Day-by-day 2001 European Tantrix Championship reports can be found below (the latest report is in blue to help you find where it starts), with European links at the bottom of the page:
24 Apr In the first match to be played in this year's European Championship, in Group A, Julia Schwarz (GBR) found out how much pressure the new World Champion is under in their first tournament of the new year as she got totally blocked and Kevin Scott (GBR) won their second game by three tiles. Luckily for Julia, she had won game 1 by a bigger margin and scraped home in the match by 21.2-18.8 TPs. A very good start for Kevin, who started with the lowest lobby ranking in the group.
25 Apr In the first match in Group C, Raymond Hemmecke (GER) got off to a good start against tournament newbie but strongish lobby player Banhazi Matyas (HUN), making sure he came out first two and then three tiles on top in a couple of close games. The two win bonuses gave Raymond a clear win in the match by 28.2-11.8 TPs.
No. 1 seed Julia Schwarz (GBR) continued her slightly shaky start in Group A against no. 6 seed Ragnar Wikman (FIN), again losing game 2 in a blocked position, after having won game 1 convincingly. She won the match by 22.9-17.1 TPs to stay top of the group.
In Group D, no. 8 seed for the Championship Heli Niemi (FIN) got off to an unfortunate start against lower-ranked opposition, losing three of four quick games. Against Franky (FRA), she won the first game by eight tiles then lost the second by five, to shade the match by 20.8-19.2 TPs. Either side of that match, tournament débutant Lutz Göhmann (GER) beat her twice to win their match 29.6-10.4 TPs and top the group, finishing off a very good day for Germany.
Finally today, there was a very good start for János Püspöki (HUN) in what may turn out to be the crunch match in Group B. He won both games against no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED) to win their match by 28.6-11.4 TPs. Ben is due to play Pierre Sanchez (FRA) on Friday. János went on to increase his chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals by drawing game 1 against no. 4 seed Jérôme Papillon (FRA), before Jérôme stamped his authority on the group by winning game 2 by two tiles and the match by 23.9-16.1 TPs.
26 Apr A quiet day after the flurry of games last night. In the only game played, Marion Scott (GBR) made a big loop early on to beat Lutz Göhmann (GER) by 11 tiles and overtake him at the top of Group D. The four players who have played so far in this group have turned the seedings completely upside down!
27 Apr Six games were played today, all in Group B. The tournament has not started well at all for no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED), whose hopes took a further tumble today when he lost game 1 to tournament newcomer Neal Bolton (GBR) before recovering to win game 2 and take the match by a very slim margin, 20.6-19.4 TPs. Neal was 3rd at that point, but was knocked down to 5th by no. 4 seed Jérôme Papillon (FRA), who consolidated his position at the top of the group by winning both games and the match convincingly by 31.8-8.2 TPs.
Ben then played other tournament débutant Pierre Sanchez (FRA) and lost the first game again, this time by 11 tiles. Ben again won game 2, but this time lost the match 22.1-17.9 TPs, leaving himself languishing in 4th with a lot to do in his remaining four games. Pierre in 3rd is pushing János hard for second place.
28 Apr Twelve games were played today, in Groups B and D. Group B started with the first drawn match, between Neal Bolton (GBR) and Pierre Sanchez (FRA), both winning one game by two tiles.
Before today, no. 4 seed for the Championship Jérôme Papillon (FRA) was very well placed to win this group, but today it all went wrong. First of all Ben Polman (NED) won both games and the match against him by 30.5-9.5 TPs, then Jérôme's French compatriot Pierre won their first game by three tiles, with quite a bit of luck, and managed a loop which was enough to draw game 2. So Pierre won the match 24.3-15.7 TPs and moved into second place in the group just 0.5 % behind the leader, leaving Jérôme in 3rd, just 0.3 TPs ahead of Ben!
In theory, anyone could still qualify from this group. In practice, if they want to reach the knockout phase, Jérôme and Ben, each with just two games against Yan Moulin (FRA) left to play, have to try to outscore each other against Yan and hope that Pierre's match against group leader János Püspöki (HUN) is a big win for one of those players and probably also that at least one of those players falters against Yan or Neal.
Group D saw its fair share of shocks too. First of all Lutz Göhmann (GER) improved his position in second place by winning both games against Philippe Durand (FRA), albeit narrowly, to win their match by 28.2-11.8 TPs. Philippe then played group leader Marion Scott (GBR), and threw the group wide open again by beating her by two tiles in each game to win the match by 27.8-12.2 TPs and jump up to 2nd, pushing Marion down three places to 4th.
Philippe was not finished yet. The last player to start in the group, no. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) had won every game he had played this year, but when the luck of the draw went against him early in game 1 against Philippe, he looked to be doomed until some good endgame play allowed him to scrape a last gasp draw and take over from Philippe in 2nd place. Game 2 was tighter all the way through, but this time it was Philippe's turn to find a brilliant move in the endgame and he won by two tiles to win the match by 23.9-16.1 TPs.
The seedings in this group have been turned upside down so far, with the no. 2 and no. 8 seeds in the bottom positions at present. 3rd and 4th places are separated by less than 0.3 %.
28 Apr Only one match was played today. In Group D, no. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) won both games against Marion Scott (GBR) and hence the match by a convincing 30.5-9.5 TPs. The games were a lot more tense than the final score makes them look though. Steven climbed from 5th to 2nd in the table, the unfortunate Marion continuing a two-day slide from 1st to 6th.
