World Mindset Championship 2011

The 15th Mind Sports World Championship will take place in London from 20 to 28 August. Estonia will be represented this time by the reigning champions Kertu Luht and Andres Kuusk. Similar to last year, we will keep interested parties informed about what is happening via Vint. A longer post summarizing the day will be posted either late in the evening or early in the morning, and if there is time, short reviews between sessions. The start times of the sessions are 10.30, 14.30 and 18.30 local time, so you have to add 2 hours according to Estonian time.

I'm attaching my preliminary program. Session 1 is 12:30-4:30 PM Estonian time, session 2 is 4:30-8:30 PM, and session 3 is 8:30-12:30 AM. August 20th Session 1 and 2 - Chess Session 3 - Hare&Tortois August 21st Session 1 and 2 - International Checkers (100 squares) Session 3 - Poker (7 Card Stud) August 22nd Session 1 and 2 - Lines of Action Session 3 - Bridge or Poker (5 Card Draw) August 23rd Session 1 - English Checkers Session 2 - Reverse Checkers Session 3 - Bridge or Poker (Canadian Stud) August 24th Session 1 and 2 - Entropy Session 3 - Bridge or Poker (Pineapple) August 25th Session 1 - Boku Session 2 - Decamentathlon or Reversi Session 3 - Bridge or Poker (London Lowball) August 26th Session 1 - Logic Session 2 - Break Session 3 - Bridge or Poker (Texas Holdem) August 27th Session 1 - Mastermind Session 2 - Break Session 3 - Poker (Omaha) August 28th Session 1 - Abalone Session 2 - Break Session 3 - Closing Ceremony

Sudoku and KenKen are out of your program? It seems that you will not be playing games of chance, such as Blokus and Monopoly this time. This decision is probably influenced by the fact that out of the five events, 2 long (read: two-session long) events will be counted, which is probably a reasonable solution. Long events are generally more serious events, while shorter ones are more likely to be played with a lot of luck, so the person who is better at skill games should be more likely to win the event this time. It's great that RV Checkers and Sudoku are in the program this time. It's a shame that Gomoku [u]is not [/u] yet. It would actually be great to participate myself, but I'll have time to go again some other year. In any case, good luck to both of you. I'll keep my fingers crossed and look forward to your posts! PS: Mimm, post your plan here too - I'd be interested to read it too :)

About the system: out of a total of about 40 events planned, each competitor will take into account the 5 best results. Points are awarded from events according to the formula (nk)/(n-1)*100*(n/n-1), where n=number of participants in the tournament and k=competitor's place. The coefficient (n/n-1) is not used in the so-called main events and among the 5 events taken into account, each competitor must have at least 2 main events. There is 1 main event planned each day and they last 2 sessions instead of the usual 1. As you can see from the overview in the previous post, I plan to focus primarily on the main events, in which I participate in chess, 100-square checkers, lines of action and entropy. As for the opportunities by event, the greatest expectations are related to lines of action, reverse checkers and boku. The joy of playing will probably remain in both checkers and abalone. The remaining areas are generally promising, where you might stumble upon some helpful places if you're lucky. PS. To Tiidule: I also participate in Sudoku and Ken-Ken - I put them under the collective name "logic" (officially "puzzles").

Relatively the same interests. Although I hope to do well with Monopoly. And I'll save the evenings for poker. Not to mention sudoku! You'll find out how well/even better we're doing:) All the best to you! Mimm

