Author Topic: National Championship Carcassonne- Latvia - 14.09.2014 (Read 18415 times)

kettlefish · « **on:** September 07, 2014, 09:23:31 AM »

Carcassonne

8. National Championship Latvia

when: Sunday 14 09 2014 - Start 10:00 am / End: 6:00 pm
where: Latvia, Riga

more information:
Brain Games - Championship 2014

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1036.0

kettlefish · « **Reply #1 on:** September 07, 2014, 11:19:08 AM »

A special guest at the championship in Riga, Latvia:

Udo Schmitz (Carcassonne-on-Tour)

kettlefish · « **Reply #2 on:** September 07, 2014, 01:44:34 PM »

MrNumbers,

do you go to the Latvian Championship?

Is there also the winner of the last year?

MrNumbers · « **Reply #3 on:** September 07, 2014, 02:03:55 PM »

Of course, I will go!
It is the biggest annual event for Latvian Carcassonne community! And this year is a special year - Udo Schmitz will visit our event!

Previous year's winner (3rd on World Championship) went away for studies to Finland for a year.
He told me that there is a very small possibility that he will visit the championship: for this to happen he needs to fly in for one day specially for taking part in competition.

kettlefish · « **Reply #4 on:** September 07, 2014, 02:23:19 PM »

That is interesting - one more chance to win for you if the old champion wouldn't come...

MrNumbers · « **Reply #5 on:** September 11, 2014, 04:44:17 AM »

Previous Latvian champion just applied for this year's championship. I have contacted him and he confirmed participation.
Now there will be a hard battle for a first place! Hope I'll have a successful rematch for the last year's loss

danisthirty · « **Reply #6 on:** September 11, 2014, 06:48:42 AM »

I'm sure that all the practice you've had from the league and the world cup here, as well as plenty of other games I expect, will have helped you to become a far stronger player than you were last year.

I am confident that you will be victorious!

MrNumbers · « **Reply #7 on:** September 14, 2014, 10:20:30 AM »

Quick news: in semifinal I was playing with previous champion and again lost him (with his last tile he managed to connect and gain control over 36-point farm and won by 8 points).
After that I won the game for the 3rd place, but Alex became champion second year in a row.

Later I will write more detailed report.

kettlefish · « **Reply #8 on:** September 14, 2014, 11:41:43 AM »

I've got some pictures from Udo Schmitz by email during this day...

The new T-shirt in yellow with the Carcassonne-Goldrush.

kettlefish · « **Reply #9 on:** September 14, 2014, 11:46:02 AM »

The game with MrNumbers and the champion of Latvia and with other participants...

kettlefish · « **Reply #10 on:** September 14, 2014, 11:53:23 AM »

one more impression...

danisthirty · « **Reply #11 on:** September 14, 2014, 10:04:49 PM »

It looks like it was a well organised event. Shame we can't have something like this in the UK...

It sounds as though you were unlucky to lose the semi-final on the last tile of the game. Finishing 3rd is still a great achievement though - well done! Hopefully it will be 1st next year so you can attend the world championship!

Did you get to meet Udo Schmitz?

MrNumbers · « **Reply #12 on:** September 15, 2014, 01:04:50 AM »

The organization was very good, as it was in previous years. Udo Schmitz also came to the tournament and we have plenty of time to talk!

Udo brought some prizes for tournament participants: Klaus-Jürgen signed cards, Carcassonne bags, Wind Roses, German Monasteries. Every participant (40 people) has received at least one of them.
This year tournament format was little bit different. Last year there was one big group, after 6 games 4 best players advanced to semifinal. With 44 participants it was very hard to get to the top! Now there were two groups with 20 players each and after 5 games 4 top players from each group advanced to quarterfinal, then semifinal and final. This year also new was match for the "bronze medal".
I started tournament with a loss and realized that I need to win all remaining 4 games to advance to QF. I managed to do so, 5th game was the hardest - we both struggled for the place in QF and I won only by 2 points! So I started from the 2nd place in the group, top player of our group was the one to whom I lost my first game - his result was perfect so far. Quarterfinal game was quite easy for me and the semifinal was scheduled with Alexey Pegushev, my opponent from previous year's final (by the way, the top player from my group lost his QF). I was leading throughout the whole game more than half of the scoreboard, 1/3 of the game Alexey was even out of followers! I thought that the game was already won, but than he made an attempt to connect to the big 36-point farm that we shared till that moment with 3 followers each. With 2 tiles left I understood that he has a opportunity to succeed in his connect as we both have counted tiles and there was 1 right tile left, but I couldn't do anything with my tile to stop his connect or to try my own connect (CCCF tile is very specific for connections to farms). He has got his CCFF tile and won by just 8 points.
After that I had not so difficult match for the 3rd place that I won and Alexey in the final won his opponent from other semifinal also by 8 or 9 points. Now he will go to Essen again and will try to win the Worlds!
We agreed with Alexey that he must win the World championship and, as World champion automatically gets to next year's tournament, in 2015 I must win national championship and we will go together to the Worlds-2015!

)
By the way, Alexey has perfect statistics: from 16 games in last two tournaments he won all 16!