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Score Board - Boardgame tournaments, competitions and championships results and scoresSeth Manfield is the latest Magic: The Gathering World Champion. His record at the 2015 Championship was an incredible 15-1. First place in the tournament came with a $50,000 prize.

At the French Draughts Championship, Arnaud Cordier drew just three games and lost none, even with playing high-risk strategies. The performance put him in first place with 19 points, a full 6 points ahead three players tied for second.

Though the 2015 Magic: The Gathering Legacy Championship had great potential for some pretty high-powered card-play, Bob Huang won with a series of 1/1 red elemental tokens.

The real story from the 14th World Xiangqi Championship in Munich, Germany is not that players from China placed first in three out of four sections. In fact, the only section in which they did not is a specifically “Non-China/Vietnam Individual” section (where Shoshi Kazubaru of Japan took the lead). The real story is how well players from other countries performed, for example, Dan Jia of the United States second in the women’s individual and Xue Handi of Germany fourth in the men’s individual.

At the Polish Women’s Draughts Championship, Vice-World Champion Natalia Sadowska outlasted her main challenger to finish in first place, while at the Burkina Faso Draughts Championship, Adama Kone claimed the trophy with an impressive 17 points in 9 games (that’s 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie).

Zach Walker again took the title of Champion at the American Subbuteo Association National, an event that counted as both a World Amateur Subbuteo Players Asssociation regional and a Federation International of Sports Table Football open tournament.

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

At the FW DeVerteuil Memorial tournament in Trinidad & Tobago, Winter Atwell was the winner on a score of 6.5. His prize was $1,500.

Hou Yifan of China claimed her second gold on the podium of the SportAccord World Mind Games with a win in women’s Basque. The winner of the men’s Basque event was Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.

A turn of fortunes in the final round of the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad saw India end up in first place, Russia in second place, and Iran in third.

Go

After earlier claiming gold medals in the men’s team and women’s individual competitions of the SportAccord World Mind Games, the Chinese completed their sweep with a gold medal finish in the pair event.

Draughts

At the World Youth Draughts Championship in Poland, Nurguyana Azarova of Russia claimed first place in the girls junior division, Vera Khvashchynskaya of Belarus in the girls juniors blitz division, Artur Tunkevic of Lithuania in boys juniors, and Martijn Van Ijzendoorn of the Netherlands in boys juniors blitz.

Jean Marc Ndjofang of Cameroon won the men’s super blitz event at the SportAccord World Mind Games. In second and third place were friends and fellow Dutch players, Pieter Meurs and Roel Boomstra.

At the World Blitz Championship in Hilversum, Netherlands, the top player was Alexander Georgiev of Russia.

Backgammon

Akiko Abe Yazawa of Japan won the American Backgammon Tour Las Vegas Open.

Odis Chenault won the California State Backgammon Championship.

And Mehmet Akis won the Cyprus Backgammon Open.

Bridge

The individual champion at the SportAccord World Mind Games was Geir Helgemo of Monaco.

Rubik’s Cube

At the Red Cross Cubing Open, Collin Burns set a North American record by solving the 3×3 in 5.93 seconds.

Xiangqi

The Toronto pair of Zheng XiMing and Mark Wang WeiQiang won the team competition of the North American Cup, while the trophy in the individual competition went to Michael Hu of New Jersey.

The SportAccord World Mind Games saw gold medals go to Hoang Yen Nguyen of Vietnam among the women and Chuan Jiang of China among the men.

Subbuteo

The local Olympia team came out on top of the International Open in Athens. In the individual section, Spyros Hantzaras was the winner.

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

In Bilbao, Spain, Viswanathan Anand led the Chess Masters Final and team SOCAR of Azerbaijan the European Chess Club Cup.

Bartlomiej Macieja, Chess coach at the University of Texas at Brownsville, won the United States Masters Championship at the head of a field of 19 grandmasters.

Xiangqi

Mark Wang WeiQiang won the Toronto Open Championship for the fourth year in a row, the first person ever to achieve that record.

Go

At the 9th Korea Prime Minister Cup International Amateur Baduk Championship in Seoul, Wei Taewoong of Korea took home the first place trophy after defeating a fellow student of the Choongam Baduk Academy in the final round.

Backgammon

The winner of the U.S. Backgammon Federation’s Masters Divisional II tournament was Ted Chee.

At the UK Backgammon Open, the winner was an American, Jason Pack, who scored 13-5 over Martin Birkhahn of Germany in the final round.

Other

German Manuel Ramirez Piňa drafted to first place at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in Lima, Peru.

To show off its tournament management system, Oomba sponsored a world-record Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament at Gen Con—2,950 participants, certified by Guinness.

