Mind Sports Pentathlon World Championships 2014

The second session of lines of action went well. I was at a disadvantage against Martyn Hamer for a long time, but in the end I managed to win with a big loss. The remaining games were relatively under control from start to finish. Since Dekker unexpectedly lost in the penultimate round to none other than Madli, I even caught him and paid him 97 points. Madli also made an excellent performance with his trump card and earned 80 points in the Pentamind score. Martin collected 50% and this probably won't help him in any way. The tournament standings will therefore immediately improve. At the moment, the 3 best results are 100, 97 and 87. Right now, this doesn't fit among the best, since the fourth best result is only 50, but considering the high hopes in boku and entropy, the chances of a medal are quite good.

Yesterday was another Estonian day in poker - Martin won, I finished third and Madli finished sixth. Martin now has two 100-point results together and is in about the same position as me - not at the top yet, but considering that his trump cards (kamisado, gomoku, renju, boku) are still ahead, the situation is promising. After today's kamisado and gomoku, he may already take the lead. When examining the standings in more detail yesterday, it turned out that Matthew's position is not as strong as it seems at first glance. He does have four golds and two silvers (yesterday's 91 points didn't even give him a point bonus), but he is missing another result from the long session. Until yesterday, it seemed that this would definitely come from the overall poker standings (he was in the lead before yesterday), but now Martin has taken over the reins there too. If I had to make bets, my choice would be 2 medals for the Estonians and the third for Matthew. In doing so, it could be decisive whether we can keep Matthew behind in the overall poker standings or not. Funnily enough, none of the favorites have done well so far.

Martin and I did a clean job in the kamisado, gold for me, silver for him. The reward for first place is 88 points, which ensures a medal chance, although it may not help in the fight for gold. Unfortunately, there were so few participants that Martin's 80 points for second place probably won't be among the top five results. The second session was scheduled for gomoku, where the medals will presumably be divided among Estonians: gold for Martin, silver for Madli, bronze for me.

Martin and Madli did their job successfully and took the first two places. Unfortunately, I failed and there was no triple win. The underdog gives Martin about 88 points and Madli 77 for second place. In the evening, we play Omaha with the whole gang (except Madli, who is playing checkers) and the goal is to outlast Matthew as many as possible.

It's still hard for you to get those points there if there are no participants. I don't know if it's some kind of small tactic that Andres and Martin's trump cards tend to have less than 10 participants.

You see, I've been waiting for the results on the Pentamind website since the day before yesterday, but I should have looked here instead. Thumbs up for all Estonians!

Who, Andres, snatched third place in the gomoku for you?

I was able to beat Andres in the last round, unfortunately or fortunately, in Gomoku. I set up a fairly simple trap and Andres stepped right into it. He had quite adequate threats, but I was able to defend them so that he had a complete run. Tomorrow I will also post the positions of Andres and his competitors on www.pentamind.ee, all of them have been played except for tonight's poker, but the rounding formula needs to be discussed.

Where can I find the results of the gomoku (and rendžu, if it took place) so that I can post coverage of Meelis and other heroic deeds of our own on the gomoku pages? To be honest, I can't find the information myself at all.

Martyn Hamer won last night's Omaha, but Matthew Hatthrell's early elimination was more important for us. To get a good result in the overall poker standings, he now needs to finish in the top three in Sunday night's Holdem. I was fourth and so I unexpectedly became the leader in the poker standings. It doesn't make much sense to me, since he already has 100 points in poker, but a series win would still be awesome. Assuming that Matthew doesn't get the necessary result in poker, his only chance to get another decent long session is Sunday's agricola. Since this is the first time this area is planned, there is no overview of anyone's abilities and we are trying to use tomorrow's day off to practice agricola, so that we can then make several friends for Matthew. Martin and I rested from this morning's session to be ready for hare@tortoise in the second session. A rested head is very necessary there to keep an eye on the opponents' carrot supply. Madli plays abalone, but as of now nothing good is coming from it. There will be no evening session today, instead there will be a Planning Committee, to which I have been invited. There is no point in expecting new results tomorrow either, as it is a day off, but we will use this time in addition to agricola to make summaries and forecasts. Initial calculations show that unexpectedly, both Martin and I have a completely real chance of even competing for gold (of course, assuming that we come in at least second if not first place in the bocu). Currently, I have 100, 97, 88, 86 and 50 points, or a total of 421 points. 90-100 points in the bocu would raise it to 460-470. Quite surprisingly, no one except Matthew is currently aiming for a total of 470 points, in previous years there have been difficulties with this at times even to get a medal. Martin's 4 best results are 100, 100, 88 and 77. For him, 90-100 points in the bocu would also mean reaching 455-465. Ideally, we'll burn Matthew's chances on the penultimate day, and then share the gold on the last day. However, a score of 460-470 points is always something that someone from behind can reach with a couple of wins and ruin the plans. In any case, there's a lot at stake in Sunday's agricolas and poker.