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"OCTOPUS" BECOMES 1st GIPF® WORLD CHAMPION
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15 September 2000
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by Kris Burm
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GIPF is an MSO medal event and the brainchild of abstract games inventor Kris Burm. It is the first game of an ongoing, interlinked project - to learn more visit www.gipf.com.
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Alexandra Palace ... what a magnificent place for an event like the Mind Sports Olympiad! The organisers couldn't have found a better temple: a large neo-classic building on the top of a hill in the middle of a park. Bathing in the sun, it didn't need a lot of imagination to look at it as if the MSO-logo had materialised in London: the Parthenon, where the Greek Gods gathered. When climbing the stairs to the main entrance, it must have crossed the mind of many participants that playing games is a divine occupation - it definitely is!
August 26, 11 AM: 17 GIPF-players gather at the GIPF-post in the huge central hall. 17, that is not really an impressive number for a World Championship. But it is Saturday and many other tournaments are overlapping each other today. If that would not have been the case, we would most certainly have had at least 5000(*). A pity, but we have good faith that we'll have that many entries for next year's GIPF WC, though.
So, we settle for a group consisting of a strong nine-headed Belgian delegation, 3 Englishmen, 2 Dutchmen, 2 Italians, and 1 Japanese. The favourites are Werner Dupont (B), Kurt Van den Branden (B), Patrick Van de Perre (B) and Koen de Jongh (NL).
Good chances can also be given to Karel Daelemans (B), who is playing very consistently in recent months. Stephen Tavener (GB) has the potential to surprise everybody - but if he does so in the first rounds, then will it still be a surprise in the ending stage of the championship?
Aksel De Meester (B) (who registered but didn't arrive yet) would normally be a favourite, too, but he has hardly been playing in 2000. Gianni Cottogni (I) got sick the very moment he arrived in London and already looks as if he's about running out of pieces before having started his first game. Brave man! Fred Kok (NL) is collecting 4th places at this years Olympiad (LOA and Hexdame) and resigned himself to not getting a medal this time (although he likes gold very much!).
Rita Pauwels (B) can beat the best - but so far she hasn't succeeded in holding on to her normal level for 7 games in a row and the same goes for André De Laet (B). Frédérick Van Aelst (B) has made a lot of progress but has a bad habit: he always seems to remove the wrong GIPF-pieces. Mozes De Bruyn continues to play like a bungee-jumper: the bigger the drop, the more fun it is to go for it - and then hope the elastics will hold.
There are also 3 new-comers: David Faldon (GB), Harold Lee (GB) and Giancarlo Niccoli (I), who only recently learned how to play and participates with no other ambition than to be back next year. And, last but not least, there is Yoshi Ikkai (J)...
No doubt that he, being the number 1 ranked player, is a favourite, too, but he has had an extremely busy year. And last summer he also attended the MSO GIPF-Championship as the top-favourite but lost 3 games. How good is his play today? In January he had become the Japanese GIPF-Champion, but how strong were his opponents? And what about his trip?
He arrived yesterday evening, straight from Japan, for no other reason than to play GIPF. When I ask him about his jet-lag, he nods yes and says: "no, my eyes slept well!" So, he clearly isn't going to put all of his cards on the table before the start of the championship...
The favourites win their first game. In the second round Kurt is the first to crack; Koen leaves him no chance. In the 3rd round a few more must bend: Patrick beats Werner with his cautious play (the heritage of his chess background, he says) and a very concentrated young Koen gets Yoshi on his knees after a tight game in which both took turns leading the dance all the way - and it happened that it was Koen's turn when the game ended.
In the 4th round Koen beats Patrick in no time. Patrick opened very poorly, loses 3 pieces very early and is so mad at himself that he can't concentrate any more - game over. Koen is the only player left without defeat: 4 down, 3 to go. He has 4 players on his tail with 3 wins each: Yoshi, Patrick, Werner and Karel.
Meanwhile there are only 15 players left in the championship: Giancarlo and Harold have resigned. No prob. The level of play is high; even with only 15 players the spirit is good and the players measure up to each other with a lot of drive and perseverance. Yes, there's a world title at stake.
