World Mind Games

The SportAccord World Mind Games took place December 12-18 in Beijing and included tournaments for Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Go, and Xiangqi. China led the field with 9 gold medals and 21 overall, followed by Russia with 6 gold and 14 total, and Monaco with 2 gold and 3 total.

Pairs open Bridge was won by Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes of Monaco, while pairs women fell to Chinese players Xuefeng Feng and Yu Zhang.

In Chess, Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Levon Aronian of Armenia were tied for men’s blitz at 19.5 after 30 games. Karjakin, though, scored 1.5-1 in the direct face-off, claiming the gold medal and leaving Aronian with silver.  Wang Yue of China was the surprise winner of the men’s rapid event. In the women’s blitz tournament, the two leading contenders, Hou Yifan of China and Valentina Gunina of Russia, drew each other as opponents for the last round. The game was well-fought but, in the end, Hou left with the gold. Don’t feel bad for Gunina, though. In the women’s rapid tournament, the positions were reversed—Gunina took gold and Hou silver.

Also part of the Chess competition at the World Mind Games were so-called Basque events, in which opposing players face each other in two simultaneous games. The top three players in women’s Basque were all from China but the ultimate winner was Zhao Xue. On top for the men was Sergey Karjakin.

Joel N’Cho Atse of Ivory Coast stunned 10-time world champion, Alexei Chizhov of Russia, to claim victory in men’s blitz Draughts. The women’s winner was Matrena Nogovitcyna.

Sixteen-year-old Zhiying Yu of China won gold in the women’s individual Go event. There was no men’s individual event but there was a men’s team and a mixed pairs. The winners of the men’s team competition were Hanseung Cho, Jiseok Kim, and Jeonghwan Park of Korea. And the pairs winners were Chenxing Wang and Ruiyang Zhou of China.

Xiangqi gold medals both went to players from China, Tianyi Wang in the men’s division and Dan Tang in the women’s division.

Chess

Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia claimed victory at the SREI International Grandmaster Chess Tournament in Kolkata, India but just barely. He was one of five tied for first but just edged out the others on tie-breaker points.

In a two-game rapid Chess final round of the London Chess Classic, the world’s 4th ranked player, Hikaru Nakamura of the U.S.A., beat the world’s 8th ranked, Boris Gelfand of Israel, 1½-½.

FIDE has made an official announcement regarding invitations for the next Candidates Tournament, to be held March 11-April 1, 2014 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia:

1. Viswanathan Anand (IND, former world champion)
2. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS, world cup 2013 winner)
3. Dmitry Andreikin (RUS, world cup 2013 finalist)
4. Veselin Topalov (BUL, grand-prix 2012-13 winner)
5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, grand-prix 2012-13 runner-up)
6. Levon Aronian (ARM, rating list 2012-13)
7. Sergey Karjakin (RUS, rating list 2012-13)
8. Peter Svidler (RUS, host nominee)

First reserve from the FIDE Grand-Prix standings is Fabiano Caruana (ITA).

Nubairshah Shaikh won the Nirmala Vaze Memorial All India Open FIDE Rating Rapid Chess Trophy for a Rs 15,000 prize.

Scrabble

Pakistani players dominated the World Youth Scrabble Championship in Dubai with six out of the top 20 finishers, including first and second. The champion position was claimed by 16 year-old Moizullah Baig with a record of 19-4-1 +1448. The runner-up was Javeria Mirza with a record of 18-6 +1725.

Backgammon

At the Sunshine State Backgammon Championship in Tampa, Florida the winner was Jeff Burdsall of Nevada.

With the US Backgammon Federation’s Club Team Championship opened to international competition for the first time, one Russian team participated. However, it was a team from the Washington, D.C. area that captured the trophy.

Draughts

The 8th World Championship Blitz Draughts tournament was held in Den Helder, Netherlands, where Alexander Schwarzman was declared the winner.

Other

At the Rubik’s Cube Philippine Open, Mharr Justhinne Ampong won at standard 3×3 with an average of 11.67 seconds, while Marvin Llaneta won at 3×3 with feet with an average of 1 minute, 10.14 seconds.

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Chess

Azerbaijan led the European Team Chess Championship in Warsaw with an undefeated record. France claimed second place, defeating Russia in tiebreakers. First place in the women’s sections was Ukraine, while Russia placed second after edging out Poland in tiebreakers.

At the World Team Chess Championship, Russia, however, was the overall winner, followed by China, Ukraine, and the United States.

