World Mindset Championship 2012

From August 18th to 27th, another Mind Sports Olympiad will take place in London, the main event of which is the 16th Pentamind World Championships. The World Championships will also start on August 18th and end on August 26th. The Estonian team will probably be the same as last year (Kertu Luht and Andres Kuusk), although I am not entirely sure about Kertu's final decision, if he has made it yet. Since last year was extremely successful for us, expectations are high this time too. Tomorrow I will travel to London to acclimatize, and when I arrive there in the evening or the day after, I will write a longer overview of my program at this level, along with a forecast of what can be expected from one or another area. Tonight, however, I still have to invest in training, so I will limit myself to this short introductory article and, as a conclusion and reminder, I will include the Italian team's summary (day by day, as we did) of last year's World Cup and the Olympics as a whole: http://www.studiogiochi.com/en/p/MSO2011Chronicles.html The main author is the Italian number one, the 2002 world champion Dario de Toffoli.

A brief overview of which disciplines I will participate in this year and which I will not. Tomorrow I will write about the expected scores, which I predict by discipline, and I will try to add references to the rules for the disciplines so that those who wish can familiarize themselves with the basic ideas. So, the program (M - morning session 10.00-13.45; A - afternoon session 14.15-18.00; E - evening session 19.00-23.15): Day 1 M - A Kamisado E Hare&Tortois I decided to cancel the hexdame tournament (checkers on a hexagon) scheduled for the morning session, because both it and kamisado are quite a headache and playing two of them in a row is probably not very effective, especially considering the need to be in shape for the late evening session. This hexagonal board checkers is a terrible game (I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard comments), with significantly more shooting directions than in checkers on square boards (six instead of four), which sometimes makes it difficult to even find a move according to the rules (the rule of overshooting applies), especially when there are checkers (tecks) in the game. If you sometimes wake up in the morning feeling that your head is suspiciously fresh, I recommend trying this game - the freshness passes quickly. Kamisado is a new game that was planned as a demonstration area for the first time last year. Alain Dekker won that time, unfortunately I was unable to participate, so my competitors probably have a slight advantage. Day 2 M A male E 7 card stud The second and third days are probably the most important for me, as they largely determine 40% of the final result (two mandatory "large areas"). Since I only have three "major areas" planned, failure in chess would leave all hopes for lines of action and entropy (as happened last year) and I wouldn't want to let that happen. The remaining "major areas" where the maximum 100 points are awarded - backgammon, scrabble, go and bridge - unfortunately don't offer me any hope: I simply can't play the first three and I don't have a partner for bridge (Triinu is flying away the day before). /The remaining major areas acquire and international checkers can also give 100p in principle if the number of participants is large, but I don't plan to participate in them anyway (no hope of winning)./ Day 3 M A lines of action (LOA) E twixt This is the most important day. LOA has kept me afloat both last year and the year before last, and without a good result in this area it's hard to hope for anything again. Twixt is a new area for me, which has taken hundreds of hours to learn over the past year. It was included in the plan after a thorough analysis - I found that of the areas where 100 points have been awarded to the winner in the last two years (completely justified in the case of twixt, it is a game with deterministic full information (i.e. pure skill), where the depth (number of possible positions) is even greater than in chess), the level of first places in twixt has been the poorest, no expert has participated in recent years. So, from the third day, we can realistically expect two results in the Top 5. The afternoon session also includes a block, which unfortunately has to be abandoned due to overlap with LOA. Day 4 M English Checkers A Reversed Checkers Canadian Stud English Checkers was a real jackpot last year, but its repetition is very unlikely. The thing is that the multi-players are more likely to have a background in chess (Tim Hebbes, Ankush Khandelwal, Alain Dekker, Demis Hassabis), bridge (David Pearce), go (Paco Garcia) or backgammon (Dario de Toffoli), which is why checkers are usually boycotted and you have to compete with pure checkers players (since the World Multi-Player Championship and the Mental Sports Olympiad are combined, the peculiarity of the system is that you only participate in one area (your trump area) for the sake of a medal in that area and the title of Olympiad champion). This boycott by the competitors not only results in a very strong average level, but also a relatively smaller number of participants, which in turn reduces the points to be distributed. Of course, reverse checkers is my trump card thanks to the Vint school, but unfortunately it is not very useful, since even first place in this area would be rewarded with less than 90 points. Day 5 M mastermind A E entropy Since mastermind is played in a best-of-one format under time pressure, it is more of a lottery at this level (everyone can do it) and a good result there should be taken as a pure bonus. The importance of entropy depends largely on how chess and LOA have gone - if exactly one of them fails, entropy will be vitally (probably more medal-wise) important. Day 6 M - A - E London lowball Day 6 is a rest day according to the current plan. The program includes Othello and problem solving (decamentathlon), which I have tried both of them once in previous years, but it also became clear that good results cannot be expected from these areas. Day 7 M - A - Kings Cribbage E - Texas Holdem Here I still decide whether I will leave the morning free or participate in logic problems. Kings Cribbage for the afternoon session is a completely new game, which was planned for the first time and probably still being invented. It's a so-called number scrabble, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be very deep and at an advanced level can largely be reduced to card racing. Day 8 M - shacru A - azacru E - Omaha This would be a bridge day if I had a partner, but now I decided in favor of the games of the *acru family. These are also relatively new and very abstract games, which it seems that no one in the world understands very well yet. There is also a third game in the family - pacru, which I don't like at all. More experienced players say that this family is essentially something between chess and go - which sounds logical, since these games are a bit too much for my mind and chess is about exactly the limit beyond which games of a higher level of complexity don't bother me. Day 9 M boku A - E medal ceremony Boku is known to be my trump card, which brought the maximum 100 points last year. If in previous years I have run out of trump cards somewhere in the middle of the competition, then moving boku to the last day of the competition leaves the last trump card up my sleeve until the end. It remains to be seen whether this is good or bad. The afternoon session is planned to be abalone, which I have always played in previous years, but since I have not had any success, I will probably fill that time with souvenir shopping. But of course it is not certain - if the bag gets so full of medals and trophies that souvenirs and other gifts cannot fit, then I will still have to sit at the abalone table. In conclusion, compared to previous years, I have given up on areas where the chances of a very good result are slim (rather non-existent) such as xiangqi (Chinese chess), theoretical tasks (decamentathlon), othello and abalone. The most important addition is twixt, which has taken up a lot of time from this year's training and from which I hope for a very good result. The remaining additions, kamisado and Kings Cribbage, are new to everyone and I'm trying them out more because you never know how things will go in new areas (there's always a chance that things will go well:)). Finally, one more (and probably the most important) piece of news - last year's world champion from Spain, Paco Garcia, is not participating! On the one hand, this is of course positive, because the chances of winning first place are now significantly higher (I considered him the main favorite) and he would probably have been the only competitor to beat, whose good game would not have been enough (which was shown in the 2010 tournament), but would have had to rely on his bad luck (as happened last year). On the other hand, it's extremely sad. I recently spoke with Paco's daughter, who said that her father has prepared very carefully and would really like to come, but as a professional athlete, he simply doesn't have a good enough financial situation and couldn't find sponsors. That's why it feels a bit empty - even if you win the title, you still can't really consider yourself the best.

