Gipf: I play the game

December 12 , 2002
Austrian (!!!) wins GIPF WC
The previous GIPF WC's took place during the yearly Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London. Not so this year. We knew too late that there was going to be a MSO in England again, and, even after having been informed about that, we still had no details about what the 2002 edition was going to be like. So, we decided to pass - and that normally would have implied that there was not going to be a GIPF WC in 2002. But then Christoph Nuyttens stood up and he made a clear statement: there will be a GIPF WC in 2002! There was not much time left, so this World Championship was hardly announced in advance. 19 players showed up, amongst which 16 Belgians, 3 Duchtmen, and 1 German. For the occasion the organizing committee issued the prohibition to register under a true nationality. In other words: all the participants had to play for another country. This very, very, very clever trick made that suddenly 19 nationalities from all over the globe were present in "Zaal Ensor", Kessel-Lo, Leuven, Belgium. Now, a tournament with players from 19 different countries, that is true World Championship!

19 participants in total, amongst which 3 newcomers: Robrecht Jacques (from Togo!), Cecile Simoens (From Bolivia!) and Gerhard Koops (from Croatia!). It's always a pleasure to welcome new players. Maybe they'll be playing to become World Champion next year, but this year two of the experienced players fought for the titel: Raf Ruyters (from Austria!) and Kurt Vandenbanden (from Bulgaria!). Kurt is always a top favourite; Raf not any more. He used to be one of the strongest players, but he didn't do too well in the last tournaments he played, and as a result of that lost his place in the top 10 of the rankings. But - no doubt about it - he's back! Raf and Kurt both ended with 6 wins out of 7 games. And in spite of the fact that Kurt had beaten Raf in the 6th round, the latter ended with a higher Medio-Bucholds score and, unfortunately for Kurt, that score was used as the tie-breaker. In other words: Raf Ruyters become the winner of this year's World championship! Kurt Vandenbranden was second, and Werner Dupont and Patrick Van de Perre shared the third place with 5 wins each. Concratulations to all 19 players !!!

For complete information, go to the results.

Little Golem

Little Golem is a Czech spot on the interent where you can play by e-mail. It is a place that differs from other sites that offer the possibility to play by e-mail, because it is focused on e-tournaments. Easy: just sign in and as soon as a group of 4 or 5 players has been formed, a new tournament starts. As such, there are nonstop tournaments going on. The site is very clear and well structured and that is probably the reason why there is a lot of activity. To give you an example: in 2 to 3 weeks about 20 DVONN tournaments have begun.

Highly reccomended! Go to Little Golem.

Albido became the first DVONN-Rabit

On November 24, the DVONN Guild had its first activity: an online "First Contact" tournament. Albido appeared to be the strongest of the 12 participants. By winning the tournament, he obtained the title of DVONN-Rabit. Mind you: not just an ordidnary DVONN-Rabit but the very first DVONN-Rabit ever! What do you say about that!

"First Contact" means that is was a tournament for beginners. As explained, the winner of such a tournament gets the title of "Rabit". The DVONN Guild has worked out a schedule with different types of tournaments and different kind of titles. You start as a rabit and the ultimate title to achieve is "Dragon". In between you can become, respectively, a Hawk, a Shark and a Tiger. If you want to know more about the different tournaments, the different titles and how tro get them, go to the site of the DVONN Guild. They have German and English pages.

On December 15, the Guild has another event coming up. This time it will be an "Alive" tournament, which means that the winner will not become just a Rabit, but a Hawk. Mind you: not just an ordidnary Hawk but the very first DVONN-Hawk ever! What do you say about that! Quite a bit at stake! Don't miss the opportunity!