2. SESSION 1 - 15 December:

Julia Schwarz (GBR) took an early 34-26 lead in the final against Matt Kearse (NZL) in the first session.
Game 1: A very nervous start for both players, but good strategic planning and a fair amount of luck saw Julia win 20-13 but go 4 seconds over the time limit to reduce the TP score to 15-5.
Game 2: Skilful line building by Matt saw him win 25-17 to lead on TPs by 21-19, with Julia's time penalty in Game 1 effectively the difference between the two players.
Game 3: The best game so far, epitomising the clash of typical Northern hemisphere strategic play and typical Southern hemisphere line building play. Matt went into a big lead but an amazing plan by Julia (it looks like luck, but she can explain every step of the strategy behind it, so I believe her!) saw her snatch a 25-19 victory from the jaws of defeat, making the TP score 34-26.
WTC Final Fact 1: 1999 saw two of the fastest players in the world contest the final whereas this year it is between two of the slowest players. Possibly as a result, the play in the first session has been of better quality than in the 1999 final, though that match improved later on.


2. SESSION 2 and 3-4 place session 1 - 16 December:

Julia Schwarz (GBR) won the second session of the final by an astonishing 32-8 against Matt Kearse (NZL) to take a commanding 66-34 lead.
Game 4: A similar plan to game 3, which this time required some more luck, allowed Julia to connect her two lines and record a big win, 31-13, to take a 52-28 TPs lead.
Game 5: Julia edged ahead at the end of this game to win 19-17 when Matt had to play five of his six tiles into forced spaces once the last tile came out of the bag. She now leads by 66-34 TPs overall.
WTC Final Fact 2: Is 24 the age when Tantrix players peak? (some of us hope not!) Three of the four WTC finalists in the last two years have been aged 24.

3rd Place Playoff: Mike McManaway (NZL) leads Steven Trezise (GBR) 35-25 at the halfway stage, having taken a big lead by winning the first two games before being pegged back a little as Steven snatched an unlikely-looking win in game 3.


3. SESSION 3 and 3-4 place final session - 17 December:

3rd Place Playoff: Steven Trezise (GBR) staged a comeback to beat Mike McManaway (NZL) in the battle of the Tantrix 'pros' for third place. In a very tight final session, Steven won game 4 to take a slight lead, lost blocked game 5 but then won the final game to win the match by 62-58 and ensure two British representatives in the top 3. So far in the finals, it's 2-1 to NZ against the Northern Hemisphere.

Game 6: Matt Kearse (NZL) came back strongly in today's game against Julia Schwarz (GBR) to record his second win of the final, a good long line of 27 seeing him home by 8 tiles to cut the TP deficit to 68-52. It's the day of the tournament Julia would most like to forget - she took too big a risk going for a loop which would have scored 40 but was too easy to block and went two minutes over the time limit analysing the ramifications.


4. SESSION 4 - 19 December:

A win for each player in the penultimate session of the final leaves Julia Schwarz (GBR) 88-72 ahead of Matt Kearse (NZL) with just one game left in a match which has already seen nearly four hours of play.
Game 7: Julia won by a single tile and Matt went over the time limit too, hence losing even more TPs, taking the TP score to 82-58.
Game 8: A very blocked game, where Julia ended up with a line of 16 and Matt with multiple short lines. Julia thought she had won at the end, not even noticing that Matt had been building a 9-tile loop at the top of the Tantrix, which gave him an 18-16 win and left the champagne on ice! Julia is nearly past the winning line now, but having been far ahead early on in the match, a nervous couple of sessions by Julia as she tried to make sure of victory mean that Matt could still theoretically take the title if he wins the last game by 18 tiles or more.


5. FINAL SESSION - 22 December:

Game 9: It is a hard task to win a game by 18 tiles or more when all your opponent needs to do is to stop you doing exactly that. Matt won the final game but by just 3 tiles, 21-18. The champagne came off ice at last and Julia could finally celebrate being the World Tantrix Champion, having won the longest tournament match ever played (4 hrs 10 mins) by 94 TPs to 86.

Mindzine interview with the new World Champion

Report on the earlier rounds         World Championship home page

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