GIPF Ranking Tournament (GRC 2001, heat 2/4)
Organization: Christof Nuytens and Nico Foque in colaboration with game club "Speelduivel" and games shop
"Mertens"
Place: "Ensor", Diestsesteenweg, Kessel-Lo, Leuven (B)
Date: June 4, 2001
Format: Swiss system, 5 rounds, 20 min. player/game
Participants: 22
"DUP" strikes again
The first thing to be said about the second heat of the GIPF Regularity Contest 2001 is that is well perfectly organized. In the morning the first ZERTZ ranking tournament ever took place, which made the GIPF tournament in the afternoon an event for "long distance players". Everybody who knows Werner Dupont, has no other choice than to conclude that he is such a player. He scored 5 wins in a row and became the winner. Very convincing play, although he crawled through the eye of the needle in his match against An Baelemans. He had virtually won the game (An had only one piece to play with and no opportunity to recycle pieces) but his flag fell. Werner, having misunderstood "the last move rule" thought to have won the game, but that rule doesn't mean that you get "one more move" after you ran out of time; it says that you "may finish the move you are making when you flag falls". Anyway, An didn't notice that Werner's flag had fallen; she played her last piece, hit the clock and, by doing so, put Werner back in turn. That meant that Werner, according to the rule that neither the arbiter not the public may interfere with a running game, was given the right to make another move, including the right to finish that move according to the last minute rule - and, unfortunately for An, that was the one move Werner needed to win the game. So, afterwards there was a discussion about this issue, but An solved the problem: she agreed with Werner's win "in the spirit of the game". (Thank you, An!) Three players shared the second place with 4 wins: Jix Demerco, Patrick "Maīrte" Van de Perre and the amazingly strong newcomer Jan Roelens.
(A detailed explanation of the "last move rule" will be published on this site in the near future. For the time being you can read about it on the FAQ-page, point 11.
ZERTZ Ranking tournament
Organization: Christof Nuytens and Nico Foque in colaboration with game club "Speelduivel" and games shop
"Mertens"
Place: "Ensor", Diestsesteenweg, Kessel-Lo, Leuven (B)
Date: June 4, 2001
Format: Swiss system, 6 rounds, 7 min. player/game
Participants: 18
A female surprise
A satisfying number of 18 players gathered at 10:00 in hall "Ensor", amongst which a certain Nadine Van Laer, a blond lady who put her name down with nothing but the Olympic motto in mind: participating is more important than winning. Nonetheless, - and I quote - she hoped not to end in the last place and to win at least one game. One game? A hesitating style of playing, yes; she seemed to have doubts about every single move she made but, having said that, effective she was! Nadine won the tournament with 6 wins in a row and left the others nothing but a fight for the second place. That second place is mine, Fred Kok must have thought, and he beat top-favorite Stephen Tavener in the last round.