European Tantrix Championship 2003 - Group H

The two seeds in this highly eventful group both reached the semi-finals last year but in the end this was the only group where neither seed managed to finish in the top two. Indeed, it is a mark of how competitive European Tantrix has become that the reigning champion played far better Tantrix in this year's group phase than in last year's, yet last year he won the whole tournament after scraping through his group and this year he narrowly went out before the KO phase.

Fast-improving László Szobonya (HUN) made the best start and followed this up by doing enough to win the group convincingly. His 14-y-o compatriot Attila Mikulán (HUN) also started well after getting 'promoted' into the main group phase when computer problems forced Alex Thompson (GBR) to withdraw while leading the group, but Attila faded towards the end and finished in 7th.

Once no. 15 seed Marion Scott (GBR) had completed her games on 51%, only no. 2 seed Steven Trezise (GBR), Yoseph Phillips (ISR) and Raymond Hemmecke (GER) were really in contention for the 2nd qualifying place. Reigning champion Steven had won one game against each of his first five opponents but a combination of amazing runs of tiles against him early on against players who were good enough to take full advantage followed by bad and somewhat paranoid play later on had prevented him from converting any of those game wins into a double win against anyone. Yoseph on the other hand had played well throughout, making the most of his matches against the bottom three in particular, but a big double loss v László had stopped him racing clear into 2nd, while Raymond's results had been far more erratic but good enough overall to keep him in contention.

In the end, only the matches between these three players were left, setting up a thrilling finale to the group phase. Yoseph's play reached its zenith and Steven's reached its nadir in the first of these six games, resulting in a huge win for Yoseph which put him in pole position. However, Steven picked himself up off the floor to win their second game and a comprehensive double win v Raymond the next day kept his hopes alive.

All this meant that if Yoseph took 19.6 TPs or more from the final mini-match, he would go through, while if Raymond scored 26.7 TPs, he would go through ... but any result in between these two would leave the door open for Steven to reach the last 16. Truly nail-biting stuff! Yoseph played g1 more accurately most of the way through but both players made big blunders near the end - a clearly nervous Yoseph putting a temporary block in Raymond's line when he should have added a permanent one and Raymond creating forced spaces for Yoseph to fill when, needing to get hold of a crucial tile, he should have been trying to force himself to play as many tiles as possible instead. However, Yoseph's error was punished by the tiles to the greatest extent possible, while Raymond got away with his more basic blunder almost completely, and 5 time penalties from Yoseph made Raymond's win very big indeed.

Now Raymond needed only a draw or better in g2 and Yoseph needed a very big win, but it was beginning to look good for reigning champion Steven who would go through if the result was a small win to Yoseph - and after all, with Yoseph clearly in a different class to Raymond based on play in the four games earlier in the week, surely he could not play better and lose for two games in a row? Well, he could, and while Raymond was a lot less outclassed in g2, Yoseph's position looked better early on ... until, after move 19, he picked up the worst possible tile, which handed the initiative right back to Raymond. Yoseph looked to still have a chance with a few tiles left in the bag until one realised that his tiles gave him no killer options and Raymond held on to record a famous victory in what was to be his best-ever tournament, with the unfortunate Yoseph dropping right down to 5th place.
5th EUROPEAN TANTRIX CHAMPIONSHIP 2003 GROUP H AFTER 56 OF 56 GAMES, i.e. 100%
Click here for knockout phase results Click here for a summary of all of the groups
 
