MSO 2019

Here we go again, like every year I’m about to dive into the Mind Sports Olympiad (https://msoworld.com).
It’s an irresistible enticement, I couldn’t possibly miss it. Leaving its shortcomings aside, de facto MSO is the worldwide best chance to play competitively (but in a friendly environment) myriad games in some sort of a ludic-competitive orgy.
And I also get to meet all my old opponents again, those through the years have become good friends, starting from the legendary Demis Hassabis.
No, I wouldn’t miss it for the world!

The “oldies” from Italy are all still playing: ever since the Senior Pentamind has been established, the podium has been ours, including last year when Piero Nabendu Zama, Riccardo Gueci and I have monopolized it.
We will be there this year too… but we will have to face an incredibly thorny opponent, tough Paco de la Banda, back to the competitions fiercer than ever, and set on getting the top of the podium.
But we will do our best to keep it to ourselves!

Leaving the Seniors aside, Rummikub’s Super-Champion Daniele Ferri will be there too, obviously with his beloved VegeTable; this time he will play for the whole duration of the event and who knows, maybe he will also rise at Pentamind.
Cosimo Cardellicchio will also be in the game and will compete at the Twix tournament, challenging the French Florian Jamain for the gold; he will need to give up on the Oware tournament though, since it will play simultaneously.

Also, great news for this year: new blood incoming! Umberto Rosin, great expert in the so-called “Eurogames”, and fierce Piero Modolo, who has no intention at all to come back empty-handed.
We’ll see, we’ll see… Let’s hope to crash the metal detector on our way back with all the ironware in our suitcases! We got to train, too, this time around, at least a little bit!

And what about my Pentamind target?
Last year, with my 457 points, I ranked 9^th in the general standings (1^st of the Seniors), so this year’s goal is to better that rank: any score higher than 457 will be well received… and let’s see what the others will tally.

17th August
We came to America (1997)
In London, waiting the Mind Sports Olympiad, the Faith Ringgold’s powerful exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery.

23^ Mind Sports Olympiad – day 1

First Bronze for our Piero Zama.

Better than nothing. First day in a silent fashion for our team, but fortunately it ends with a Bronze in Dominoes 5s&3s by Piero Zama who ended in first position together with other 3 players, but has to accept a 3rd place.

Nothing unfortunately for Dario De Toffoli both in Dominoes and in Catan (and Piero as well in the last one), but also for Cosimo Cardellicchio and Giulia Gallotta (in Dominoes).

What about myself? Just not a great day.

In Stratego Duel after 3 years I have to finaly gave up the crown to a young greek boy, very talented, but I have to admit I played badly (I didn’t manage to get to the podium too), as in Stratego Classic, where as always won an english, and finally in Dominoes, but where I can say I haven’t been that lucky.

Tomorrow I will play Mensa Connection, Rummikub and I have a last minute choiche between Gomoku, Blokus and 5 Card Draw.

Hope for the better

Bye

Come on, now things are becoming interesting.
After a frustrating day one to say the least, I wore the “Don’t Panic” t-shirt and music has changed: the Hitchhiker’s Guide comes always in handy!
But first things first.
Day1: Catan
Big and nice tournament, but after the first two games (a 2nd and a 3rd place) I cannot reach the finals and I forfeit. What can I say? I thought I built a winning strategic position, but dice are dice… even if, dice or not, Ankush Khandelwahl and Demis Hassabis went straight to the final from victory to victory. Maybe there’s something I’m missing?
Day1: Dominoes 5s&3s
Here MSO did their worse, concerning a bad organization: a series of unpleasant mix-ups. But Etan apologized for that and promised that it will never happen again, so let’s overlook details. Here Piero Nabendu Zama finished in first position as some other players with 4 wins in 5 matches and took the bronze for tiebreaker. Just to mention, he beat me 121 to 120, leaving me with 3 wins. Dubut in competitions with some victories also for Giulia Gallotta.
Day2: Acquire
And here I have to compliment myself: always careful and focused, I think I played at my best and gold has almost slipped from my hand. In a specific situation against Kuusk and Harlock; I was in a good place, controlling many companies, but not Fusion, which was destined to become the biggest, Kuusk had 8 stocks, Harlock other 8 and me only 3. I could merge Zeta (that I controlled) with Fusion, but I didn’t have the right tile and I started increasing the value of Zeta, simulating the fear somebody else could stole it. Then they merge Phoenix and I swap my 6 to take me to 12 Zeta, because seemengly new companies would have born in the near future. They fall into the trap and do not acquire their Fusion. It’s my turn, I merge Zeta into Fusion and swap 12 for the last 6 Fusion, reaching 9: game won and final table in the pocket.
Day2: Poker 5-card Draw. Yes, the one with 5 cards in hand and one change. But with the entire deck, obviously, and without the strange italian openings. However, 5 left and I go all in to call my double with Ace crashing into a Queen’s full by the chip leader.