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

Fabiano Caruana killed it at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis. The six contestants represented the highest rated field ever in a Chess tournament, yet Caruana still won 7 out his 10 games, and tied in the remaining three. Caruana fished first with 8.5 points, 3 points ahead of World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

As has been the tradition since 1948, the Moscow Blitz Chess Championship was held outdoors, where the winner in the open section by a significant margin was Alexander Morozevich: 15.5 points in 19 rounds.

With a first place finish at the 6th stage in Sharjah, UAE, Hou Yifan won the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series and claimed a place at the Women’s World Championship to be held later in 2015.

With both challenger, Viswanathan Anand, and champion, Magnus Carlsen, having now signed their contracts, the World Chess Championship will take place November 7-27 in Sochi, Russia.

Draughts

Alexander Shvartsman won the 40th annual International Mori Open in Italy.

Sergio Scarpetta of Italy was crowned Go-As-You-Please (GAYP) World Champion. after defeating the champion of two decades, Ron King of Barbados.

Magic: The Gathering

Veteran player but first-time victor, Brandon Nelson won Grand Prix Salt Lake City with a blue/white deck, qualifying for Pro Tour Fate Reforged.

Xiangqi

At the First World Xiangqi Open team event, first place went to China and second to Vietnam.

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Score Board - Boardgame tournaments, competitions and championships results and scoresWorld 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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Score Board - Boardgame tournaments, competitions and championships results and scoresChess

Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Boris Gelfand of Israel tied for first place at the Grand Prix in Paris. Unfortunately for Caruana, that leaves him just 10 points shy of qualifying for the 2014 Candidates Tournament. Instead, Vaselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan will advance.

Also tying for first place were five players at the Lagos International Chess Classics: Omoifo Osemekhia, Ochuko Onovughe, and Emmanuel Maduagwuna of Nigeria with Abdelrahman Hesham and Mohammed Ezat of Egypt.

Though playing to a draw in the final round, Levon Aronian of Armenia won the Bilbao Chess Masters Final and was awarded the traditional txapela (a Basque beret).

Seventeen-year-old Jerry Casteel was declared South Dakota state chess champion.

Magic: The Gathering

Starting unranked and with no byes, local player, Justin Robb slogged his way through the competition to come out at the top of Grand Prix Brisbane.

Pierre-Christophe Mondon topped a field of 1,000 at the inaugural Grand Prix Oklahoma City and first event of Theros Limited.

Jeremy Dezani conquered Pro Tour Theros in Dublin with a mono-blue deck.

Xiangqi

At the Vietnam National Team Xiangqi Championships, where 18 cities and 160 individuals participated, Ho Chi Minh City won gold in the women’s blitz, men’s blitz, and women’s classic events. Ha Noi won gold in the men’s classic event.

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

In Hongkou, Sichuan Province, China, 2,380 players claimed the world record for the most participants in a Mahjong activity. [I’m sorry but this one’s not that impressive.]

Chess

The Women’s World Chess Championship is over, which is a good thing for the winner, Hou Yifan. Still only 19 years old and a full-time student, she has to get back to the university and cram for exams.

After 13 rounds at the World Junior Chess Championship in Kocaeli, Turkey the winner in the open division was Yangyi Yu of China and the runner-up Alexander Ipatov of Turkey (both Grandmasters). In the girls division the winner was Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia and the runner-up Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazakhstan, a Women’s Grandmaster and Women’s International Master, respectively. I don’t know the other ages, but Ms. Abdumalik is only 13.

The Lake Sevan International Chess Tournament was won by 18 year old Karen Grigoryan of Armenia.

San Sebastian finished 8 points ahead of St. Benilde to win the 89th Philippine NCAA Chess competition.

Humpy Koneru is the winner of the Women’s Grand Prix in Tashkent.

Scrabble

Amazingly, the winner of the Godswill Akpadio International Scrabble Classic in Uyo, Nigeria was not Nigel Richards. The New Zealander came in fourth place, behind Sammy Okosagah, Olatunde Oduwole, and Komol Panyasonponlet. Mr. Okosagah took home a prize of $15,000. And Chief Godswill Akpabio, Akwa Ibom state governor, was named a Pillar of African Scrabble by the Association of Africa Scrabble Federations.

Despite being the favorite to win at the World Youth Scrabble Championship qualifiers in Karachi, Pakistan, Javeria Mirza was trailing by almost 100 points, when in her last turn she scored a bingo and pulled ahead 453 to 452.

The winner of the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players Open Championship, Leon Belony, however, finished with a lead of 767 points.

Xiangqi

Reigning women’s champion Ngo Lan Huong of Vietnam retained her title at the Asian Xiangqi Championship in Sydney, Australia with a record of 4-1 at the event.

Sia Leh Ching won the youth division of the Kapit Foochow Association Chinese Chess Competition in Borneo.

Collectible Card Games

The 2013 Australian National Joust Champion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game is Colin Liang.

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