World Mindset Championship 2011

But it's interesting to play against the hard ones again. You could probably try the reverse checker, isn't that one of your trump cards? Thumbs up! Pihel

The checkers ended as it had begun, with ups and downs. After the lunch break, there was no way to get going and the board was cleared with all sorts of combines. In the meantime, it even became clear before my eyes when a circle was made on the entire board in one move (and this is a 100-card board, where the circle is much larger than on a 64-card board). These damn Turkmen, although not 100-card players, all play the opening the same way (you might think it's a theory) and see tactics like computers. In the last round, I was consoled when I managed to beat a very high-class opponent, who had previously shared first place. I was a little off on the Durdyevs - they are not world-class figures, but slightly less well-known representatives of their dynasty, but I will still write English checkers in the stack tomorrow and play kamisado instead. Reverse checkers will still be there, but only at Pihla's request. Now for poker. Since it seems like everyone, including opponents, organizers, judges, spectators, documentary crew, weather (it's rained every time I've had a lunch break), and everything else is against me, I'll probably be eliminated quickly and be able to come back here to scrimmage.

Kertu, I still recommend gambling, bluffing, and betting in poker - it's supposed to be fun, after all.

Poker is about to start. I'll do my best. Andres and I also made the rules clear - he can look at the cards that are upside down this year! The awards ceremony was just over, another bunch of Turkmens poured in. This time, chess players. I don't know how many more are coming. But in poker I'll definitely use all my cheating schemes. If I fall among the first, it was worth a try and I can walk home with Andres. All-in!

The work was quick and neat. I got a pair of aces. My opponent also got a pair of aces and a pair of 8s. Half of the chips went there. The second time I got a good pair, but he got two less good pairs. Hours of fun playing, camera fun and that's it. Andres will probably be here until morning. Fortune just landed on his shoulder. The camera paid special attention because I was the only woman in this game. I'm glad I wasn't the last! It seems like things are starting to work out.

Andres didn't stay there until morning. He also finished the game. Since he's tired, I'll write a few sentences for him. Mess. Unsuccessful day. That's all Andres has said. The place was somewhere around 10th and of course he's not happy. Tomorrow he thought it would be English Checkers, which is the day after tomorrow. So he has no choice but to play Lines of Action. My day starts at 2:30 PM, and I can now go explore the city. If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? I hope for the worst in the games, but I'm happy if things go well. Don't hope for much! Good night, Estonia!

So don't lose hope, there's still a long tournament ahead. And if overall a good place should slip away, you can still try for good results in individual events. And Andres, if you give up on checkers, then it's a pity for those Turks who came to play checkers with their whole family and now no one dares to play with them. If you don't worry about the place, it's actually always more exciting and developing to play with tough opponents. I'm looking forward to the LOA results. I got a good overview of this game during the last training nights and I believe that Andres has a pretty good chance of making the favorites bitter!

Poker ended like all the previous ones - in failure. I don't know if it was the lack of air, which was exhaled by dozens of people and made my head hurt, or the approaching old age that makes you senile after a long day of competition, but it still seems like someone else must have been sitting at the poker table right next to me, bluffing like a complete idiot out of money on the spot. You can even imagine the mood after two consecutive 11-hour workdays, the efficiency of which was no more and no less than a round zero. But on the way back, it got more fun when I discovered that the bag of the laptop was somehow significantly lighter compared to the one in the morning. Convinced that the laptop was still there, I concluded that it must have been the muesli bar that was in two bags, which we ate at lunch. Then Kertu, with her usual wit, suggested that the computer battery was also significantly more charged in the morning. In fact, despite the poor (to put it mildly) results, it's still fun to play. If only it weren't so terribly tiring. It's easy to get up in the morning, since the time here is 2 hours earlier than in Estonia, but it's harder to stay fresh until the evening - you can go to bed at one or two in the morning according to Estonian time. Anyway, yesterday I got to experience firsthand what the old Estonian saying "slumped like a bag in the bed" or something similar means. At least these long days don't have the same effect on everyone, some even had the strength to go hang out in the pub at night. If you don't mention it exactly, it's better if your mother reads it. I also messed up the schedule - tomorrow is not English and reverse checkers, but lines of action (for me) and block (for Kertu). Yesterday I chipped in on the lines of action training game between Tim Hebbes and Peter Horlock, and it seems that it will be extremely difficult to resist Hebbes. We have to hope again that there will be enough participants (definitely over 10) so that there will be something for 2nd place as well. Considering that I only have two main areas left (in addition to lines of action entropy) and at least two out of 5 results must be in the main areas, it is clear that I am already hanging on to the last straw (Ok, the very last chance is still the poker general classification, but you can't count on that). Worse still, when I came back yesterday, David Pearce had already reached the final table in poker and with a significant stack of chips. Today we will see how high he reached and whether he can already say goodbye to his hopes of first place. So, eight hours of lines of action and poker in the evening await. Since Kertu is coming for the second session, as an orienteering virtuoso, I will start leaving an hour or two earlier just in case to avoid any unpleasantness.

If you lack motivation, SEE will help you. You can get the biggest boost of motivation if you scroll down to the bottom of the page. And as you can see from my profile picture, last year even the darkest forces were defeated, I guess this time too. Good luck anyway.

Thanks Tiidu. Andres finished the first round and started the second. The interim summary will be at 16:30 Estonian time. The story about hanging out at the pub yesterday was always a lie. Since Andres really fell asleep before I even started enjoying dinner, his information is incomplete. Instead, I drank wine, which was a bit old already.. I don't remember the year, but it made me sleepy. And since you can't drive a motor vehicle while drunk, I couldn't play Colin McRae Rally on the WII, but instead watched a movie. The party will be next week, when the city still has this big and famous carnival. Today promises to be a success, because 15 people will definitely participate in Blokus. However, there will be a 5 card draw in the evening, the nature of which I have no idea. But everything can be learned! Andres arrived on his own and so did I. That's already a big achievement, because there are more of these streets in this city than Google Maps shows. Strength and stamina to the working people, we are resting and continuing our summer in London!