Magic: The Gathering

Shahar Shenhar won the World Championship and is the first person ever to do so twice. The championship trophy comes with a $50,000 prize. In the World Magic Cup team competition, held together with the Championship in Nice, France, it was Denmark that came out on top.

In order to accommodate players impacted by a transit strike, a special tournament structure was arranged for Grand Prix Milan. Still, 1,760 players made it. And the winner was Magnus Lantto of Sweden. Magnus is a regular Magic Online player but this was his first time winning a live title.

On the same weekend, Gerard Fabiano was the winner of Grand Prix Baltimore.

Chess

At the Russian Championship in Kazan, Tatarstan, 10-player round-robin tournaments were won by Igor Lysyj and Valentina Gunina, men’s and women’s sections, respectively.

Anquandah Francis Eric of Ghana was the winner in the general section of the Africa Zone 4.4 Chess Championship. His performance at the tournament also qualified him for the title of International Master. In the women’s section, the winner was Rabiu Olabisi of Nigeria.

A strong field at the Qatar Masters Open was dominated by Yu Yangyi of China, whose 7.5/9 score put him ½ point in front and $25,000 richer.

Demonstrating that he’s still a strong competitor, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand finished first at the London Chess Classic, beating out Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri on tiebreak.

Junior, Senior, and Amateur Championships were held recently under the auspices of the Asian Chess Federation. At the Junior event, Narayanan Srinath of India took the general section trophy for the third year in a row, while Mikee Charlene Suede earned the first such title for the Philippines in the women’s section. Among the Seniors, Baimurzin Aitkazy of Kazakhstan won with a score of 8.5/9, including no losses and only one tie. Though representatives of ten countries participated, it was local player Buddhika Amarasinghe of Sri Lanka that won the Amateur Championship.

Back in the Philippines, it was Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia who came in first place at the Philippine International Chess Championship.

Dev Shah of India won the under-7 category while qualifying as Candidate Master at the World Schools Chess Championships in Juiz de Fora, Brazil.

Two familiar names topped the leader-boards at the SportAccord World Mind Games blitz tournament, Alexander Grischuk of Russia for the men and Hou Yifan of China for the women. Grischuk also claimed gold in men’s rapid. Yifan, however, fell to Valentina Gunina of Russia in women’s rapid.

Shogi

Tetsuro Itodani, the 26 year-old winner of the 27th Ryuo Shogi title, is confident that his performance will continue to improve for another 10 years.

Bridge

The team competition has concluded at the SportAccord World Mind Games. Israel took gold in open teams and England gold in women’s.

Draughts

The gold medal at the SportAccord World Mind Games women’s rapid tournament went to Tamara Tansykkuzhina of Russia, while gold for men went to Roel Boomstra of The Netherlands. Blitz men’s gold was claimed by Alexander Shvartsman of Russia, while in the gold podium position for women was Darya Tkachenko of Ukraine.

The winner of the US Open was Miguel Almanzar of the Dominican Republic.

Go

The Chinese team has started strong at the SportAccord World Mind Games, taking gold in both the men’s team and women’s individual competitions. At the top of the podium for women’s individual was Yu Zhiying.

Backgammon

Jonah Seewald won the 2014 US Backgammon Federation Grand Championship.

Subbuteo

The Merlion Cup in Singapore was an international affair. Ouabi Rouis of France took home the trophy.

Similar international representation at the Yokohama Open also resulted in a French win, this time by Cédric Garnier.

At the FISTF Open of Milano, Portuguese player Vasco Guimaraes defeated World Champion Juan Noguera in the final game 2-1.

Rubik’s Cube

Marcin Kowalczyk set a new world record for single solve of the 3×3 blindfolded, finishing in 21.17 seconds.

A world record single Skewb solve was set by Jonatan Kłosko 1.81 seconds.

And in Niddrie, Australia, three world records were set, Feliks Zemdegs with the 5×5 at an average 54.20 seconds, Feliks agains with the 3×3 one-handed at an average 11.72 seconds, and Jayden McNeill with Skewb at an average 3.10 seconds.

Dominoes

A world record 50,000 domino circle bomb was pulled off in Germany:

• 2 Comments

Scrabble

Craig Beevers of the U.K. was declared the World Scrabble Champion at the Scrabble Champions Tournament in London. On the strength of “talaq”, “diorite”, and “ventrous”, he won the best-of-five final match 3-1. Beevers rarely competes in Scrabble tournaments. He does, however, organize them professionally.

Perudo

At the 25th Annual Perudo Championship in London the winner was Minna Fry.

Chess

Thirteen-year-old Sam Sevian earned his place in the record books as the youngest ever U.S. Chess grandmaster.

