Join Hexversi Tourney #4 by June 28th Win up to 2500 pts. SPECIAL section for Newbies

[JohnGalt2341]

There are 3 different ways for you to win 500 points.

#1. Win the most games(not %) in the tourney out of anyone on SBR besides myself. blankoblanco won this in the last tourney with 10 total wins.

#1A. In this tourney there will be a SPECIAL for Newbies(anyone besides DanielEspinosa, blankoblanco, and Ian will qualify) to win 500 points. If none of the Newbies win a game, I will give 500 points to the Newbie that came closest to winning a COMPLETED game. If any of your opponents should timeout(this is not uncommon in the 1st round) you will still be credited for the win. Ian won this in the last Tourney with 2 Wins(both legit btw).

#2. Section Winner Prediction Picks. I will explain this more thoroughly once the tourney starts. DanielEspinosa won this in the last tourney with 24 points.

#3. Tourney Winner Prediction. Daniel Won this as well as he picked Toptal. I'm out to get my title back in this one!

Also, if anyone on SBR should WIN the tourney you will win 1000 points.

To sign up for the tourney, you need to go to http://itsyourturn.com and create a username(please use your SBR name). Then go to tournament area and click on June 2021 Open Main #3 Tournament. Find Hexversi and check the box and click submit down below.

You can practice Hexversi on the app below if you want to practice up before the tourney starts.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...xagonalreversi

I am requesting that everyone that joins this tourney to give me 1 point in this post. This is simply so I can keep track of who has joined.

The tournament will start on Tuesday, June 29th. I am expecting anywhere from 30 to 50 people from IYT to join. I am going to send out the message to the regular players tomorrow.

Hexversi is a very simple game that ANYONE can learn in less than a minute. I recommend the very short Othello(same rules) instructional video below if you want to know ALL the rules. If anyone has any questions, let me know in this thread.

Good luck!

[blankoblanco]

I'm in of course. I hope to see someone new to it from SBR give it a go

Thanks as always, John

[JohnGalt2341]

33 signed up so far with 3 days left to still sign up.

I got a message this morning from Toptal, it looks as if he will NOT be defending his title:

"Thanks. I am sorry but next week I leave on holidays and the chance of making tineout is high. Perhaps next time. Good luck!"

As of right now... for any Newbie that signs up... all you have to do is complete a full game(win OR lose) and you will win 500 points. Everyone qualifies except for blanko, Daniel, and Ian. It's a FREE 500 points for anyone that wants it. AND, there are other ways to win points!

You can practice on this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.doug.lee.hexagonalreversi

[gauchojake]

ok i am in

[JohnGalt2341]

ok i am in

Excellent! Good to have you gauchojake. Let me know if you have any questions. As of right now you are the front runner to Win most games won for Newbies. All you have to do is play a COMPLETED game. Also, if any of your opponents should timeout any of their games, you will still be credited for the win. All timeouts will count for all situations as you will not be punished for what other players do. But if you timeout your games, you will win nothing.

We've got 42 players signed up so far! I'm hoping to get to that 50 mark. Let's make it happen SBR!

[gauchojake]

For the record I am awful at this game.

[JohnGalt2341]

For the record I am awful at this game.

No problem. Here's a very simple and effective strategy that I call "The Island in the Water". YOU want to be the Island. Meaning, try to keep your pieces in a small clump inside of your opponents pieces. Just try to keep doing this throughout the game. Don't worry about piece count at all. It's better to have less pieces in most situations if possible. But the most important thing is to try to keep splitting up your opponents pieces by ripping right through the middle of their pieces. And preferably, you want to keep your Island small if possible. There is plenty of time to get your piece count up once you run your opponent out of places to move. I call this the Tap Out. This means, your opponent has no place to legally move. Once this is achieved, THEN you can worry about piece count and then winning the game is easy.

Also, don't put too much emphasis in getting or avoiding the sides. The most important thing about the sides is playing them correctly. That's too difficult to explain right now. But for now, just know this... getting a corner is HUGE. Because once you get a corner it cannot be flipped so it is yours to keep. So... be VERY CAREFUL when playing the spots next to the corners. Especially the ones that are NOT touching the wall.

Hexversi is a game of Options. My ultimate goal in every single game is to run my opponent out of moves. So... all I am trying to do is create options for myself while trying to limit my opponents options. That's it, that's all I am doing. That's how games are won. If you want to know who is actually winning the game at any given time... it's usually the player who has more options. I've got to give props to anyone that has the balls to give Hexversi a try. I hope this helps.

