[JohnGalt2341]

Round 2 has finally started! My Law of Attraction experiment DID NOT work well at all.

Get your Section Winner prediction picks in before Sunday March 7th. Each correct answer is worth 2 points each to your total score.

[Daniel Espinosa]

LOL our group

S1: Holden2341
S2: Toptal
S3: WHUFC
S4: urantian

[blankoblanco]

The law of attraction went haywire!

1: Holden2341
2: joook
3: WHUFC
4: urantian

[JohnGalt2341]

I was planning on taking Snazzy as my upset pick this round once I saw the Sections... but I didn't expect anyone to pick joook. This makes it even better.

My Section Winner Picks for Round 2:

1. Holden2341
2. SnazzyD
3. WHUFC
4. urantian

A win or sweep over Holden2341 in this round will almost certainly earn you some bonus points as mentioned in post #35.

There should be AT LEAST 2 very interesting Sections this round.

[JohnGalt2341]

I was looking at this game:
https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&g=...2614&t=3&gn=97
between Toptal and Snazzy and I noticed Snazzy burned Toptal on those Closed 2's just like blanko has in the past. I think Toptal might be too far behind already to come back in this game.

Snazzy made a terrible blunder in this game https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0003422614&t=3 against joook but he might still be able to recover. This Section looks like it's still up for grabs but I think joook is a long shot.

[blankoblanco]

Hah, yeah, that does look quite similar to the first time I beat Toptal, my position just being mirrored to the right side instead

The Snazzy blunder you're referring to is move 25 right? No idea why he did that

[JohnGalt2341]

Hah, yeah, that does look quite similar to the first time I beat Toptal, my position just being mirrored to the right side instead

The Snazzy blunder you're referring to is move 25 right? No idea why he did that

Yeah, especially with how he played #24. #24 was a bit daring for my liking when he couldn't quite close the deal yet.

[JohnGalt2341]

I was looking at this game:
https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&g=...2614&t=3&gn=97
between Toptal and Snazzy and I noticed Snazzy burned Toptal on those Closed 2's just like blanko has in the past. I think Toptal might be too far behind already to come back in this game.

Snazzy made a terrible blunder in this game https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0003422614&t=3 against joook but he might still be able to recover. This Section looks like it's still up for grabs but I think joook is a long shot.

joook squeezed out a win over Snazzy in that game and now he's got an interesting game going vs Toptal. It looks like this Section could very well end in a 3-way tie.

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0000670414&t=3

[JohnGalt2341]

joook squeezed out a win over Snazzy in that game and now he's got an interesting game going vs Toptal. It looks like this Section could very well end in a 3-way tie.

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0000670414&t=3

Update of this Section:

joook and Toptal are going to split and so now it's going to come down to the 2 games between Toptal and Snazzy. If Toptal sweeps Snazzy he will advance and if Snazzy sweeps Toptal he will advance and if they split all three of them will advance. Both games are pretty close even though Snazzy already has 2 corners in one of the games.

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0003422614&t=3

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0003422614&t=3

[blankoblanco]

What a crazy section. Guess it makes sense that we all picked a different winner. I'll be rooting for the three-way tie!

[JohnGalt2341]

I just noticed this great game!

https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&g=...8743&t=3&gn=97

[Daniel Espinosa]

Well, Blanko already won both games against me.

I just noticed this great game!

https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&g=...8743&t=3&gn=97

[JohnGalt2341]

Update of this Section:

joook and Toptal are going to split and so now it's going to come down to the 2 games between Toptal and Snazzy. If Toptal sweeps Snazzy he will advance and if Snazzy sweeps Toptal he will advance and if they split all three of them will advance. Both games are pretty close even though Snazzy already has 2 corners in one of the games.

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0003422614&t=3

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0003422614&t=3

Update on this crazy Section here... Toptal is going to win at least one of these games so that means he will be advancing for sure. If he loses this other one, both joook and Snazzy will advance as well but if he wins he will advance alone. I must say... I'm rooting for Toptal pretty hard here... even though I've never got the chance to play joook, and Snazzy is one of my favorite new players. But I really don't want to see 2 sections of 3 in the next round, that's going take forever to finish this tourney. I'd much rather see 1 Section of 4.

