil Neužil 0 - 64 Miroslav Voráček Ivo Rybárik 24 - 40 Tomáš Douda Tomáš Douda 44 - 20 Ivo Rybárik Playoff 3rd / 4th place Miroslav Neužil 14 - 50 Ivo Rybárik Final: Tomáš Douda 22 - 42 Miroslav Voráček Miroslav Voráček 26 - 38 Tomáš Douda Tomáš Douda 28 - 36 Miroslav Voráček  crosstable |
Michele Borassi wins Italian National Othello Championship
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Rome, Italy, 15 - 16 September
Tourney format: 7 rounds + semifinals and final Michele Borassi won the Italian Championship 2012, as he did in 2005. 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. The 2011 winner was Francesco Marconi who won the National Championship 9 times. More Championship history and satistics on FNGO website Day 1 Michele Borassi won all his games and collected 7 points. The three other finalists are Alessandro Di Matei (6 points), Roberto Sperando (5 points) and Carlo Alami (4 points). Paolo Scognamiglio and Francesco Marconi also finished with 4 points but just fell short of semifinal qualification. Gianluca Ilacqua had 3 points Semifinals Category: Leonardo Caviola (3 points), Stefano Carpigo (2 points), Guiseppe Chiarulli (1 point) and Giovanni Della Bianca (0 points). Michele Diodati is unable to attend on sunday. |
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Day 2
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Semifinal Assoluti:
Alami 12 - Borassi 52. Di Mattei 35 - Sperandio 29 Borassi 50 - Alami 14 Di Mattei 47 - Sperandio 17 |
Semifinal Categoria (non-masters):
Chiarulli 33 - Carpigo 31 Dellabianca 46 - Caviola 18 Chiarulli 57 - Carpigo 7 Caviola 33 - Dellabianca 31 |
Playoff 3rd / 4th place Assolutio
Roberto Sperandio - Carlo Alami 2-1 Finale Categoria: Chiarulli 2 - 1 Caviola Finale Assoluti: Alessandro Di Mattei - Michele Borassi 19-45 Michele Borassi - Alessandro Di Mattei 39-25 |
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DI MATTEI Alessandro - BORASSI Michele Italian Championship 2012 Final Game 1 |
final Borassi - Di Mattei
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Biagio Privitera made 6 wonderful videos fo this event. Shown here are part 5 an 6. The other four can be viewed on Biagio's video Othello website.
Alexander Syachin wins Moscow 2nd RFOMoscow, Russia, 8 September 2012 Tourney format: 6 rounds, no final 
Alexander Syachin
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World Othello Championship 2012 News
Jan C. de Graaf, tourney director
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Posts by Jan C. de Graaf (tourneydirector) on WOC 2012 FaceBookpage concerning sponsorship of the Japanese team
MegaHouse has decided not to sponsor WOC 2012 and the Japanese team. The Japanese team is still heartily invited to represent their great Othello nation at WOC 2012! All I can tell is that WOC 2012 will be a great WOC with nearly 80 players held in a very nice venue with a classical WOC feel. Anjar will continue to support WOC now and in the future. The Japanese players will have to pay for their own trip and hotel costs just as most players from most countries have to. I personally expect a full Japanese team. There are so many exceptionally good players in Japan that I find it hard to believe they won't be able to form a very strong team! Jan C. de Graaf |
Karsten Feldborg wins Danish Othello Championship and Denmark Grand Prix
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Kopenhagen, Denmark, 8 September
Tourney format: round robin + final, followed by DOF annual meeting Karsten Felborg won the first edition of the Danish Championship in 1982 in Kopenhagen and this is his 15th Danmarksmester title. He faced 4 opponents, all eager to beat him. Among them the 2011 Danish Champion Palle Badsted. Henrik Vallund was Karsten's opponent in the final. It was the first time ever these two veteran players opposed each other in a DM final. A very close game at 33 -31, congrats Karsten! Final: Henrik Vallund 31 - 33 Karsten Feldborg Danish Championship victories by Karsten Feldborg retrieved from a 2008 Wiki Book page. 1982, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008. As many as 4 tourneys of the Danish tourneys were cancelled this year for lack of players: LF, Randers, Jysk and Hillerød. This is not just a problem in Denmark, Lots of European federations struggle to get enough people interested to play at on the board tourneys.
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VALLUND Henrik - FELDBORG Karsten Denmark Championship Final |
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European Othello Federation vote
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The majority of the National Councils of the European Othello Federation voted in favour of 3 proposals.
The countries on the 2013 European Grand Prix tour are: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Norway and Spain. |
Seiya Kurita wins Ouza-sen 栗田誠矢王座誕生
Mami Yamanaka wins female division / Satoshi Kurahashi wins youth division
Yuta Esaki and Seiya Kurita, final Ouza-sen
 
Mr. Goro Hasegawa, Mami Yamanaka, Seiya Kurita and Satoshi Kurahashi.
