World Mindset Championship 2011

15 minutes until the second session, I quickly scribble a few lines. 3 rounds of chess are over and I'm currently tied for 2nd-3rd place with 2.5 points. The leader is IM Ankush Khandehal, with whom I'll play in the next round, unfortunately with black. I still have to meet another IM, the American Etan Ilfeld. Since most of the participants have chosen backgammon (I forgot to mention this game in last night's post), there are only 10 participants and that means that second place will receive less than 90 points. Bad news, in short, I have to go and take down Kwandehal. Kertul is in the third round of monopoly. The first one got 3rd place (out of 4) at his board and the second one unfortunately got 4th place, but according to his words, he has already found many new friends who pat him after every game and ask how he's doing.

The chess ended badly. I lost to IM Khandehal due to stupid mistakes made due to lack of time (I probably even had a chance to win, but unfortunately I didn't listen to Tuule's advice). Next came IM Ilfeld, with whom I drew with a spade and in the last round I couldn't convert the extra rook into a win. So only 1 and no chance of a medal. By the way, I wrote it wrong before, there are still 12 players, which would have given a normal score even in the case of 2nd place. Kertu finished with two third places and in total 3rd, 4th, 3rd and 3rd. Didn't achieve anything good with it, but it was still fun. Now on to Hare&Tortois. Keep your fingers crossed!

It's a shame that the chess game didn't work out. But I hope that the rabbit game goes well and that you can show us new tricks in Estonia later. Long live the carrots! Pihel

We started the day early. We probably didn't take the shortcut, because my feet are blistered and we arrived at the competition venue a little later than planned. The day was fun, because during the game there was a UK black people's parade under the window. In Monopoly, we made David Pearce a fool, forcing him to spend 1,100 play money, even though it wasn't his turn. Teamwork, huh! In the carrot game, I couldn't get rid of the cabbages, and that's where these poor results came from. We still have a big TV - as wide as my arm span. I'd like to eat. Send me boiled potatoes (Jõgeva yellow) and sauerkraut with sauce, please. There are only organic food shops here. The Coca-Cola bottle also has a different design. Cherry cola costs £1. Road construction is going on everywhere, but the workers are slow, because we haven't seen proper, newly finished, smooth asphalt yet. There are a lot of cyclists and tourist buses. Not all buses are red and double-decker. The newer ones are double-decker, roofless and purple. Taxis are black, though. I also have a new friend, Steven. I don't know what country he's from, but he asked me during lunch if I didn't have any food so he could give me his last apple. I said I already ate in the morning and he peeled his own apple. During the game we played a few guessing games. The first was - How to pronounce "Kertu" and the second was - "What country is Kertu from?" It wasn't Austria, Russia or Slovakia. The final of the game is tomorrow. 1 smartest guy thought that since Andres and I speak a foreign language, we must be from the same place. 12 points for him. The others continue guessing. I got angry with one of my fellow players because I had to pay him rent in Monooli, he called the amount 'six-six-sixti-sixtii', I gave him 60 and he refused to give me back the rest because he clearly said sixteen. I was a bit annoyed, asked him to stutter more clearly next time and said that there was no point in making a bet, he wouldn't win anyway. Last but not least. Karma debt, I'm always talking! And thanks to my friend Juku, who called and asked what I was doing. When I answered that I was in London, he said that they had a problem.. I need to go to Tartu sometime. Forgive me Juku, but I don't think I'll come today! It's good that you remember me! Good night to you, I'll let Andres say something now.

Great story, I just finished a long and thorough summary when the session expired and everything went up in smoke. Marten, and I can't find it in the log file (I finished at 1:47). In short, the day went by in a blur - I finished H&T with 6 points out of 12 possible, which doesn't give me any good points. In addition, Martyn Hamer shared 1st-4th place in backgammon and David Pearce 2nd-3rd in H&T. I'll write more in the morning if Marten hasn't saved the post that got lost in the log file. And tomorrow's preview for sure.

Today's schedule calls for 8 hours of checkers (100 square) and 4 hours of poker. In short, there are no special hopes, but all the other areas today would have been even more hopeless: scrabble (not possible against the English), cribbage (don't even know the rules) and xiangqi (a very good game, but a cheap area, and there is no hope against Alain Dekker and the Chinese anyway. There are 7 poker tournaments here in total, a real marathon. Of course, only the best result counts, but the overall score can also be used for this. So there are 8 ways to earn a good score. 100-square checkers is different enough from the popular Russian checkers in our country, which is why I am relatively weak there. First place is as good as reserved for GM David Kotin, so we have to hope for a large number of participants (more than doubtful), so that 2nd and 3rd places will also get something. The good thing is that there probably won't be any local experts - English checkers is the "right checkers" there. I will now try to re-scribble yesterday's long lost summary.