Since I have received requests from several parties to write about life between competitions, and not just about the tournament, here is my review! In general, everything has gone smoothly so far and the mood is positive. The plane ride did take a few minutes longer than planned, as there was heavy rain at the airport and the pilot was looking for a suitable direction for landing, but there were no other problems with the trip. Of course, once again it became clear that this is an expensive city - the bus ride from Luton Airport to the city is more than half the price of a Tallinn-London plane ticket. For the first 2-3 nights, I will be staying in Triinu's (Estonian bridge team member) apartment, very close to the city center, which is a very comfortable and cozy place. The rest of the time, I will be staying at my old friend Harri's (who has already promised to lock up the dishwashing detergent by then (inside joke)). Last night, Trinka and I also went to a London bridge club (60% and third place), which despite the 11 pound entry fee and the first round opponents who tried their best to bend their 3 pots exactly to the contract, was also a very positive experience and will probably be repeated today. Late in the evening, I also saw with my own eyes the man most Estonian male bridge players envy - Triinu's partner Enrico. He left a very nice impression, from which we can conclude that real lottery wins, unlike predicting number combinations, are not just a matter of chance. Yesterday, London surprised us with warm and pleasant weather, but today it showed its usual face when it started to rain heavily just when I had stepped out of the house a few hundred meters. No matter, I had to give up on the city tour and decided to look for the first supermarket I came across for lunch. While I have written about many things that are strange and different in England compared to Estonia in previous reviews, supermarkets are an important addition. The supermarkets here do not live up to their name in any way ("market" in English means a market, or a place where buyers and sellers of goods (and services) meet, and "super" comes from Latin and is translated as "supreme" or "highest"). They have tried to cram as much goods as they can into a microscopic area, which is why there is no room for two people to pass each other in the aisles. There were no representatives of the demand side except me, and the selection of goods was anything but the ultimate or the best. In the absence of anything better, I had a savory pastry instead of a steak and a sweet pastry for dessert and had to be content with that (for the sake of truth, it should be mentioned that I am far from starving, Triinu is so picky about me - last night I had barely walked in the door when an exciting and exotic delicacy was thrust under my nose and this morning she asked if I could manage to take the porridge out of the microwave or if she had to do it for me). I just got back from another (this time more successful) city tour - I went to explore London's most famous skyscraper, a masterpiece called the Gherkin (we also went there two years ago with Tiidu). It is a glass tower with a dome that resembles a giant cucumber (hence the name, probably). The tower was designed by none other than Britain's best-known and most recognized architect Sir Norman Robert Foster, who has also designed the new Wembley Stadium and Stansted Airport. So much for the non-competitive milieu for now. As you know, the tournament starts on Saturday (the day after tomorrow), but I will definitely keep those interested updated on my activities tomorrow as well.

