Andres Kuusk and Marek Kolk won the doubles at the Mind Sports Championship

Last weekend (26-27.05) the best Estonian mental athletes gathered in Tartu to determine the champion in the Mental Sports Championship in doubles. There were 14 teams (28 competitors - including 8 women), among whom were several well-known names in their field: one of the best female chess players in Estonia Triin Narva, several (ten) times Estonian checkers champion Kaari Vainonen, one of the most titled poker players in Estonia Marek Kolk, founder of the Estonian mind sports portal Vint.ee Marten Meikop, Estonian champion Rendžus Timo Ilu, leader of the chess life in Lääne-Virumaa Eino Vaher, the best sudoku solvers in Estonia and the world Tiit Vunk, the well-known crossword puzzle maker Rauno Pärnits and the world champion in mind sports Andres Kuusk. Traditionally, the two-day competition had 5 areas: Sudoku solving, Chess, Bridge, Gomoku and Checkers. Sudoku solving The task was to solve 14 sudokus within one hour. An additional criterion for solving all sudokus correctly was the solving time. As in the last two years, the fastest solvers were the pair Tiit Vunk / Marten Meikop, all sudokus were also solved correctly by Villem Mesila / Martin Hõbemägi and Rauno Pärnits / Martin Grosberg. Chess A 7-round tournament was played in the Swiss system. Time control 10 0. Andres Kuusk / Marek Kolk won with minimal success (10.5 points), followed by Jüri Raidväli / Eino Vaher and Rauno Pärnits / Martin Grosberg (both 10 points). Bridge The 26th divisional doubles tournament was played to the maximum (matchpoints). To the surprise of many, Ralf Ahi / Ivo Adermann won Bridge ahead of well-known Bridge players Andres Kuusk / Marek Kolk and Ants Põldoja / Marko Kolk. Gomoku Gomoku was played in the Swiss system with a color change in a 7-round tournament. Time control 10 0. Villem Mesila / Martin Hõbemägi won with great success, followed by Timo Ilu / Kuno Kolk and Rauno Pärnits / Martin Grosberg. Checkers A 7-round tournament was also played in the Swiss system, with a time control of 10 0. Although the overall winner was already clear after Gomoku, there was a close fight for the other medals. The checkers tournament was also won by Andres Kuusk / Marek Kolk, followed by Tiit Vunk / Marten Meikop, with which they also secured second place in the overall standings. To everyone's surprise, the chess players Triin Narva / Enith Li Saag took third place in the checkers tournament. Andres Kuusk / Marek Kolk won convincingly in the overall standings, Tiit Vunk / Marten Meikop took second place (for the third year in a row) and Rauno Pärnits / Martin Grosberg took third place. Kertu Luht / Kaari Vainonen performed as the best female pair. All results can be viewed here .

Ahi-Adermann's victory in bridge was no longer a surprise, they have risen to the Estonian bridge sky like a comet in the last year. A few months ago they won the Estonian junior championship title and only recently they took first place at the Tallinn championship stage, where most of our team was present. Triinu and Enith's third place would be commented on so much that Enith has nevertheless become the Estonian checkers champion in the youth class. As for our pair's performance, Marek had put himself in such top form that even my mediocre game was enough. The charms of doubles. As for the upcoming individual, I have to quietly hope that Marek will not show up :P Of course, the strong rise of young people is particularly positive from the point of view of the vitality of the field. While Villem Mesila stunned everyone in the individual last year, now together with Martin Hõbemägi they were also fighting for a medal until the last games of the last field. And they are far from our only future stars - if such a titled couple as Eino Vaher - Jüri Raidväli had to fight for middle places, then this clearly indicates that the generational change is taking place successfully.

I don't think Marek will be participating in the individual. He definitely has a petanque competition nearby, so we have to be careful not to get hit by the ball :)