Go

Chimin Oh won the Go to Innovation tournament in Berlin. Chimin Oh is a 7-dan, former Korean instructor who now resides in the U.K. The tournament employed the Hahn scoring system, which awards points to the winner and loser of each game.

Rubik’s Cube

At the Austrian Big Cube Open, Mattia Furlan of Italy achieved a world-record average solving time for the 7×7 cube of 2:48.03.

At the Toronto Open, Antoine Cantin did the 3×3 one-handed in 8.75 seconds for a world record.

Subbuteo

Local favorite Nikos Beis took the trophy at the Grand Prix of Greece, besting 43 other contestants in the open category.

Hundreds of players from across Europe gathered for the Cardiff Grand Prix. The team event was won by the Valletta Lions of Malta, the open section by Wolfgang Haas of Austria.

For the third time in four seasons, Mark Farrell of Dublin was declared the World Amateur Subbuteo Association’s All-Ireland Champion.

Magic: The Gathering

Seth Manfield of the United States triumphed at Grand Prix Ottawa. In the draft top-8, Manfield squeaked by in the quarter-finals but proceeded to decisive victories in the semi-final and final matches.

Grand Prix Strasbourg marked the first title win for Tamás Nagy of Hungary. He hopes to take that winning spirit with him to the upcoming Magic World Cup.

The win at the standard-format Grand Prix San Antonio went to Ryan Scullin of Rhode Island.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

In Anaheim, Patrick Hoban of Georgia survived three round of single-elimination top-16 draft to claim the title of Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Champion. Among the younger Dragon Duel competitors, the winner was Kenneth Bevens of California.

• Comments Off on Scoreboard

Chess

Manoj Kumar won the Fiji Bitter Chess Championship. After a tie-break game, Kabrina Terubea took the title in the women’s section.

High school student, Tanraj Sohal is the youngest player ever to win the British Columbia Closed Chess Championship.

Grandmaster Alex Shabalov of Pennsylvania won the 4th Continental Class Championships in Arlington, Virginia. After defeating his chief rivals in rounds four and five, he coasted through the remaining two.

It was upset city at the National Challenger Chess tournament in New Delhi. None of the top four seeded players finished high enough to qualify for the first National Champioinship event scheduled for December. Instead, 20th seeded M.S. Thejkumar finished in first. While the first nine players from this tournament are guaranteed spots in the National Championship, since current World Champion Viswanathan Anand is not expected to participate, 10th place finisher, B. Adhiban should also qualify.

It was an underdog also that took the top position in the European Chess Club Cup, Czech G-Team Novy Bor.

At the Asian Cities Chess Team Championship, Tagaytay City (Philippines) finished in first place with 17 points. China’s Shanghai and Wuxi both ended with 15 points but Shanghai edged out Wuxi in the tiebreaker to claim second. From the Tagaytay team, grandmaster John Paul Gomez finished ahead of all others to win the individual competition, the Dubai Cup.

Looking forward, the 2014 Candidates Tournament has been scheduled for March 30th in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

Backgammon

Malcolm David of Texas won the Florida State Backgammon Championship, Alex Zamanian the Connecticut State Backgammon Championship, Kenji Shimodaira the 19th Japan Backgammon Open, and Minakami Tsuyoshi of Japan the Chicago Backgammon Open.

The inaugural Gibraltar Backgammon Festival featured elite and novice sections. Two former world champions participated, along with representatives of 15 countries. The winner was Tilman Sohnchon of Germany.

Subbuteo

At the Subbuteo Challenge Cup in Manchester, Brian Dailey was the winner in the senior category and Kye Arnold the winner in the junior league.

Magic: The Gathering

At Grand Prix Antwerp, Patrick Dickmann, twin brother of another Grand Prix champion, bested a field of 1,600 to come in first place.

Monoblack Devotion carried Brian Braun-Duin to victory at Grand Prix Louisville.

At Grand Prix Hong Kong, Shuhei Nakamura claimed the sixth title of his career.

Other Collectible Card Games

Jacek Jachymowski of Poland was the winner of the 2013 European Championship for Legend of the Five Rings.

Draughts

Jean Marc Ndjofang of Cameroon endured a rising room temperature on the final day of the ADG Amersfoort Open Championship (Netherlands), yet managed to maintain his lead and take home the trophy.

In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the World Women’s Championship was won by Zoja Golubeva of Latvia, the World Blitz Championship by Matrena Nogovitsyna of Russia, and the World Rapid Championship by Darya Tkachenko of Ukraine.

Go

Despite a majority of European players, the 8th Korea Prime Minister Cup International Amateur Baduk Championship was dominated by Chinese and Koreans. At the top was Park Jaegeun of Korea, followed in second by Fu Li of China.

• Comments Off on Scoreboard