Olympiad GIPF Championship

Organisation: MSO, in collaboration with the GIPF Center
Place: Olympiad Conference Center, London, GB
Date: Saturday, August 29, 1999
Format: Swiss system, 7 rounds, 20 min. player/game


The first World Champion is…

Sunday, August 29. 19 registered players, of whom Ragnar Wikman had to call off. Stijn Pauwels, faced with everything that could possibly go wrong that weekend, had to make a round trip to Antwerp and didn't make it back in time: two rounds had been played yet by the time he came running into the Olympia Conference Center. Very unfortunate, but Stijn took it with style and became the assistant of Frédéric Van Aelst (his disabled friend, who needs help for making his moves).

Apart from this unpleasant note, the tournament ran smooth and agreeable. The participants battled fierce but never snappy. It was pleasant to notice that the different nationalities became a coherent group: in between the rounds they were all playing blitz-games and exchanged hints and strategies. I sincerely hope that it will remain like that in the future… Which brings me to the results: for the time being, the Belgians are still the bunch to beat - although their hegemony will probably not last for much longer. There is - to begin with - Yoshi Ikkai, the octopus. He may well be the strongest GIPF-player for the moment, but he started to put into practice a new opening and was confronted with a few surprises. Then there was Stephen Tavener. He missed his first 2 games, but once he got warmed up, he still appeared to be a well muscled player. Fred Kok, World Champion LAO, worked quietly on his condition and gets stronger with every tournament. Gerd Schnider, a semi-professional Go-player, only recently found out about the game, yet already showed that he'll be one of the players to beat next year. Gianni Cottogni loves the game but doesn't find sparring partners in Italy, so he challenges GF1 every now and then. Christophe Dreypont, a very amiable person, learned how to play on Saturday and pulled his string amazingly well on Sunday. And last but not least: Jacub Aragorn Tesinsky, a gifted Othello player, who signed up at the very last minute and who plays every game that he thinks is worth to be played with an inspiring enthusiasm.

And then, of course, there were the Belgians. One of them appeared to be too sharp for friend and opponent (Belgian or not) and became the celebrated winner: Werner Dupont. A beautiful winner, because yet again a surprise. Until further notice Koen de Jongh remains the only one to have gathered two titles of ranking tournaments. Kurt Vandenbranden carried off his second silver medal on the MSO and through that he became the most consistent of the Gipfers in London. He, too, scored 6 wins but he ran a less difficult track than Werner. Patrick Van de Perre secured his 3rd place and got the bronze medal.


Standings

Place Name                          Loc Score   M-Buch  Buch  Progr

 1-2  Dupont, Werner (B)                6        20.5   29.0  24.0
      Van Den Branden, Kurt (B)         6        17.0   25.5  26.0
 3-4  Van De Perre, Patrick (B)         5        22.5   31.5  20.0
      De Meester, Aksel (B)             5        16.5   21.5  17.0
 5-9  Daelemans, Karel (B)              4        22.0   31.0  18.0
      Ikkai, Yoshimoto (JAP)            4        19.5   27.0  17.0
      Tavener, Stephen (UK)             4        18.5   27.0  15.0
      Kok, Fred (NL)                    4        16.0   21.5  11.0
      Pauwels, Rita (B)                 4        15.0   21.5  17.0
10-15 Schnider, Gert (AUT)              3        19.0   27.5  15.0
      Dryepondt, Christophe (F)         3        18.5   25.0  14.0
      De Jongh, Le Koen (NL)            3        18.5   25.0  10.0
      Hanzen, Werner (B)                3        18.0   24.5  13.0
      De Laet, André (B)                3        17.5   26.0  13.0
      Tesinsky, Jakub Aragorn (TCH)     3        13.0   17.5  11.0
 16   Cottogni, Gianni (ITA)            2        16.5   21.0  6.0
 17   Van Aelst, Frédéric (B)           1        15.0   21.5  5.0

No  Name                    Total   1    2    3    4    5    6    7  

1.  Cottogni, Gianni (ITA)    2    9:L 11:L 10:L   :W 17:L 14:W  3:L
2.  Daelemans, Karel (B)      4   10:W  7:L  9:W 11:W 15:L 12:W 16:L
3.  De Jongh, Le Koen (NL)    3   11:L 12:L 13:W 10:W  9:L  5:L  1:W
4.  De Laet, André (B)        3   12:W 16:L 15:L  8:W 13:L 17:W 10:L
5.  De Meester, Aksel (B)     5   13:W  9:L 12:L 14:W  8:W  3:W 15:W
6.  Dryepondt, Christophe (F) 3   14:W 17:W 16:L 12:L  7:L 10:L   :W
7.  Dupont, Werner (B)        6   15:W  2:W 11:W 16:L  6:W  9:W 13:W
8.  Hanzen, Werner (B)        3   16:L 14:W 17:W  4:L  5:L   :W 11:L
9.  Ikkai, Yoshimoto (JAP)    4    1:W  5:W  2:L 15:L  3:W  7:L 12:W
10. Kok, Fred (NL)            4    2:L 13:L  1:W  3:L   :W  6:W  4:W
11. Pauwels, Rita (B)         4    3:W  1:W  7:L  2:L 14:W 13:L  8:W
12. Schnider, Gert (AUT)      3    4:L  3:W  5:W  6:W 16:L  2:L  9:L
13. Tavener, Stephen (UK)     4    5:L 10:W  3:L 17:W  4:W 11:W  7:L
14. Van Aelst, Frédéric (B)   1    6:L  8:L   :W  5:L 11:L  1:L 17:L
15. Van De Perre, Patrick (B) 5    7:L   :W  4:W  9:W  2:W 16:W  5:L
16. Van Den Branden, Kurt (B) 6    8:W  4:W  6:W  7:W 12:W 15:L  2:W
17. Tesinsky J. Aragorn (TCH) 3     :W  6:L  8:L 13:L  1:W  4:L 14:W