Interesting! By the way, which airline did you use to get to Luton Airport? I've always flown in and out via Gatwick / Stansted when traveling by plane. And you're right about supermarkets, they're not necessarily big shopping centers like in Estonia, a supermarket here means a store where you can generally get everything you need, but the store can be small and the selection of one type of goods is limited. I myself go more to large supermarkets like ASDA and Tesco, because the prices are cheap ;) Tesco has both large and small (Tesco Express) stores, with Tesco Expresses being more expensive because they simply don't have many of the cheapest products from the large Tescos.

My favorite airline is Ryanair - just two to three times cheaper than all the others. Since they are not interested in paying airport taxes, the number of airports available is also relatively limited - when flying from Tallinn, Luton is the only one they land at in London. However, they are not completely cut off from the biggest airports either - I also come back with Ryanair, but from Stansted Airport via Riga.

Be sure to also write who you meet at the competitions. It would be interesting to read, for example, how far D.Kotin has come in developing his kumalah (I don't know the exact name) and whether he is equally enthusiastic about recruiting people involved in this field. I would also be interested in Mimmi's comment (assuming that he actually came there - it seems like a promise has been made somewhere). The third person I would like to highlight is Usain Bolt, who went to watch the ManU game and commented that he wants to play for ManU one day. He also went to the premiere of the movie "Expendables2" and to spin records in a club somewhere and doesn't want to leave London just yet. He will most likely also come to watch the World Mind Games and maybe take part in some of the disciplines. He probably likes disciplines that require speed. All the best for the competition.