Tomorrow, at 10:30 local time, it will start. The first day of the competition will feature chess, monopoly, scrabble and hare&tortois. During the day, I and Kertu will choose chess and monopoly, and in the evening we will both play hare and tortoise. A few words about our prospects. The level of chess has not been the strongest in recent years - the times when first-rate stars like Michael Adams and Pentala Harikrishna participated remain in the last century. Last year, three international champions were present and something similar can probably be expected this year. Of the three IMs, the most interesting figure is certainly Demis Hassabis, who I will have to write about in more detail soon. He was a true child genius at the time, who at the age of 13 was even the leader of the world ranking for his age group. The IM norm also came quickly and it seemed that the Chess Olympiad was open to Hassabis. But then he discovered that in addition to chess he was talented in other mental sports, and he specialized in multisport, which of course suffered from chess. However, in multisport he conquered the highest peak, becoming world champion in 1998 and later repeated this achievement four more times. To this day, no one has come close to repeating Hassabis' five World Championship titles, and locals still talk about him as the most talented mental athlete of all time. By now, Hassabis is already very inactive in multisport, not to mention chess, which gives opportunities to others as well. Last year, for example, he didn't even reach a medal (I managed to beat him in the decisive round). He was also not successful in his other old trump cards. Nevertheless, Hassabis' shadow hangs over the entire tournament, much like Schumacher's Formula One. Considering the participation of 3-4 IMs, it would of course be excessive optimism to cherish special hopes of first place, but considering that they are all relatively inactive, second place or sharing it, which could also prove useful, is perhaps not too unrealistic. Chess is worth taking seriously, primarily because it is a so-called main field and in addition to the lines of action that have been elevated to this level this year, I do not have any more trump cards among the main fields. Should chess fail, all that remains is to hope for entropy and 100-square chapel, but the chances there are even worse (in entropy the level is extremely hard and 100 squares is a relatively cheap field, so anything below first place there is not worth much). On the positive side, I have done theoretical work on chess for the first time in over six or seven years. The biggest change is on the psychological side - while I used to consider avoiding the basic opening variations cowardly, in my old age I decided to change my strategy and try to be the first to come out with a surprise (it's up to each reader to decide whether it's from wisdom gained over the years or senility gained over old age). I got a few good ideas in this regard from the magazine "64" that I studied with Karmen in Saaremaa last weekend. So, if everything goes well, a result around 90 points could even be realized. And that would already provide a base (about like Kanter's 63m attempt in the discus throw) from which to try more. Hare&tortois is a new game for me, last year I didn't know anything about it and didn't want to know. The name just isn't very inviting. This year, however, there would have been a gap in that time, and so I decided to read the rules just in case. And believe me - the unsuccessful name is the only drawback to this great game! The last 2-3 weeks of main training have been spent on this game and I have to pay a special debt of gratitude to Tuule and Hendrik, who were practically always ready to play this game with me. The results of the training games have been rather good and so I hope to offer competition to everyone. On the other hand, of course, last year was the same feeling with entropy and the thing ended in complete destruction. Moreover, in the form of Dario de Toffoli, the world's leading experts will definitely be participating. But whatever happens, in any case, I intend to enjoy every moment in the company of this great game. And if I can do it with the world's top level, then all the better! So tomorrow at 12:30 Estonian time, whoever's job allows them to avoid using their thumbs, we will need them all, each one can be decisive (some have already promised to tape their thumbs to their hands so that at the decisive moment they won't use them for anything else).

And my impressions. The people here are big, colorful and happy. I also saw the Ferris wheel, the clock tower and Äbi's house. Tomorrow I'll find the nearest grocery store and check the prices. I'll probably have to skip a few games to go shopping on Oxford Street. The weather is warm. It's short-sleeved weather at the moment, but you can't wear a skirt - it's still cold for that. The place to stay is nice. On the 7th floor and with a very big TV. The flight went according to plan, although it was narrow, you couldn't see out the window and the person sitting next to you didn't speak the national language and wasn't very friendly either. Andres's person sitting next to you had a slight fear of flying and his body didn't want to get used to the difference in altitude. The plane was white with a blue tail. We landed at Luton Airport and took the GreenLine bus. The steering wheel was on the right and the driver was also sitting wrong. I plan to drive a few cars during my time here. Initially in the passenger seat. I never tire of watching them drive on the wrong side of the roundabout! It's almost 9 o'clock. Maybe tomorrow we'll find a place to compete and then I'll be able to show off my Monopoly dice-rolling skills. I don't have any trump cards. And I won't. So all the areas where I'm not last are already won for me! The hospital is right here, there's 24-hour emergency care, so I'll go see the mayor some evening. If I don't forget to take my camera, I'll probably get a few snaps at the end of the trip. May the sun still shine on you! Mimm

Fortunately, the laziest people don't bother to work on Saturdays and public holidays, so maybe there will be some free thumbs... You should also both have pretty good chances at sudoku kenken - it's up to you, of course, how much you can get from it if you win. Good luck!

Good luck with the dice, Kertu and Andres, don't think too long about your new, fancy openings, play quickly and confidently, leave the long pauses for your opponents who are surprised by your innovations ;)

I also agree that your chances in Sudoku may not be that bad. Hopefully, enough people will participate so that 10 people will come together. Then the maximum points are possible. Anyway, good luck with it!