Who do you guys think is going to win this game below?

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0002930849&t=3

Toptals got me sweating bullets here. I think he blew it.




Edit...


A three way tie is fun... but... it's much more fun for me when you guys are in the tournament as well.

[blankoblanco]

Who do you guys think is going to win this game below?

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0002930849&t=3

Looks like a win for purple to me but it's messy enough that I can't say for sure. There are two places where Toptal can gain a decent amount of pieces back, just doesn't feel like it should be enough with Snazzy having control of the corners. Maybe green can pull out a creative win though

[JohnGalt2341]

Looks like a win for purple to me but it's messy enough that I can't say for sure. There are two places where Toptal can gain a decent amount of pieces back, just doesn't feel like it should be enough with Snazzy having control of the corners. Maybe green can pull out a creative win though

Yeah... that's what I was thinking.

In 2006 when I started playing in Reversi/Othello tourney's on IYT I made a Green board for me and 2 of my coworkers with 8x8 on one side and 6x6 on the other side and I glued Red and Blue poker chips together for the pieces. It turned out pretty sweet. Way better than the crappy ones in the store. We played mostly 6x6... anyway... when Hexversi came out in 2007 I made a smaller board for Hexversi but we hardly ever played on it because it took so long to play compared to 6x6 and my 2 work buddies didn't exactly play quickly.

But anyway... this game has me so damn curious now I think I'm going to pull that board out and see if Toptal can pull this one off. I'll see what I find.

[JohnGalt2341]

Here's how I played it for Toptal

35. g9 k6

36. j7 i8

37. i7 g10

38. d11 c11

39. e10 e11

40. f10 f11

41 e2 f2

Final

Snazzy Purple 47
Green Toptal 43

This is all speculation of course. But I think this could be close but I think Toptal has a tough task ahead of him here.

[blankoblanco]

Maaan, I almost want to make my own Hexversi board now! That's super cool

Please never use your board against me, John! It already feels impossible for me to beat you!!

[Daniel Espinosa]

Damn I would have won a game against you John, but made a stupid mistake

[JohnGalt2341]

Damn I would have won a game against you John, but made a stupid mistake

I'm assuming you mean move #29 where you are Purple?

https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&g=...&u=0&t=0&gn=97

[Daniel Espinosa]

I meant move #32 where I take the right corner

[JohnGalt2341]

I meant move #32 where I take the right corner

Oh yeah.... I forgot about that one. That's sort of difficult to say because no matter what, you were still going to be moving into that section of 4 first, and I was going to get the last move in that section no matter what. AND I still had that free move near that lower right corner.

I think because I was able to create that free move in that lower right corner that I would have been able to manipulate it so I could get the last move in every section. But I could be wrong. AND because I had most of Center Piece hexes, I think I would have been able to still pull it off, but I'm not positive.

I pulled out my old Hexversi board from 2007 to try to figure out how the Toptal vs Snazzy game is going to turn out. Unless I am missing something... this Section WILL be a 3 way tie which means.. the next round will be 2 Sections of 3 Players which also means... this tourney will likely last 3 more months or so.

But I'm going to predict that the next tourney will be the biggest one ever!

So anyway... here's what we can do... I'll take out my board from 2007.... I'll set it up and at move #32 just tell me where you wanted to move and I'll move there and I'll tell you where I moved and we can play the rest of the game out.

So... for #32 I am going to assume that you wanted to take the upper right wall instead of the right corner. Is this correct? If so, this is position k2. I'll write it like this... I played k4 first...

32. k4 k2

https://www.itsyourturn.com/pp?gm&g=...&u=0&t=0&gn=97

You can just describe where you want to move next and I'll find it. But I might not answer back for 12 hours or so. But we might get to a point where it becomes clear.

and for 33 I would go to j3... which is just left of k2. I would take 5 Purple's to the left and 4 diagonal.