Today Cribbage and Omaha.

In the meanwhile, Daniele Ferri missed the gold in Rummikub to James Heppel and this year he finished with a silver and Riccardo Gueci visited the high ranking of many games (with a final table too in Blokus)… but no medals still, for now.

The revenge is completed, this year VEGEtables speaks italian.

After five years in which Matthew Hatthrell won every single time, finally he won the Bronze and the Gold came back where it should have always been: in Italy.

This year I followed a specific training to win and my referee work has been softened by a program that manage pairings, scorings and rankings, things that the other years I have to follow manually.

Now I’m happy, I could even turn back home.

Pay attention to the guy on my right: Victor Espinosa. He took this Silver but also a Gold in Juniores, and if he will go on like this, he will become a dangerous opponent.

One last mention to the enthusiast korean friends that ask me photos non-stop. Here there’s one, but I have thousand.

23^ Mind Sports Olympiad – Day 4

A Golden rain for Italy!

Things are going pretty well here in London:

First off, Daniele Ferri, superb example, won the tournamento of ‘his’ game VegeTables, then it’s time for Piero Zama to conquer the most precious medal in MasterMind, his specialty, then Marco Del Pra won Terra Mistica, but the true hero is the phenomenal Andrea Muzii in the three memory competitions (Marathon, Speed and Natural) with 3 Golds! If you wish, see the video, which is incredible.

But don’t ask me the differences between the three types of competitions because I don’t remember them… ?

As for Daniele Ferri you would think that it’s unfair as he invented the game… However in the last 5 years the Gold has always been won by Matthew Hathrell, an english who liked Daniele’s invention, so winning against him is not a joke

Our guy told us that he couldn’t stand not to win again, so I will not tell what he dared to do to train this year… and everything went smoothly.

Piero Zama in MasterMind is not a new entry, in the past he has won several tournaments, so he is just back in good shape.

He never stood a chance instead in the morning Quoridor (as for me) where estonians, koreans, spanish and english improved a lot and became unbeatable.

Even Backgammon (6x7p.) has not be good for Dario De Toffoli who has almost got a medal in the evening session of Hare and Tortoise, finishing fourth.

As for myself, in addition to Quoridor I played Seven Card Stud and here I only got the wood medal of 4° place… An unfortunate double loss in the final stole my icecream the moment I thought I could eat it (I was chipleader for a while…). Almost there, though.

I had to left Hare and tortoise for an annoying issue happened to my wife who decided from Palermo to lose her wallet here in London… ? Things that happen!

In the meanwhile, in the Pentamind Andres Kuusk is first with 464.38 points while Dario De Toffoli is sixth with 385.68 and surprisingly (I have no medals yet) I am tenth with 356.42.

Tomorrow I will playing my first tournament of the diffcult Twixt, then Continuo and finally Kamisado.

That’s it for now…

Bye bye

Oh my god! So many things happened and new heroes have come!
For me a silver in Poker Omaha, which take me to 386 Pentamind points, but then so many Golds for Italy.
Curious? So keep reading on!

Cribbage
English game: now that I teached it to Nabendu, two people actually play it in Italy. I played well. After the third of the four rounds (with 2 manche for every round) I’m leading with 5 victories out of 6; but at the end I crash to the unreachable points of Joseph Kollar: I finish with 5 victories, with 3 players in first place with 6 points. Fourth shared, not too bad. In the afternoon I try also the double teaming up with Nabendu (Zama): we never tried it before and we found it really funny, maybe even better than playing alone… but we have not so much luck and experience. It has been a good experience, though.

