MSO 2023 GP ONLINE

13 March 2023

The 2023 edition of the MSO (Mind Sports Olympiad) Grand Prix Online has ended, made up of over 100 tournaments over the course of almost 2 months. Personally I participated in a very occasional way and not always with due preparation and attention and so I have to settle for a Gold and a Bronze medal; but overall the Italian team – which I can proudly say I helped to give birth to – has become a true squadron that in the end finished second in the medal table.
Naturally behind Great Britain, you will think, the nation that has always dominated, as the organizing country and from which the most participants comes. But no!
At the top of the medal table we find none other than Hong Kong and Great Britain has no choice but to resign itself to third position. In other words, this was the most international edition ever, with as many as 47 nations appearing in the medal table.
Before examining our national triumphs a little better, allow me a couple of geopolitical considerations of the medal collection:
– We are talking about Great Britain and not the United Kingdom: and where is Ben Collister’s Northern Irish gold? In the 5 medals (2-1-2) that result to an unnamed nation?
– It may seem strange to talk about Hong Kong – and we talk about it above all by virtue of the 47 medals they have earned, but even today, even in the sports Olympics, HK participates independently, as well as Taiwan. That’s it! But if HK won the medal table, dominating not only in abstract games, but also in multi-player board games… what will China be able to do if it finally decides to participate.
– Players from Russia and Belarus participated, but the icons of the flags of the two countries are omitted from the medal table, in deference to dominant Western thinking. No comment, I dare not say more.
– No category rankings this year (Junior, Senior and Women) – we’ll have to deal with it… but junior medals appear in the medal table for the two go events (5 for Great Britain and one for Turkey). Meh!

And we come to the 37 Italian medals, one more beautiful than the other, with De Leo, Gueci and Carpignano in grand style; in the pages of the site you will find them listed one by one (see link), but in the meantime I wanted to say well done to all the medalists, truly extraordinary:

– Maurizio De Leo (3-3-0)
– Riccardo Gueci (2-2-2)
– Marino Carpignano (2-2-0)
– Antonio Anelli (1-1-0)
– Francesco Salerno (1-0-2)
– Manfredi Barbaro (1-0-2)
– Fabio Buccoliero (1-0-1)
– Dario De Toffoli (1-0-1)
– Francesco Ventola (0-1-1)
– Paolo Arcudi (0-1-1)
– Marco Conte (0-1-0)
– Stefano Teatini (0-1-0)
– Pietro Rossi (0-0-3)

On a personal level, in addition to the bronze in Lost Cities (tied first with 7 out of 8… but with the Bucholz curse) I am quite satisfied with the Gold in Poker 2-7 Triple Draw; it is a variant that essentially none of the participants had ever tried, myself included… but the terrain of variants unknown to all is where I am most at ease! It may also be a coincidence, but I won this tournament. If I have to be honest, it’s not that 2-7 is my favorite variant, but some reading on the opponent can be done and some strategies can be applied.

As for the Grand Prix, this year the system was really – let’s say – inadequate, in fact it was only valid for a limited number of tournaments, while all the others were good for meta-rankings based on game categories. Be that as it may – but let’s hope they change next year – the indestructible Pole Maciej Brzeski still prevailed, and with inflexible commitment managed to adapt to the new formula. Among the Italians the best was the old friend Paolo Arcudi (great Pablo!), finished 13th.

See you again for the live edition next August, meanwhile on the MSO website, anyone who wants to can have fun finding all the details they want.

February 22, 2023
This year they really exaggerated, I no longer have any doubts!
Over 100 tournaments online and all free. Well done.
As I write, a good half of the GP has already passed and this time I haven’t had the opportunity to follow the event as it should… but I’m proud of the Italian team, which is doing very well, indeed sovramagnificentissimamente, to quote old Dante (btw, did you know that sovramagnificentissimamente has one more letter than the famous precipitevolissimevolmente?).
And I must say that the organization is now well established and everything works quite well; after a “slow” start, all the results are now online and all the rankings are constantly updated.
So good!
See you at the end of the event!

Dario De Toffoli

LINK:
On the MSO website https://mindsportsolympiad.com/ you can find all the details and rankings.
You can also check the results database page: https://msodb.playstrategy.org/

Medals by nationality

Schedule