I just realized... this might not work because I'm the only with a board. But most of this stuff is going to be forced. I think can I play most of this out on my own. But I think I will do it tomorrow.

[Daniel Espinosa]

I should have known that you had a plan when you gave up those corners. Yeah move 32 is correct. Good idea, play it out on your own and tell us if I had a chance.

[JohnGalt2341]

I should have known that you had a plan when you gave up those corners. Yeah move 32 is correct. Good idea, play it out on your own and tell us if I had a chance.

I played it out... it was a lot more complex than I expected. There was still a lot more game left to be played. There was hardly any forced moves. So... it's quite possible that you may have played things differently. But I tried to play things the best for both players. And I know for certain I got at least one exchange heavily in your favor but with some empty spots left at the end it the final was Green 44 Purple 43. But I'm nearly certain that if I played it again starting from that same position I would get a different score and possibly a different winner. That was a great game for sure.

For move #29 had you moved where I moved for move #30 I'm pretty sure you would have won.

[Daniel Espinosa]

Yeah I can see now move #29 was a bad move.

I actually feel better because I thought move #32 was a gross mistake!

[JohnGalt2341]

So... I think Round 3 is going to start tomorrow. I'm going to try my Law of Attraction experiment again.

Players I am hoping to see in my Section in Round 3, in no particular order.

joook
SnazzyD
WHUFC

Players I am hoping NOT to see in my Section in Round 3, in no particular order.

urantian
Toptal

[JohnGalt2341]

Section Winners for Round 2 are as follows:

Section #1 Holden2341 6-0

Section #2 joook2-2 SnazzyD 2-2 Toptal2-2

Section #3 WHUFC 4-0

Section #4 §urantian 4-0

We all went 4-0 with our picks... if only SBR would post lines on these. I suspect
Round 3 is going to be tougher.

Prediction Point Standings after 2 rounds.

1. DanielEspinosa 17
2. blankoblanco 16
3. JohnGalt2341 16

[JohnGalt2341]

So... I think Round 3 is going to start tomorrow. I'm going to try my Law of Attraction experiment again.

Players I am hoping to see in my Section in Round 3, in no particular order.

joook
SnazzyD
WHUFC

Players I am hoping NOT to see in my Section in Round 3, in no particular order.

urantian
Toptal

Round 3 has officially started. My Law of Attraction experiment's have been a PERFECT failure so far.

Section #1
Player's Name	Score	Games com pleted	Avg score per game cmpltd
§joook	0	0	0.00
SnazzyD	0	0	0.00
WHUFC	0	0	0.00

Section #2
Player's Name	Score	Games com pleted	Avg score per game cmpltd
§Holden2341	0	0	0.00
Toptal	0	0	0.00
§urantian	0	0	0.00

Get your Section winner picks in before Wednesday, April 14th. Each Section winner in this round will be worth 3 points each.

[Daniel Espinosa]

Section 1: WHUFC

Section 2: Holden2341

[blankoblanco]

1: SnazzyD
2: Holden2341

GL John

[JohnGalt2341]

My Picks for Round 3



Section 1 SnazzyD

Section 2 Toptal

[blankoblanco]

The long con, now you're gonna throw your games against Toptal to win prediction points

[Daniel Espinosa]

The long con, now you're gonna throw your games against Toptal to win prediction points

[JohnGalt2341]

I just realized that I haven't paid blanko yet for winning the most games in the tourney with 10. Nice work here!! I blame the Law of Attraction for the terrible match making in Round 2.

I paid in post #101. I'm going to throw in an extra 100 for the sweep of the tourney over Daniel. I thought for sure both of you guys had me beat in a game. I suspect my experience saved me.

Well done!

[blankoblanco]

Thank you kind sir!

Maybe one day I will figure out how to win a game against you

[JohnGalt2341]

Two way tie for my toughest games in the tourney so far.

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0000061447&t=3

https://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?...0000061447&t=3

100 points paid in #101 and #102