To make it more exciting for those interested to follow the tournament, I will write down the approximate expected results in all individual areas - then it will be good to see later where it was a success and where it was a failure. Day 1, kamisado (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38545/kamisado) and Hare&Tortoise (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/361/hare-tortoise) Kamisado is a new area, so it is difficult to make accurate predictions. On the one hand, it should not suit me very much, because it is largely based on pure calculation and there is little to do with strategic thinking and long-term planning. On the other hand, the variant tree is rather long and narrow (like in reverse checkers), not quickly branching (like chess), which should suit me in general. Hare and Tortoise is a very cool game, but unfortunately I am not very good at it. You can't expect a super result in either area, if you manage to get one more or less decent 85p result, the day would have been a success. Forecast: one 82p result in two areas. Day 2, chess Surprise-surprise, but chess is probably second in terms of my training hours in the last year after twixt. After last year's crash, I decided to take up chess so that something like this wouldn't happen again, and this essentially meant working on chess for the first time in the last ten years. I changed my entire opening repertoire, mainly looking for variations that are generally less well-known for the purpose of a surprise moment. The beginning was difficult (the ideas for new openings are sometimes very different from the previous ones), but in the end it seems that it has been useful - the latest tournaments (Saaremaa Cup and Karksi Ratsu) have brought 1st and 4th place respectively. It seems that the chess form was last this good in the first three to four years of the century. Forecast: 92 points on day 3, lines of action (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3406/lines-of-action) and twixt (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/949/twixt) I have scored 100 and 95 points in Lines of Action in previous years, and this year I am definitely stronger in theory. Unfortunately, I will probably have to wipe my mouth clean about the maximum result this time, because it is rumored that the biggest stars in this field will be present, the former world champion and the Dutchman Fred Kok, who played for the honor of humanity in the legendary man vs machine match (at that time such matches were popular - around the same time Kasparov and Kramnik fought top chess computers). So the maximum is probably second place, which should give a little over 90 points. Twixt, as mentioned earlier, is this year's find for me, which I have trained for hundreds of hours. Since the level in this field has been relatively low in recent years, if the same tendency continues, I can easily fight for first place. Forecast: 92 points in both areas. Day 4, English Checkers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers) and Reverse Checkers (giving away with the rules of Reverse Checkers). In Reverse Checkers, I would rather get a win than not, but in this area, first place only gives me around 87 points. There is no point in repeating last year's 100 points in English Checkers, unlike last year, there has been no training this time either. Forecast: 87 and 82 points. Day 5, Mastermind (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2392/mastermind) and Entropy (http://www.mindoku.com/games/entropy) Mastermind is classified as a game similar to poker, where almost anything can happen in a short tournament (assuming that everyone is more or less good at it, which is the case with Mastermind), and therefore there is no point in making predictions. In Entropy, the absence of the best player in this field, Paco Garcia, significantly increases the chances, so with good luck, you can fight for the highest places. Forecast: mastermind 60 points, entropy 90 points. Day 6 will be for rest and recharging the batteries. Day 7, Kings Cribbage (http://www.kingscribbage.com/instructions.htm#english) I have only played this once in my life, but since it was invented only very recently (maybe last year), it is probably the same for everyone. It seems that in this game, the card race is quite significant, and I have never been able to learn the dice roll and card draw well. Forecast: 50 points. Day 8, shacru and azacru (http://www.pacru.com/rulesUK.pdf) Both are unique and very abstract games, where a well-established understanding of the correct strategy has not yet emerged. I like Azacru a lot, Shacru not so much (it seems boring), so I expect a better result from Azacru, where I also participated last year (72p). Forecast: 82 points in two events. Day 9, Boku (also bollox: http://www.pacru.com/rulesUK.pdf) One of my expected trump cards, where anything but a win would be a disappointment. Forecast: 100 points. The results predicted in this way would give a total of 466 points, which has usually been enough for a medal, not gold. Last year, in addition to me, the Englishman Tim Hebbes achieved a better result than that. For 466 points, I predict a silver medal behind Ankush Khandelwal. Of course, you have to take into account that good luck can always come to the rescue (or bad luck), for example in the form of a losing streak from poker, which would immediately raise the final result by 10 points to 476, which would already be a very strong word towards gold in the absence of Paco. Finally, something for those who are expecting more of an overview of life. Last night Triinu taught me how to eat sushi. You might think that what is there to teach there - you buy it in the store and eat it - but there is also a correct way to eat it, one that brings out the different taste experiences to the maximum. In any case, I really liked it and I will probably start buying it in Estonia again. In the evening we also went to a bridge club, but this time the game did not go well. I was really tired (I was starting to get tired, the game lasted past midnight according to Estonian time) and since even Trinka could have made a few mistakes in the meantime, we finished with a result of less than 50% (bridge enthusiasts can read a more detailed overview of the tournament on the bridge blog www.uperkuut.blogspot.com). Today the weather is incredibly sunny for London and walking around London was a real pleasure (the last day before the tournament I avoid exercise like a fire). This time I chose the Tower of London as my main target, which was not as powerful as I had hoped (London in the area has simply grown enormously), but it did have a powerful history. According to historian Edward Rutherfurd, the construction of the fortress began during the time of William the Conqueror, who ascended to the English throne in 1066. Construction took decades, the fortress became 30 meters high and the walls were over four meters thick in places. The idea of the Tower was to be a fortress for the ruler and a prison for his enemies. Due to the many defensive walls and moats, it was impossible for prisoners to escape from the prison, at least in theory. However, a certain Bishop of Durham practically proved that escape could be quite easy. He was a wealthy man of high birth who arrived in prison with servants and large bags of coins and therefore lived like a royal cat, since the guards could be bribed. According to legend, the bishop threw a great party one night, during which the guards were drunk and they fell asleep sweetly, while the bishop lowered himself down the window by a rope and was gone. At least two symbols are associated with the Tower - beefeaters and black ravens. Beefeaters are ceremonial members of the royal bodyguard who have guarded the Tower since the time of Henry VIII's coronation until today. Black ravens have lived in the Tower for who knows how long and are not allowed to leave (to prevent this, their wings are regularly clipped) - the departure of the ravens brings doom to the entire country.

