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Score Board - Boardgame tournaments, competitions and championships results and scoresBrigitta Sinka of Hungary has broken the world record for total number of simultaneous Chess games played in a lifetime. The record was previously held by Cuban grandmaster Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942) and now stands at 13,600 (though by the time you read this, she’s probably played a few hundred more).

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen crashed on home turf, finishing in the bottom half of Norway Chess 2015 (also the first stop of the $1 million Grand Chess Tour). The winner was Vaselin Topalov, with former world champion Viswanathan Anand coming in second.

Bridge has been admitted to the 2018 Asian Games (to take place in Indonesia) by the Olympic Committee of Asia. Its bid (as well as that of Chess) for admission to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, however, was denied.

The winner of the World Crokinole Championship, Justin Slater, has been gunning for the position for 5 years, twice in that time coming in second.

A new world record has been set for solving a Rubik’s Cube with feet. Jakub Kipa did it in 20.57 seconds at the Radomsko Cube Theory in Poland.

The United Kingdom’s National Schools Top Trumps Tournament, sponsored by Winning Moves, started with 2,000 school-level tournaments, narrowed in an online round, and went to a live final. Coming out on top was William Gooch from Elloughton Primary School in Yorkshire.

NAWCQ Champ Noah ReidYu-Gi-Oh! events are divided in to two sections, one, Dragon Duels, for younger competitors (currently those born in 2002 or later), and one unrestricted. At the North American World Championship Qualifier event in Nashville, the winner in the open section was Noah Reid of Georgia; the winner in Dragon Duels was Austin Wesley Colling of Ohio. Both received similar prize packages included a trophy, complete sets of Secrets of Eternity and Crossed Souls boosters, an iPad, and expense-paid travel to the World Championship in Kyoto, Japan.

Indian Chess players performed well in recent tournaments. The world’s 25th ranked player Pendyala Harikrishna defeated defending champion Vassily Ivanchuk (ranked #27) in the final round  of the Edmonton International to claim the trophy. Abhijeet Gupta won the Commonwealth Chess Championship with a score of 8.0/9.

Nine year old Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian of the Philippines qualified as Woman Candidate Master after winning gold and silver medals at the 16th ASEAN + Age Group Chess Championship.

A dedicated player who along with her late husband founded the Trinidad and Tobago Scrabble Association in 1985, Patricia John finally won the local Scrabble Masters Tournament herself and will be representing the country at the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association Championship, November in Perth, Australia.

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Score Board - Boardgame tournaments, competitions and championships results and scoresScrabble

The winner of the U.S. National Scrabble Championship was amazingly not Nigel Richards. Rather it was Conrad Bassett-Bouchard of Portland, Oregon who finished with a record of 22-9 and a point spread of +812.

Two tournaments took place as part of the Colombo Scrabble Festival in Sri Lanka. The winner of the Open International Scrabble Championship was Nigel Richards (with 19.5 wins and a positive spread of 2299), while the winner of the World Youth Scrabble Championship was Jack Durand of the UK.

Chess

Magnus Carlsen claimed both titles at the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in Dubai, meaning he now wears all three world championship crowns. In the Rapid tournament, Carlsen finished with 11.0/15, just ahead of Caruana at 10.5. Also at 10.5 but trailing on tie-breakers were, in order, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, and Alexander Morozevich. In the Blitz tournament, Carlsen led with 17.0, while Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura tied for second with 16.0.

The World Open tournament in Arlington, Virginia finished with three people tied for first place: Ilya Smirin of Israel, Ilia Nyzhnyk of Ukraine, and Conrad Holt of the United States. Actually, that was down from last year, when 11 tied for first. Each of the three claimed prizes of $9,891. Smirin earned an extra $254 for beating Nyzhnyk in a tiebreak game.

In the open section of the World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, China claimed the gold medal with 19 match points, Hungary the silver with 17 points, and India the bronze also with 17 points. In the women’s section, the winner of the gold medal was the Russian team (20 points), while the silver went to China (18 points), and the bronze to Ukraine (18 points).

FIDE has announced the schedule for the Grand-Prix 2014-2015 series and issued invitations to 11 players and three alternates. Tournaments will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan October 1-15; Tashkent, Uzbekistan October 20-November 3; Tehran, Iran February 14-28; and Moscow, Russia May 13-27. The top two players in the series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which leads to the World Chess Championship.

Mahjong

The Open European Mahjong Championship in Strasbourg, France was dominated by Japanese players, who claimed four of the top five spots. First place went to Yoshihiro Suzuki of Japan, second place to Michael Zahradnik of Germany, and third to Kazutoshi Miyake of Japan. The highest result for a Chinese player was 30th place.

Go

Yitien Chan’s trophy at the World Amateur Go Championship represents the first time on top of that event for Chinese Taipei.

The winner, on tie-breaking points, of the Toto Cup International Junior Go Championship was Nishimura Ryotaro of Japan. The runner-up was Ren Yihua of China.

Hong Seok-ui, formerly of Korea but now a resident of Japan, successfully defended his title in the Japanese Amateur Meijin tournament for the third straight year. He also won the Amateur Honinbo tournament for the second year.

Draughts

Freddy Loko of the Democratic Republic on Congo is the new African Draughts Champion.

Backgammon

Taking home the trophy at the World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo was Akiko Yazawa of Japan.

The winner of the inaugural U.S. Backgammon Federation Masters Divisional tournament is Peer Toftsoe.

Other

Charlie Worrall, age 10, won the Top Trumps Schools Tournament in London and is the first girl to have done so. In fact, this year, five of the 12 contestants in the Grand Final were girls. Charlie won on a Kylie Minogue Pop Stars card.

At the Ticket to Ride North American Championship, Kenneth Heilfron won seven straight games to claim the top position. Both he and runner-up, Scott Scribner, move on to the World Championships in Paris.

A world record for toppling mini-dominoes was achieved in Büdingen, Germany. The chain of 2,000 was set up on one table. Halfway through, the table was bumped (or someone breathed too hard) and the whole setup had to be started over.

New Rubik’s Cube world records were established for:

  • 3×3 blindfolded (average)—28.43 seconds by Kaijun Lin at the Guangzhou Wushan Open
  • 3×3 blindfolded (single)—23.68 seconds by Marcin Zalewski at the SLS Chorzow
  • 3×3 one-handed 12.56 (average)—12.56 seconds by Antoine Cantin at the Toronto Open
  • 4×4 Cube 24.33 (single)—24.33 seconds by Sebastian Weyer—and 3×3 fewest moves (average)—25.00 by Sébastien Auroux—at the Velbert Easter Open

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Toy Fair 2013—Top Trumps

Sure to excite middle-school girls, Top Trumps is planning a series of One Direction products, including a One Direction Top Trumps Collector’s Tin. Release of the tin is scheduled to coincide with One Direction’s upcoming Up All Night tour. And a message recorded by the band will play when the tin is opened.

In 2013, Top Trumps will also be producing the Moshi Monsters Top Trumps Turbo game. It’s a multi-player tournament set that replaces the spinner shown a couple of years ago with an electronic randomizer.

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