30 Apr Three games were played in Group C, Péter Petrecz (HUN), Marc Abramson (FRA) and Simon Wright (GBR) playing each other once. Péter, the no. 3 seed and 1999 European Champion took early charge of the group, winning both games by sizeable margins. Simon from Northern Ireland (at 11 less than half the age of Julia Schwarz, the next youngest player in the tournament) still made a great start though, beating Marc by 13 tiles to go into 3rd place.
Group C is going to form more than most groups so far, with wide margins between each player in the table, but it is very early days yet. 20 of the 25 entrants have now played at least two games in the tournament, with five still to start.
1 May In Group D, Heli Niemi (FIN) won one game and drew one against Marion Scott (GBR) to win the match by 26.2-13.8 TPs. They are still in 5th and 6th places respectively, but Heli is now less than 0.2% behind Franky (FRA) in 4th place.
2 May In Group B, Neal Bolton (GBR) won one game and lost one against the last player in the group to start, Yan Moulin (FRA) who was back from holiday today, winning the match by 22.1-17.9 TPs, though he actually dropped into 6th just behind Yan in the overall % table. However, this group is way too close to call, with all six players between 44% and 56%. If Neal beats the current group leader in his final match, it will be even closer!
Group C continued with game 1 in the match between the two players who both lost their first two games, Banhazi Matyas (HUN) beating Marc Abramson (FRA) by five tiles. The positions did not change but Marc is now in deep trouble with only 11.2 TPs out of a possible 60 from three games.
The drama in the amazing Group B had not yet finished for the day. In the top of the table match, Pierre Sanchez (FRA) combined a two-tile win and a draw to beat group leader János Püspöki (HUN) by 23.9-16.1 TPs to complete a hat-trick of match wins against the three top-rated players in the group and take over from János in 1st place. Then János took on Yan Moulin (FRA) and lost both games, Yan winning the match by a convincing 30.1-9.9 TPs to move into 1st place himself.
French players now fill the top three places in this group. János completed a nightmarish one-day drop from 1st to 5th place, ending up only 1 TP ahead of the bottom player in the group, Neal Boulton (GBR), who is his one remaining opponent. Apart from János and Neal, the only remaining opponent for everyone else is Yan and in theory any of the six players can still qualify if the results go their way.
With everyone having played eight games and Yan four, it is easy to compare TP scores and get an idea of what people have to do in their final match. Yan is 1st on 48.0 TPs/80 (equivalent to 96.0 from 8 games), Pierre 2nd on 90.3 TPs, Jérôme 3rd on 80.8, Ben a whisker behind on 80.5, János on 70.7 and Neal on 69.7.
3 May In Group D, Philippe Durand (FRA) won both games against Franky (FRA) to win their match by 28.9-11.1 TPs to stay in 3rd place but increase the pressure on no. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) in 2nd place. Franky dropped below no. 8 seed Heli Niemi (FIN), who moved up to 4th.
4 May More drama in Group B, as no. 4 seed Jérôme Papillon (FRA) beat Yan Moulin (FRA) in game 1 to keep his hopes alive then lost in game 2 to just about ensure he would be eliminated before the knockout phase. Yan shaded the overall match by 20.7-19.3 TPs to stay at the top, Jérôme now dropping just behind Ben Polman (NED) into 4th.
With three matches to go, anyone could still qualify from this group. Assuming no wins by very large margins, the possibilities are more or less like this:
- Pierre should qualify if he wins at least one game against Yan.
- Yan should qualify if he wins both games against Pierre or one game against Pierre and at least one game against Ben.
- Ben should qualify if he wins both games against Yan.
For Jérôme to have an outside chance of qualifying (and even in these cases he could be eliminated - the exact tile scores in each game will be critical), he needs one of the following scenarios to occur:
- Pierre to win both games against Yan and Yan and Ben to win one game each in their match.
- Yan to win both games against Pierre and at least one game against Ben.
However, in most of the above scenarios, the winner of the János-Neal match could qualify in place of one of those listed above by winning both games by more than about five tiles. In fact, if this happens and Yan wins both games v Pierre and one of his two games v Ben, Yan will qualify but there could then be no less than four other players vying for the second qualifying place with between 100 and 101 TPs!
5 May In Group C, Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) started his campaign with a fine double win against Raymond Hemmecke (GER), winning the match by 31.0-9.0 TPs to move into 2nd just one point behind the group leader. Raymond dropped from 2nd to 4th.
6 May A big day in Group C, with seven games played. Not that you would know it because the positions hardly changed - this is looking like the most clear-cut group so far. The day started with a shock result, when Simon Wright (GBR) won and drew his games against no. 7 seed and European runner-up last year Laszlo Harsanyi (HUN) to win their match by 25.3-14.7 TPs to move clear in 3rd. Simon was then brought down to earth by no. 3 seed Péter Petrecz (HUN), who won game 2 to complete a 31.0-9.0 TPs match win and stay at the top of the table.
Marc Abramson (FRA) then played Raymond Hemmecke (GER), winning game 1 with a 38-tile loop very early in the game then losing his concentration to allow an even bigger win to slip from his grasp. Out for revenge in game 2, Raymond won, but not by enough to stop Marc winning the match by 21.5-18.5 TPs. Marc was then subdued by Péter, who completed a massive 33.4-6.6 TPs win in their match. Simon then beat Marc in their second game too to win that match by 32.3-7.7 TPs and leave Marc trailing in 7th place.
