Julia Schwarz - World Tantrix Champion
| | Julia Schwarz
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The World Tantrix Championship, featuring 64 of the world's best players, reached its climax in December. The winner was Julia Schwarz, a student at the University of Central Lancashire, and the first female winner of the title.
Julia, 24, who plays Tantrix online as jade, is originally from Germany. She started as an outsider, only 19th in the world Elo rankings. However, she beat players ranked way above her. In the quarter-finals she toppled the French No. 1 Laurent Berguin and in the semi-final the 1998 World Champion Steven Trezise.
In the final, Julia met the best the southern hemisphere could come up with - Matt Kearse of New Zealand. She raced into a big early lead, but some nervous play as she neared her goal allowed Matt to claw his way back.
By the ninth and final game he still had a theoretical chance of victory. But Matt was unable to win that game by a large enough margin so Julia emerged triumphant by 94-86.
Julia kindly agreed for me to interview her about her victory, Tantrix and mind sports in general. Her comments provide a fascinating insight into how top Tantrix players think, and show that there is a lot more than meets the eye to this ever more popular game - which now has more than one million players worldwide. (See Julia's road to the world title)
How did you get into Tantrix in the first place, and how long have you been playing now?
I first saw Tantrix on a market in Munich, but was too shy to ask how it worked or how much it cost. Later I described it to my aunt who then gave it to me for my birthday four years ago. I've been playing online for two and a half years.
Do you only play on line?
No, I actually prefer playing with the real tiles. But most of my friends don't want to play against me any more, even though they do win sometimes.
You beat several higher ranked players to win the Championship, yet many of the matches were not so close. Were you very surprised to win? How confident did you feel during the tournament?
In the beginning I was quite surprised to win so many games. When I play normally on the web site and in previous tournaments I don't/didn't do so well. But this was the first tournament in which I had a room to myself,
so I could actually concentrate and play a lot better. The further I got
in the tournament, the more confident I became too.
| "My secret is an organic oat biscuit and a glass of orange juice before every game.". |
Who is the toughest player to beat, and why? And who is the most fun to play?
My hardest match was against Steven Trezise, but I was most nervous before the games against Jerome Papillon. I think it's because he enjoys beating me so much. :-) I actually practiced before the games against him, which probably helped me for the rest of the tournament as well.
I can't really say who is the most fun to play. I enjoy playing against just about anybody, but there are some people who are more interesting to chat with than others...
How does it feel to play against (and beat!) people from all over the world?
It felt very good. Especially since hardly anybody expected me to do that well. However, because of the way the draw turned out, I only played against people from the three strongest countries, New Zealand, France and England.
That was a pity, because I like very international tournaments and would have liked to play against people from some of the other ten countries too.
Is there a big difference in strength between the top players and those lower down the rankings?
It depends on which set of rankings you mean.
The Elo-ratings seem to be fairly accurate, but they only take tournament games into consideration. There aren't too many weak players who play in tournaments, so skills are quite similar.
In the normal lobby rankings, on the other hand, there are definitely players who are a lot weaker than the top players, though the lobby rankings seem a bit random and seem to depend on the number of games you play.
Do people chat much when playing on line? Do you get to know the other players?
That depends. When I started playing online it was certainly the case that most players talked to everyone who came into the lobby. Nowadays there are more people who don't like to talk to others. I respect that, but I prefer getting to know the other person a bit while I play. I have met a few players in person as a consequence.
What is your secret for winning? Are there any tips you could give to a beginner like me?
My secret is an organic oat biscuit and a glass of orange juice before every game. More practice probably makes you develop your skills too. It particularly helped me to play a few games against myself - so I could analyse every move without any time pressure and with no opportunity to chat and get distracted. I learned a lot that way.
| "I don't only try to find out how many tiles of a certain combination are left, but exactly which tiles and what effect it would have to play them. Then I need to find a way of using that knowledge.". |
How does it feel to be a world champion?
To be honest, not much different to not being a world champion. I am glad I won against so many players, but I don't think about it all the time.
I like the game from the quarterfinals with the two very long loops. But which game from the tournament did you think was the best, and why? And which was your worst game?
The one with the two loops was definitely the most nerve-wracking. My worst games were all in second half of the final. In fact, I nearly threw away a big lead I'd built up in the early games.
In game 6, for example, I took far too big a risk, hoping Matt wouldn't notice he could block me, and in game 8 I didn't even notice he was building a loop, until after the game was over and a spectator congratulated Matt instead of me!
Game 3 from the final is really interesting. It looks to me as if you were losing and it just turned round at the end. But Steven Trezise says that you had it all planned. Can you
explain how?
I was lucky in that I could get rid of the two tiles I played in the moves before the tile for the forced space came out. But I had worked out exactly which tiles were still left, what forced spaces would be created by playing them, which tiles were left for those spaces, etc.
You tend to use up all your time when you play. What is it that takes the most time? Does it take a lot of time to keep track of which tiles are left, or do you have some technique for doing that?
I don't have a special technique, but I became better at it the more games I played. I don't only try to find out how many tiles of a certain combination are still left, but also exactly which tiles, what effect it would have to play them, etc. Then I need to find a way of using that knowledge, which is what usually takes so much time.
On the Tantrix web site your style is described as "Northern hemisphere strategic" as opposed to "Southern hemisphere line-building". Can you explain the difference?