Chess tournament, 12 participants 1st round. The opponent was Wojciech from Poland, who played the Caro-Kanni Defense patriotically. He was one of the weakest players in the tournament (2000 or a little less) and I won easily. 2nd round. I played the Sicilian Defense against Guecc from Italy and a typical position arose, where the opponent came with the f- and g-pawns. The attack was repelled, I took the game to the endgame, where, as is typical for Sicily, black had the advantage. Thus came another victory, which unfortunately was also the last. 3rd round. The Welshman McDonnell also used the Sicilian Defense and seized the initiative after my unambitious fiancé of the white spear. In the middlegame, I managed to outplay my opponent and in the endgame I probably should have won thanks to the double spears, but due to lack of time I let an impenetrable fortress form. The 4th round against the main favorite, the Hindu Khandehal, started excitingly. The opponent played the Dutch Opening with white at a higher tempo and was well prepared. In the middlegame, however, I confused the situation and started an attack with a pawn battle (a win was needed). At one point, the attack seemed irresistible, but the opponent still managed to repel it with battles. I was left with a rook against three pawns, which in the long run would probably have been a relatively easy win, but unfortunately, I did not listen to Tuule's advice to be careful with time and it became decisive. 5th round. The American master Ilfeld responded with e2-e4 to e7-e5 and my four-knight opening tended to lead to a draw. Needing a win at all costs, I rustled the spear on g5 for a long-term initiative. I also gave up the draw by repeating the moves, but the opponent managed to control the endgame with a trick for 3 pawns, which I still managed to keep with a big death (thanks to the edge pawn and the wrong-colored spear motif). The 6th round with an Englishman whose name I couldn't remember was already quite insignificant. This time I chose a more active long castling against the Sicilian Defense and soon won a pawn. In the endgame, however, my opponent managed to bring the game to the spears of a different color with tactical moves and a draw was inevitable. 3rd-6th place in total, which may not even give 80 points. Khandehal won with a clear victory, Ilfeld second. Among the third place sharers was also a Lithuanian woman whose name might have been Potapova. Hare&Tortois, 16 participants. Three rounds were played on four boards, four players each. 1st round. I was the first to move and immediately after me was the two-time world champion (and in my opinion the favorite this year) David Pearce. I got to the first and second salad reception points comfortably in second place, but Pearce gathered energy in my wind and rushed to the back row with long jumps to be the first and won by a long shot. Worse still, I also lost to Ankush Khandehal and came in third, so 1 point (points were awarded 4-2-1-0). 2nd round. It was much more comfortable to play in a weaker group on the third board. I kept the opener to the wind and won without much difficulty. 3rd round. I was the second player between two experts, Tige Nnando and Dario de Toffoli. I was second in the first salad point and third in the second and third. I still don't know what I should have done differently, but I didn't squeeze out more than third place. So a total of 6 points out of 12, which of course didn't give a significant point bonus. Nnando won, 2nd-3rd were David Pearce and David Jameson, de Toffoli was fourth. Kertul also failed and was awarded 3rd place in the first round. Pearce thus got an important result, just over 90 points. The 2009 world champion Martyn Hamer also did well, sharing 1st-4th place in backgammon (with O.Geoff, J. Broomfield and A. Darvill). The top 3 in Monopoly were M. Grabsky, P. Blackwell and J. Crouch (no relation to Peter Crouch). The top 3 in Scrabble didn't even bother to write down the top 10, as no one of the big names in the overall standings participated. Of the favourites, Pearce, Khandehal and Hamer finished the first day on a positive note. However, defending champion Garcia de la Banda was not present at all (maybe he will be by today).

Great overview. It's hard to understand what you should actually do in the hare and the tortoise. Good that it worked out. Maybe you'll do better in areas where you're not the favorite and therefore play more relaxed. Continued success to both of you.

I don't know why everything is changing this year. I was right about two things in my preview - there are few enough participants (namely 8) that there is nothing to do with second place and local experts will not climb up. Unfortunately, I did not take into account the possibility that experts from Turkmenistan - the world-famous Durdyev dynasty - would climb up. The latter meant that I was no longer right about the third aspect - David Kotin will not win the tournament, but someone from the Durdyevs. 4 rounds out of 7 are behind me and I currently have 2.5 points. I even managed to draw with the namesake Durdyev (for the sake of truth, it should be mentioned that they are world-famous in English checkers), the games with the other two are still ahead. In short, a doomed event and even worse, because tomorrow's English checkers (and perhaps also reverse checkers) may be canceled. I'll probably change my plans quickly and learn the rules of Kamisado (I already regret never playing it with Tiidu, he's probably the only one in Estonia who has this game).

Unlike Andres, the first half of the day went very well for me. I am the most stable player in the tournament. After the 4th round, it was clear that no one was threatening me anymore and I was able to relax. The last three games went exactly as planned and now it has been officially confirmed that I am the worst RV checkers player in the world. However, there should be great chances of winning. Since I have played at the mud league level so far, I was also given recommendations for poker. I have to pass and fold for the first hour, after that I only play blinds and the victory is in sight. I will listen. Today we started the journey to the competition venue about an hour before the start, because now we knew which way to come. The walk should be about 40 minutes long, but we came in 55. It turned out that they had changed the locations of the streets here in the meantime, because we walked the same route, but the street names were different. Tomorrow Andres promised to remember where we had to come from. In this regard, we will get up an hour earlier. Since I probably won't have the first area in the morning, I'll probably start walking at the same time. Andres's change of plans hasn't been confirmed yet, but he'll probably spin the roulette wheel in the evening whether to play Lines of Action or not. I bought a packaged salad from the cafe downstairs for lunch. I won't buy it again. Not only do I not eat olives, there were also thistle blossoms, pickled tea leaves and more that I couldn't identify. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I've never paid so much for silage. I'll add a large piece of pork to yesterday's request for sauerkraut and potatoes. The good news is that Harri promised to buy food for today. Yay! We arrived on Friday and we can eat for dinner tonight. Since Selver isn't here and the markets are very far away, they'll order food home. So we'll wait to see what the brown boy brings in the delivery truck! We ate black bread, Otepää pate and one bar of smoked sausage for two days. Next week is the African American carnival, if I don't sleep, I'll go and shake my hip. The company is still diverse. David Pearce looks a lot like Argo, but I don't have any other acquaintances here. It will gather. I'm really looking forward to Sudoku, ken-ken and Texas Hold'em. Entropia and Boku are also interesting, but I won't bet on myself. I don't have any anxiety in my soul. The feeling is the same as running 60m hurdles with a leg in a cast. I hope to get some prizes as consolation. When we get home today (emphasis on the word 'if'), I'll also write about my poker debut! Tssaupakaa, I'll impress Andres!