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| 2011 World Open |
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3. World Tantrix Open (2011)  The 2011 World Tantrix Open was held on 30 September - 2 October, in Almere, Netherlands. The first ever World Tantrix Open to be held below sea level. Organized by the Husmann family, Joyce Chavernac and Eva Radix, it was also the 4th Dutch Table Championship. Forty eight players from eleven different countries took part. The trophy was captured by Péter Kovács of Hungary. |
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Way back: JeeDee, Miertje94, Othello, Colly89
3rd row: Pepe, Atle79, Leslie, Bdot, (small break), Pellepen, Superman, Snuitje, Mikellos, (small break), Tangre, Marcel 2nd row: Olasparov, Pauline, JustDutch, Fear, Flohuels, 1kornik21, Mikem, Benopi, Malle, Hilkii, NiklasA, Luigi, Tizz88, Kameamea, Padam, Blick, Kupointen, Jan 1st row: Markelsa, Karatekid, Jola, Pierre286, Lenchen, Fukkike, Monica, Erikkh22, Angelina, Bikey, Elku, Conny On the Ground: Gaitman, Fry, Carlita, Reiki, Mizo, Egmaria, Kcina, Grandpere, Phildnadrud Sprawled in front: Ellajolie, Eva, Lieselotte (in lap) |
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T Shirt Contest A Tantrix T-shirt contest was held as part of the WTO extravaganza. The eight entrants used a wide range of strategies to try and win first place. 
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Stuck in Sweden? Too much Trouble, too little time. Ellajolie wanted to challenge for Trouble almost immediately, but Niklas was greedy, so she couldn't... Kameamea wanted to challenge for Trouble on Saturday, but he got scared, so he wouldn't... Fear and Blick wanted to challenge for Trouble on Sunday, but there was no time, so they didn't... Mikem finally picked up the pieces - a challenge for Trouble! Shame he lost. Trouble will go back to Sweden with NiklasA after thoroughly enjoying all the attention.
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The Mole As a nation, the Dutch feel that one of the great artistic contributions they have given to the world is reality TV. To prove this, the Dutch organisers decided to have an episode of "The Tantrix Mole". Everyone is supposed to work together towards a common goal. Except for one player, who has been chosen to sabotage everyone's hard work without getting caught. Everyone immediately expected Mike. But he was so obviously THE ONE, that he couldn't possibly be... Or maybe he thought that if he was incredibly obvious, people would assume that he wasn't him, since he was being so obvious. (Mike actually thinks like this sometimes). Or was it someone closer to home? ... "Yes, I was the Mole all along, MWUHAAHAAHAAHAAHAA (Dutch for evil laughter). In fact I knew I was the Mole weeks before the championship. They (Eva and Joyce) sent me all the information of the games in an email. They even sent me some tips and advice on how to play the Mole. "I don't know why the choose me, but it was a very good idea to make it seem as if I was choosen randomly (of course all the players draw a white paper, the Mole was already chosen). But being the Mole was very easy, beccause everyone else made such a mess of the games. What I did mostly was ignoring good ideas and supporting bad ideas. "For instance in the second game, someone found out that you couldn't make a pattern of tantrix with the numbers, so I told everybody not to make a pattern, it must be something else. It took quite a while before we actually made the pattern. I repeat, MWUHAAHAAHAAHAAHAA. In the first game Ben told me a very good system to remember all the objects. But the team that came after us, wanted something else, so of course I agreed. I had to pass 5 objects, I passed only 2 and one of these didnt come to the end, the good objects where from the other part. "It was great fun because the teamwork was really bad. Only the logic game was hard to stop, because smart Tantrix players figured it out it all by themselves, how could I intervene in that process? "It was also fun during the championship, some players were busy guessing who the Mole during the whole tournamnent :-) I think only Michael (Colly) was suspicious about my role, even Dutch players (which I feared most) weren't suspicious to me. In my normal life I'm naturally devious so it was a great influence from my normal life. "I am Very thankful to Eva and Joyce, because it was a lot of work (really a lot of work) and they did it very well! Behind every great Mole their is a woman teaching him how to be devious." -- Onno (Superman) (the Mole) -- |
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Colour MarkersEveryone remembers the markers. Nobody can remember exactly how or even why, but since the dawn of time, Tantrix has been played with coloured objects to remind the players what colour they are working on. Over the years there have been many variations on the theme: coloured mats, stands, and tags come to mind. This year, it seems the organisers got their hands on more enamel spray paint then is legal in most countries, but this is the Netherlands so maybe different rules apply. They went to town attacking common objects around their house. Piet Mondrian would have been proud. |
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Champion's Report Pre tournament: The 2011 WTO started on 30th September, which is my birthday, so I kind of thought of the whole event as a birthday present for myself. I booked the flight, accomodation for Sunday night months earlier and I thought the whole weekend would be about enjoying the atmosphere of the event and the Netherlands - which is a country I particularly like. My plane left Hungary in the early morning on Friday and I didn't sleep at all the night before cause my friends threw me a birthday party. So I was pretty tired when I got to Almere, I even got lost in town. A very nice old receptionist at another school helped me out and printed a map for me and showed me how to get to the venue. 
When I arrived we started the 'Mole' game which helped me get out of my 'no-sleep coma'. In the evening we had the doubles competition where I paired up with Maria. She told me that she was tired out by the long walks in Amsterdam so I got to do most of the 'work'. I told her not to expect much from me, but we played quite well, got a little lucky too, so we actually won it. She told me afterwards that she thought I was on a roll and she felt I could win the WTO as well. I didn't even think about winning until then. The tournament: The games started on Saturday. My first game was against phildnarud, I won by 1, but it was a really tough match. I think it is really important to start a tourney well, it defines my mood for the rest of the games whether I feel that I played good or not at the start. I really like the Swiss system in which the tournament was played, because you get a lot of chances to get the top (or get back if you fell earlier). My first few games went really well and I ended up on the first place pretty soon. I was kind of surprised that neither Niklas, nor Fear or 1kornik21 were near the top that time - I thought they would be tough opponents. Because of the system my other opponents were tough as well, but I was starting to feel that since the 'regular' top achievers weren't around - besides blick - I had the chance for something big. My last game on the first day was against blick, whom I learnt Tantrix from. I was really tired by then (the few hours of sleeping the other day got me) so I played terribly and fell down to the 4th spot. The evening games were a lot of fun, but still I forced myself to go to sleep quite early because I knew I needed that. Sunday started off well again. All my blocks were working and I was winning by quite big margins so I got back to the top pretty soon. When I had to play Rolf I was eager to get back for losing on Saturday but I made a silly mistake again so I lost. I was still on the first place but the margin between me and the second placed blick was really narrow. I had to play blick then and I knew that game would be the decider. If he had won I would have fallen out of my rhythm and down again. He was playing a little risky and that didn't pay off. The tiles came in the right time for me so I won by 10. After that I felt relieved and even though my last two games were against two opponents that I feared ;-) before the tournament I felt nothing could stop me anymore. I even got lucky so I won both games, helping blick to reach 2nd place. Conclusion: I am really thankful for all the organizers - especially Eva for letting me keep my lucky plant which helped me throughout the weekend and is still alive and fine in my room. I guess this was my best birthday so far :) |
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