MSO 1999

LONDON – Olympia Conference Centre
21-29 August 1999
Mind Sports Olympiad III
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Chronicle

This text is available only in Italian

Si è svolta al Olympiad Conference Centre di Londra dal 21 al 29 agosto la terza edizione delle Mind Sport Olympiad (Olimpiadi degli Sport della Mente) che prevedeva un centinaio di gare nelle più diverse discipline mentali, dai giochi classici (Scacchi, Go, Bridge, Backgammon, Mancala, Poker, Scrabble, ecc.), a quelli più nuovi (Abalone, Othello, Twixt, ecc.), fino alle più disparate prove di Intelligenza, Memoria e Creatività. Come al solito i media italiani si sono messi in luce per la loro totale assenza, mentre a livello di partecipazione è andata meglio solo di poco: 2 concorrenti italiani su un totale di circa 2.000! Il nostro medagliere vanta comunque un oro, un argento e due bronzi. Il vero protagonista della manifestazione è stato Demis Hassabis, che ha brillantemente bissato il successo dello scorso anno nel Pentamind World Championship (una sorta di combinata dei 5 migliori risultati ottenuti gareggiando in varie discipline). Vale la pena conoscere più da vicino questo Hassabis, un londinese con parziali origini di Singapore. Da ragazzino ha cominciato con gli Scacchi e infatti è stato il 12-enne col più alto rating scacchistico di tutti i tempi. Poi si è dedicato a scrivere programmi per computer e infatti a 16 anni è stato coautore di Theme Park, un gioco che ha venduto 4 milioni di copie nel mondo. Nel frattempo ha approfondito il Go, lo Shogi (scacchi giapponesi), il Diplomacy e innumerevoli altri giochi, in ognuno dei quali ha guadagnato titoli e classifiche. All’università ha rappresentato il suo college di Cambridge in 7 diversi giochi (fra cui Scacchi e Go) e – come se già non bastasse – in 5 diversi sport (fra cui pallavolo e tennis da tavolo). Laureato a pieni voti, ha fondato e dirige un’azienda di progettazione di videogiochi di strategia che conta ormai una dozzina di programmatori. Oggi ha 23 anni. Bill Gates, ti conviene metterti in guardia!

ITALIAN MEDALS

Continuo
1 Tony Niccoli Italy
2 Demis Hassabis United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
3 Harold Lee United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Go
1 Frank Prager Germany
2 Tony Niccoli Italy
3 Natasha ReganR. Coull United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Minibridge
1 David Pearce United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
2 Peter Wood United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
3 Dario De Toffoli Italy

Oware – Beginners’ Tournament
1 Dario De Toffoli Italy
2 R. Mazumder Bangladesh
3 T. Lemuel Dominican Republic

Pentamind
1 Demis Hassabis (454/500) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
2 Dario De Toffoli (431) Italy
3 Paul Smith (419) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Poker
1 Iain Adams United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
2 Daniel Staples United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
3 Tony Niccoli Italy

Poker – Omaha
1 George Hassabis United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
2 J. Butler Ireland
3 Dario De Toffoli Italy

Board games and mental skills brought to you by…

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Mental Skills: Interview with Pentamind star Dario De Toffoli
A love of games – a Pentamind sketch
23 September

Dario De Toffoli: Pentamind Medal winner, MSO 1998, 1999

Dario De Toffoli was the one medal winner I did not have a chance to chat with in the hectic hustle and bustle of MSO III. And in all the confusion, I probably would have missed him anyway… since the results for this event were muddled. The front page of the Mindzine has tried to correct this, and we hope Mr. De Toffoli’s honour has been restored. The one bright spot of this error was a chance to have a virtual conversation, and get to meet this Pentamind specialist.

Dario is 46, and at the age of 30, he decided to “throw away his profession” and turn to games:

“Playing games, writing about games, inventing new games, organizing games events: in other words, all about games. Now I lead “studiogiochi”, a company that organizes games events, for example, the City of Venice International Backgammon Tournament (last July the 11th edition with players from 22 countries) The Italian Games Festival (this month the 7th edition); and many others.

studiogiochi also collaborates with Italian newspapers and magazines and with the majority of the games companies in Italy. Recently I started “Venice Connection”, a game publishing company together with Alex Randolph and Leo Colovini.”

One is always curious to know what are the special attractions for the versatile Pentamind types, and if they have a special approach to the MSO.

“My favourite games are backgammon, scrabble (what a pity I can’t play it in English!), mastermind… but what I especially like is playing different games: not only the classics, but also the new ones, as the millions of German board games that they yearly publish. At MSO I discovered and enjoyed Poker: an irresistible occasion to try 7 different styles! It was very exciting, but I missed a couple of good tournaments for my Pentamind-points… At MSO I discovered and enjoyed Oware as well: easy to learn and deep to play.”

That sounds quite a bit like what Dario’s main rivals got up to. And how does Dario rate the opposition?

“Demis is the best. So good in so many games. And also he is a nice and friendly person. It will be almost impossible to beat him in Pentamind. But his young brother George is coming: with more experience he will be a strong opponent… I don’t know Paul Smith well, but he definitely is a very strong and versatile player. It is really an honour to be on this podium!”