Pos. Qual. Nick Name (Seed) Nat. PreSPs Pld W. D. L. P. TPs %
1st ->EF8 SiRPi László Szobonya  HUN
(1716) 14 9 2 3   180.5 64%
2nd ->EF3 ramon Raymond Hemmecke  GER
(1777) 14 8 1 5   155.9 56%
3rd steven2 Steven Trezise (ITM) (2) GBR
(1935) 14 8 6 149.7 53%
4th mazzer Marion Scott (15) GBR
(1839) 14 4 5 5 141.9 51%
5th yoseph Yoseph Phillips  ISR
(1830) 14 7 7 137.3 49%
6th Salsachick Karen King  GBR
(1535) 14 6 2 6 128.6 46%
7th blick Attila Mikulán  HUN
(1560) 14 5 2 7 128.5 46%
8th iain Iain Hindes  GBR
(1568) 14 3 11 97.6 35%
4 games played by Alex Thompson to add for Elo rating purposes - see end of individual games list
2 games against each player. A draw with a -ve time penalty is shown in the loss column.
[u]/[w] = surname known to us but withheld; PreSPs = pre-tournt seeding pts, bold if an established Elo
Pld = games played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, P = no-show credits & penalties, TPs = tournt pts
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Click here to email the Assistant Controller for this group, Simon Wright (shunter)
… or see below for a cross-table and the individual game results and schedule
GROUP H - CROSS-TABLE after 56 out of 56 games, scores in TPs
(bold if won the whole mini-match, italics if match not finished yet)
Name Nat. SiR ram ste maz yos Sal bli iai Totals
SiRPi HUN
- 21.1 20.3 23.9 32.2 27.5 31.8 23.7 180.5
ramon GER
18.9 - 10.0 24.7 32.8 21.6 18.5 29.4 155.9
steven2 GBR
19.7 30.0 - 21.0 18.9 21.5 19.2 19.4 149.7
mazzer GBR
16.1 15.3 19.0 - 21.8 16.7 20.0 33.0 141.9
yoseph ISR
7.8 7.2 21.1 18.2 - 29.6 30.9 22.5 137.3
Salsachick GBR
12.5 18.4 18.5 23.3 10.4 - 17.7 27.8 128.6
blick HUN
8.2 21.5 20.8 20.0 9.1 22.3 - 26.6 128.5
iain GBR
16.3 10.6 20.6 7.0 17.5 12.2 13.4 - 97.6
FIXTURES & RESULTS : SUN 9 MAR - WED 2 APR 2003
Key: TPs = Tournament points this game or for the match as a whole; C = colour
Winner T1/T2 = times taken in whole minutes rounded down - lose 1 TP per whole minute over 14
Player 1 (higher seeding pts) v Player 2 (lower seeding pts)
Date: Player 1: C: TPs: Game score: TPs: C: Player 2: T1: T2: Review game
10-Mar yoseph   (14.3) 20 - 17 (05.7)   Salsachick 13 5 yoseph-salsachick-2003-03-11-2101
10-Mar yoseph   (15.3) 28 - 22 (04.7)   Salsachick 13 7 salsachick-yoseph-2003-03-11-2139
11-Mar SiRPi   (10.0) 15 - 15 (10.0)   Salsachick 14 4 salsachick-SiRPi-2003-03-12-1436
11-Mar mazzer   (06.7) 27 - 28 (13.3)   Salsachick 14 4 mazzer-salsachick-2003-03-12-2047
11-Mar mazzer   (10.0) 20 - 20 (10.0)   Salsachick 6 4 mazzer-salsachick-2003-03-12-2116
11-Mar mazzer   (04.5) 18 - 25 (15.5)   yoseph 12 13 M!mazzer-yoseph-2003-03-12-2133
11-Mar mazzer   (17.3) 36 - 20 (02.7)   yoseph 6 14 M!yoseph-mazzer-2003-03-12-2205
12-Mar yoseph   (16.4) 30 - 19 (03.6)   iain 14 12 yoseph-iain-2003-03-13-1944
12-Mar yoseph   (06.1) 19 - 21 (13.9)   iain 11 11 yoseph-iain-2003-03-13-2023
12-Mar iain   (06.1) 11 - 13 (13.9)   Salsachick 10 8 salsachick-iain-2003-03-13-2054
12-Mar iain   (06.1) 24 - 26 (13.9)   Salsachick 8 5 salsachick-iain-2003-03-13-2119
13-Mar SiRPi   (17.5) 40 - 23 (02.5)   Salsachick 8 4 salsachick-SiRPi-2003-03-14-1600
14-Mar blick   (16.2) 30 - 20 (03.8)   Salsachick 5 6 salsachick-BLiCK-2003-03-15-1053
14-Mar blick   (13.3) 17 - 16 (06.7)   iain 8 10 iain-BLiCK-2003-03-15-1544
14-Mar blick   (13.3) 18 - 17 (06.7)   iain 7 9 BLiCK-iain-2003-03-15-1555
14-Mar mazzer   (06.1) 17 - 19 (13.9)   SiRPi 9 12 M!mazzer-SiRPi-2003-03-15-1553
14-Mar mazzer   (10.0) 18 - 18 (10.0)   SiRPi 10 11 M!mazzer-SiRPi-2003-03-15-1627
16-Mar yoseph   (05.1) 16 - 18 (14.9)   SiRPi 15 11 M!yoseph-SiRPi-2003-03-17-2108
