2001 NZ Tantrix Final report and final Elo ratings

A report on the 2001 NZ Final follows, with a blow-by-blow account of the final game by 4th placed Jamie Sneddon. The final Elo ratings for this tournament follow the report.

The first game of the final was played on 13 July, no. 6 seed Shaun Cooper winning by 33-22 to take a significant early lead over no. 3 seed and defending champion Phil Sneddon, against whom he had also won both games in Group C earlier in the tournament.

The match continued to a finish on 16 July. Shaun won game 2 by 19-15 to lead by 31.1-8.9 TPs at the halfway stage, extending his winning run against Phil to four games and leaving the champion with a very uphill struggle. Phil came back strongly to win game 3 by 20-18 to leave himself with a faint chance going into the final game, but with Shaiun leading by 37.2-22.8 TPs, Phil needed to win the last game by 16 tiles.

Jamie Sneddon now gives us all the chat from the final game and his own (totally unbiased ...) commentary (*), together with a few perceptive yet sometimes inane ;-) comments from no. 1 seed Matt Peek, fresh from his disastrous performance (as if I can talk ...) in Group A:

After less than a minute, Phil is disconnected: two tiles have been played. Phil leads ;-)

Shaun: come back phil
Runes: Joining as a spectator
Lobby: the game has resumed

Runes: 2 tiles and I crash :)
Shaun: wb i have the whole game planned now ;-)
Runes: cool, do I win by 16 ?
(*) what Phil needs to pull off the comeback

Matt: shaun can lose by 15?
Runes: yup :)
Matt: oh great
Matt: just like with jamie eh
(*) yeah, rub it in; at least we made it to the playoffs Matt
Runes: but I beat shaun by 16 all the time so that's OK :)
Matt: it was less then i think :-P
Matt: shaun is easy to beat by 16 :-P
(*) stop chatting and CONCENTRATE Phil!!!

Runes: I have beaten him 1/5 so far in the NZ champs :)
Matt: not flash man... but mind you who am i to comment
Runes: but it was the last game so I am on a bit of a roll :)
Matt: lol but i haven't lost to phil in a tournament yet (5/5)
Jamie: stop chatting and concentrate daniel san
(*) not really coaching ...
Runes: yes Mr Miagi
Matt: ok i'll shut up
Phil makes a little 10-loop for Shaun, adding nicely to his own line
(*) Score 10(the loop) to 8. Shaun's other line is 6 long.

(*) Silence from the lobby.
(*) Suddenly, Phil's line comes around to be 14 long. Shaun's is 9 at the beginning of the turn. He uses the turn to stop the 14 from being a disastrous (award-winning) loop.

(*) Shaun is still on 10, and one end of his line is blocked at one end at the beginning of Phil's turn, with Phil on 19 - but the block opens, and a horrible connection forms, giving scoop a potential line of 15. Phil's line now blocked at one end.

(*) More silence in the lobby.
(*) Phil's line now blocked at both ends - but one end opens during Shaun's turn. With 12 tiles still in the bag, Shaun has used nearly 9 minutes, and the score will soon be 17-21. Phil still leads, but not by enough.

Matt: well done shaun, even if you don't win this.
(*) Phil spends some time thinking long and hard about the consequences of a move that looks good. With 10 more minutes to use, he could practically figure out what the remaining seven tiles are :)
(*) He makes the move - it looks like it was a good idea. 4 tiles left in the bag, scoop's line is stuck on a forced side at one end. It's looking like one of Phil's ends is blocked, but he now leads 26-17.
(*) Scoop is now on 12:51 - he can't afford to give away that time penalty.

(*) Phil's turn, and the bag empties to give Phil the 'first free move' - and the end of his line that has been blocked for so long opens up, the tile having been in Shaun's hand, but illegal until the restrictions came off. That's a mistake we don't often see Shaun make.
(*) Phil contemplates playing the second-to-last RR tile, to extend his lead to 29-19. He still has half his time to use, and tries out lots of options. After thinking and experimenting for over 4 minutes, Phil plays a tile.

(*) Shaun has probably also used this time to strategise, taking some pressure off his 2 minutes left. He plays to get rid of lots of blue tiles, forcing Phil in 3 places, but only having two tiles left. The forced spaces stack up on Shaun, adding to Phil's line in two places to make the score 28-19.

(*) Now Shaun has only 2 tiles left, the score is 28-20, and Shaun has just 12 seconds to play his last tile. Phil forces it (and it takes Shaun only 4 seconds to play it :) ), and takes his score to 30.

(*) Final result: 30-20, a good win for Phil, but not enough.

Phil: good game shaun
Shaun: a good hiding - well done phil
Phil: congratulations :)
Jamie: well played both of you
Jamie: great final game bro
Shaun: thanks for the games, phil
Phil: thanks shaun was fun
Phil: 41-39 in the end
Shaun: :-)

(*) Final result of the game: 30-20 to Phil - a big win, but not the 16 margin required.