Poker Omaha
Maybe this is my favourite poker style and I win a Silver! Good, but with a little of regret, because at the final table I have been ultra-chip leader for long. But in the final heads up wind has changed direction favouring the always dangerous David Pearce. Fine like this! Just to mention in the photo my shirt with the “Russel’s teapot” orbiting between Earth and mars… maybe it helped?

Backgammon (7 points)
Why do we play Backgammon? To suffer! There can’t be any other reason, because some games with sudden and continuous changes in pace have no similarity with any other game, including Poker: the emotions are strong and make you feel alive! This said, I finished in the middle of the ranking (3 wins in 6 matches): somewhat of a shame. There were many strong players, but what piss me off is that I lost against the one who played worst than anyone: one move one blunder (or even many), not knowing what was going on… and then everything going well at the end. Fine, I think today I have to give up the Oware tournament (Modolo, free rein for you!) and the Continuo one, to play Backgammon once again (to 11 points), because I absolutely need the result fot the Pentamind as a long tournament.

Hare&Tortoise
What can I say? I finished 3rd with other players… but no medals as usual for the tiebreaker: two first places, a 2nd and a 3rd place. It’s a pity that in the last game I lost the focus during the last move, just for a dispute of the table next to us… I could win that one too but I finished third instead.

Pentamind. First place for Kuusk as usual, already 464 points (but I managed to beat him both in Acquire than in Hare and Tortoise!), while I am 6th with 386. In the senior category I’m followed by Gueci (356) and Zama (329): for now the podium is still full italian, with Peter Horlock, Paco de la Banda and many other still far away.

Riccardo Gueci with many good results (without medals unfortunately) is the nearest in the Pentamind Senior, it’s a shame that somebody stole the pocket to his wife in a supermarket, literally ruining the evening; fortunately the security found it soon after with the documents inside.
Piero Nabendu Zama gave his best in his game: Gold in Mastermind, where he has always been the best. Good job Nabe! He is coming back too in the Pentamind.
Daniele Ferri is doing great too: already two Golds, the first in the funny Perudo (don’t think it’s only luck!) and finally in his beloved VegeTable: he invented it, he proposed it, he directed it and finally – proudly – he won it, beating Mattew Hattrell, who won that tournament 5 years in a row.
Yesterday came here in London also Umberto Rosin and Piero Modolo: morning wake up at 03:30, bus, plane, train, taxi and immediately going to play the literally big Gaia Project, two minutes before the start; I don’t know if they even managed to go to the bathroom and then immediately Hare and Tortoise. No medals for them, but the good news is that they are still alive: I’m sure about it, because at 23:00 I went to dinner with them… they were really hungry!

But the true hero has been the young Andrea Muzii, who won all the Memory competiitons (Marathon, Natural and Speed), winning 9 out of 10 challenges. Just to know he memorized the order of a deck of cards randomly shuffled in 24 seconds, then a number of 504 digits in 5 minutes and finally 394 pictures in 5 minutes (new european record). Incredible! Here a video that shows Andrea in action: https://www.facebook.com/MindSportsOlympiad/
For sure we will talk again about him!

It’s not finished yet, Marco Del Pra won the Gold in Terra Mystica and there has been an italian double also in Gaia Project: details in the next Chronicle, I don’t have the official results.

Finally I decided: tomorrow no Oware and Continuo for me, I will try another Backgammon, with Poker Pineapple in the evening.

Ok, for sure it would have been better, for a first time report, to show a medal, a nice Gold or even a Bronze to not look too bad.

But I have no medal to show. Not even one.

But one thing I have to clarify: here in London we are having a good time, and even if “competitive” satisfactions are yet to come, it would be false to say that nothing happened.

First thing first.

Me and Umberto traveled on the 21st morning from Venice, and manage to arrive right for the Gaia Project tournament.

For me it has been a bloodbath (there were so many players that can be considered as “specialists” with much more games played – and Gaia Project I have to admit is not my ideal type of game).

I came out badly (Umberto somewhat better, but not enough to take a medal).

We prepare fro Hare and Tortoise, but nothing even here. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

Today, finally, we start with what is probably my favourite game here at MSO: oware (while Umberto decides to play Puerto Rico).

The tournament starts well, I won 2, then lose badly (but really badly!) against Seth (who will finish first and has a gigantic experience), I manage to win a third one and then the game that is like a final to me, against Glenda (if I win I’m on the podium, maybe even second!).

