World Mindset Championship 2012

The second session of Lines of Action was much better. There was nothing left to win, but I still won all the games and ended up third (82 points). Peter Horlock was the underdog, but the overall points were shared between him and James Heppell at 95 (odds do not count in the overall score). Last year's winner Tim Hebbes was left with a score of 50% (he probably lost interest after the first few losses). Interestingly, when it seems like you can't go any further, you still go further (it seems Murphy was right after all). Over the past year, I have spent at least a hundred, but more likely a couple of hundred hours practicing Twixt, all as a result of thorough research, which showed that the level in this area has been relatively weak in recent years. Apparently, just to tease me, two experts in this field, led by the world's top Frenchman Florian Jamain, were participating this time. Since there was no hope of winning with this team, I gave up participating altogether and tried the block instead. The block was played one-on-one this year (the previous two years with 4 players), which eliminates the element of chance. Surprisingly, I played very well (the first event where I fully realized my abilities), but the level simply did not allow for a share of 3rd-6th place (73 points). The defeat went to David Jameson, who is having a great tournament and is currently tied for the palest medal with Tim Hebbes. Paco Garcia took another step towards winning the title, who was formally second in the odds, but actually tied for first place (95.5 points for both). I also got to play against Paco and I have to say that I didn't understand at all what he was doing, but he did it damn well. Paco already has over 420 points (by the end of the third day!) and considering that all his trump cards (go, entropy and creative thinking, plus mastermind) are still to come, there is no threat to him anywhere. At the same time, I only crossed the 300 point mark and am not even in the top ten at the moment. On the positive side (if anyone might wonder if I really have anything positive to say about the competitions, they are absolutely right - I really don't - so we have to accept what is out of competition) Triinu came to live with me today and brought a large Estonian flag with her (plus a few treats). The story here started with the fact that the flags of most of the participating countries are up in the main tournament hall (there were probably 26 of them, if I remember correctly, the more distant ones are Hong Kong, South Africa and the USA), but unfortunately with a few exceptions, including Estonia. According to the organizers, they were unable to obtain an Estonian flag, and although I suggested they put the Estonian tricolor on the sea of flags hanging above Regent Street, they thought it was a joke and until today the blue-black-white has not been up. Now, thanks, Trinka. What will happen tomorrow, I haven't decided yet. I'm choosing between English checkers and 960 chess.

Pretty good job yesterday, all in all. It's great that you played blokus. I taught this game to my mother, who in turn taught her parents, and now all three of them are big fans and still play several nights a week. This game is especially useful for old people, as it trains both the brain and dexterity! When you get back, we invite you to give us all a simulant! Have fun today! Pihel

Mimm lives with me in Finland. I was cancelled for the same reasons that Dario wasn't supposed to go. Unfortunately, no such positive call came from anywhere. Since my life is completely unstable at the moment, I didn't go. Be sure to say hello to Ankushi and David Pd from me. I hope Kenny has gotten rid of his crutches (he recently had a birthday, by the way) and if anyone has any gold medals left in poker, you can bring them to me :P That dishwashing liquid wasn't so bad after all.. And I'm glad that the competitions and your overnight stay are in the same place. At least you've been walking this road for years and should be familiar. Let me know if the road repairs in London have already ended and remember - an empty battery always weighs less! If you don't know exactly whether the battery is full or empty, put your ear to it and listen to see if there's power! Sunshine from here! ps if it were possible.. I'd be there already!

This morning I made a change and swapped English checkers and reverse checkers for 960 chess. Four rounds are behind me at the moment and I'm on 2.5 points, so there's nothing good to expect again. The medal chances are getting slimmer every day (the only strong area I still have is boku), it's absolutely unbelievable how I've managed to scrape together such powerful points in previous years. Of course, since there are no more golden chances, the tension is down and I plan to spend the rest of the days just enjoying a pleasant activity in good company. I also looked over the list of participants and it turns out that there are other exotic countries represented than the previously mentioned Hong Kong, South Africa and the USA. For example, Iran, Ghana and Kuwait have representatives, and Guernsey is represented with two participants. Mimm, many people are asking about you here. You still managed to leave a decent mark last year. Kenny is completely unaided and is as witty as ever. I'll definitely pass on my greetings to Ankush and David. This time I have a computer about four times smaller, so I can even carry a full battery.

I would have played Twixt instead of you. First, it would have been exciting to test my preparation against the world's top players. Second, the drum is probably gone anyway, now it's time to enjoy and have fun. Third, it's never good to change your plans at the last minute, it usually ends badly. But Blokus was of course a completely reasonable alternative - it's just such a great game. Keep describing your tournament, we want to be with you until the end. The medal is not important at all.