7 May In Group A, Annica Silvonen (SWE) played her first match of the tournament, winning and losing one game against Ragnar Wikman (FIN), who won the match by 20.4-19.6 TPs but moves down to 3rd, Annica moving just above him in overall TP%.
A crucial match in Group B between no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED) and group leader Yan Moulin (FRA) resulted in one draw and a win for Ben, who won the match by 35.8-14.2 TPs. After a bad start, Ben is now looking good for the second qualification place in this group. With Yan still to play Pierre Sanchez (FRA) in one of the remining matches, no. 4 seed Jérôme Papillon (FRA) can no longer qualify. There are still plenty of possibilities, but barring extreme results, Yan (now down to 3rd) needs to win both games against new group leader Pierre, Pierre needs to win just one.
In Group C, Simon Wright (GBR) continued his run of good form with a 15-tile win against Raymond Hemmecke (GER) to keep up the pressure on the top two should they slip. Jacques-Olivier Haenni shows no signs of slipping, beating Laszlo Harsanyi (HUN) by 18 tiles to move into 1st place, if only just, Laszlo continuing his nightmare start and dropping to last place.
In Group D, Heli Niemi (FIN) and Philippe Durand (FRA) won a game each, but with a bigger margin of victory in her game, Heli won the match by 21.6-18.4 TPs to keep up her hopes. Philippe has now finished all his group games in 3rd place with 110.7 TPs (55%), but he still has a fair chance of qualifying if either of the top two slip up and if Heli doesn't come up to overtake him.
8 May Zoltan Nedeczky (HUN) lost all nine of his games in the final all-play-all of last year's European Championship. He seems to have put all that behind him though, starting his 2001 campaign by winning both games against Annica Silvonen (SWE) to win their match by 29.2-10.8 TPs and overtake the World Champion at the top of Group A. Annica dropped three places to 5th as a result.
In Group D, Lutz Göhmann (GER) pulled away at the top of the table, continuing his superb start by beating Marion Scott (GBR) in their second game. Marion still shaded the match, by 20.7-19.3 TPs, thanks to her win in game 1 all of 12 days ago. Strangely, this is still Marion's only win in eight games and Lutz's only loss in six games!
Group B took centre stage again, however, with the vital match between Pierre Sanchez (FRA) and Yan Moulin (FRA) which would almost certainly decide the qualification places. Pierre won game 1, leaving Yan a mountain to climb. Yan almost made it, winning by 21 tiles in game 2 to win the match by 21.3-18.7 TPs, but in the end it was not quite enough.
Pierre becomes the first certain qualifier for the quarter-finals and Ben Polman (NED) looks safe in second, though the winner of the last match in the group next Monday could theoretically just qualify, even knock Pierre off the top. Unlucky Yan finished just 2.1 TPs below Ben with all of the top three having won three of their five matches. Less than 9 TPs (effectively one game win) cover the top four places.
9 May In Group C, Marc Abramson (FRA) drew game 1 (a new record for the lowest aggregate ever in a tournament game at 18 tiles) then won game 2 against Laszlo Harsanyi (HUN) to win their match by 23.3-16.7 TPs. Laszlo had won the game which held the record for the previous lowest aggregate over two years ago. Marc then lost game 2 against Banhazi Matyas (HUN) by 18 tiles to lose their match by 32.6-7.4 TPs, dropping into last place just below Laszlo in the table, with Banhazi staying in 4th place. However, Laszlo, the highest placed entrant from last year's Championship where he finished 2nd, is now the only one of the 25 players (apart from Martin Harlow (GBR), the only player yet to play a game) who has failed to win a game so far. He will have to win all of his remaining games to stand the slightest chance of qualifying.
10 May In Group A, Martin Harlow (GBR), the last of the 25 entrants to start his games, lost his first game against Ragnar Wikman (FIN) but recovered to win game 2 and just lose the overall match by 21.2-18.8 TPs. Martin is now level on TPs with Kevin Scott (GBR), but Kevin is 4th on a rule 10c tiebreak. Zoltan Nedeczky (HUN) in this group is now the only unbeaten player in the whole tournament, though he has only played two games!
In the top of the table match in Group C, no. 3 seed Péter Petrecz (HUN) won game 1 against Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) but lost a high-scoring (35-27) second game to lose their match by 21.5-18.5 TPs. However, J-O later lost 1st place to Péter by losing to 7th-placed Marc Abramson (FRA) in the first game of Marc's last match. Group leaders seem to be making a habit of losing to those in last place in this tournament! Marc moved up one place to 6th and Péter is now leads J-O by 8.3 TPs after six games with Simon Wright (GBR) less than 2.5% further back.
14 May Today, Group B became the first group to finish, with Neal Bolton (GBR) and János Puspoki (HUN) contesting the final match. A 4-tile win to Neal in game 1 was not enough to stop no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED) being confirmed as the second qualifier in this group along with the surprise group winner Pierre Sanchez (FRA) - in the quarter-finals, they will play the winner and runner-up in Group D respectively.
However, that did not stop Neal from managing a grandstand finish, a big 40-26 win in game 2 giving him the match by 31.7-8.3 TPs and allowing him to snatch 4th place from no. 4 seed Jérôme Papillon (FRA), who has had a disastrous tournament. In the end, less than 9 TPs (4.5%) separated the top five of the six players in this amazing group.
