13 Nov
Posted by David Miller as CCGs, Classic Board Games, Miniatures, Modern Board Games, War Games
The final game of the UK National Scrabble Championship was played between two former champions, Paul Allan and Allan Simmons. This time, Paul Allan clinched the title with the play of “bandura” (which is a Ukrainian lute) for a triple-word bingo worth 86 points. (For those trying to figure out how “bandura” is worth 86, the “d” was a blank, the “r” finished “tar”, and the final “a” was placed on the triple-word space and also finished “ta”.)
Chess
Chess continues to be played while the World Championship is underway…
In fact, other matches being played in India to celebrate the Championship included one for blind players, which was won by 16 year-old Sai Krishna, and the Women Grandmaster Tournament.
Ryan Harper of Trinidad & Tobago won the Umada Cup in Aruba.
FIDE selected 13th-ranked Peter Svidler for the open slot in the next Candidates Tournament, bypassing higher ranked players such as Alexander Grischuk (ranked 5th) and Hikaru Nakamura (ranked 4th).
While the FIDE Presidential Board approved plans for six Grand Prix events in 2014, agreements for only four have been signed so far. If the remaining two end up not happening, the two spots reserved in the next Candidates Tournament for Grand Prix winners will instead be selected one from the World Cup and one from the ratings list.
Backgammon
In the open section of the Capital Classic Backgammon Championships in Herndon, Virginia, the winner was Greg Merriman of Michigan.
At the Merit Open International Backgammon Championship in Cyprus, Sergey Erokhin of Russia took home the masters trophy and the team of Haris Christidis and Konstantinos Mitrelis from Greece the doubles trophy.
Collectible Card and Miniatures Games
Fantasy Flight Games’ World Championship Weekend was held in Roseville, Minnesota, where Alvaro Rodriguez of Spain claimed the title of Joust World Champion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. Ryan Jones, though, was crowned Melee World Champion and Overall World Champion. In the Android: Netrunner tournament, the winner was Jens Erickson. Jeremy Zwirn, the 2012 champion of Netrunner and Warhammer: Invasion, this year won at Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. Dennis Harlien triumphed in the tiebreaker for Star Wars: The Card Game. Oliver Franke of Germany moved up from his second place finish last year in the Warhammer: Invasion championship. And in the final game of the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game tournament, Paul Heaver battled back from a two-ship deficit and eliminated his opponent’s last ship with only one hull point to spare.
Rookie and new hometown hero, Luis Navas, won Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix Santiago.
Samuel Marti of Switzerland claimed victory with a blue-green deck at Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix Valencia.
At the Legend of the Five Rings Pacific Rim Championships, Edward Bareng claimed victory for Lion. Alexander Iarstev, playing Scorpion, was the winner at the Legend of the Five Rings South American Championships.
Go
For the fifth year in a row, a Korean team has won the International Amateur Pair Go Championship in Tokyo.
Draughts
The winner of the European Draughts Championship was Peter van der Stap of the Netherlands.
The winner of the Portugal Open was Guntis Valneris.
Other Games
The winner of the 24th World Perudo Championships in London (the game is also known as Liar’s Dice) was Dan Reade.
From a touring series, 14 youngsters were invited to participate in the UK Lego Chima Challenge Championship, where Reggie Pegrum (age 9, from Waltham Abbey, Essex) was declared the winner.
For the eighth time, Deep Junior has won the World Computer Chess Championship. Deep Junior is a Chess-playing computer program written by Israelis Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky and running on a dual 12-core Intel Xenon I5 2.7 GHz computer. Its only loss during the recent tournament in Yokohama was to a German program called Jonny and running on a 2400-core system.
The Punjab State Under-25 Chess Championship was a success despite complaints of a lack of support from the state government. The winner was Pankaj Kumar of Bathinda.
Speaking of a lack of support, Chess is out for the 2014 Asian Games.
A well-run U.S. Masters tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina saw a number of upsets and the awarding of numerous titles (one Grandmaster, three International Masters, one Women’s Grandmaster, and one Women’s International Master). The tournament champion was Rauf Mamedov.
At the inaugural Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Magnus Carlsen came in first place, earning a prize of $70,000. It was also Carlsen’s first tournament in the United States.
Scott Varagona won the Alabama State Chess Championship for the fifth time.
Sri Lanka was a big winner at the 8th Asian Schools Chess Championship, with 16 medals, including one gold.
Dominoes
Eschewing the usual, Tom Holmes and Roland Trim of Bristol, UK, set a world record for standing up dominoes. They built a 5.275 meter freestanding dominoes tower, which is 20 cm taller than the previous record.
Scrabble
Wajid Iqbal was the winner of the 2nd Ranking Scrabble Tournament in Karachi.
At the British 42nd National Scrabble Championship semi-final match in Cardiff, Allan Simmons and Paul Allan advanced. The five game final will take place November 3rd in London.
Magic: The Gathering
Josh McClain was triumphant in the Modern format of Grand Prix Detroit.
Other Card Games
The 2013 North American Champion for Warhammer: Invasion only learned the game less than a month and a half before taking the title.
Tom Capor won the North American Championship for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game for the fifth consecutive year.
The first North American Champion for Star Wars: The Card Game is Matt Kohls.