Danish Othello Championship 2000

Erik Lund Jensen won the Danish Othello Championship for the 3rd time in a row. The 18th Danish Championship was held Saturday September 9th 2000 in Copenhagen.

12 players participated, including all 5 ex-Danish champions (Erik Lund Jensen, Karsten Feldborg, Henrik Vallund, Torben Vallund, and Claus Qvist Jessen). It was Claus' first tournament in 11 years! 7 rounds of swiss-style were played (2x20 minutes) followed by a one-game final (2x25 minutes).

Final standings

The Danish team for the World Othello Championship 2000 will be: Erik Lund Jensen, Karsten Feldborg, and Per Horn. The 4th player - if possible - will be Claus Qvist Jessen.

-Henrik Vallund
President, Danish Othello Association
Tournament Director, World Othello Championship 2000 in Copenhagen

*****

U.S. National Open, New York, 12-13 August 2000

This is a quick report of the U.S. Nationals. The full tournament report (with games and analysis) will be published in the November issue of the Othello Quarterly (annual subscriptions are available for $8 U.S. domestic mail, $12 International mail).

The tournament attracted 17 players (and a few spectators... including Mattel's representative, Rick Rivezzo), with a seven round Swiss System tournament the first day, to choose the qualifiers for a double round robin the second day. The first day of play resulted in the following finish of the top five:

1 Brian Rose 6-1
2 Raphael Schreiber 5-2
3 Benjamin Hurst 5-2 (Winner of the $500 Unrated Prize... Ben has been playing Othello for 7 months!)
4 Ryan Matreyek 5-2
5 David Parsons 4.5 - 2.5

For the second day, Benjamin Hurst was ill and elected not to play and so David Parsons filled in to make up the double round robin tournament.

On the second day, the results of the double round-robin were (using disk differential tiebreak to break ties):

1 Brian Rose 4-2 (lost once each to Raphael and Ryan) -- 2000 U.S. National Champion
2 Raphael Schreiber 4-2 (lost once to David)
3 David Parsons 2-4
4 Ryan Matreyek 2-4

As announced prior to the tournament, it was agreed that the qualifiers of the U.S. Team would be chosen and invitations would be extended in the following order:

1 Winner of the U.S. Nationals -- Brian Rose
2 Winner of the U.S. Open -- Raphael Schreiber
3 2nd Place at the U.S. Nationals -- Raphael Schreiber
4 2nd Place at the U.S. Open -- Tatsuya Mine
5 3rd Place at the U.S. Nationals -- David Parsons
6 3rd Place at the U.S. Open -- Benjamin Hurst
7 4th Place at the U.S. Nationals -- Ryan Matreyek

Therefore, the qualifiers for the U.S. Team at the World Championship tournament in Denmark are:

Brian Rose, Raphael Schreiber, and Tatsuya Mine.

All have agreed to play and are expecting to participate in the World Championship.

*****

Hong Kong Othello Championship, 6 August 2000

We are pleased to release the results of Biboo.com Cup - Hong Kong Othello Championship 2000.

16 participants, over-the-board tournament, 6 rounds of preliminaries (Swiss System, 20min x2), 2 rounds of finals (elimination, 30min x2), tournament director by Kevin Wong.

Finals:

Place Name
1st Li, Chun Wan
2nd Ng, Ka Fu
3rd Wu, Hujai
4th Mak, Disco

Preliminaries

We congratulate all the 16 playes for their high performance! More details and the game transcripts will be posted up in the HKOA website soon.

-Kevin Wong, Hong Kong Othello Association

*****

Japan, playoff games, 6 August 2000

Courtesy of Mr Takeshi Murakami, here are the games he played on August, the 6th 2000. This year, the Japanese team composed of Kazuhiro Sakaguchi, Takeshi Murakami and Mami Yamanaka will be the strongest ever composed... What about your teams ?

20 minutes for each player

Game 1
50 26 17 25 22 51 49 52
59 29 _8 _5 28 24 54 60
18 14 _2 _3 _4 27 34 58
13 _6 _1 oo xx _7 39 53
19 21 _9 xx oo 42 38 40
20 16 15 11 10 33 36 41
57 48 35 12 37 23 43 47
55 56 32 31 45 44 30 46

Black: Hideki Kitajima 35
White: Takeshi Murakami 29

Game 2
55 56 57 34 25 32 58 60
53 54 33 29 24 26 59 20
51 36 30 28 21 11 14 19
40 27 10 oo xx _4 35 17
49 52 _9 xx oo _1 _5 18
48 50 15 _6 _3 _2 _8 16
46 45 39 12 _7 13 43 41
47 44 23 38 37 22 31 42

Black: Takeshi Murakami 33
White: Hideki Kitajima 31

Game 3
55 52 39 49 46 47 48 53
51 56 38 32 37 31 50 54
27 30 24 23 28 11 33 34
25 26 10 oo xx _4 29 35
60 16 _9 xx oo _1 _5 12
22 19 15 _6 _3 _2 _8 36
59 57 18 14 _7 13 42 44
58 45 17 20 21 40 41 43

Black: Takeshi Murakami 34
White: Hideki Kitajima 30

-Bintsa Andriani