17-Mar mazzer   (10.0) 22 - 22 (10.0)   blick 10 6 M!mazzer-BLiCK-2003-03-18-1319
17-Mar mazzer   (10.0) 23 - 23 (10.0)   blick 12 8 M!BLiCK-mazzer-2003-03-18-1345
17-Mar blick   (06.1) 24 - 26 (13.9)   Salsachick 4 4 BLiCK-salsachick-2003-03-18-1446
17-Mar yoseph   (14.7) 28 - 24 (05.3)   blick 13 6 M!yoseph-BLiCK-2003-03-18-1940
17-Mar yoseph   (02.7) 13 - 19 (17.3)   SiRPi 16 12 M!SiRPi-yoseph-2003-03-18-2004
17-Mar mazzer   (16.6) 27 - 15 (03.4)   iain 8 9 iain-mazzer-2003-03-18-2047
17-Mar mazzer   (16.4) 27 - 16 (03.6)   iain 10 10 iain-mazzer-2003-03-18-2100
18-Mar mazzer   (05.3) 18 - 22 (14.7)   ramon 13 9 M!mazzer-ramon-2003-03-18-2224
18-Mar mazzer   (10.0) 19 - 19 (10.0)   ramon 9 13 M!mazzer-ramon-2003-03-18-2250
18-Mar ramon   (15.5) 21 - 14 (04.5)   Salsachick 10 10 ramon-salsachick-2003-03-19-1457
18-Mar ramon   (06.1) 20 - 22 (13.9)   Salsachick 9 5 salsachick-ramon-2003-03-19-1522
18-Mar ramon   (04.2) 13 - 21 (15.8)   blick 12 5 BLiCK-ramon-2003-03-19-0753
18-Mar ramon   (14.3) 23 - 20 (05.7)   blick 13 6 ramon-BLiCK-2003-03-19-1718
19-Mar SiRPi   (06.7) 12 - 13 (13.3)   iain 8 8 SiRPi-iain-2003-03-20-1530
19-Mar SiRPi   (17.0) 28 - 14 (03.0)   iain 8 9 iain-SiRPi-2003-03-20-1548
20-Mar steven2   (04.7) 16 - 22 (15.3)   SiRPi 13 6 M!steven2-SiRPi-2003-03-21-2001
20-Mar steven2   (15.0) 17 - 12 (05.0)   SiRPi 14 11 M!steven2-SiRPi-2003-03-21-2045
21-Mar ramon   (15.3) 33 - 27 (04.7)   SiRPi 14 14 M!ramon-SiRPi-2003-03-22-0820
21-Mar ramon   (03.6) 13 - 24 (16.4)   SiRPi 14 9 M!SiRPi-ramon-2003-03-22-1757
21-Mar SiRPi   (14.3) 14 - 11 (05.7)   blick 10 9 M!SiRPi-BLiCK-2003-03-22-1906
21-Mar SiRPi   (17.5) 32 - 15 (02.5)   blick 8 6 M!SiRPi-BLiCK-2003-03-22-1956
23-Mar steven2   (14.3) 21 - 18 (05.7)   mazzer 12 12 M!steven2-mazzer-2003-03-24-1448
23-Mar steven2   (06.7) 19 - 20 (13.3)   mazzer 14 13 M!steven2-mazzer-2003-03-24-1525
23-Mar steven2   (05.7) 18 - 21 (14.3)   Salsachick 14 8 salsachick-steven2-2003-03-24-2040
23-Mar steven2   (15.8) 22 - 14 (04.2)   Salsachick 14 5 salsachick-steven2-2003-03-25-0535
25-Mar steven2   (05.3) 23 - 27 (14.7)   blick 14 11 M!BLiCK-steven2-2003-03-26-2012
25-Mar steven2   (13.9) 21 - 19 (06.1)   blick 14 11 M!BLiCK-steven2-2003-03-26-2103
26-Mar yoseph   (16.2) 30 - 20 (03.8)   blick 14 6 M!yoseph-BLiCK-2003-03-27-1925
28-Mar ramon   (15.5) 16 - 9 (04.5)   iain 14 11 ramon-iain-2003-03-29-0929
28-Mar ramon   (13.9) 16 - 14 (06.1)   iain 10 7 iain-ramon-2003-03-29-1001
29-Mar steven2   (06.1) 14 - 16 (13.9)   iain 14 7 steven2-iain-2003-03-30-1911
29-Mar steven2   (13.3) 23 - 22 (06.7)   iain 14 9 iain-steven2-2003-03-30-2009
1-Apr steven2   (02.2) 14 - 33 (17.8)   yoseph 14 10 M!steven2-yoseph-2003-04-02-1854
1-Apr steven2   (16.7) 25 - 21 (03.3)   yoseph 14 16 M!yoseph-steven2-2003-04-02-2101
2-Apr steven2   (14.7) 24 - 20 (05.3)   ramon 14 11 M!steven2-ramon-2003-04-03-1016
2-Apr steven2   (15.3) 27 - 21 (04.7)   ramon 14 8 M!ramon-steven2-2003-04-03-2049
3-Apr yoseph   (01.1) 17 - 19 (18.9)   ramon 19 11 M!yoseph-ramon-2003-04-04-1920
3-Apr yoseph   (06.1) 24 - 26 (13.9)   ramon 14 10 M!yoseph-ramon-2003-04-04-2006
toddy's results before she withdrew - to be included in the Elo rating calculations:
10-Mar toddy   (15.5) 24 - 17 (04.5)   Salsachick 10 5 toddy-salsachick-2003-03-11-1355
10-Mar toddy   (18.0) 42 - 22 (02.0)   Salsachick 9 4 salsachick-toddy-2003-03-11-1414
11-Mar toddy   (05.0) 17 - 22 (15.0)   iain 10 9 toddy-iain-2003-03-12-1316
11-Mar toddy   (13.9) 20 - 18 (06.1)   iain 8 12 toddy-iain-2003-03-12-1340
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