(*) In the end, Shaun won by just 41.0-39.0 TPs. Had Shaun taken a few seconds longer in the final game, it would have been 40.0-40.0, though Shaun would still have won on total tiles tiebreak.

So, in conclusion, many congratulations to Shaun Cooper, who gains his first 'International Tantrix Master Norm' with the 5th best single tournament performance ever and the best since 1999. He may now end up in the top 4 seeds for the 2001 World Tantrix Championship. Phil Sneddon defended his title well (it is not that often that a defending champion reaches the final) but it was not quite enough in the end. Both players join two fellow Aucklanders, 3rd placed Bevan Chong and 4th placed Jamie Sneddon, in the Pacific Tantrix Championship, where they will in turn be joined by NZ quarter-finalist and 2000 Pacific Champion Murray Pharaoh.

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Final Elo Ratings for 2001 NZ Championship only
Changes during KO ONLY			(AOR = weighted average opponent rating; Diff. is from inverse normal distn)
Posn	Posn	Rating	Name	Town	Group	For AOR	This tournament ONLY
Now	Change	Change		/City	Posn	Elo	G	AOR	% TP	Diff.	Elo
1	=	-117	Shaun Cooper	AKL	C1-1st	2059	22	1820	66.4%	239	2059
2	=	+002	Murray Pharaoh	WEL	A1-QF	1800	14	1821	58.7%	125	1946
3	=	-006	Phil Sneddon	AKL	C2-2nd	1930	20	1869	54.7%	67	1936
4	UP 06	+165	Bevan Chong	AKL	B1-3rd	1914	22	1750	61.4%	164	1914
5	=	+027	Robin Brown	WEL	A2-QF	1896	14	1845	53.6%	51	1896
6	DN -02	-040	Jamie Sneddon	AKL	D1-4th	1937	21	1752	59.3%	132	1884
7	UP 01	+011	Matt Peek	AKL	A3	1949	10	1748	54.6%	65	1813
8	DN -02	-061	Matthew Boxer	CHC	C3	1807	8	1817	49.3%	-10	1807
9	DN -02	-117	Alexei Drummond	AKL	D2-QF	1827	12	1712	51.2%	17	1729
10	UP 01	+009	Mannuela Maiyaven	PLM	A5	1724	8	1815	43.6%	-91	1724
11	UP 03	+079	Alida Remiens	AKL	B2-QF	1639	14	1716	50.5%	7	1723
12	DN -03	-066	Kristina Chilton	HAS	C4	1718	10	1767	46.5%	-49	1718
13	DN -01	+009	Giselle Clarkson	WEL	A4	1707	8	1815	42.5%	-108	1707
14	UP 03	+081	Peter West	CHC	B3	1689	10	1617	55.1%	72	1689
15	DN -02	=	Jenni Poortman	AKL	Dd	1671	4	1638	52.3%	33	1671
16	UP 02	+009	Lucy Chave	WEL	A6	1614	10	1815	36.1%	-201	1614
17	DN -01	=	Sarah	NEL	D3	1613	10	1666	46.3%	-53	1613
18	DN -03	-061	Gary Sebalja	AKL	C5	1560	8	1879	28.7%	-319	1560
19	UP 02	+081	Jeffrey Simpson	INV	B4	1535	10	1648	42.1%	-113	1535
20	UP 02	+081	Nicoline de Veer	AKL	B5	1524	10	1650	41.2%	-126	1524
21	DN -01	=	Chris Maiyaven	PLM	D4	1508	8	1691	37.3%	-183	1508
22	DN -03	-091	Mark Armstrong	CHC	Cd	1481	4	1889	23.5%	-408	1481
23	=	+081	Rochelle Duke	DUN	B6	1475	10	1660	37.2%	-185	1475
24	=	=	Karin Jonasson	AKL	D5	1388	9	1716	28.1%	-328	1388

The Elo ratings for this tournament, as shown above, will be averaged into existing ratings and shown in the pre-World Championship Elo rating and seeding lists to be published in August 2001.

Based on pre-tournament official ratings and how the qualifiers fared in the knockout phase, Group A (helped by the fact that people in this Group did so well against Matt Peek, the player with the highest official pre-tournament rating) was the toughest group (with an average 'for AOR' rating of 1783), followed closely by Group C (1760), with Group B (1643) and Group D (1632) having averages over 100 Elo points below the stronger groups. The overall average was 1761 weighted by the number of games played by each player and 1705 unweighted.

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NZ Championship home page

Summary RESULTS (tables & draw only)
TABLES, CROSS-TABLES, GAME RESULTS & FIXTURES:
Group A     Group B     Group C     Group D     Knockout Stage

Tournament Records
Tournament Elo ratings     Seeding points
List of Tournament 1-2-3's

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The date and time are :

Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 09:17:56 GMT
Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 09:17:56 GMT (local)

This file was last modified on Tuesday, 21-Mar-2006 21:14:08 GMT

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