WC 2019 Sheffield - Part 1 of 2

Introduction

(When you click on the caption below one of the images, it should open the actual image, in higher resolution)

For part 2 click here

For those who have not yet read the story about the "WC 2018":

WC Naarden 2018 - Part 1 of 3
WC Naarden 2018 - Part 2 of 3
WC Naarden 2018 - Part 3 of 3

And for those who have not yet read the story about the "Trip to Patras":

Trip to Patras - Part 1 of 4
Trip to Patras - Part 2 of 4
Trip to Patras - Part 3 of 4
Trip to Patras - Part 4 of 4

The story about the WC 2019 will be done in similar fashion, mostly focusing on the overall experience and on how I have experienced the trip.

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Day #1 (22nd of august 2019)

During the period of 22nd of august through 25th of august the world championships of Stratego, live, 2019, were held in Sheffield, UK. The last live WC held in the UK was in 2011, Newcastle. It was good to have the WC in the UK again. Players from all over the world travelled to Sheffield to participate in the live WC. On Thursday, the WC UL and Barrage were held. I did not, due to travelling schedule, participate in those, so I do not have much to share about these events. For those interested in the results, the barrage WC can be found here the UL one does not seem to be available.

So, the first day of the entire thing for me, was Thursday, 22nd of august. It was a laid back day with little to no difficulties in the earlier hours. I left my place at around 14:30 to catch the train at 15:12 to Schiphol airport. The plane would be taking off at 18:00 and I expected to arrive at Schiphol airport around 15:40. To my own surprise, all of this went exactly according to plan. When I got to Rotterdam Central station, there was a train to Schiphol airport standing there, but the doors were already closed. Just moments before that train took off, a woman ran up the escalators and tried to open the train doors which obviously did not succeed and the train took off, causing the woman to, angrily, mutter a few angry words. I told the woman "So, the one time a Dutch railways train is on time you manage to miss it". Surprisingly enough, she did not seem to appreciate that 😕.

Rotterdam Central station

So, after arriving at Schiphol, the infamous security check was bound to happen. To my own surprise, they seemed very easy going today and everything went extremely smoothly. After navigating through the departure gate, we now had +- 90 minutes to kill. After boarding, the plane took off and departed to Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA). The landing was not the most pleasant one, but nonetheless, we landed safely and well on time. 

Sight from plane

After arriving at DSA, it was time to find an ATM and then head towards the busses. Prior to going to UK, Josh, aka Sevenseas, helped out a bit with the bus schedule and thus I was well prepared. The X6 bus was standing there, we tried to enter it, but apparently it was not available, yet. A few minutes later the bus went to its platform and we boarded. The bus driver asked if we had any coins, to which I responded negative, stating that we (well, I.. I can't look in other's purse of course) only had bills. The bus driver was quick to correct me by saying they're called notes in the UK 😀. The actual ride to Sheffield interchange was a pleasant one, no traffic queues or other unwanted stuff. 

DSA

After arriving at Sheffield interchange, it was supposed to be a 5-10 minute walk, unfortunately, google maps thought different and it ended up taking 15 minutes. We got the keys for the room, met up with a few other players ((such as Dennis and his roommate, Kees and referee Mark) and went out for dinner. It goes without saying that this ended up being pizza. I paid for my pizza + 2 bottles of water (to take back) + a coke (the actual drink) using a 20 GBP note. I don't recall the exact costs, but I was supposed to get +- 12.50 back, but only got 2.50. I stayed at the counter and after a few seconds mentioned I'm still waiting for my 10 GBP, which was quickly given. I'm not sure whether they tried to rip me off; they seemed friendly and corrected it rapidly.

After the pizza was devoured, it was time for something else important: charging the mobile phone. It was at this moment, we realised, the UK uses different plugs.. thus we'd be needing a device that would solve this issue. Initially, we requested one at the Hotel's reception (staying at the Hilton, the first name of the cute looking girl at the reception, funnily enough, was "Paris"), but they informed us they had no such device, but a 24-hour shop was nearby and we could get one there after a +- 10 minute walk. After +- 25 minutes (thanks, google maps) we finally found it, got one.. got back at the hotel and did a major discovery that was upsetting and funny at the same time. An USB-charger was available, right next to the bed and could have been used instead. Sigh.

