Notice of Draughts Championships

I would like to draw your attention to the following two draughts tournaments.

Please feel free to forward this message to any draughts players you think might also be interested.

1) 15-19 March, the second Fryslân Open Draughts Tournament will be held in the town of Franker in the Dutch province of Frisia / Fryslân / Friesland.

Games will be played according to the Frisian rules of draughts, which allow not only diagonal but also straight (horizontal and vertical) captures.

For details, both of the rules and of the tournament, please go to the website www.frisiandraughts.com.

These rules have the effect that only very few games end in a draw.

An advantage of only one piece is often sufficient to win the game. An endgame with two kings against one is theoretically winable.

International draughts world champion Alexander Georgiev, international chess grandmaster Vasil Ivanchuk, and checkers world champion Michele Borghetti will all participate in the Fryslân Open 2016.

There are currently still two places available for international players.

Players can apply before 1 March by sending an e-mail to martenwalinga@hotmail.com or liuwe.westra@mensa.nl.

ps. During the tournaments, the games and playingrooms are livestreamed on our website.

2) On Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 March there will be tournament for a special variant of Frisian draughts, in which both players start with only five pieces each.

This variant has officially been baptised FRYSK! The first World Championships for this new draughts variant will be played this year.

For all details and for learning material, go to www.frisiandraughts.com  and www.frysk.info 

There are 50 places available for the tournament on Saturday 19 March. The best players in this tournament, together with two national champions and the top 8 players from the Fryslân Open, will play the First Official FRYSK! World Championships. 

Best regards, 

Marten Walinga, martenwalinga@hotmail.com

Liuwe Westra, liuwe.westra@mensa.nl

ww.frisiandraughts.comwww.frysk.info

Playerslist so far for Fryslân Open 2016:

1.Michele Borghetti
2.Alexander Georgiev
3.Aleksej Domchev
4.Macodou Ndijaye
5.Petra Duskova
6.Vaclav Krista
7.Patrick Casaril
8.Renaud Braye
9.Hans Jansen
10.Auke Zijlstra

1.Jelle Wiersma
2.Foeke Tiemensma
3.Fedde Wiersma
4.Sjoerd Couperus
5.Hein de Vries
6.Piet Sikma
7.Taeke Kooistra
8.Bauke Dykstra
9.Tsjerk Wijbenga
10.Kees Tijssen
11.Rein Jan Walinga
12.Cor Kooistra

Lubabalo does well at the 2015 WCDF GAYP Qualifying Trials

Lubabalo Kondlo 

The WCDF held its 2015 edition of its Go-As-You-Please Qualifying Trial in Knighton, Wales, from 21 to 24 September 2015.

The MSSA had nominated Lubabalo Kondlo (from Port Elizabeth) for the event, and Lubabalo was ready to give it his all.

Unfortunately, Lubabalo had a poor start in the first two rounds, but quickly made up for it by the enjd of the fourth game on the second day. At the end of the second day, Lububalo found himself yapping at the heels of the leaders.

By the end of the sixth round on the third day, Lububalo found himself in tie first place.

Lubabalo maintained this position to the end of the championships when, as WCDF president Dr Richard Beckwith puts it, "On tie-breaker calculation, Michele Borghetti (Italy) won, and Lubabalo was 6th.  Nine players were separated by one point.".

Thus the championship was extremely close, with Lubabalo losing out only on a tie-breaker.