[Daniel Espinosa]

In!

[JohnGalt2341]

Last day to sign up!! We've got 50 players signed up so far!! Can we get it to 54 to make it the biggest tourney to date?

I've been able to get a handful of new players that belong to the "Othello Academy" on Facebook. But I have no idea what their usernames are going to be and I also have no idea how good they are going to be.

I suspect picking the Section winners is going to be REALLY tough in this tournament. I also suspect that I'm not going to be the favorite to win this tournament. I'm still going to pick myself to win it however. But there will likely be around a dozen players or so that will have a shot at it. And don't count yourselves out(maybe next time Ian and Jake), you guys(blanko and Daniel) have already proven that you can hang with the veterans like Toptal and myself and not to mention Jan.

Boy... I have to say... I'm fairly nervous about this first round here. I hope I don't end up in some Section with 3 unknown Brainiac Othello players where I have no Hand.

[blankoblanco]

I'm shakin' in my boots. Just give me a manageable first round Hexversi Gods!

[JohnGalt2341]

The tournament has started!

There are 13 different Sections. Please post your Section winner predictions before Thursday, July 1st. And post your overall Tournament Winner as well.

For the Section winner predictions, you may copy anyone else's picks but if there is a tie, the person who put in their picks in first will win the tie-breaker. I will make my Section winner picks last. And if there is a tie, the tie will go to you guys. The points you get for each correct Section winner pick will correspond with what Round we are in. e.g. round 1, each correct pick is worth one point each. Round 2, two points each and so on. When the tourney is over, the person with the highest number of Section Prediction points will win 500 points, as long as he has AT LEAST as many prediction points as myself.

For the overall tournament winner, once a pick is taken it can't be selected again. You can't pick Holden2341, as that is my choice. Let me know if you have any questions about anything else. Good luck!



I was just thinking... since the Section Winner Prediction Picks is going to be so hard this time... I'm going to bump this up to 1000 points. Especially considering that... in order to win it... you still have to beat me in the process. Or... at least tie me. The tie will go to you guys.

[blankoblanco]

1: Mojo Bob
2: cartesio
3: aragon
4: [FGY]TPeti
5: Holden2341
6: RCCH
7: WHUFC
8: DanielEspinosa
9: Joshua
10: Hugolin
11: blankoblanco
12: Ryan
13: urantian

tournament winner: blankoblanco

[Daniel Espinosa]

1. StevenJ
2. Bernard
3. aragon
4. [FGY]TPeti
5. Holden2341
6. RCCH
7. WHUFC
8. DanielEspinosa
9. Joshua
10. Hugolin
11. blankoblanco
12. Ryan
13. urantian

Tournament winner: Ryan


Jan is not playing. Any other othello players are playing?

[Ian]

1 Mojo Bob
2 Bernard
3 cctiger2000
4 winbig2
5 Holden 2341
6 SBRIan
7 jammer
8 Daniel Espinosa
9 mac bannister
10 Hugolin
11 blankoblanko
12 Ryan
13 urantian

winner: Daniel Espinosa

[JohnGalt2341]

The tournament has started!

There are 13 different Sections. Please post your Section winner predictions before Thursday, July 1st. And post your overall Tournament Winner as well.

For the Section winner predictions, you may copy anyone else's picks but if there is a tie, the person who put in their picks in first will win the tie-breaker. I will make my Section winner picks last. And if there is a tie, the tie will go to you guys. The points you get for each correct Section winner pick will correspond with what Round we are in. e.g. round 1, each correct pick is worth one point each. Round 2, two points each and so on. When the tourney is over, the person with the highest number of Section Prediction points will win 500 points, as long as he has AT LEAST as many prediction points as myself.

For the overall tournament winner, once a pick is taken it can't be selected again. You can't pick Holden2341, as that is my choice. Let me know if you have any questions about anything else. Good luck!



I was just thinking... since the Section Winner Prediction Picks is going to be so hard this time... I'm going to bump this up to 1000 points. Especially considering that... in order to win it... you still have to beat me in the process. Or... at least tie me. The tie will go to you guys.

gauchojake, I will give you until July 1st as I noticed you hadn't been on SBR since I sent you the PM.

[gauchojake]

lol I have no idea. JG - I just saw your PM and then saw the extension until today in the post above. Sorry - was travelling.

