REPORTS ON THE LATTER STAGES OF THE
2003 WORLD TEAM TANTRIX CHAMPIONSHIP
Written by Rick Yagodich, in reverse chronological order
SAT: OK, this is it - the final mini-match of the 2003 WTTC.
GER A's Ilona is playing NZL B's Bevan.
Game 1 looked like it would be a bad start for Ilona. At m26, Bevan had a split
27 to her 11.
Some brilliant blocking and building later, Bevan's link was unjoinable and Ilona took the game by 2 points, giving GER A the lead.
Game 2 started out with rapid line building by both players,
then got all blocked up, Ilona
losing the piece she needed for the end game.
Bevan then added to his line with
impunity for a 5 tile win, regaining the lead for NZL A.
Game 3 started early with a loop for each: 18-16 to Bevan.
Ilona's second effort was
threatening but Bevan got a lucky draw (the last tile
in the bag) to stop both ends in one fell swoop.
Ilona must now win both remaining
games to take the 3rd place for GER A.
Game 4 was blocked for a long time on 18-16 in Ilona's favour.
A small mistake by Bevan allowed Ilona to block both ends of his line and add to her own in
the end game, giving
Game 5 is winner take all (a draw being enough for NZL A. A nailbiter, neck and neck, right up to
the end game.
Bevan then played
"tactically," blocking Ilona's line for the
draw he needed to win the match for NZL A.
FRI: The 3/4th place playoff continues with Sarah K being
drafted by NLZ A to replace the unavailable Shaun against GER A's Matthias.
Though Matthias could have claimed a
default, he prefered to play the match out than win
that way.
While Matthias dominated the first game, the second was hard
fought and heavily blocked.
With both players over time (unclaimed due to interuptions), Sarah sqeezed in a
2 tile victory at the end.
In game 3, it looked like Sarah should have been a NZL A
first draft instead of a replacement, locking Matthias out everywhere he tried
to build.
Game 4 was again hard fought with Sarah holding on to a win.
Only in game 5 did Matthias rally, scraping in narrowly toclose
the match.
THU: Game 4 in Matt v. Wolfgang went the German's way.
Wolfgang dominated from the start and Matt was left playing catch-up.
Game 5 looked to be Matt's, though Wolfgang had a threat
looming. With the end game in site, Matt wasted 7 times to get the ones he
wanted.
Instead, the two critical tiles (order did matter, though he
didn't notice at the time) stayed in the bag, and Wolfgang made his connection.
GER A are now leading in the battle
for 3rd place, with questions hanging over what is actually happening with the
outstanding mini-matches.
WED: A day over deadline and it's
top-of-table in the 3/4th place playoff with GER A's Wolfgang taking on NZL A's
Matt.
Game 1 didn't look good for Wolfgang half way through, but a
good block let him pull off a devastating recovery.
Game 2 involved much defensive play from both, with Matt
just managing to hold on to victory at the end by wasting Wolfgang's tiles.
In game 3, Wolfgang looked dominant for much of the game but
Matt played well, squeezing in another victory.
With half the games played (13/25), the scores stand at NZL A 138.4, GER A 121.6
TUE: The deadline is upon us and it's the last match of the
finals - the state of the 3/4th is another matter.
HUN A's Zoltán faces off against
NZL B's Britta. Early on, game 1 was obviously Britta's. A 18-tile loop threat
was one tile from reality.
...But Zoltán worked masterfully
to avoid it, building and joining two lines of his own.
...In the end game, with 2 tiles to Britta's
5, he was still in the stronger position, Britta
sacrificing in a vain attempt at damage limitation.
A more conservative game, #2 was hard fought and hard
thought on both sides, neck and neck most of the time with Zoltán
sneaking the win.
In game 3, Zoltán is after a win
to take the title for
Less than 6 points from claiming the title, Zoltán's nerves (and the time of night) are starting to
show. Or maybe Britta is waking up.
…But Britta only managed to hold
on to a 3 tile win, one short of what was needed to make a final score of
250.0-250.0 theoretically possibe.
With the pressure off, Britta let
loose with a disturbing display of playing prowess. Recurring
loop threats keeping Zoltán on the defensive.
It was a stellar performance by the NZLer,
but the match was already decided.
Interestingly, this time round NZL B get a taste of their
own medicine: winning 3 of 5 mini-matches but losing the title.
SUN: It's the top of the table final mini-match between Tantrix's inventor Mike (NZL A) and HUN A's Péter.
