1st Project GIPF Weekend

Organization: Project GIPF Centre
Place: 't Pannenhuis, Nijlen (B)
Date: November 24-25, 2001
November 24: ZÈRTZ and DVONN
November 25: TAMSK and GIPF
All 4 tournaments were played according to the Swiss System format
Participants: 33


5th Aniversary

A brief recapitulation: to celebrate the 5th aniversary of GIPF (as a game and as a project), the Project GIPF Centre hired a Youth Hostel and set up a Project GIPF weekend. The idea behind it was to gather a bunch of Project GIPF minded players. On the menu: an abstract game marathon (i.e. a tournament of each game that is part of the Project) with the purpose to crown the first Project GIPF Champion. In total 33 players showed up, of which 21 stayed overnight. 11 of them played in all 4 tournaments. 3 nationalities were represented: 3 players from Germany, 9 from The Netherlands, and the rest were playing home matches. For the occasion each of the competitions had something special:

1. ZÈRTZ (Saturday, from 14:00 to 17:00, 5 rounds)
The first ZÈRTZ-tournament that was played with 11 extra rings. There was a bit apprehension... Wasn't the larger board going to make the game unnecessary longer? Wasn't it going to lead to filling up the board until there was no more safe spot? In Short, wasn't it going to take away the thrill of long sequences and forced moves? No, it didn't. Kurt Van den Branden - who considers himself a Gipfer, not a Zèrtzer - knew best how to deal with the extra rings and was the only player who remained unbeaten. Jeroen Weyn and Christof Nuyttens - in the first place Zèrtzers, not Gipfers - became second with 4 wins each.

2. DVONN (Saturday, from 19:00 to 22:00, 5 rounds)
The first DVONN tournament. DVONN was released only a couple of weeks before the event, so all players were novices. A good atmosphere and a lot of wondering about what was going to happen. Werner Dupont appeared to be the best performer (read: improviser). He won the first DVONN title.

3. TAMSK (Sunday, from 10:00 to 12:00, 5 rounds)
The very first TAMSK tournament. The game already exists 2 1/2 years, but it always was (still is) a difficult game to play in the context of a competition. Normally one would need an arbiter for every board. And even then - in particular because not all of the hours-glasses contain an equal amount of time - a TAMSK-tournament sounds like asking for trouble. Well, it went smooth. No problem at all - it must be said: thanks to the full cooperation of the participants. Gijs de Leeuw van Weenen wrote Project GIPF history: he surprised everybody, not in the least himself, and won the first and maybe the last (certainly not!) TAMSK tournament with 5 out of 5.

4. GIPF (Sunday, from 13:00 to 18:00, 6 rounds)
GIPF exists in Belgium since June, 1996. The very same evening of it's release the first Antwerp Open GIPF tournament was announced, giving everybody exactly 6 months to prepare him/herself for the first GIPF challenge. During the Project GIPF weekend the 5th edition of the Open GIPF took place. So, it could be said that all the participants had had exactly 5 years to prepare themselves for this jubilee event. Less players than for the previous Antwerp Open GIPF tournaments, but, nonetheless, a bunch of strong players was present and eager to show off with *outstanding* play - and many of them were candidate for the title. Werner Dupont remained the only unbeaten player after 5 rounds and was already sure to have won yet another major trophee before having started his last round game. Patrick Van de perre won against Werner and Kurt Van den Branden floored Aksel De Meester. Three players shared the first place with 5 wins, but Werner had to face stronger opponents and, thus, won the 5th Open GIPF. His second victory that weekend! He had already won the DVONN tournament on Saturday - but was it enough to become the first Project GIPF Champion?


The Project GIPF Champion

Kurt Van den Branden (see picture!) had taken a perfect start by winning the ZÈRTZ tournament without having lost a game. He also scored 4 points with DVONN, which meant that he was leading the dance after the first day. He had 3 players on his tail: Jeroen Weyn, Christof Nuyttens, and Werner Dupont, who had won the DVONN tournament; they were sharing the second place with 8 wins. Johannes Cannoodt, Ad Rovers, Angelo Wentzler and Robrecht Jacques were not striked out yet (6 points each), but it was going to be tough to catch up with Kurt, especially because Kurt was one of the top favourites for the GIPF tournament. So, the 3 players with 8 points were the real threat. Christof Nuyttens had a weak moment during the TAMSK tournament and lost 3 games. Gijs de Leeuw van Weenen won that event. Jeroen played very consitent all the way; he won 4 games in all 4 tournaments, but, unfortunately, that wasn't enough. There was a brief moment of hope, though. Kurt had won only 3 games of TAMSK and Jeroen had leveled the score with 4 wins. But Kurt went one point ahead again during the Open GIPF and became the first Project GIPF Champion. Kurt scored a total of 17 points, Jeroen became second with 16. Congratulations to both.
And Werner Dupont? What happened with him? He was the only player who intended to play in the 4 tournaments but who didn't stay overnight. And it went wrong. Nothing serious, but - poor Werner - he overslept himself and missed the TAMSK tournament. Could he have won the Project GIPF Championship? We'll never know. I hope that he found a bit of comfort in winning the 5th Open GIPF.

Pl.	Name	ZÈRTZ 5 rounds	DVONN 5 rounds	TAMSK 5 rounds	GIPF 6 rounds	Final score
1	Kurt Van den Branden (B)	5	4	3	5	17 (21)
2	Jeroen Weyn (B)	4	4	4	4	16 (21)
3	Christof Nuyttens (B)	4	4	2	3	13 (21)
	Ad Rovers (NL)	3	3	3	4	13 (21)
	Werner Dupont (B)	3	5	-	5	13 (16)
6	Johannes Cannoodt (B)	2	4	3	3	12 (21)
	Angelo Wentzler (NL)	3	3	4	2	12 (21)
8	Patrick Van de Perre (NL)	2	2	1	5	10 (21)
9	Jelmer Graafstra (NL)	2	2	2	3	9 (21)
10	Hennes Pasman (NL)	2	2	1	3	8 (21)
	Michael Reitz (D)	3	2	3	-	8 (15)
	Gijs de Leeuw v. W. (NL)	2	1	5	-	8 (15)
13	Wynke Stulemeijer (NL)	2	3	0	2	7 (21)
14	Boris Ammerlaan (NL)	0	2	2	2	6 (21)
	Rita Pauwels (B)	-	2	2	2	6 (16)
	Demian Walvisch (B)	-	3	-	3	6 (11)
	Robrecht Jacques (B)	3	3	-	-	6 (10)
18	Sebastian Bochra (D)	1	1	3	-	5 (15)
19	Kerstin Wiebe (D)	1	1	2	-	4 (15)
	David Glaude (B)	3	1	-	-	4 (10)
	Aksel De Meester (B)	-	-	-	4	4 (6)
	André De Laet (B)	-	-	-	4	4 (6)
	Romeo Ruyters (B)	-	-	-	4	4 (6)
	Dirk Monsieur (B)	-	-	-	4	4 (6)
25	Fred Van Aelst (B)	-	-	-	3	3(6)
	Nico Habraken (B)	-	-	-	-	3(6)
	Ann Reynders (B)	-	-	-	3	3(6)
	Steven Van Beersel (B)	-	-	-	3	3(6)
29	John Notredame (B)	-	-	-	2	2(6)
	Jo Burm (B)	-	2	-	-	2(5)
31	Margo de Langhe (B)	-	-	-	1	1(6)
	Teun de Langhe (NL)	-	-	-	1	1(6)