1StevenJ
2Cartesio
3Marc
4irontown
5Nucifer
6SBRIan
7jammer
8DanielEspinosa
9Tammy
10Hugolin
11blancoblan
12Ryan
13urantian

[JohnGalt2341]

lol I have no idea. JG - I just saw your PM and then saw the extension until today in the post above. Sorry - was travelling.

1StevenJ
2Cartesio
3Marc
4irontown
5Nucifer
6SBRIan
7jammer
8DanielEspinosa
9Tammy
10Hugolin
11blancoblan
12Ryan
13urantian

No problem. Pick a tournament winner as well(it can't be Holden2341, blanko, Ryan, or Daniel). And then I'll post my picks, as well as some of the Sections and key matchups that I have my eye on.

[gauchojake]

Irontown winner

[Daniel Espinosa]

1 Mojo Bob
2 Bernard
3 cctiger2000
4 winbig2
5 Holden 2341
6 SBRIan
7 jammer
8 Daniel Espinosa
9 mac bannister
10 Hugolin
11 blankoblanko
12 Ryan
13 urantian

winner: Daniel Espinosa

[JohnGalt2341]

My Section Prediction Winners for Round 1 are as follows:

1. StevenJ
2. Wren
3. aragon
4. mmariomm
5. Holden2341*
6. RCCH
7. Molybdenum041
8. DanielEspinosa
9. mac bannister
10. Hugolin
11. blankoblanco
12. Ryan
13. Guy Plowman

[JohnGalt2341]

Jan is not playing. Any other othello players are playing?

Yeah, I was disappointed to see that Jan wasn't in the Tournament. I think he joined because he was asking me about specifics but he must have changed his mind at the last minute. A few weeks ago he told me that he would not be renewing his membership and I noticed he stopped inviting players in the Ladder as well.

So... here's who we do have as far as Othello players go.

Wren. You can look him up on eOthello, which I believe is perhaps the biggest and best site online to pay Othello. He's ranked #3 in France there and #55 Overall at eOthello. Here's a link to his profile: https://www.eothello.com/player/1311 eOthello has thousands of players to my knowledge. By comparison, Toptal is ranked #185 overall at eOthello. But, I haven't looked at timeouts so... I don't know if they play a factor or not.

mmariomm. He's ranked #33 overall at eOthello https://www.eothello.com/player/2757 As well as ranked 142 in the World at World Othello in Live games. Here's his profile at World Othello: https://www.worldothello.org/ratings...=MADRONA+Mario I'm nearly certain he's the highest ranked Othello player to ever play Hexversi, and for some reason, my style seems to match up rather well with his. We are on our 3rd game right now and unless I am missing something, I am about to win 3 straight. https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&s=...069535601&m=75 I know the sample size is really small but, I think the "Hexversi Hand" is really helping me a lot here. I'm really stoked to see his games with FGY. I'm just hoping neither one of them timeout.

Molybdenum041. I'm nearly certain I recruited him/her from the Othello Academy but I couldn't find anything matching his name so... he's a true unknown. I sent the message out to a lot of random players there. He could be the World's best Othello player for all I know. Or... he could be terrible. He's got 41 in his name and... ever since I was a kid for some strange reason my favorite number was 41. And wouldn't you know it... many years later my favorite game of all time is 41 moves for each player... assuming no skipped turns. Coincidence? Perhaps. Well... I took a chance on this guy anyhow.

Guy Plowman. Here's his profile at World Othello: https://www.worldothello.org/ratings...ut=guy+plowman He's ranked 4th in Great Britain and 55th in Europe and 353rd in the World. I'm not sure how up to date all of these rankings are btw. But, just the fact that these guys play Live games usually means they are really good. Guy Plowman already timed out 3 games but... I contacted him in hopes of trying to help him get them reinstated. So... I'm sticking with my choices in hopes of getting them reinstated.

Here's a couple of other noteworthy players.

cartesio, he played in one Hexversi tourney back in 2008. He won the tourney, going 9-1. Including sweeping Toptal.

mac bannister, he's won 3 Reversi 10x10 Tourney's with 25 or more players in them.

There's a part of me that is rooting for the Hexversi guys to beat the Othello guys. But... I'm really torn about this because... I want to play them as well. I just hope they don't kick my butt.

[blankoblanco]

Jan was actually going to be my pick to win the tournament... once I saw he wasn't in I figured screw it and picked lowly ol' me

I'm very curious about how well the exceptional Othello players can intuitively adjust to Hexversi without experience in the format. I assume it must change up the rules on them quite a bit, certain ideas they're very familiar with no longer apply, etc.