In Group A, the group which has seen the least games played so far, Kevin Scott (GBR) managed a surprise win in game 1 against Martin Harlow (GBR) to move into 3rd place, missing out on 2nd place by just 0.005%.
15 May In Group A, Martin Harlow (GBR) won both games against Annica Silvonen (SWE) to win their match by 31.3-8.7 TPs and climb three places into 2nd, just ahead of the next two players.
In Group C, Laszlo Harsanyi (HUN) became the last player to win a game, beating Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) in game 2 of their match to move off the bottom of the table. J-O dropped one place to 3rd, but won the match against Laszlo by 21.9-18.1 TPs.
16 May Laszlo Harsanyi's (HUN) revival in Group C continued as he won game 1 against 1999 European Champion Péter Petrecz (HUN) by a single tile. However, Péter's 11-tile win in game 2 gave him the match by 23.1-16.9 TPs. Péter stayed in 1st place, Laszlo in 6th.
19 May In Group D, Franky (FRA) drew one game and won the other against Marion Scott (GBR) to win their match by 24.7-15.3 TPs. Franky stays in 5th, Marion in 6th having now played all of her games. Marion may only have won one of her five matches, but she holds the distinction of being the only player in Group D so far to have won their match against the group leader.
20 May In Group A, Kevin Scott (GBR) beat Zoltan Nedeczky (HUN) in both games to win their match by a convincing 31.5-8.5 TPs and jump from 4th to 1st. Zoltan dropped all the way from 1st to 5th. British players currently fill the top three places in this group.
21 May Martin Harlow (GBR) had an amazing day in Group A, taking his winning streak to 6 games with double wins against World Champion Julia Schwarz (GBR), match score 29.7-10.3 TPs, each going over the time limit in one of the games, and against Zoltan Nedeczky (HUN), match score 32.2-7.8 TPs. However, compatriot Kevin Scott (GBR) ended the day on top by winning against Annica Silvonen (FIN) in their first game. Martin and Kevin now look extremely likely to qualify, way ahead of the rest of the field in what is the most spread out group of the four, and no. 1 seed Julia is now in serious trouble, looking likely to go the same way as the no. 4 seed barring miracles.
Banhazi Matyas (HUN) and Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) won a game each in their match in Group C, Banhazi just winning the match by 20.9-19.1 TPs, leaving the positions unchanged but Banhazi in 4th now just 0.02% behind J-O in 3rd.
22 May In Group A, Zoltan Nedeczky (HUN) played three games. A double win against Ragnar Wikman (FIN) gave him a win in their match by 30.2-9.8 TPs, but in between those games he lost game 1 in his match against no. 1 seed Julia Schwarz (GBR), who regained 3rd place. Zoltan moved up one place to 4th and Ragnar dropped two to 5th. A win in his last game would now make Martin Harlow (GBR) mathematically certain to qualify.
In Group C, Laszlo Harsanyi (HUN) drew game 1 against Banhazi Matyas (HUN) but lost game 2 to let Banhazi win the match by 26.2-13.8 TPs. Banhazi overtook Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) in 3rd place as a result. Laszlo, the overall runner-up in last year's Championship, has now lost all five of the two-game matches he has played so far, though some only narrowly. The 3rd placed player last year, Péter Petrecz (HUN), looks fairly safe in 1st place. Unless Péter falters, the crunch matches look likely to be Banhazi and J-O against Simon Wright (GBR), currently in 2nd place.
No. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) had a nightmare start to his latest match in Group D, where he is having trouble against the French players. Franky (FRA) won a tight game 1 by two tiles. However, Steven got out of game 2 with a big win, when he managed a loop from another dreadful position, and won the match by 22.7-17.3 TPs to stay in 2nd place. With Philippe Durand (FRA) in 3rd place already finished on over 110 TPs and Lutz Göhmann (GER) looking almost unbeatable, Steven still has a lot to do in his two remaining matches, both
scheduled for tomorrow.
23 May In Group A, the second game of the top of the table match between Martin Harlow (GBR) and Kevin Scott (GBR) was won by Martin by a single tile to equal the record of seven consecutive wins in a single tournament, with Kevin shading the match by 21.0-19.0 TPs. Martin took over in 1st place though and is now guaranteed to qualify for the quarter-finals.
World Champion and no. 1 seed Julia Schwarz (GBR) is now out of the tournament. She needed a big win against Zoltan Nedeczky (HUN) in their second game, but he somehow managed to win the game by one tile and though she won the match by 22.2-17.8 TPs, a double win by Kevin against Ragnar Wikman (FIN), match score 30.3-9.7 TPs, sealed Julia's fate. Kevin joins Martin in the quarter-finals and needs to win his last game against Annica Silvonen (SWE) by two tiles or more to go through in 1st place.
Events in Group D were even more dramatic, with no. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) now virtually certain to be eliminated at this stage too. The day started badly for Steven with a 5-tile loss against Heli Niemi (FIN), a 4-tile win (a missed 5-tile win) in game 2 letting Heli shade the match by 20.3-19.7 TPs but leaving Steven in with a chance of overhauling Philippe Durand's (FRA) TP score.
The first game in the top of the table match between Steven and group leader Lutz Göhmann (GER) started with Lutz building a commanding position which Steven was powerless to do much about until towards the end of the game when he somehow turned the game around to win by one tile. He now needed a win or a draw in game 2 to go through ... a 60-tile loop beckoned, but the two blue corners needed to complete it on either side of the Tantrix both ended up improbably blocked as Lutz took the last few tiles came out of the bag and Lutz triumphed by a single tile. Lutz is now very likely, if not quite certain, to qualify in 1st place and Steven misses out to Philippe by just 1.7 TPs.