Thanks for the insights into both life and the game plan. Now it's really good to follow the further progress of the competition. I haven't played Kamisado, but Rabbit and the Turtle is a lot of fun. If nothing else, I hope it's still fun. And my thumbs are already crossed! Pihel

For next year, I'm thinking about getting a group of renju players together and coming to London. Then I can offer myself as your bridge partner if you need it again. But for now, good luck at this year's event!

I have been lucky enough to see the Olympic Village immediately after the last two Olympic Games (I also lived there in Beijing). After the Beijing Games, I participated in the first IMSA bridge games, and from then on, my bridge team and I adopted the term "Chinese probability", which we used to describe a situation where mathematically very unlikely events tend to happen. Last night, it turned out that Chinese probability still haunts me. Yesterday, I changed my accommodation and said goodbye to Triinu and Enrico in the morning, because they had to go after work to meet Enrico's sister, and I planned to start moving before dark, because it was an hour and a half to two hours to go. In the evening, on my way to the other side of the Thames, where Harri & Co live, I was walking along Regent Street and enjoying the huge sea of national flags waving overhead, which seemed to never end (probably left over from the Olympics), when suddenly none other than Triinu and Enrico walked towards me! Mathematicians, does anyone know how likely this is? If I'm not mistaken, it was Terry Pratchett, who came up with the famous phrase that the probability of one in a million is realized 50% of the time - it seems more and more that this might even be true. In any case, it's a good story to tell when someone calls London a big city. My new place of residence is located practically in the city center, on the banks of the Thames (the closest when crossing the river is Victoria Bridge). There is a huge Ferris wheel, the Londoneye, right nearby, so there will be no problems finding the place. The apartment is large - three huge rooms plus a kitchen. It's an Estonian apartment, in addition to Harri, Marko and Marielle live here (I'm not 100% sure about the last name). Since the latter two are currently in Estonia, there's plenty of space and more. The two-hour time difference between Estonia and Great Britain seems small, but it's still noticeable. Last night, I was already tired and when I looked at the clock, it showed midnight (Estonian time). I happily went to bed, but suddenly I realized that it was only 10 o'clock local time, in short, going to bed so early would be a bit embarrassing. I kept myself up for another hour and a half with a poker math book that Marko found on his shelf, which was very exciting. As for the movie The Expendables 2 that Tiidu mentioned, its billboards are hanging everywhere up here. I can't deny that I have an irresistible desire to go see this film, and just before leaving, I mentioned it to Karmen, who announced that she wouldn't come see films that only children and stupid men watch until the last day, Saturday. The day before yesterday, in front of yet another billboard, I decided to ask Triinu whether Karmen's position was exceptional or typical for women. It turned out that Triinu and Enrico were in about the same situation - Enrico had invited her, but Triinu categorically refused, and so poor Enrico had to go alone. Apparently, women still have some kind of superior taste in films that men don't understand. They think that slow and deep films are good, and fast and exciting ones are flat. In principle, I understand that The Expendables, Rocky, and Die Hard are nothing more than killing and chasing, with no plot, but that's how films should be (maybe I should suggest to Marten to set up a Vint poll on this)! If it were up to me, I would divide all the Oscars between The Terminator and Rambo. The Mind Games and the World Championships in Multisport have already started (the opening was at 12 noon Estonian time), I will join from another area at 2:15 pm (4:15 pm our time). Since the days are long, the posts will probably be shorter in the future, but I will try to write something down at the end of each session.