[JohnGalt2341]

Here are my breakdowns and thoughts on each Section.

Section #1

This is the weakest Section of the Tournament IMO. But, this is going to be a fun one to watch because I suspect we are going to see all kinds of really weird board positions that we never get to see in most games. It would be the equivalency of of going to a UFC event and instead of watching professional fighters... they just took volunteers from the crowd in attendance. It won't pretty... but it should be fun to watch. I'll be fairly surprised if any of the players go undefeated in this Section. I'll try to find some really unique and interesting board positions as the games progress.

goddess901	0	0	0.00
§Mojo Bob	0	0	0.00
§Speedy	0	0	0.00
§StevenJ	0	0	0.00

Section #2

We already know that Wren is a really strong Othello player as mentioned in post #21. But he has already timed out 4 of his games. I am working on trying to help him get those games reinstated right now. I'm really looking forward to seeing these unknown players like Wren and even cartesio play so I can sort of size them up before I have to play them myself. I suspect that if Wren can get reinstated here, that the Winner of this Section will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the next round of the tournament.

Section #3

cctiger2000 timed out their games and I sent them a message but, I fully expect aragon to win this Section anyway even though cctiger2000 appears to be a decent Othello player.

Section #4

We've got 2 Powerhouse Othello players in the same Section here with [FGY]TPeti and mmariomm. [FGY]TPeti won 3 Othello tourneys on IYT with over 100 players back in the early 2000's and mmariomm is a well known and well respected Othello player online. As far as Round 1 goes... I think this is the match I'm most excited about.

Section #5

I FINALLY get to play joook. He's no slouch, he made it to the 3rd round in the last tourney. I better not count my chickens as he has wins over.. Toptal, Snazzy, and Daniel. We've got a couple of good games going already and he has me fairly nervous in one of them. I also get to play Nucifer for the first time in Hexversi as well.

Section #6

RCCH is another Othello player that I haven't mentioned yet that could be a force in this Tourney. I fully expect him to go 6-0 here. Sorry SBRIan.. I hope you can prove me wrong.

Section #7

I figured out who Molybdenum041 is. He plays my Hexversi Daily Challenges on FB fairly regularly. He's sharp. But I think WHUFC could give him a good run here. I think this will be close. This one should be fun to watch. Whoever plays the sides better should win this Section.

Section #8

I fully expect DanielEspinosa to go 6-0 here. Sorry gauchojake, just as long as you complete your games, you will still win 500 points.

Section #9

I expect mac bannister to take this but I hope Joshua makes this competitive. I played mac bannister a few weeks ago. He's no slouch for sure. I expect him to go 5-1 at worst.

Section #10

This is another fairly weak Section with SEVERAL timeouts already occurring. I sent out messages but, I'm not sure what to expect from it now. It says a Winner has already been declared... lol.

Section #11

blankoblanco can't seem to ever catch a break and get an easy first round. maitreg is no joke. If you pull up his profile and do a word find of the word "versi" you can see that maitreg has won MULTIPLE Reversi related Tournaments over the years including a Reversi Tournament with 114 players back in 2000. This match makes me nervous, but I will enjoy watching it as a fan and I do expect blankoblanco to go 5-1 at worst.

Section #12

I expect Ryan to pull through here but Andy could make it interesting as well as sarok. This Section could turnout to be a sleeper hit actually. I'll keep my eye on it.

Section #13

Guy Plowman got his games reinstated. I'm REALLY looking forward to watching the games between Guy Plowman and urantian in this section. Whoever comes out of this Section is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the next round for sure.

[gauchojake]

Section #8

I fully expect DanielEspinosa to go 6-0 here. Sorry gauchojake, just as long as you complete your games, you will still win 500 points.

Well I did play about 10 games against an AI and lost all of them so I am not expecting to defy expectations here

[JohnGalt2341]

Jan was actually going to be my pick to win the tournament... once I saw he wasn't in I figured screw it and picked lowly ol' me

I'm very curious about how well the exceptional Othello players can intuitively adjust to Hexversi without experience in the format. I assume it must change up the rules on them quite a bit, certain ideas they're very familiar with no longer apply, etc.

In my recent match with Mario he wrote "Good game, nice control on the endgame. I realised how important is to have the central crown control."

