Trip to Patras (3/4)

Day #3 (Sunday)

After a decent rest I woke up and had a good breakfast full of mostly sweets. As we hadn't really made plans of travel arrangement, Dimitrios (Don mitsos) offered us a ride to the playing venue. As we arrived at the playing venue, it was good to see everyone present again. My first game of the day and thus fourth of the tournament would be against John Vandoros. I preferred to play him at round 3, day 1, opposed to round 4 (round #1 of that day), day 2.

During the game I was looking at an early deficit the entire game, I did manage to equalize it, but at the expense of some information giving the initiative to John. I was not really as sharp as I need to be in a game like that and after some back and forth, John managed to make a decisive strike. After the game I felt a bit of a void, after all, on paper, this should have been the most promising game.

The fifth round, after the game against John, I was matched up against his father, Spyros Vandoros. A great opportunity to take some much-needed revenge upon the Vandoros family after the previous game. Never having played against him before, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I managed to gain an early information advantage and as a result, I got some pieces that were decisive enough to close out the game. His flag placement did catch me offguard though.

Greg was very insisting that we (= Dennis, Charlie and Greg and I) would have lunch at a certain place. I forgot its name unfortunately, but it definitely was a good one. Lots of other tournament participants were there too. I had another chat with Nikos and Marilina. Nikos found out a thing or two about me and was somewhat surprised about my Palmarès in Stratego, as he is used to those kind of players being very much unapproachable for "newer players" in most games. Marilina on the other hand was about to face the other female contender in the tournament, Olga, the result let to her gaining the unofficial "Best female player of Patras". She also told me that she had to play Charlie in the first round of the tournament - lucky her! I've been trying to get matched up against Charlie for a while.. 😄. I always find it interesting to get to know a bit more behind the people that play Stratego and found out that Marilina plays basketball with a team - very much an opposite of Stratego in many ways.

When about to return to the playing venue, I noticed something interesting outside.. something that head of clowns, Charlie, would definitely appreciate. We intended to take a picture in front of it with the entire WCO team, but in the end, we forgot to do so. I suppose we'll have to come back some time soon for a new opportunity. During a chat with Charlie he also mentioned really having a massive dislike towards losing and not knowing why (more about this later).

Charlie's true form revealed

At the tournament there also was a big barrage board present, of course Dennis and I had to seize that opportunity to play a game of barrage (positive result for me).

Before the barrage game

Our fans not paying much attention to the game

Me posing as a marshall

Inevitable...

The sixth round would be against George Petroulakis who, upon arriving saturday, offered "the guys" some drinks at the terrace. Keeping this in mind, I figured I would repay him by giving some gifts during the game 😄. I got an early lead but then later on had to pay a very high price for a surprise he had in store for me, effectively giving him such an advantage that winning the game would be near impossible for me. I did try and defended well, if I say so myself, but in the end, the damage done was too much. The game ended with me finding two of his bombs and then forfeiting. A pity, but nonetheless, well played by him.

The seventh game would be against Gregory Adamakis. I always have tough battles against Greg, this game was no different. A very tough and methodical game led to Greg, somehow, and I'm actually still not sure how, figuring out my, unmoved, Marshall. I was a bit surprised because I did not feel it was obvious or that there were many pointers to him being there, but somehow, Greg still figured it out. I did have a somewhat comfortable lead in pieces, but as a result of him figuring out what I was up to, he got back a major shifting the balance slightly towards him. The game had a crazy and somewhat legendary ending. We traded nearly all pieces. In the end Greg had a colonel left as well as some small piece while I had a small piece of same rank, a miner and a sergeant. Greg had forgotten or not noticed that I had a sergeant too (probably as a result of my setup formation). Upon finally moving the sergeant Greg realised what took place and that this game was - finally - after a hard fought battle, over in my favor. I think it is safe to state that this is the most fun and close game I've had against Greg so far.

Me vs. Greg

The eighth, the last game of the tournament, I was hoping and expecting to play against Dennis (Sorry Charlie, you were second choice! 😄) but instead got Charlie - TheOptician - Palley. To be honest, this was an even better pairing. While I had expected to play against Dennis, playing against someone I do not get to meet often is of course a refreshing experience. The game started slowly, little piece here, little piece there, small victory, small loss. Throughout the entire game I had a small advantage but never enough to really push through and feel comfortable to play this out on auto-pilot. While Charlie put up a good fight, I saw through his schemes and also pointed out (as he also wrote on the Stratego.com forum), to him, which pieces I deemed to be his Marshall, Spy and a scout. All three correct  😃. Why? I am not sure, I think I wanted to make a point to him that him trying to fool me around was not going to be succesful this time. It was extremely tough to close out the game due to the closeness in pieces, losing one piece could, theoretically, still ruin my victory. This did not happen and I won the first live game against Charliie which I was quite satisfied with.

Random pic

Greg & Dennis

Charlie pretending to be happy

Fun fact: I did not write the games in chronological order at first, just how I remembered them. I initially had written "tenth game, last round" against Charlie.. as worldchampionships are always 10 rounds. I really couldn't remember the two other games, so I went to check on Kleier and saw the tournament only had 8 rounds 😄.

Top three & Main organiser

During the prize ceremony I got to speak a few words. Usually this honour is reserved for the winner of the tournament, however, often, for international guests an exception is made. I mainly wanted to use this opportunity to thank the Patras Stratego Team and its members for the wonderful tournament and experience and of course some goods (like the T-shirt, badge and generally the effort they put into the event). I hope this was well appreciated.

As it was getting somewhat late already, we were a bit in a rush to get back to Athens. As a result, I didn't get to goodbyes to everyone. I felt especially a little disappointed not having been able to thank Dimitrios (Don mitsos) for the ride. I later sent him a forum PM explaining that we were a bit in a hurry, to which he responded he actually left before we did.. no wonder I didn't find him 😄. The tournament also had a special mascot called "Marshal Lopix" a stuffed orange animal like creature, which I took home one of (well, more about this later actually!)

Marshal Lopix

The trip back to Athens went smoothly. Charlie was a bit silent, so I jokingly said he is probably overthinking our game and that he didn't know why he lost. Funnily enough, that was exactly what was on his mind, and it annoyed him 😄. As token of gratitude for being the driver, Dennis had brought a magnetic mini Stratego game for Greg.

After checking in with the hotel (this time without problems) we also tried to stay with thursday to friday, we took a small rest and then went out for dinner and to try and visit the Acrolopis, which unfortunately, was closed, but we still got a decent sight at it. When we got back at the hotel room at like 23.30 we prepared for day after where we would be traveling back to the Netherlands. Packing stuff, making sure we can easily pick up and leave and such.

After two days of fun and a good time, it was about to come to and end. Somehow Dennis and I ended up talking for quite a while about various topics. Stratego, different games that have similarities, video games (of course), IT job market developments, personalities and people (also in conjunction with job market), being the chairman/leader of a group/organisation, tournament matches, Dennis's favorite subject (stocks) and many other topics. From one to another. Kind of interesting and fascinating how that works. When Dennis asked me what time it is, I had estimated it to be 4.00. It actually was 5.45 in the morning already. Time flies, but nonetheless, time spent well.