The World Championships were held on the 24th, 25th and 26th of august in Haastrecht, near Gouda in the Netherlands.
The 24th was only for seniors, they would play their first 5 games. The 25th was for the junior competition, they would play all of their games. The seniors would finish their individual tournament this day aswell by playing the 5 remaining games.
The 26th, the top 4 (or 3, forfeiting one game in case it would not be possible to find a 4th person) of each country would form a team to battle it out, playing as a team. 4vs4.
In this post, I will not make an (detailed) overview of the standings each round, for those who are interested, it is possible by reading the crosstable to find out who played against who aswell as the result of the game.
Round #1 - vs. Theo Gerrits (ended #16 - 1447 ranking points)
Having played Theo before and thus being warned about his potential aggressive attacks from one of the sides, I chose to use a conservative setup, with all key pieces being protected.
Unfortunately, he did not chose to use an aggressive strategy, so my early game plan had failed, being down a captain vs. a lieutenant, sergeant and a scout made the game equal for a while, untill I managed to find a colonel which was in the neutral area, at the center of the board.
Theo then made a big mistake by putting a known captain behind his colonel, allowing me to pressure the colonel with my general and marshal, after he desperately hit a miner with his colonel, he then was trapped in between my marshal, general and a bomb, rather than finding one of the pieces, he decided to go for the bomb.
His general was known before all of this happened, there was, despite my expectations, not a close game, however, the 6 points were in the bag.
Round #2 - vs. Norman Koks (ended #15 - 1548 ranking points)
Norman, being known for his unusal usage of tricks with his spy, trying to trick your unknown marshal into his death is also known for sometimes going for a huge attack, via whichever side, left, center or right, he does it.
Knowing this, I decided to use a defensive setup again, which turned out to be the wrong choice for this game as Norman didnt play very aggressive. Because I wanted to lure him in and make him play greedy, I decided to sacrifice a few small pieces in order to find info, while I did find the general early on, there was not a lot I could do with it, after some exchanges, I was down a major and a captain (while having the info of both the marshal an the general) and suspecting a colonel and his spy.
The game then proceeded to him defending his advantage and me trying to get either a captain or a major back, unfortunately this plan failed, but I did manage to eliminate his spy from the game, aswell as getting a few small pieces back.
At this point, my marshal was still unknown, but I noticed he started to suspect it, when he had to make a choice with his colonel (was trapped between my marsh and a bluffing piece) he picked the right one. As a result of this, he managed to trap my marshal on the right side of the board which led to the following situation:
He then felt for the bluff/pressure, and killed the scout with the marshal, losing his own marshal in the proces, basically pulling a buttwheat by giving a gift away.
The game then quickly went the other way around, and 6 points were in the bag once again.
Round #3 - vs. George Franka (ended #4 - 1733 ranking points)
Having lost against George in the 2009 and 2011 WC, it was time for revenge. 2011 George was the one doing an all or nothing lotto attack from move #1 with his marshal, hitting my unprotected general in the proces.
Despite being warned by this, I had the feeling he would play very passive this game, which turned out to be true.
After trading 3 captains, I was ahead a sergeant and I think one or two scouts, I ten lost two lieutenants on the left side, finding a colonel and his marshal, not a bad trade.
Before I found his marshal, I already positioned my general as displayed on the picture.
Because I was afraid I could hit his general immediately, as the piece behind it could be a scout, I decided not to, besides that, it could also be a little piece, being protected by the general.
Then George decided to move the piece from e7 to e6, I let it there and ignored it. He then decided to attack the general with that piece, it turned out to be a colonel. After the game, he told me he wanted to take a little piece with it to lure my general in, so he could trade them off, he did not expect my general to be there, because it was there before he showed his marshal.
Colo vs 2 lieutenants seemed to make the game a lot easier, because George didnt feel comfortable with this situation, he decided to go on a lotto spree with his general, hitting a major. A few moments later, he tried it again, but ran into a bomb this time.
He then set an attack up, a last resort attack, trying to hit as many unmoved pieces with his marshal and major, he managed to find two bombs at the first attempt
B2 - General
A1 - Major
C1 - Marshal
The 6 points were for me, making a total of 18 out of three games.
Round #4 - vs. Richard Radcliffe (ended #2 - 1841 ranking points)
2011, Richard won the WC, beating me in the proces, in 2010, I beat him, the game was a draw situation, but I hit his flag with the general (if I would have hit a bomb, it would have been a draw due to time)
At the beginning of the game, neither seemed to be in a rush to end the game as quick as possible, however, I planned on gaining an advantage by hitting two unknown pieces, as soon as he would come to my side of the board, after a while, he did and I hit a scout with a colonel, and a few moves later, a sergeant with the marshal, not a good start.
This all happened in the center, where he had his general, so I could quite easily block off his general with my marshal - problem solved, for now.
He then let me trap a colonel with my general in the two-field rule, he retreated back to his own pieces, I followed him, eventualling killing the colo, and unfortunately finding the marshal.
Standing: colo vs general in his favor, his marshal and general known, my marshal and a colonel known.
He then brought in another colonel, hitting an unmoved captain on f3, thinking it was a major he had seen before, not only did this give him a piece advantage, but it was also an effective way of blocking my mobility, also getting a free lieutenant (which had moved), I could not bring the marshal down, because his general would otherwise kill my colo.
I then decided to hit C9 with my colonel, getting a lieutenant back.
I was afraid that he would try to get to my colonel with his general, under protection of the spy, so I wanted to prevent that at (nearly) all costs. Then the following happened:
When he made the move (move #3), I was still thinking his spy would be at g8, however, he had only one scout left, so I wasnt sure whether he just moved his spy, or his last scout - I gave it a shot with the scout, taking out his spy which means he would never be able to catch my marshal.
At this point, he has no colonels, I have one, but he still is up a general and has expanded his lead to a major and a captain.
I brought up a major to the left corner (While my colonel was still there), and he moved his marshal in between them, after he found out it was a major, which allowed me to bring in my colo, lotto time!
He managed to catch the spy, but I managed to scout two bombs in the center with a scout and a sergeant, or two scouts, I am not sure of this anymore.
My colonel then went on a lotto spree --> E8, moving to H8, hitting H9;H10;G10;G9;F10;E10;D10
And then finally hitting a bomb at C10, after being pressured by his marshal, but the damage was done, Richard was left with: marshal, general, 2 majors, 2 captains and one miner
I was left with: marshal, 1 captain, 6 unknown bombs, 2 or 3 sergeants, 1 lieutenant and 3 miners.
Then the following situation allowed me to 'take' a major of him:
My marsh: H7;i7
His capt: i8;H8
My marsh: i7;J7
His gen: J6;i6
My marsh: J7;J6
His gen: i6;i7
My marsh: J6;J5
Causing:
Means he would lose one of the majors, unless he hits H2, but instead of that, he hit J1 immediately, blowing up his major, reducing the lead.
Since he wanted to win, he tried to hit as many pieces as possible with his captain, but he ran into the bomb at C1.
He then went towards G1 with his other captain, but I did not want him to find too many bombs, so I traded my unknown,unmoved captain. He was left behind with:
marsh, gen, major, miner
vs my:
marsh, 4 unknown bombs, 2 serges and 3 miners.
I then managed to capture the miner, after thinking for a while, Richard decided he did not want to try to go for the flag, and accepted a draw.
Pages: 1
Event: WC Stratego 2012 (Read 1689 times)