What surprises will the last couple of days of the group phase have in store for us?
24 May Kevin Scott (GBR) won his final game in Group A against Annica Silvonen (SWE), winning their match by 30.1-9.9 TPs to finish top of Group A, with the other qualifier, Martin Harlow (GBR), just 0.7 TPs behind. Having both won eight games, they have the two highest scores in the groups so far even though they are both in the same group!
World Champion Julia Schwarz (GBR) finished off a very disappointing and stressful tournament with a good double win against Annica Silvonen (SWE), winning the match by 30.7-9.3 TPs. This at least ensured a British 1-2-3 in Group A. In fact, Julia won four of her five matches as opposed to Martin's three, but three of her four wins were close whereas Martin won both games in the matches which he won. Annica lost all five matches in a very tough group, but winning one game provides some encouragement and gaining some good experience should mean, if past experience is anything to go by, that she fares much better in her second tournament.
In Group C, no. 3 seed Péter Petrecz (HUN), now favourite to regain the European Championship he won in 1999, won one game by three tiles and lost one by five against Banhazi Matyas (HUN) but just won the match by 20.3-19.7 TPs because Banhazi went over the time limit in the game he won. Péter also had a double win against Raymond Hemmecke (GER), winning that match by 29.3-10.7 TPs. Péter has now finished all his group matches and is certain to qualify, and about 99% certain of first place. The battle for second place between three players will go right to the wire though.
No. 7 seed Laszlo Harsanyi (HUN) also played Raymond, both games finishing 29-20 but each won by a different player, so that match was drawn. As usual, very little change in the positions in this group despite a lot of games being played, but Laszlo did jump up to 5th, overtaking Raymond.
26 May Simon Wright (GBR) and Banhazi Matyas (HUN) shared the points 20.0-20.0 in their match, leaving Simon still in 2nd, Banhazi in 3rd having completed his 12 games and Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) now slightly closer to both of them in 4th. The match between J-O and Simon should now decide this group.
27 May In Group C, Simon Wright (GBR) beat Raymond Hemmecke (GER) in game 2 to complete a 31.5-8.5 TP win in their match and move slightly clearer of the chasing pair in 2nd place.
In the final match in Group D, Lutz Göhmann (GER) needed to avoid losing both games to Franky (FRA) to qualify, whereas Franky needed two huge wins. Winning game 1 was enough for Lutz, who won the match by 20.9-19.1 TPs despite losing game 2. Lutz ended up in 1st place, his reward being a match against no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED) in the quarter-finals.
It was Philippe Durand (FRA) who finished 2nd. He will play Pierre Sanchez (FRA) in the quarter-finals, thus ensuring that there will be one French player in the semi-finals. No. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) just failed to qualify, the margin between 2nd and 3rd in this group of 1.7 TPs being the closest in any of the four groups. In fact, only two of the top eight seeds, Ben and no. 3 seed Péter Petrecz (HUN), have survived the group phase in what has become the most unpredictable Tantrix tournament ever.
28 May The group phase reached its conclusion today, with the last games in Group C. Jacques-Olivier Haenni managed a win and a draw in his crucial match against second placed Simon Wright (GBR) to win their match by 25.3-14.7 TPs and jump two places into 2nd.
J-O then needed a draw in game 2 of his match against Marc Abramson (FRA) to qualify. Marc was in last place but had won game 1 of the match earlier in May, but he could not repeat this feat and J-O won the game to win the match by 20.7-19.3 TPs and take his place against against Kevin Scott (GBR) in the quarter-finals.
An honourable mention must go to Simon Wright from Northern Ireland though, who now just 12 is by far the youngest player in the tournament and, though bottom ranked of all 25 players going into the tournament, held 2nd place in the group for a long time and was only just edged out of a qualification place right at the end. Definitely a name to look out for in the future!
THE QUARTER-FINALS:
So, what do the quarter-finals have in store for us? The bottom half looks quite a bit stronger than the top half, but after all the shocks so far who knows what might happen.
The top match looks to be 1999 European Champion Péter Petrecz (HUN) against Martin Harlow (GBR), who has looked very strong, although just edged out of top place in Group A.
Ben Polman (NED) improved strongly after a weak start and might well have the measure of Lutz Göhmann (GER), whose approach is very bold (I've taken out the extra detail to avoid giving too much away to any opponents!) but may come unstuck at some stage. Of course, saying this guarantees that he'll now go and win the whole tournament ... :-)
Kevin Scott (GBR) had the highest %TP score in the group phase. This suggests that he may be very strong indeed, or may have happened because (judging from the spread of point scores) Group A might have had the weakest bottom three players. His opponent Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) finished strongly in Group C and showed that he could win games when it really mattered.
The all-French match could be intriguing. Pierre Sanchez (FRA), almost unknown before the start of the tournament, is probably just the favourite ahead of compatriot Philippe Durand because anyone who could finish top of the amazing Group B must be pretty good. Then again, Group B was so tight that if Pierre had won one game less, he would have come 5th in the group ... so if one win was lucky, he might not be quite as strong as he looks ... on the other hand, if one loss was unlucky he might be brilliant!
Some slightly controversial comments above ensured that I found out that a couple of people are still reading these reports ;-) - I welcome your views, I will incorporate better suggestions in these reports and it's great to see you still here!