Calvin Prasad won the Fiji National Chess Championship.

Scrabble

For Scrabble, it almost just makes sense to report the second-place winners. But anyway… the winner of the Scrabble Champions Tournament at the Prague Mind Sports Festival was, of course, Nigel Richards of New Zealand. His record in the main event was 22-9 +1498, in the semifinals 3-0, and in the finals 3-2. Coming in second was Komol Panyasophonlert of Thailand, who’s main event record was 21-10 +1215. In the final game between the two, three of the first five moves were bingos! Nigel took home a prize of $10,000 and Komol $5,000.

In the Open Division in Prague, the winner was Jesse Matthews of Canada.

Jack Durand, 13, of London, won the UK National Youth Scrabble Championship.

Underdog, Umang Kejriwal, 15, won the Delhi State Scrabble Championship in five undefeated matches.

Go

Mi Yuting of China—only 17 years old—won the 1st MLily Meng Baihe Cup World Go Open Tournament and a prize of ¥ 1,800,000 ($300,000). In the best-of-five final match he lost the first game but won the next three.

Magic: The Gathering

Ari Lax of Boston won Grand Prix Toronto with some unusual cards.

Marlon Gutierrez of Mexico City faced some of the highest ranked players in the game for his final-8 matches, yet triumphed to win Grand Prix Dallas-Fort Worth.

Backgammon

At the California State Backgammon Championship, the victor in the Open Division was Ray Fogerlund and in the Advanced Division was Anayat Raminfar.

Other

It took him 20 minutes but Istvan Kocza solved a 5×5 Rubik’s cube blindfolded at the Hungarian Rubik’s Cube Open. At the same event, Hunor Bozsing ranked first with the standard 3×3 challenge. The 3×3 winner at the Italian Rubik’s Cube Open was Paolo Moriello. At the New Zealand Nationals it was Angelu Cayanan. And at the GuateMaya Open, the winner was Adrian Ramirez, who set a new national record with an average of 16.44 seconds.

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New Rubik’s Cubes have finally eliminated those pesky stickers, which have a tendency to curl and peel, replacing them with pieces that use colored plastic.

The latest official models, displayed at the recent 2013 Rubik Cube Hungarian Open, also feature a redesigned internal mechanism for smoother, faster twisting and turning. The Rubik’s Speed Cube is even “fully tensionable”, providing “maximum customizability”.

And coming soon are Rubik’s Cubes for the visually impaired, where each face color has a unique texture pattern.

[via WTOP]

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Chess

Already the highest rated player ever, Magnus Carlsen is now also the World Chess Champion. He won the Championship in Chennai, India by beating Viswanathan Anand 6½-3½ in 10 games, apparently without the help of any seconds (advisors). [Update regarding seconds]

In Chennai, India, besides the World Chess Championship, there was the Chennai Grandmaster International Open Chess Tournament, where 14 year-old FIDE Master V R Aravindh Chithambaram bested several grandmasters to claim victory. Also in Chennai was the Women International Grand Master Chess Tournament, where Mary Ann Gomes of India, Batsiashvili Nino of Georgia, and S. Vijayalakshmi of India tied for the lead with 8.5 points each. Tie-breaker games, though, gave the win to Ms. Gomes. And the National Under-9 Chess Championships saw Nihal Sarin take the trophy in the open division and Divya Deshmukh win in the girl’s division.

The winner of the 23rd Individual World Senior Chess Championship in Opatija, Croatia was Anatoly Vaisser of France. The winner of the Women’s Senior Chess Championship was Yelena Ankudinova of Kazakhstan.

The Miami Sharks devoured the New York Knights 6½-½ to claim the champion title of the US Chess League.

Magic: The Gathering

Finally, in his 13th top-8 appearance, Owen Turtenwald took home the trophy at Grand Prix DC. Then the very next week he also won Grand Prix Albuquerque!

Two Canadians and an American (Rich Hoaen, Alexander Hayne, and Mike Hron) triumphed at Team Limited Grand Prix Kyoto.

Dominoes

A team of high school students in Austria assembled and toppled 100,080 dominoes, which sounds like a lot but isn’t even close to a record. Part of their construction, though, was a 6.02 meter high tower, which most certainly is a record—it’s higher than the previous tower by 0.745 meters! Watch it fall in this video:

Backgammon

“The Las Vegas Open Backgammon Tournament is by invitation only.” Nevertheless, the winner was Dana Nazarian.