No comment.. 😅

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Day #2 (23rd of august 2019)

Waking up.. my least favourite thing of the day, even more so taking the time into consideration. Time to get up, take a shower, get dressed and slowly make my way to the breakfast area. English breakfast, of course. Needless to say, a good one. After breakfast, it was time to make way to the playing hall where slowly but surely more and more players were arriving. Greeting and catching up with some.

Breakfast

As time passed by, the event was opened by one of the organisers, who I had been in contact with quite extensively prior to the WC, Jonathan Arnott. Jonathan welcomed the players, introduced the organisation team and then, as agreed during earlier contact moments, gave the representatives of the WCO team the opportunity to hand out a medal to a present player. I got to say a thing or two about the WCO and of course mentioned the fact that sign-ups had opened (shameless promotion). It was also brought up that the player who finished #1 during WCO 2018-2019, John Vandoros, was not present here today, but that he had received his gold medal, at the Patras battles tournament, in his home country, Greece. The player who finished second, Losermaker, was also given a moment of honour and then Tim Slagboom was called forth, to receive his medal for the third place in the WCO 2018-2019. 

Informing people about the new WCO sign up... while standing in front of the German flag 😅 something I will be hearing for quite a while

Tim receiving his deserved medal (Dutch flag featured too this time!)

Tim later told me that he had expected me to make some joke about a second place (Tim has a very impressive track record of second places), but that actually had not crossed my mind, at all. I did, of course, hope, that this would be the only medal/prize he would be receiving during this event 😎.

Anyway, after the WCO part concluded, I spoke a few words to the organisation who I had been in close contact with during the past +- 2 months, thanking them for their efforts and inviting the present players to applaud those efforts.

After the opening ceremony concluded, the first round pairing was announced. Some tough battles were planned already. The group photo was taken and I consulted with very small group about who else, besides the ISF representatives from the present countries, would be a good addition to the dinner & talk planned on the Saturday. Throughout the day, I checked with everyone that would be invited, including the ISF representatives from countries, just to be sure, everybody accepted and Jonathan was informed that he could make a reservation at the hotel's restaurant.

WC 2019 - Group picture

Informing some invited ones about the Saturday meeting

Game #1 - Anthony Melbourne

Having played against Anthony once before, a very long time ago, I was not sure what to expect. I know Anthony is a very strong and knowledgeable player. The game was, as expected, extremely tough. My materialistic advantage, in the end, managed to prevail. Out of the "Bottom 50%" (due to the Swiss system), I think Anthony is one of the toughest opponents I could have faced in the first round. Nonetheless, it was a fun, close and good game. We also had a pleasant talk afterwards.

Game #2 - Ruben van de Bilt

By no means an easy game. Not on paper, not in practice. Ruben's approach to this specific match lead to him taking an early lead. He could have done a disastrous blow, not one that would be unrecoverable, but a very unpleasant start. I managed to capture the trouble making piece, but the game was in a fairly equal state still. This changed however when I discovered what Ruben was up to. He then made a very very costly mistake which left him no options but to play defensively for the rest of the game. In the end, I tore apart his set up and snatched the flag for my second win of the tournament.

Game #3 - George Franka

Having played against George many times before, I knew he was very thrilled to take some points off of me during a WC. While George had a manageable materialistic lead, he shortly after found himself on the defense. A few questionable moves by George nullified some of my plans and suddenly I found myself in a situation where something had to happen. After thoroughly analysing his setup and play, I had to take a risk that, if wrong, could have ended the game right there and then, but my read was correct. After the aforementioned, George now knew he was on a time bombs, leading to a certain defeat should he not try something, which he did. Kaboom!

Game #4 - Anjo Travaille

Anjo took, unexpectedly, a very aggressive approach to this match. There is not much to say about the game itself besides that the actual game took less than 5 minutes and a few curse words were dropped (from his side of course😊). Sometimes, those kind of games, just happen. Pieces matching up perfectly for one player, leading to a short game. 