28 May Pierre Sanchez (FRA) and Philippe Durand (FRA) got the quarter-finals underway. A big 22-8 win to Pierre followed by a 23-17 win to Philippe gave Pierre a narrow 21.7-18.3 TPs lead at the halfway stage. When players are fairly evenly matched, these matches with just four games tend to hinge on just a few crucial decisions or strokes of chance, so they are always nail-biting affairs.
29 May Philippe Durand (FRA), the Group D runner-up, became the first player through to the semi-finals, coming back from a small overnight deficit to win by 49.3-30.7 TPs and take on the responsibility of carrying the tricolour into the last four. Pierre made a loop scoring 24 very early on in game 3, but even with only Philippe's line left to worry about was somehow unable to stop him from making an even larger loop of his own scoring 42.
Pierre needed a 9-tile win in the final game. It was clear from early in the game that he was unlikely to be able to do that but he did look to have winning chances. In the end, the result hinged on who had the first free move when all the tiles were out of the bag. Pierre did his best to ensure it was him, but in the end it was Philippe, who won by a single tile as a result. Very gracious in defeat, Pierre has made a very big impression in his first tournament and no
one will look forward to coming across him in the World Championship draw later this year.
30 May Tonight's quarter-final between Group A winner Kevin Scott (GBR) and Group C runner-up Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) may well turn out to be the match of the tournament. It was as dramatic as they come, with high quality, tenacious play by both sides under pressure. Kevin won game 1 by a single tile, then took a commanding lead when he won game 2 by three tiles, J-O just failing by one blocked corner to connect a much longer line.
Game 3 was tight, J-O holding the advantage near the end but Kevin having a good chance of connecting two medium-sized lines, with the most useful tiles still available in the bag. Having failed to connect the lines before the endgame, Kevin tried to engineer an audacious connection around a 'hole' which would have won him the game and the match but it was not to be and J-O won by seven tiles.
This left Kevin needing a draw in the final game and J-O needing a win by one tile or more. What a game it was! In the middle game, both players had two medium disconnected lines and the advantage swung from one to the other again and again.
From 15-10 to J-O, Kevin connected his lines to lead 20-15. J-O then connected his lines around the outside of Kevin's connection to lead 25-20. Kevin connected to another short line at the top of the Tantrix to grab the lead back 28-25, then a strong line-building move by J-O took him ahead 29-28, before Kevin added to his line to make it 30-29. J-O then made it 32-30 and Kevin could only add one more tile to his line to make the score 32-31 to J-O and complete the Swiss player's amazing comeback almost from the dead to win by just 41.2-38.8 TPs.
Kevin's disappointment was compounded by the fact that in the midst of all this mayhem, he had found a forced tile which blocked J-O's line but then understandably decided to check all the other options carefully before, under extreme pressure, playing the wrong forced tile in the original forced space, thus adding to his opponent's line instead of blocking it. He has had a wonderful first tournament though.
Scarcely able to believe that he had somehow contrived to avoid elimination at the last moment once again, J-O goes through to play Philippe Durand (FRA) in the first semi-final. Both players moved up to take the second qualifying place in their group at the last moment and both came from behind to win their semi-finals. It should be quite a contest!
31 May The third quarter-final was another great match, between the Group C winner, the no. 3 seed and Championship favourite Péter Petrecz (HUN) and Martin Harlow (GBR), the Group A runner-up. This match saw some of the highest quality play of the tournament so far.
The first three games were all tight, each decided by just one or two tiles. Martin took game 1 by a single tile, thus equalling Jérôme Papillon's tournament record of eight successive wins, before Péter won game 2 by two tiles and took a time penalty off Martin to take a narrow lead. In game 3, Martin converted a possible loss into a one-tile win right at the end to leave himself needing just a draw in the final game.
The final game was a bit of an anti-climax to a brilliant match, Martin being forced into a loops scoring 14 early on and ending up with the nightmare of three more medium-sized disconnected lines which allowed Péter to win by five tiles. He had come from behind twice in this match, making his experience count when it really mattered. Martin had a great first tournament though and impressed all those he played against - he'll be back even stronger for the World Championship later in the year. Can anyone stop Péter in this tournament though?
1 June Group B runner-up, no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED), thrashed Group D winner Lutz Göhmann (GER) in the last quarter-final, winning all four games to record an emphatic victory by 59.0-21.0 TPs and book a semi-final place against no. 3 seed Péter Petrecz (HUN), stretching his unbeaten run to nine games in the process.
Continuing the unpredictable nature of this tournament, only one of the group winners, Péter Petrecz (HUN), survived the quarter-finals.
THE SEMI-FINALS:
The semi-final between 1999 European Champion Péter Petrecz (HUN) and Ben Polman (NED) looks to be by far the stronger, not just because they are the nos 3 and 5 seeds respectively but also because they are the only players with Elo ratings for this tournament of over 2000 based on the games played so far.
Péter is the only one of the favourites to have an unblemished record so far, winning his group and coming through a tricky semi-final against one of the most impressive tournament débutants.
Ben has been improving all the way through the tournament after a shaky start and is unbeaten in his last nine tournament games, only three away from Steven Trezise's record of twelve games without defeat set in the last World Championship. However, Péter brought Martin Harlow's 8-game winning run to an end in the quarter-final match, so he won't be too scared about that!
My money would be on Péter, but I wouldn't be too surprised if Ben did create a minor upset.