End of the story, a truly memorable game, tense, but she wins by taking slightly more control and a misplay makes me lose the game…

Sixth.

But I really had fun – and I’m not saying that only because I did’t win!
Finally, we exchange some contacts so who knows that maybe in the future we will manage to do something even elsewhere!

Next game is Continuo.

And here I have to say that they have been tense games until the last tile.

I win the first two games controlling the situation, and finally two korean kids in a row… terribles! In both the games we play with couple of points of difference and a couple of points make me lose both the games.

A bit of bitterness for sure, but that’s fine. The important thing is to keep up learning.

In the evening it’s time for 7 wonders. I came late (I was finishing Continuo) and my first game is lost by default. I’m not worried: to be honest it is the third time that I play the game, so I take it easy and I play to have fun. I make so many mistakes and at the end I play in the last tables, but in the last game (and the last table nda…) I have the satisfaction to finally been able to play decently and to win the game.

To summarize, a little bit a nothing done.

Tomorrow Stone Age. And that’s it, because tomorrow is short session. But there will be still to fight!

London
23^ Mind Sports Olympiad – Day 5

3 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze the italian loot of today.

An unstoppable rythm and we add 5 medals to the pool:

Cosimo Cardellicchio Gold in the difficult Twixt, Dario De Toffoli Gold in Pineapple (a style of Poker) and Federico Cittadini Gold in the complex Gaia Project.
Another Silver in this tournament also for Marco del Pra, and finally Bronze in Kamisado for myself (finally!).

Nothing for our captain in Backgammon (4x11p.) as for Daniele Ferri and Piero Zama, the last one even out early in Pineapple.

As for myself a really stressful day of competition. I started with my first Twixt competition, a really good and complex game, where I managed to win 2 games and a third slipped away for a misplay (yes I even risked to win a Bronze, maybe…), then I reply by thinking really thoughly in another new game for me “Continuo” (an endless computation where the colours at the end shut me down). Here I made 2 victories and 2 losses, but I have to say that korean kids has been as surprising as unbeatable, so to place a triple on the podium. Finally, dulcis in fundo, without even the smalles break I played Kamisado, for a total of 14 games of focus and continuous analysis. A really tough thing, finally ending with my first medal, even if only a Bronze (better than nothing). I played really well drawing 1-1 against both the first and the second players. Only an underperformance against a weaker player made me lose the most precious metal but Bronze in Kamisado is like a habit to me.

Tomorrow we play only in the morning and afternoon with a double Backgammon session (6x5p.).

Hoping on dice ??

Bye bye

23^ Mind Sports Olympiad – Day 6

An italian Silver never displease.

With his third try in Backgammon (this time 6x5pt.), Dario De Toffoli conquers an important Silver, compensating a day that has been dry of medals for Italy.

Fourth ex aequo for both me and Daniele Ferri, especially for diabolic dice.

No other Medals to the other italians, Piero Zama, Piero Modolo and Umberto Rosin in the several games they competed in, Stone Age and Monopoly, but all of us are confident in the last two days to close properly.

Tomorrow ther’s the rest day, while on Sunday we begin all over again with Triolet and Texas Holdem, painfully giving up Chess 960 which has always been a tournament I aim at. Pentamind needings, in pure detoffolian style ? this is what they reccommend to me.

But let’s have a look to the current situation of the Pentamind.

The fight seems between 4 names: two estonians and two english. As always. First Andres Kuusk with 489,42, second the last edition champion Ankush Khandelwal with 462,77, third Martin Hobemagi 461,62, fourth James Heppell with 454,14.

The winner can be decided by the last game.

Our capitain De Toffoli is doing well with his sixth place and 425,47 points, obviously first in Senior.

In second place in this last category of Pentamind there’s who is writing with 356,42 (15th overall), while the actual podium is closed by Piero Zama with 328,93 (20th overall).

Threatening is one of the favourite that is coming up strongly, the spanish Paco Garcia de la Banda with 302,48.

Even this time everything will be decided by the last game, even if the first place of Senior seems already consolidated.

Finally I have to mention that in the special ranking of the amateur poker Dario is in first place, while in modern abstract games I am in 13th place.

This year the partecipation is similar to the one of the last edition and we are talking about hundreds of players.

See you on Sunday

bye bye