Most of these Othello guys are pretty technical. A lot of the concepts are very similar. They use the term "Parity" a lot. And generally what they mean is... going first and last in Odd pockets like pockets of 3 to gain tempo. And going last in pockets of 2 and 4. So... those concepts are very similar. And the unbalanced edge stuff is also very similar. But, I think one of the hardest things for them is what Mario mentioned in his quote above... dealing with the Center Piece. It's an entirely new concept for them. I think Mario could have won that game had he played better toward the end there.

Here's the thing that I'm REALLY curious about... it was 2006 when I decided that I wanted to become good at Othello and it was then when I read Brian Rose's eBook "A Minute to Learn... A Lifetime to Master..." I think most serious Othello players have read it. I gave you guys the Hexversi version/footnotes. So... it was about a year later or so when Hexversi came out and it didn't take me long before Hexversi was most definitely my preferred version of the Othello games. But what I am wondering is... will that happen to any other Othello players? To me it feels like it should, but for some reason it feels like it won't. However, let's just say both games came out at exactly the same time(online somehow)... which version would be more popular?

It doesn't bother me that Othello is way more popular than Hexversi, it just bothers me that so few people even want to give Hexversi a try. Whenever I play regular Othello, I always feel like I'm trying to play a video game who's joystick points in only 4 real directions. I can only describe the diagonals as "dirty" in Othello. It doesn't feel right. But in Hexversi, all the angles are the same, it makes so much more sense to me. Will any other Othello player say "This makes so much more sense. All the angles are exactly the same." Unfortunately, I suspect not.

Well... at least I got Mario to join the tourney and I have a good rapport with him and I think he's one of the main guys that runs eOthello. So... I'm still hoping that eventually eOthello will pick up Hexversi. A guy I chatted with recently from the website vint.ee expressed some interest as well. But that site looks sort of crappy to me even though I know it's well respected in the Othello world. But eOthello is really sweet for sure.

[JohnGalt2341]

Well I did play about 10 games against an AI and lost all of them so I am not expecting to defy expectations here

Did you apply the "Island in the Water" advice from post #7? Stick with it as long as you can. Don't even think about piece count. Not even once. Don't think about piece count ever. The pieces will come. Once you start thinking about piece count is when you will lose. Just be the island until you can get a corner and then you'll figure it out from there.

[Daniel Espinosa]

Lol

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?action?stage=1&game=15300069756504

[blankoblanco]

Oh man, that's a rough one Daniel! I don't blame you for overlooking that move since it is just not something that ever really happens or that I'd be thinking about. I still like your chances in your group as long as there are no more flukes like that

I would have gone e8 on your last move but I also still feel like I'm just guessing what to do in the early game whenever a new situation comes up

[Daniel Espinosa]

Yeah last move was a bad one despite not realizing I would lose. My std move would have been e8 as you pointed so I guess it won't happen again. Still funny though.

[gauchojake]

Daniel let me win I think

[blankoblanco]

Congrats on the win Jake, that's a big upset. I didn't win a game the first tournament I played (except from one of my opponents running out of time, I think)

[gauchojake]

Congrats on the win Jake, that's a big upset. I didn't win a game the first tournament I played (except from one of my opponents running out of time, I think)

Thank you sir.

[Daniel Espinosa]

Out of chips in the first movements for the second time. Never happened to me before, now twice .

Congrats Jake, well played.

[JohnGalt2341]

Daniel let me win I think

Out of chips in the first movements for the second time. Never happened to me before, now twice .

Congrats Jake, well played.

Congrats on the win Jake! Points paid in post #30. One completed game was all you needed.

But now more is at stake here....

This is going to make for an interesting Section because... although I still give Daniel the edge to Win this Section because he is still by far the strongest player in the Section, but another player could still sneak in with 4-2 as well. I am still going to predict that Daniel finishes the Section with 4-2 and I don't think any player will finish 5-1 and certainly not 6-0. It could happen but I think it will be unlikely. But we could see two players advance with 4-2. I'll be keeping my eye on this Section for sure.

gauchojake	2	1	2.00
§robert sawyers	2	1	2.00
§Angelo Piantadosi	0	0	0.00
DanielEspinosa	0	2	0.00

Also, I wanted to mention... although I'm sure Daniel just had a brain fart here... but the best and most reliable way to never get eliminated is to just make sure you have a straight line running through your opponents pieces on opposite ends of their pieces. I love playing hyper-aggressive players myself, but if you haven't done it in a while it can catch you off guard.

[gauchojake]

Out of chips in the first movements for the second time. Never happened to me before, now twice .

Congrats Jake, well played.

TY sir.

JG - Thanks for the points!