The winner of the other semi-final will be a surprise finalist whoever it is, though of course that does not mean they will not win the final. Both Philippe Durand (FRA), trying to keep the Championship in French hands, and Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) were unseeded and have achieved a lot so far, living dangerously but succeeding in the end.
Both players took the second qualifying places in their groups at the last moment, Philippe even depending on other players' results to make it through, and both came from behind in their semi-finals - all of which suggests that the fates are on their side and they are able to bring off top performances when it matters most.
An added feature of the semi-finals is that both Ben and Philippe have a chance of becoming the first player over 40 ever to win a Tantrix tournament. In addition, Ben and Jacques-Olivier, already the most successful tournament players from their respective countries, are aiming to be the first players from their countries to fill one of the top three places in a Tantrix tournament.
4 June Monday night was semi-finals night! The match between no. 3 seed and 1999 European Champion Péter Petrecz (HUN) and no. 5 seed Ben Polman (NED) started first. Péter took the first game by a single tile, as he so often does, to end Ben's winning run. Not discouraged by this, Ben concentrated very hard to win games 2 and 3 by three tiles and one tile respectively, having to go just over 15 minutes (and hence dropping a time penalty) in each case. This left Péter needing a win in the final game, Ben just a draw. In the end, Péter's hopes were dashed when Ben won with the biggest margin in the match (a whole four tiles!) to reach the final by 47.0-33.0 TPs.
The other semi-final, between unseeded surprise packages Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) and Philippe Durand (FRA), was full of action, and if some of the play was anything to go by, apparently (and understandably) very stressful for both players. Philippe took game 1 by three tiles. In game 2, Philippe (as he so often does) tried to build a loop. When J-O had a very long run of forced tiles near the end, he came close to an even bigger loop around the outside of Philippe's. However, with all the tiles out of the bag Philippe was able to complete his loop with either one of two tiles, blocking J-O at the same time if he used the right one. He saw the right tile, even tried it on the Tantrix, but in the tense atmosphere made the horrendous blunder of playing the wrong tile, completing his own loop to score 30 but allowing J-O to complete his loop too, to score 64 - a tournament record for both high game score and (equal) highest aggregate.
The game 2 result was as good as a double game win for J-O, so Philippe did very well to come back from that shock to win game 3 by two tiles. Even though Philippe had won two of the three games, the huge loss in game 2 meant that he was still behind and needed a win in the final game, J-O needing only a draw. The final game looked quite good for Philippe initially, but became blocked with long controlled sides on the left and right of the Tantrix. Near the end, with J-O ahead and most of the colour combinations which could help Philippe already played, it looked like we might have a Swiss finalist.
In the end though, it was clear that Philippe could win if he got the first free move after the bag was empty. He didn't seem to have a masterplan himself for engineering this (it would have been difficult to do so in any case) but J-O handed it to him on a plate with the second worst blunder of the match. With two tiles left in the bag, J-O had his free move. To have any chance, he had to play a tile which would not force any other tiles, having checked (or trusted to luck) that the last tile out of the bag wouldn't fill any of the forced spaces. Instead, he played a tile which forced one of Philippe's tiles, making it certain that Philippe would get the first unrestricted move and be able to win the game by connecting his lines on the left-hand controlled side and blocking J-O's connection, which is exactly what Philippe did to win the match by 42.3-37.7 TPs.
5 June It turned out that both of the qualifiers from Group C met in the playoff for third place. Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) had been responsible for Péter Petrecz (HUN)'s only match defeat at the group stage, both players having won one game but the margins going in the Swiss player's favour. Péter started strongly in this match though, winning game 1 by 16 tiles, following that with a trademark one-tile win in game 2 to go 30.6-9.4 TPs ahead. A win by seven tiles in game 3 kept J-O in with a chance though. However, he needed to win the final game by six tiles and that was beyond him, Péter winning it by six tiles and the match by the clear margin of 50.4-29.6 TPs.
So, a bit of a disappointment for J-O after an excellent first tournament, but a triumph of sorts for Péter to compensate for not reaching the final - he has now finished in the top three of the European Championship in all three years that it has been held - quite an achievement!
THE FINAL:
Two 40-year-olds will contest the final, hence one of them is sure to break Murray Pharaoh's record as the oldest Tantrix tournament winner so far. Who said you have to be under 30 to win Tantrix tournaments nowadays? ;-) It's very 'Tantrix' that the two quarter-finalists who were within about 2 TPs of failing to qualify for the knockout phase have ended up contesting the final! :-)
Ben Polman (NED), a mathematician from 's-Hertogenbosch, was seeded 5 for the Championship after a creditable performance in the WTC last year. He finished strongly in Group B to grab the second qualifying position at the last moment after a very shaky start to this tournament. A huge win in his QF and success in a very tough match against the no. 3 seed Péter Petrecz (HUN) in his SF will have set him up well for the final.
Philippe Durand (FRA) is from Massy. He had a fairly dismal WTC last year, but made a very good start to this tournament with a match win against the no. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR) early on and a revenge win against Franky (FRA) who had knocked him out in Round 1 of the 2000 WTC. However, he was in 3rd place in Group D even after he had finished all his games until an important match result between two other players lifted him to 2nd place by just 1.7 TPs. Two tight wins in the knockout phase against Pierre Sanchez (FRA) and Jacques-Olivier Haenni (SUI) where he came from behind after blunders early on show that he is not easily phased, has staying power, makes the best of any good fortune that comes his way (an important Tantrix skill if ever there was one!) and is very hard to beat. He will certainly end up with the biggest Elo rating improvement of any player from this tournament, but will have to play very carefully to win because he might find any errors get punished severely by a more experienced player like Ben.