Round 5 ... Kurt can't find his normal form and gets beaten by Rita. Patrick and Yoshi win against, respectively, Karel and Aksel. Koen encounters Werner. Beautiful to watch, these two: they are probably the most "natural" players of the lot.
They play GIPF like Jimmy White used to play snooker: fluent, apparently without stress, always preferring an attack to a consolidating defensive move. The best proof of their instinctive play is that they never seem to be short of time; even when they get behind, they nonetheless give the impression they have the upper hand. Werner - a former judo-fighter - puts every ounce of his body in the match and that may have made the difference: Koen capitulates.
That means that we have again 4 players sharing the lead with 4 wins: Patrick, Koen, Werner and Yoshi. Still in the running for the medals with 3 wins are Stephen (will he, indeed, surprise everybody?), and Rita and Karel, who both seem in control of their nerves (which always appeared to be their Achilles heel in previous tournaments).
In round 6 Werner shows no mercy to Rita and Stephen shows no mercy to Koen! He puts Koen under pressure from the very beginning with lots of GIPF-pieces; he claims the centre of the board, pushes Koen into a corner, takes a few deep breaths to finish the game and then, literally, makes the wrong move (i.e. not the move he intended). Koen jumps up and steals the point.
Karel wins against the struggling Kurt (last year's silver medal winner), which results in the following standings after 6 rounds: Yoshi, Werner and Koen with 5 points; Patrick and Karel with 4 points... And Werner and Yoshi haven't played against each other yet...
One round to go...and we have a true final: the first World Champion will be the winner of the game "Werner - Yoshi" (both have a higher MB-score than Koen). Koen plays against Karel; if he wins, he'll be sure to become the vice World Champion. But Patrick and Karel, too, still have the possibility to snatch second place, or at least third.
Patrick beats André in a quick game, but must wait to know where he'll end. Koen doesn't leave Karel much chance; Karel looks tired and doesn't find a way into the game. He seems to be a bit short with every move he makes. Koen, almost playing nonchalantly because he knows he's blown the gold medal, still shows enough concentration to win without running into trouble. He'll be the runner-up, that is a fact now. The third place depends on what Werner and Yoshi do - and first place too, of course ...
Werner and Yoshi are nervous: they shake hands with shaking hands. Another indication that stress is running through their veins is that they both start the game with caution: both open with only 4 GIPF-pieces. Yoshi normally plays with 5 and Werner sometimes with even more. So, a careful start.
Werner goes for the e-diagonal; Yoshi counters on the a5-i1 diagonal. Werner gets the upper-hand and goes a GIPF-piece ahead in the 12th move - but gets out of position through it. Yoshi immediately takes advantage of his numerical preponderance on the board, puts a pair of Werner's GIPF-pieces under pressure and next claims the centre of the board. Werner defends his GIPF-pieces with despair - and that may have been his mistake.
It would probably have been better to give up one of his GIPF-pieces and, instead of a series of defensive moves, concentrate on breaking through Yoshi's central pieces. Yoshi captures a GIPF-piece and still controls the game, which results in another capture. All the other games of the 7th round are finished by now and everybody is gathered around board 1. Werner finds a way back into the game, levels the score and even takes the lead again with a fifth captured piece. And then Yoshi shows why he is called the "Octopus". No other player succeeds in using all six sides of the board like he does.
He gets the advantage of having more pieces in his reserve, holds on to it, and attacks each time when Werner has only few pieces to play with. He sacrifices 2 pieces to set up a capture of 3. Being one piece ahead again, he also removes his last but one GIPF-piece (i.e. to be sure to hold the last move) and sets for Werner's last GIPF-piece - not to capture it, but to force Werner to spend pieces in defence. By doing so two rows get blocked and leave Werner no possibility to recycle pieces without losing his last GIPF.
Yoshi Ikkai wins a great final and becomes the first GIPF World Champion. Koen, in spite of having won against Yoshi, gets the silver medal, Patrick jumps over Werner and snatches bronze.
| GIPF World Championship |
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Gold
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Yoshi Ikkai
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6/7 |
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Silver
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Koen De Jongh
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6/7
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Bronze
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Patrick Van De Perre
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5
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Click for the
Full Final Standings or for more details check out the
Championship Crosstable
(*) In total just above 5000 people participated at the MSO 4.
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