A tight first game was slightly in Péter's
favour until he got the first free move to take a monumental lead in this
crucial match.
Game 2, Mike landed himself a loop for 14 with Péter not far behind. Defensive play kept Péter's score to 15 while building a second loop for 16.
The drawn mini-match after 2 games trend has been broken at
last.
Game 3 saw more loop-work from Mike and more defensive play
for yet another 1 tile win. Péter still leads the
mini matchby 0.4TP.
Game 4, Péter set up a potential
18 tile loop with a 0/1 forced space, and Mike immediately played another tile
to block and use up…
…Péter's critical tile, also
blocking one of the other joins needed for the loop. Mike took the game and the
lead in the mini-match
Game 5 became the big decider, Péter
needinga 7-tile win to take the mini-match. With Mike
threatening a 15-tile loop early on, the heat was on.
…Some good counting left Mike with the first free move but
no BB tile to complete his loop.
Though Péter's margin was only 4,
it was enough to keep HUN A 18.4TP in the lead with
only one mini-match remaining.
SAT (later): game 3 between Catherine and Christine was ugly
- heavily blocked. Catherine squeezed through to take a domminant
lead.
Game 4 was different. Christine built on a strong opening to
take the game by an 8 point margin
... (she thinks it might have been
her second win against Catherine, ever!) and followed
this up with another win in game 5.
NZL A's margin is only 11.4TP, effectively one game. Both
teams still have everything to play for.
SAT: Finally some 3/4th place action as NZL A's Catherine
and GER A's Christine do battle.
In two tight games (g1 was far tighter than than the result makes it look), Catherine took a strong
lead for the #1 seeds.
THU: Picking up where the battle left off yesterday, László defended against Robin's creeping line in the end
game to hold on to a draw.
Game 5 was a tough game, heavily blocked, with both players
making small additions.
In the end game, Robin lost tiles in blocking and surpassing
László's score when he could have simply blocked and
left himself two open ends,
...thus allowing the Hungarian to freely add his last five
tiles for a comfortable win instead of a draw.
HUN A are now back to a lead of
over 20TP with only two mini-matches to play.
WED: OK, what's the deal? Each mini-match in the final has
been 20.0-20.0 after the first two games, László and
Robin continuing the trend.
Game 3 was a tight scrape in NZL B's favour, though Robin
felt it might not have been totally deserved.
TUE: The final promises to be all excitement as HUN A's Miklós and NZL B's Stacy share one game apiece with equal
margins.
TUE (later): Part II of Miklós v.
Stacy began by going in HUN A's favour with Miklós
securing two much valued win.
Stacy returned with a vengence in
game 5 (25 margin) to take the mini match 52.1-47.9. HUN A
still hold almost a 20TP lead.
MON: The opening shots of the 3rd/4th place playoff saw GER
A's Lutz face off against NZL A's
Trading wins back and forth, Lutz had the bigger margins to
make his 2 wins count, allowing NZL A only a 2.8TP margin at the end of 5
games.
SUN: The first (unanounced) Finals
match began today with NZL B's Chris taking the first game from HUN A's János.
In game 2, János turned the tables
to even up the match and game 3 was a draw. If this is an
indication of things to come…
Game 4, with the same margin as the first 2, left HUN A in
the lead and the 10-tile margin in game 5 gave HUN A a
devastating start.
THUR: It's SF deadline day as NZL
A's Bevan lines up against HUN A's Miklós (reigning Hungarian Chanmpion).
HUN A start with a 12.2TP lead.
G1: setting up a double BB forcable
space, Miklós precedes to waste BBs.
With only one tile to fill the first, Bevan
sacrifices one of the two…
…that will fit the second and draws the tile he is after to
force Miklós to play the last YBB and connect his
lines. (HUN A lead down to 2.8TP)
G2: was all about keeping lines separate. Going
into the end game Bevan lead 11-9. Miklos narrowed it to 13-12 but NZL A take
the lead.
G3: was frustrating for both players with Bevan getting the break, leaving Miklós
needing two solid wins to avoid a NZL-only final.
G4: came down to who drew which of the last two RYRs after both players passed up loop opportunities,
keeping HUN A in the game.
With everything coming down to the last game as in SF2, the
lines started building early for both. Controlled by a single tile (RRGYYG)…
…the tension was thick in cyberspace. Miklós
finally got the block he needed and enough room to win by 4 tiles….
…taking HUN A through to the finals (with
250.6TP) to face NZL B.