Tantrix Tournament Reports

[steven]

Olga Secerov HUN ("picur") v (11) Ben Polman NED ("benopi")

What do you expect to happen when someone with ...

- a lobby ranking under 800 (and a max of 864)
- a half-decent performance in a Magyar group
- a prelim loss in the Euro and a bottom half finish in a consolation group
- just 4 wins out of 15 in the WTTC group phase
- 3rd place in a prelim group, scraping into the main draw as a lucky loser

... takes on someone who is ...

- the no. 11 seed
- the reigning British Open Champion
- the 2003 European Championship runner-up
- the 2001 European Champion
- a player who reached the last 16 of last year's WTC

... ?

A win of about 5 games to 1 to the latter? That sounds about right.

Well, Olga had clearly not read that 'script', because despite being behind in the match after 4 games (though more in touch than one might have expected), she rallied to win the last two games and knock Ben out, thus creating by far the biggest shock of the Championship so far.

I am sure some reports on the games will get posted as replies to this, probably from the huge Magyar fan club , but what is it about these 'lucky losers'? Is it the complete lack of pressure? Does getting a second chance really concentrate the mind? Does the 'lucky' bit carry on into the tile draws in their games too?

Some other people must be very happy about this result as well:

a) Last year's runner-up Dave Dyer, because Ben is the first seed he was due to meet - he now has a relatively easy run (that doesn't mean really easy, there is no such thing in the main draw nowadays) to the sharp end of the tournament again, unless of course Olga is going to continue her 'giant-killing' run!

b) Those who had picked Olga in the Fantasy and thought they had lost their chance after she was knocked out in the Prelims. How their luck has changed too!

All in all, after a fairly predictable start to R1, it has become pretty chaotic in the last couple of days, hasn't it.

[Zormac]

Well, Steven was way quicker than me in starting to write a report on this match! Perhaps because I was in the lobby and helped celebrating before started to think about reporting.

No doubt, this is a huge upset - but I have to tell that we Hungarians already knew Olga is always capable to thrash some of the very top players. If my words aren't sufficient to you on this count, you should perhaps ask pepe if he remembers his games against her in the 2003 Hungarian Championship group phase (he definitely does ).

Now, some quick details on the games themselves:


Game 1 - T!benopi-15-picur-12-2003-09-10-1833

Solid line building followed by the game becoming pretty blocked and Tantrix getting longer and longer for quite a time. Ben threatened with joining two long lines but Olga effectively prevented it with a nice m43. But one of those blue segments took the game for Ben - 15-12.

Ben leads by 14.3-5.7 TPs

Game 2 - T!picur-25-benopi-16-2003-09-10-1902

Ben played his move 4 in the hope Olga won't draw THAT tile - of course she did which gave her an early lead but Ben could come back this time yet. Ben then chose to block rather than building but he was unlucky again that (1) his line ends became kept apart by an early permanent block (2) Olga had a free move to connect a sizable segment to her main line to take a significant lead again and that was enough to win the game by no less than 25-16 which also meant her an aggregate lead.

Olga leads by 21.7-18.3 TPs

Game 3 - T!benopi-26-picur-23-2003-09-10-1926

Ben controlled well throughout the game - Olga only had a slight chance near to the endgame where she came back to within one tile, but then Ben raced away again. Olga managed to keep down the margin though.

Ben leads by 32.6-27.4 TPs

Game 4 - benopi-15-picur-15-2003-09-10-1746

Ben looked stronger early on - however, his move 20 is questionable. He aimed at placing both Olga's line ends to controlled sides, however, he effectively blocked one of his own line ends in the process. He led 15-10 but then Olga got the first free move and pulled out a draw.

Ben leads by 42.6-37.4 TPs

Game 5 - T!picur-13-benopi-10-2003-09-10-1808

Judged on initial line-buildings, this game was obviously Olga's early on. Ben was forced to defend and play to get the crucial tile which prevented him from any further line extension. Although his block succeeded in the end, the lack of his line building resulted in a loss of 13-10.

With one game to go, Olga leads by 51.7-48.3 TPs. She needs a win to get through; a draw or a 1-2 tile win for Ben takes the match to a tiebreak, a 3 or more tiles win for Ben wins him the match.

Game 6 - T!picur-26-benopi-23-2003-09-10-2032

Olga's 7th move was questionable, she missed a good chance to further increase her line. After some solid play we approach move 42 where Ben has a bad dilemma - he is left with 50% chance of getting the first free move. The tiles went Olga's way... which meant she was able to join another seven tiles to her main line which was well enough to win the game and the match.

Final score: picur-benopi 66.0-54.0 TPs.

--

You may have noticed that 26-23 appeared twice as a result - once each way - and that all six margins were multipliers of 3

[benopi]

What can I say, I did not play my best
I was tired, but although Olga offered several times to continue on another
day against better judgement I decided to play on. Bad decision, let it be a lesson

As to the comments of Zoltan, I blundered at least three times in the end game, which I consider unusual for myself.