Published Date: 16 June 2009

Players from around the world have taken part in the World Tantrix Open at the Royal Commonwealth Pool – with an Edinburgh student taking a creditable 21st place.

Tantrix, known as a "mind sport", is played with 56 hexagonal tiles with coloured, curved lines on them. Players place tiles alternately, building a continuous line of their own colour while trying to block their opponent. The person with the longest line wins. The event at the weekend saw players aged from 13 to 73 compete over two days.

Sweden's Niklas Andersson, 19, was the winner, with Hungary's Attila Mikulan, 21, taking silver and Belfast's Simon Wright, 20, finishing as the top British player and winning the bronze.

The top Scottish player was Edinburgh University student Ben Thomas, 20, of Kinross, who came 21st, with wins against entrants from England, the US, Germany, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands and Hungary, including an excellent win against International Tantrix Master Zoltan Nemeth.