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Tokyo, Japan, 2 September
The games at table 1 were video-broadcasted live on the internet and even linked to this page. It was very interesting to watch. It would be great to have something similar at the World Othello Championship in November. Seiya Kurita played an excellent tourney and won all his games. Six players ended with 5 points. At the start of round 6 Kurita and Esaki were the only ones with a perfect score of 5 points and they played an exciting final game 33 - 31. Mami Yamanaka was best female player with 3 points, runner-up Shoko Ide (also 3 points). The junior division Ouza-sen was won by Satoshi Kurahashi, a very talented strong player. He is 2012 champion of Junior Grand Prix (that is a gradeschooler section of All-Japan tournament). He also won the youth division of Meijin 2011 and finished third in Meijin 2012. TOP 7: 1: 6. pts KURITA Seiya 2: 5. pts NAKAJIMA Tetsuya TAKANASHI Yusuke ESAKI Yuta SUEKUNI Makoto KANOU Keisuke MIYAOKA Tamaki Japanese WOC team qualifications 2012: Yusuke Takanashi, All Japan Champion Kazuki Okamoto, Meijin Seiya Kurita, Ouza Sen Mami Yamanaka, Meijin, All Japan - Meijin playoff and Ouza-sen 
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ESAKI Yuta - KOMAGATA Masayuki Ouza-sen 2012 round 4 |
Masayuki Komagata 27 - Yuta Esaki 37 (b)
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Yuta Esaki 35 - Makoto Suekuni 29 (b)
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SUEKUNI Makoto - ESAKI Yuta Ouza-sen 2012 round 5 |
KURITA Seiya - ESAKI Yuta Ouza-sen 2012 round 6, final round |
Marcus Frönmark wins Swedish Othello Championship / Svenska Mästerskapen i Othello
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Stockholm, Sweden, 1 - 2 September
Saturday: 7 rounds followed by SOF's annual meeting Sunday: Semi-final and final matches. In 2011 the Swedish Championship was won by Hannes Sjöström. Second place Nils Berner and third place Henry Aspenryd. The 2012 final was very exciting and started with a draw game. Marcus Frönmark won the next two games and won his first Swedish Championship title. Marcus won the Nordic Championship 3 times, in 2009, 2011 and 2012. This was only the second Swedish Championship that he played in. His first Swedish Championship participation was at the age of 14 in 2003. He ended 21st out of 42 players. Runner-up 15 year old Oskar Eklund played his 4th tourney (Göteborg Open 2012, EGP Stockholm 2012, Göteborg Open 2011) and Liveothello viewers were impressed by his game-strategy. Top 4 Swedish Championship 2012
Day 1: Oskar Eklund, Niklas Wettergren and Marcus Frönmark qualified to play in the semifinals on sunday. Henry Aspenryd and Benkt Steentoft did a playoff for 4th/5th place and the game was won by Henry Aspenryd 25 - 29. Day 2: Semifinal 1: Niklas Wettergren 14 - 50 Oskar Eklund (Niklas exceeded time limit) Oskar Eklund 20 - 44 Niklas Wettergren Niklas Wettergren 29 - 35 Oskar Eklund (game shortly postponed because of a false fire-alarm) Semifinal 2: Marcus Frönmark 38 - 26 Henry Aspenryd Henry Aspenryd 23 - 41 Marcus Frönmark Play-off 3rd / 4th place: Henry Aspenryd 41 - 23 Niklas Wettergren Final: Marcus Frönmark 32 - 32 Oskar Eklund Oskar Eklund 23 - 41 Marcus Frönmark Oskar Eklund 29 - 35 Marcus Frönmark Swedish Championship Statistics from 1977 
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Marcus Frönmark, athletic Othello player :)
FRONMARK Marcus - EKLUND Oskar Swedish Championship 2012 Final Game 1 |
Marcus Frönmark wins Swedish Grand Prix 2012
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1 Marcus Frönmark 70
2 Niklas Wettergren 65 3 Göran Andersson 41 4 Tintin Eng 34 5 Oskar Eklund 26 |
6 Henry Aspenryd 22
7 Christian Gårdebrink 15 8 Ulf Bengtsson 13 9 Benkt Steentoft 10 9 Daniel Rignell 10 |
link to interview with MF in Nya Värmlands-Tidningen (Swedish)
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11 Caroline Odsell 9
12 Jonas Isaksson 8 12 Mathias Andersson 8 14 Mateusz Sosnowski 7 15 Jan Zemelka 6 |
16 Arvid Kjellberg 5
17 Robin Ragnarsson 3 18 Simon Ingelman-Sundberg 2 18 Veronica Stenberg 2 20 Marita Telford 1 |
Marcus Frönmark, Niklas Wettergren, Göran Andersson and Caroline Odsell (best lady) qualified for the Swedish WOC-team.
