Scoreboard

Magic: The Gathering

At the only Modern Masters limited event and largest Magic tournament ever held (4,500 players), Grand Prix Las Vegas, Neal Oliver lost his first game but none of the next 17 to take home the trophy and a $3,500 prize.

Meanwhile, in Return to Ravnica block play, Patriawan Kurniadi was the winner at Grand Prix Bangkok, Oscar Christensen at Grand Prix Gothenburg, Andres Martinez at Grand Prix Guadalajara, and Andrew Longo, Eric Phillipps, and Eric Berger in the team matches at Grand Prix Providence.

Scrabble

The Gulf Scrabble Championship concluded June 1st, with Mohammed Suleiman, a Canadian-Pakistani national representing the UAE, taking the top position. Suleiman won 15 out of 20 games played. Ralph Lobo scored 44 bingos in 20 games played at the tournament, while Ronald Credo, 2012 Champion, scored the highest game (640 points) and Selwyn Lobo achieved the highest score for an individual word (176 for “Cracking”).

At the Canadian National Scrabble Championship, Adam Logan was the winner. Logan won three straight games in the best-of-five final series, scoring words such as “Gardyloo” (68), “Eglomise” (65) and “Zoecia” (34).

Chess

The World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan was declared the World Rapid Chess Champion and Le Quang of Vietnam the World Blitz Chess Champion. A total of $400,000 in prize money was handed out.

The latest ratings from FIDE show Magnus Carlsen of Norway ranked #1 (at 2864), followed by Levon Aronian of Armenia (2813) and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (2803). The current World Champion, Viswanathan Anand of India, is actually ranked fourth at a rating of 2786.

Even Anand’s fourth-place rating will probably not hold up, though, after tying for eighth in the Tal Memorial tournament. That one was won by Boris Gelfand of Israel. Carlsen came in second, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Dmitry Andreikin of Russia, and Fabiano Caruana of Italy all tied for third.

The winner of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship was Daniel Naroditsky, 17 and an International Master. At the Asian Youth Chess Championship, gold medals were awarded to Indian girls B. Pratusha (under-18 section), S. Riya (under-14), R.B. Vaishalai (under-12), D. Divya (under-8), and Savithrishri (under-6). International Master (IM) Jan Emmanuel Garcia of Manila took home gold in under-18 Blitz and Standard.

If you’re keeping track of the young Chess prodigies, though, watch out for Sparsh Bisht, a tournament player in India who’s only 4 years old!

Chess player, Quang Liem, is recognized as the richest athlete in Vietnam.

Dominoes

The X FID Domino World Championship just concluded in Orlando. Leading the individual results with a record of 9-0 was Daniel Diaz of the United States. Also with a record of 9-0, Gabriel Sitton and Rafael Villareal of Panama topped the team competition.

Headquarters teams retained their titles in the Guyana Police Force Inter-Division Dominoes Tournament.

A 6-year-old won the Brian Bainbridge Memorial Dominoes Tournament, which was named in memory of his grandfather.

Backgammon

At the 2nd Giants of Backgammon Invitational, first place was secured by Petko Kostadinov of the United States and second place by Tsuyoshi Minakami of Japan. Masayuki Mochizuki of Japan took first place in the coincident 33rd Chicago Open Backgammon Tournament, while tying for third in the Invitational.

At the Los Angeles Backgammon Open, the first place winner was Ed O’Laughlin and the second place winner, Malcolm Davis.

Raj Jansari of England won the 2013 London Open Backgammon Tournament and was also runner-up in the associated Professionals’ Tournament. The winner of the Professionals’ Tournament was Fabio Gullotta of Italy.

Marbles

The Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City failed in its effort to retake the world record for largest marble tournament. Only 300 people showed up when they needed 877. The museum had previously set a record with 677 in 2007 but lost it to the Boy Scouts in 2010.