Other

Bobby Brake, the Summer Champion, returned to conquer the Kaijudo Winter Championship in Irving, Texas.

At Melbourne Cube Day, Feliks Zemdegs set three new Rubik’s Cube world records: 6.54 seconds (average of five) for the standard 3×3 cube, 55.33 seconds (average) for 5×5 cube, and 9.05 seconds (best single try) for 3×3 one-handed.

Seven year veteran of the UK cubing circuit, Thom Barlow, won the UK Rubik’s Cube Championship, finishing first with an average time of 10.64 seconds in standard 3×3. At the top of Swedish Cube Days was Giovanni Contardi of Italy, of the Zeeland Open was Antonie Paterakis of Greece, of the German Nationals was Philipp Weyer, and of the Atlantic Open was Louis Cormier of Canada.

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Scrabble

Nigel Richards was at it again, this time winning the 2013 United States National Scrabble Championship and a $10,000 prize in Las Vegas. This was Richards’ fifth time winning the U.S. Championship. His record at this event was 24-7, with a cumulative score of 1,934 points. Actually, Richard lost his final game in Las Vegas 442-421 to Komol Panyasophonlert of Thailand. His lead going in to that round, though, was enough to maintain the win.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

At the North American World Championship Qualifier, Patrick Hoban claimed the title of North American Champion and Ben Leverett the title of North American Dragon Duel Champion. The Dragon Duel tournament series is only open to those born in 2000 or later. Both earned places at the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG World Championship in Las Vegas (August 11-12) plus prizes that included a variety of card packs, a tablet computer, a personalized jersey, and a super-rare Digvorzhak, King of Heavy Industry YCS Prize Card.

Chess

The two participating titled players were upset in the open section at the Las Vegas Mind Sports Festival, leaving the Championship and grand trophy to Jeffrey Gallegos. In the under-1800 section the winner was Alex Stiger, in the under-1400 section high school chess coach, Robert Lucero, and in the under-1000 section, with the only perfect 5-0 record, Paul Ventura.

Alexander Kocheyev of Belarus won the Minsk Open 2013 tournament.

K Jennitha Anto of India won the women’s section of the International Physically Disabled Chess Association 13th Annual Tournament. The event was divided in to two groups, one for those this mobility impairments and one for those with other medical issues.

Carissa Yip, age 9, is now the youngest U.S. Chess Expert.

India took the title in the World Youth (Under-16) Chess Olympiad, besting Iran in the final round. Second place went to Russia and third to Turkey.

At least five grandmasters participated in the Manhattan Open but it was FM Leif Pressman of New York who won the event.

At the Ramadan Rapid Open Chess Tournament in Qatar, locally based Filipino player Robert Arellano defeated Shatrughan Jha of India in the final round, taking home the trophy and a prize of 3,000 riyals.

Magic: The Gathering

Grand Prix Remini saw a particularly international group of contestants testing the waters of 2014 Limited. Christoph Aukenthaler of Austria took the title of Champion with blue/green.

On the same weekend, Alexander Hayne of Canada won Grand Prix Calgary by besting mostly local competitors.

But it was Amsterdam that hosted the Magic World Championship and World Magic Cup. The winner of the former was Shahar Shenhar of Israel, of the latter, team France. An underdog and the youngest player in the Magic World Championship, Shenhar battled back from a 0-2 start in the final match to take home the $40,000 top prize. Second place, with a $20,000 prize, went to Reid Duke of the United States. More than 70 four-player teams competed in the World Magic Cup. The members of the French winning team, Raphaël Lévy, Yann Guthmann, Timothée Simonot, and Stephane Soubrier, took home prizes of $12,000 each.

Being inducted in to the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame this year are Luis Scott-Vargas, William Jensen, and Ben Stark. Another player, Chris Pikula, narrowly missed the vote threshold for getting in, so WOTC is extending a special invitation to the next Pro Tour stop in Dublin to make sure he has sufficient Pro Tour Points to qualify again next year.

Other

At the Rubik’s Cube World Championship, there were 17 different events, including 2×2, 7×7, 3×3 with feet, and 5×5 blindfolded. But the most coveted title, for the classic 3×3, went to Feliks Zemdegs of Australia, who’s average time was 8.18 seconds. His fastest time was 7.36 seconds (which is not a world’s record). I’ve never been able to solve a Rubik’s Cube, even having spent as much as an hour trying!

The 2013 Online Hive Tournament has concluded on BoardSpace.net. All games used the upcoming Pillbug expansion. User “image13” won.

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