Mind Sports All-Around World Championships 2013

Today, August 18, the next Mental Sports Olympiad began in London, the main event of which is the World All-Around Championship, which starts tomorrow. This time, the largest delegation in history is participating from Estonia - 5 competitors, of whom, admittedly, I am the only one present from the beginning, Kertu, Madli, Liise and Martin will arrive on Sunday. Unlike previous years, this time the reviews of the first days will be short, since I did not bring a laptop and the use of the hostel computer (this explains the missing tips) is paid. Next, a few words about my program for this year. On the first day of the competition, or tomorrow, I plan to do kamisado and hare@tortois, respectively, in the second (12-16 according to our time) and third sessions (17-21), I did not find anything suitable in the first session and I will use it for acclimatization. I should not expect anything special from tomorrow, neither of them are exactly my favorite. I'll also add a small forecast for the entire tournament, which areas to expect, grouped into 5 groups. 1. Strong area with a V2: boku - first place and 100 points is just as likely as missing out. 2. Strong areas: lines of action and entropy - if successful, maximum points can also be achieved and missing out on the top three would be a failure. 3. Averagely strong areas: chess and checkers - top three is realistic. 4. Weak areas: hare@tortoise, acquire and twixt - unlikely to manage to collect a score that could help among the top 5 results. 5. Dark horses: kamisado, poker, mastermind, carcassonne - anything can happen. So, 12 areas in total were planned.

I guess you meant August 16th?

Andres' first event result: tied for first place in the "dark horse" event in kamisado! Unfortunately, this excellent result gives few points (73, if I remember correctly) and therefore probably doesn't play a significant role in the overall standings.

Thumbs up! Pihel

The first event - kamisado - all the information is correct - received a first place share with 6 points out of 8 possible, which gave only 73 points (some events are "cheaper" than others, about the same as the 400m run in the decathlon). Before the last round, I lost to David Pearce, who held the lead, by a point, but there was a match between us and I managed to win it. The creator of the game, Peter Burley, took third place. The late-night session was Hare&tortoise, which I couldn't hope for more than that, as I've never earned a good score in previous years. However, there was some expectation for this event, as I've been able to practice it weekly at the Tartu Mõttespordi Klub. It turned out that practice really does make a master (but to keep the excitement going, everything is in order). Four rounds were played on four tables. Already in the first round I came across experts Matthew Hathrell and Michael Dixon and learned a good lesson - Hathrell disappeared in front like Usain Bolt and I never managed to get within a dangerous distance; however, I somehow managed to fight out a 50% result. In the following rounds, everything went more than perfectly. After winning the second round, I got back into the big game and the third round turned out to be very decisive. I was at the table with Matthew Hathrell, who was holding the lead, and Dario de Toffoli, the reigning world champion, in second position. The first competitor to start (whose name I unfortunately don't remember) chose the hare tactic (to go quickly) and Dario seconded him with a very interesting tortoise strategy, throwing me in at the same time - his idea could not be questioned, otherwise Hathrell would have had a too much position. That's how Dario gained an early middle game lead. The decisive events took place before the third salad square - Dario had already played the entire tournament position, not just a single round, and decided to make a risky jump to salad, thus destroying Hatthrell's position. However, this played into my hands, now it was clear that Dario and I would share first place in the final sprint. Fortunately, in the nervous tactical game, I had a complete overview of Dario's energy reserves (I had read the cards) and so I managed to make the right decisions - I came in first place and before the last round, I was in the leading position. I was lucky in the decisive round. First of all, I had just the right amount of energy for the last moves, one unit less would have meant losing first place. And even more importantly, James Heppell refused to turn the cuckoo at the cost of my position in the final game, in which case I would have been left without a medal. As a happy coincidence of such circumstances, a defeat and the maximum 100 points came from where I could not have expected it at all. After the first day I am in third place behind Michael Dixon and Matthew Hatthrell, but considering that neither of them were among my trump cards so far, there is certainly no reason to complain. I rather remember the fifth day of the competition in 2011, where I managed to collect 200 points from completely unexpected places (English checkers and poker). Why such early success? An important reason is certainly the trainings of the Tartu Mõttespordi Klubi, which have helped me a lot in Hare&tortoise. I also remained surprisingly fresh after midnight, which allowed me to count my opponents' energy reserves flawlessly (the amount of energy is closed information, the exact calculation of which is not an easy task). It seems that the strict diet that has brought success in the past, only muesli bars, bananas and spring water before the late-night session and breathing fresh air every free moment is a real magic recipe (here thanks to the nutritional background forces, especially Tuule). Today the first two sessions are chess and in the evening I will try poker. Maybe I will be able to send someone a message about the results after the chess is over. PS. Driv4r, I really mean August 16th.

Very powerful! Well done for keeping an eye on the energy reserves of important opponents, this is already an important step from a game of chance to a game of skill. We hope that the arriving compatriots will provide even more inspiration (although of course you can't get much better than first place in every tournament you participate in).

Andres finished 4th - 10th in chess. "It could have been better," was his comment. Poker was also planned for tonight.

Let's hope for a nice card race! Thanks for the exciting review. Did you find a more convenient computer than the one at the hotel?

(; Nice start, keep up the good work!

Good luck to me too. It turned out that this coming won't work out again this year, although in the meantime Regina and I were already seriously thinking about coming to London. My Sunday Lithuania trip was the biggest thing that ruined my plans, otherwise it might even have been conceivable. But if Acquiret is available and if there's room in the luggage, maybe you'd grab one for me too? The last night of mind games turned out to be too exciting to pass up the small opportunity to buy one for yourself. Hopefully, this night of mind games was useful for you too and you manage to get a good result. Good luck anyway!