Many of the Southern hemisphere players are extremely good at line building, i.e. at adding the maximum number of tiles to their own line each turn. When you play against someone from the Southern hemisphere it is good to sometimes imagine you were them, to figure out what you'd do next and then to stop them from being able to do that.
Many of the Northern hemisphere players prefer to play more strategically, counting tiles and blocking people by creating forced spaces that can't be filled anymore.
Why "jade"?
Before playing tantrix online I wanted to be close to my friends in an alphabetical list in a chat room. My friends' names were janosch and janigoal.
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Tantrix works very well as a 4-player family fun game (that is the way I have usually played it). Is it very different as a 2-player tournament game?
I don't have much experience at playing with more than two players, but I believe there is a lot more luck involved with three or four players than with two. Your plans work out less often and you get fewer turns. If you play with two players, you can make plans which involve forcing your opponent and then adding more tiles yourself - and they do work out a lot of the time.
Have you tried the Tantrix puzzles, and if so can you do them? They seem pretty hard to me!
I haven't tried many. I tried some of the easier ones, then got bored with them and moved on to the four longest loops puzzle, which I've been trying to solve (not continuously) for three years now :-)
How popular do you think Tantrix will become? Do you think it will stand the test of time like chess, draughts etc?
Apparently it already is one of the most popular games in New Zealand and I think it could easily become as popular worldwide. It is hard to say whether it will stand the test of time, but it definitely looks attractive enough.
| "I think men like playing games whereas many women like doing 'useful' things." |
What do you like most about Tantrix?
The rules are simple and because it turns out different every time you play, you can't learn openings from books, so you have to think for yourself in every game.
Have you always been interested in games? And do you play other mind sports other than Tantrix?
I have always liked games, that's true. But I have a brother (he played in the Tantrix World Championship as "space") who beats me at whatever game I introduce him to - particularly at strategy games other than Tantrix. So I tend to prefer the more social games like Settlers of Catan and solitaire puzzles.
Are you very competitive? Do you hate losing?
It depends on my opponent. If I play against someone very competitive, I become more competitive myself. And when I lose all the time, I do hate it too. But in the normal non-tournament games I don't mind so much if I lose a game or two - especially if I've had an interesting chat in return...
What do you think of the Mind Sports Olympiads? Will you come and play in the next one if Tantrix is an event?
To be honest, I don't know too much about the Mind Sports Olympiads. But I would like to play Tantrix in any kind of tournament, so why not.
Do you have any theory as to why there are relatively few women who play these sort of games competitively? After all, Judit Polgar (in chess), Rui Naiwei (in Go) and you have all shown that the women can beat the men.
In general, I think men like playing games whereas many women like to spend their time doing more "useful" things. Maybe the few women who do play are just the exception that proves the rule.
I heard that you are studying at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. What are you studying, and what are you planning
to do afterwards?
I am studying Linguistics with Psychology, with a particular interest in Psycholinguistics. But I have no idea what I want to do afterwards.
Preferably something completely different, although I enjoy my course a
lot. Maybe I'll work for Tantrix for a little while - I like helping to make it more popular over here.
What decided you to
come to Preston to study?
Sometimes I ask myself the same question :-) Seriously, though, I came to England because I love the country and somehow I really feel at home here. I come from a village in Southern Germany, and when I decided on Preston it was because I thought I'd be less likely to meet German tourists in an ugly town than in a beautiful one. In fact, it's not too
bad here - although I like other parts of the country better.
What do you like doing in your spare time, apart from Tantrix?
When I get the time, I like to travel. But at the moment I haven't got much time for that as I am writing my final year dissertation and have to think about what I will do afterwards. I sometimes work for Tantrix
in my spare time too.
Otherwise I like collecting stamps, writing
letters or translating Swedish children's books into English.
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A full report of the World Championship and Julia's victory is on the UK Tantrix site.
| | Click above to go to the main Tantrix Website where you can play online |
More information can be found on the Main Tantrix site. Here you can look at tournament games, including those from the World Championship. The game with two long loops, between Julia and Laurent Berguin, is lolo-jade-2000-11-03-2200.sgf and it can be found in archive games-Nov-3-2000.zip. This game broke all records for the highest aggregate score!
The other game mentioned in the interview, game 3 of the final, is M!jade-Fluffy-2000-12-16-2135.sgf and it is in the archive games-Dec-16-2000.zip. This is the game where Julia turned the tables towards the end of the game by joining up two of her lines.
The scoring system for the tournament may not be familiar to those who have only played Tantrix for fun. 20 Tournament Points (TPs) are awarded for each game according to a scoring chart. If the game is a draw, the players get 10 TPs each. For a huge victory - 32 points or more - the winner gets all 20 TPs and the loser 0. For closer games, the loser gets a share of the TPs depending on the score in the game.
Other Tantrix champions in 2000 were Jean-Louis Potier of France - European Champion, Ben Trumbore of the USA - Pan-American Champion, Phil Sneddon of New Zealand - NZ Champion and Murray Pharaoh of New Zealand - Pacific Champion. 2001 tournaments will start in a couple of months' time.
On the Tantrix site you can also learn how to play online,including the basic rules of the game. And you can try out the Tantrix puzzles as well as playing Tantrix.
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