9 June The final was played on Saturday 9 June at 17.30 CET and was a very closely fought match, with each player winning two games and no game decided by more than four tiles. I don't have any first-hand reports but it is clear that Philippe concentrated hard to win game 1 by a single tile, 17-16, going just over the time limit to make sure of his win and hence ending up 12.3-7.7 TPs ahead. Ben struck back in game 2, winning 21-18 to go ahead by 22.0-18.0 TPs. Ben also won game 3 by four tiles to extend his lead to 36.7-23.3 TPs.
This left Philippe needing to win the last game by 12 tiles. A valiant final effort saw Philippe manage a win in the final game, 15-14, but a one-tile margin was not enough, so no. 5 seed Ben won the 2001 European Championship Final by 43.3-36.7 TPs. Well done Ben!
The following table shows the FINAL (subject to checking) Elo ratings for this tournament ONLY, with notes on big changes in players' overall ratings below the table.
Key:
Rank --- Final Euro2001-ONLY Elo rating --- Change since group phase ended (*) --- Group/Position --- Country --- Name (final position)
(*) i.e. these changes are due to the performance of a player and/or other members of their qualifying group in the knockout phase.
1 2004 +097 B2 NED Ben Polman (1st)
2 1986 -023 C1 HUN Péter Petrecz (3rd)
3 1940 -063 A1 GBR Kevin Scott (QF)
4 1935 +033 D2 FRA Philippe Durand (2nd)
5 1932 -066 A2 GBR Martin Harlow (QF)
6 1922 +026 B3 FRA Yan Moulin
7 1905 -019 B1 FRA Pierre Sanchez (QF)
8 1905 +026 B4 GBR Neal Bolton
9 1903 +032 B5 FRA Jérôme Papillon
10 1878 -029 C2 SUI Jacq.-Ol. Haenni (4th)
11 1869 -077 D1 GER Lutz Göhmann (QF)
12 1865 -011 D3 GBR Steven Trezise
13 1863 -010 C3 GBR Simon Wright
14 1855 -009 C4 HUN Banhazi Matyas
15 1833 -011 D4 FIN Heli Niemi
16 1784 -039 A3 GBR Julia Schwarz
17 1784 -011 D5 FRA Franky
18 1772 +026 B6 HUN János Püspöki
19 1766 -039 A4 HUN Zoltan Nedeczky
20 1679 -011 C5 HUN Laszlo Harsanyi
21 1670 -009 C6 GER Raym. Hemmecke
22 1657 -009 D6 GBR Marion Scott
23 1644 -032 A5 FIN Ragnar Wikman
24 1622 -009 C7 FRA Marc Abramson
25 1520 -032 A6 SWE Annica Silvonen
Big winners since the group phase are new champion Ben, runner-up Philippe and most of the other players in Ben's group (Group B) except Pierre, whose rating drop following his fairly heavy QF defeat was nevertheless at least mitigated by Ben's win. Big losers were Lutz following his very heavy QF defeat, the Group A qualifiers who both lost in the QFs but who nevertheless still ended up with ratings in the top five for the tournament and the other Group A players since this was the only group whose qualifiers both lost at the QF stage.
Of the players who had played in tournaments before, the big winners in the overall ratings (to be published when the current batch of continental championships has finished), also taking into account the de-weighting of results in previous years' European Championships, are as follows, most of them playing in their second tournament and having stepped up in class a lot since their first:
- Philippe, up 267 Elo points to 1826, now official
- Yan, up 155 Elo points to 1721, now official
- Zoltan, up 90 Elo points to 1714, still official
- Ben, up 79 Elo points to 1947, now official
Philippe showed the biggest ever rating discrepancy between a player's first two tournament results, a massive 376 points. A move from unofficial to official means that the increase in Elo seeding points will be even greater than the change in raw Elo rating points.
Big losers in the overall ratings will be:
- Ragnar, down 86 Elo points to 1781, now official
- Raymond, down 48 Elo points to 1743, now official
- Julia, down 28 Elo points to 1982, still official
Laszlo and Steven also had bad results relative to their ratings, but averaging their ten games from this tournament into a large number of previous tournament games and partly dropping the effect of mediocre European Championship performances in 1999 and 2000 respectively mean that their overall ratings will drop by 19 and 6 points respectively.
Average pre-tournament (i.e. 'for AOR') ratings for each group, strongest first, ended up being 1897 for Group B, 1830 for Group D, 1798 for Group C and 1778 for Group A.
So, in conclusion, many congratulations to Ben Polman, the first ever Dutch Tantrix tournament winner, who gains his first 'International Tantrix Master Norm' and becomes the oldest ever Tantrix tournament winner (the first over 40) and to Philippe Durand who, while not quite retaining the Championship for France, did incredibly well relative to his pre-tournament form.
European Championship home page The date and time are : This file was last modified on Tuesday, 21-Mar-2006 21:13:27 GMT
Summary RESULTS (tables & draw only) (updated Tuesday, 21-Mar-2006 21:13:29 GMT)
TABLES, CROSS-TABLES, GAME RESULTS & FIXTURES:
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout Stage
Tournament Records
Tournament Elo ratings Seeding points
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