I started the afternoon session of 960 chess with 2.5 points out of 4. First of all, the draw brought me together with my best friend from South Africa, Alain Dekker. I generally don't like playing against him (and I guess vice versa), but this time I played a very good game and won with style and tactics. Then, against the main favorite Ankush Khandelwal, I typically ran out of time too quickly and lost without much of a fight (this was not with Kertu in mind). Against James Heppell, who surprisingly held the lead in the last round, I managed to win at the end of a long maneuvering battle and thus helped Ankush past him to win the tournament (this was with Kertu in mind). By the way, Kertu, I also passed on your greetings to Ankush and he was obviously touched. Late in the evening, I also participated in Canadian Stud, in which, miraculously, I have won first place both last years. According to probability theory, three consecutive bangs from a broomstick should be as good as impossible, and unfortunately, this time probability theory was not wrong. I was eliminated relatively early on when my opponent (Michael Dixon) brazenly called my bluff-reraise with ace-high. Poker expert Dario de Toffoli, who was sitting at the same table, just shook his head and uttered the legendary words "Grazy people". By the way, Dario has had a very good momentum yesterday and today - yesterday he collected 100 points in owar and today in backgammon, and when I left he was also in the lead in poker. The medal race is getting tighter and it seems that almost everyone is accumulating good results. "Almost" to be exact, unfortunately not for me. I also discovered one possible reason why I can't quite keep up with the top players. Namely, it turns out that these guys are even more crazy about mind games than I am. Between sessions, when fatigue is taking its toll and there is barely time to buy food from the store, the characters play Chinese chess with buttons with hieroglyphs (the buttons are all exactly the same and the only difference is the hieroglyphs on them, which are sometimes very similar) for five minutes and on two boards (exchange chess, grazy house)! If anyone doubts how crazy this thing is, then try it, I started to get dizzy just watching it. In some ways, it was a shame to give up Twixt, but I wouldn't have done it if there was no reasonable alternative. It's actually nice to play with the strong. In this regard, Tuule is right that changing horses at the last minute usually ends badly - last year, right before the start of the tournament, I was about to exchange English checkers for 960-chess, because I didn't see any hope for mine, but I decided, I don't even know why, to stick with checkers anyway, and the result of that decision now shines proudly on my cupboard. This year I made the same change (960 chess instead of English checkers) and the result is visible again. Or rather, it is not visible, because there is simply no result. As for the drum, it has really gone by. A major miracle has to happen to get me back into the medal competition. I needed to publicly announce my expected predictions here, but now it is getting embarrassing. It is about the same as if someone in the decathlon scores 100 points below expectations in every event. At the same time, it is already getting funny that no good results have been achieved and, worse yet, there have been no chances - hopes have been dashed everywhere already halfway through the tournament. I don't think the reigning champion would have ever had to settle for less than 400 points, I will at least try to avoid that (which should guarantee a place somewhere in the top ten), but maybe things will still get better, there is still half the tournament to go. Tomorrow's schedule: mastermind and entropy.

In the morning mastermind, I started as usual this year - weakly. I had only collected one draw from the first three rounds and the hope of a good place was practically gone. I won the next three matches, but in the last one, the Italian Tony Niccoli knocked over my code on the third attempt and so I had to settle for 50%, or about 50 points (depending on the exact place, which I didn't bother to research). The underdog was Dario de Toffoli, who continues his incredible streak of scoring maximum results for the third day in a row. Considering that he still has at least one trump card to play in the form of Aquire and that he is also an expert in poker (he was the greatest expert in Italy for years), he may even have a chance to threaten Paco's first place.

Huhh, how long did it take and how sweet is it! In the entropy marathon that started at 2 am and only ended at 11 pm, I shared first place with Paco and the odds were mine. I lost only one game during the entire tournament, to Alain Dekker, who for some reason completely flattens me every year. Generally, first places in individual events are not important to me and the 97 points that Paco and I both collected would be important, but entropy is an exception in this regard. This is the main event of the entire competition that everyone wants to win. It is probably about the magnificent traveling trophy autographed by the game's creator Eric Solomon, where the names of all the winners are engraved and whose price is in the hundreds of pounds (in 2010, when Paco won the trophy, he asked for an exact copy of the trophy and (apparently with the help of sponsors) paid the same amount). It's hard to even describe the sweetness of that feeling when, after ten (yes, I counted) unsuccessful tournaments, you finally win the most important one. Entropy is also special because it is one of the most mentally exhausting, as you have to concentrate 100% all the time (a game with the brain, which can be used quite successfully in chess, for example, is a sure path to destruction). Since I'm so tired at the moment, I can't write much about the tournament right now, but I'll end with the current overall ranking. As you can see, I finally made it to the top ten, but there's still a long way to go before I can win a medal. Pentamind World Championships standings after 5 days: 1. Paco Garcia 455.78 2. David Jameson 445 3. James Heppell 440.35 4. Michael Dixon 414.65 5. Tim Hebbes 390.01 6. Dario De Toffoli 381.92 7. Andres Kuusk 372.04 8. Ankush Khandelwal 371.08 9. Matthew Hatthrell 307.08 10. David Pearce 285.40 The table is of course still a bit unclear, as most of the competitors do not yet have two "major areas" listed and are in the table with four results. Among them is Dario De Toffoli, whose result is still quite strong (381 out of 400), but also Pearce and Levi Hendrickson (a poker expert from the United States who has also participated in the WSOP main event) in 11th place are also in the top ten. One of Kertu's favorites, Kenny Ho, is 14th, former world champion Martyn Hamer is 20th, and mental arithmetic expert and bestseller author George Lane is 23rd. Tomorrow's schedule: I initially planned a day off, but maybe I'll participate in the Carcassonne that is planned here for the first time in the morning for fun (to reduce the luck factor, the game is played not by drawing a new card every time, but with the cards dealt right at the beginning). I'll definitely skip the afternoon session and play London lowball poker in the evening.

Woohoo, great! Congratulations! Are you bringing this traveling trophy home too, so we can poke it with our fingers? Pihel

Ryanair probably won't allow you to bring the trophy home. But yeah, after Andres' previous post, I thought I'd offer a bet that Andres will still win by one point. But I didn't bother to write it at the time and you see, now the good chance has gone. Of course, hardly anyone would have accepted that bet, our faith in you is boundless. Who wants to bet that Andres will bring home a medal in the end?