Game #5 - Tim Slagboom

I was happy to play Tim. I felt myself in a good state of mind and in general felt well and relaxed. The game revolved around two players trying to be always one step ahead of an other. Tim had a materialistic advantage, but never big enough to outright threaten a positive result for me. For a long time, I could have captured one of the key pieces in the game, but it would include revealing an unknown piece of mine, also very far out of position, that I deemed it to be not worth it. In the end, Tim hit the piece nonetheless, which switched the materialistic balance into my favour, heavily, but I had to be extremely careful and not make any mistakes to nullify his counter attack potential as much as possible. He ended up getting two scouts and my spy, not too bad. I could have taken his spy with one of the scouts, but instead chose to let him keep it, in exchange for him wasting two moves on that scout in order to minimise damage done elsewhere. After necessary pieces were swapped off, I ended up taking his flag right away on my first attempt to break open his setup. After the game we also had a pleasant and analytical chat about the game. 

Tim playing vs me in round #5, main event day 1

At the end of the playing day, 5 out of 5, I had nothing to complain about and thus did not make any complaints. Having taken down three top players (George, Anjo, Tim) and two tough opponents who are definitely capable of taking points from anyone (Anthony, Ruben), I had good reason to be optimistic. Some players even stated that the WC had been decided already. I found this assumption not only to be incorrect, but also somewhat disrespectful towards other competitors. A good start definitely helps, but it is only 50%. Anything could still happen tomorrow and plenty of things did happen.

As the first playing day was pretty much over, some groups were being formed for dinner plans. Some people were being needlessly difficult and some wanted to go out for dinner earlier.. or much later. In the end, I got tired of it and formed an own group consisting of: Richard, one of the organisers and author of "From beginner to winner", last moment participant Vincent, Stratego fanatic Kees and head referee Roseline. Richard, being a resident of Sheffield, knew a good place and thus we headed there. His choice, indeed, was a good one. Most ended up going for fish & chips. We also saw quite a bit of Sheffield on the way there

Walking..

"Not walking"..

After returning to the hotel, it was time for some relaxing, in this case it was the swimming pool where Roseline and I agreed to go to. I'm fairly confident in stating that I managed to find the most inefficient way of, after having changed clothing, to reach the actual swimming area, but nonetheless, I managed to get there. My pathfinding skills (or lack of) never cease to amaze me. One of the things we did, was hold a small contest to see who would reach the other side first. She won, by 0.5 sec or so. Me claiming I let her win did not exactly convince her. A guy that happened to be watching mentioned she had reached the other side first and that I would have to take her out for dinner. Funnily enough, we had agreed to that the winner would be treated on a trip to the mcdonalds (or similar) some time when back in the Netherlands.

After the swimming was done, it was time for a shower. Prior to that, a group was formed to play some games somewhere in the hotel in +- 30 minutes. As the small group gathered (Kees, Dennis, Roseline and myself), I went to order some drinks for us all, first time WC contestant Vincent Looye also joined, slightly complicating the order, but oh well. The order was passed on. Upon the young lady hearing the order (coke, coffee, pint of lemonade, small beer and a pint of beer) she asked me to make a choice for the type of beers as there was plenty to choose from.

Clearly, since I like quality and trusted her experience, I told her to give us "the best you have". She kind of laughed, making it obvious she did not know either and to my surprise, summoned her colleague to ask the question, who then made a recommendation. I always like to have a little bit of fun with the staff, so that was achieved. The drinks were delivered and the game of choice was family business, a game about gangsters. Later on, Ricardo also joined after he came back from his dinner somewhere in the city. We played a few rounds and as the room was closing, called it a day.

Aforementioned group (note Kees's shirt also)

After returning to the hotel room, the TV was turned on (not by me, I was attending my phone) but nothing of interest was on it.. which is exactly why I never watch it. By chance, my favourite TV show, Supernatural, 2 seasons behind, happened to be on it, which was a funny coincidence.