…but there may be an even sadder one later in the week.

The registration deadline for the inaugural Morelli World Championship falls at midnight this coming Thursday.At present – and getting on for a month since registration opened – I have four names.

I never expected a flood of takers.It’s a heavyweight game, and also at this point in history a game with a pretty small player base.And you have to start somewhere.So I wouldn’t have been embarrassed to go ahead with as few as, say, eight players – though I would have hoped for the eight to include most of those (nearly all of them on Little Golem) who are known to be the strongest current exponents.But with three days to go I’m nowhere near that target.

Here’s the point of this post, then.If by midnight on Thursday I don’t have eight registrations I shall be cancelling the tournament and returning the prize-money with thanks and apologies to the sponsors.A great pity, if it happens, but dignity has its limits – and I’m talking about the game’s, not mine.

Just to let you know.

I guess advertisement is a big issue here. I don't know if there has been advertisement for it anywhere else other than bgg and here, but there is certainly many places where it hasn't been promoted. Like /r/boardgames or the less active but more fitting /r/abstractgames. Those two links are places where I could've found it even if I didn't know of lg, but I'm sure there's many others.

Actually, I don't think publicity is the issue at all as far as this tournament is concerned.  The player base for Morelli is at present more or less exclusively on LG and (to a lesser extent) Boardspace, because apart from mindsports those are the only online venues at which it's available - and on both of those it was advertised.  Naturally my ambition for the game longer term is that many people who are currently unaware of it (or aware but have never played) should become fans.  But a World Championship is about the people who play to a good standard already, and that's where the entry is disappointing, though to be fair there are still three days to go.

This is the first time I've ever taken note of Morelli; for a game amongst titans such as Chess or Go, I don't think that a small playerbase would be surprising at all. However, has the tournament been mentioned here on LG before? I would imagine that there are at least several interested players here, who don't necessarily frequent the other sites. Having a link to the registration and rules in this topic would be a good idea, as well…

Either way, I'll be looking forward to giving Morelli a shot. Unfortunately, there simply isn't enough time to practice and study a new game for the tournament, especially on a turn-based site like this.

Are you kidding mmKalll ?

Here you are : World Championship link

And Morelli is a very simple game to play: just move one of your pawns toward the center of the board, when you enclose a pawn between two of yours flip it in an Othello way, win the Tower by symmetry, that's all ;)

Ah, my bad for missing that. The layout and UI of the site doesn't always make it easy to follow the forums, even though I try to make a point of reading all of the posts here. I apologize for any perceived rudeness; it was definitely not my intention to come across that way. At any rate, the game has definitely intrigued me, but I unfortunately don't have the opportunity to commit for the tournament right now. Hopefully it will gain some exposure and be organized again next year! :)

Thank you, Carroll.  And thanks to vstjrt for playing a quick five qualifying games against the Boardspace bot and registering - so we're up to five competitors now, with two days to go.

I have no wish to railroad people into playing a tournament that doesn't appeal to them.  It's just that a World Championship would have a lot more credibility if a few more of the LG first-pagers would throw their hats into the ring.  The strongest players know who they are.

And it might even be fun :)

I would have entered, despite my inexperience with the game, but I didn't want to commit  to realtime games.  I expect many potential contestents on LG are in a similar position.

I was prevented by the java web start thing :( I simply couldn't log in to the site.

ok, just get it worked :)

And now thanks to game sorry.  So pleased to have you on board.  Up to six now, then.  Just two more by midnight tomorrow and we'll have a tournament.  And some strong players too.

hi, I am looking for the rules in french. .. someone has a link ?

I think I shall join if you would be one person short otherwise.

mmKALLL, that's wonderfully generous on your part.  In fact I hope you'll play anyway.  As far as time is concerned, it'll only mean one game if you lose the first one, and if you win it - well, you'll have won it, which is quite an achievement first time out.

Please note, though, that you have to have undertaken a (small) set number of previous games on BoardSpace  in order to register for a tournament (this is a mechanical requirement, built into the registration procedure).  The purpose, of course, is to avoid problems arising in your first match through unfamiliarity with the interface.  In fact, you need to have played five, but as I wrote in the tournament details you can do this pretty quickly by just playing 9x9 against Dumbot.  I notice that gamesorry actually played ten last night in that way, within the space of well under two hours, so it's not too bad :)

Austral, je suis vraiment désolé - pour l'instant il n'en existe pas.  Et confus, également, car j'aurais pu (et dû) l'entreprendre.  J'espère que vous arriverez à les parcourir avec suffisamment de compréhension 'en VO', mais en tout cas je m'en occuperai dès que l'occasion se présentera.

Is there a large cash prize for last place?

Seven players now (thank you, Galbolle) with just a day to go.  Only one more needed - though more than one would be welcome!

I'm really pleased to say that the Morelli World Championship will now take place, since we have the minimum quota of eight players.  My thanks to all those who rallied round to help this happen.  And there's still until midnight tonight for further registrations.  The final number of competitors doesn't need to be a power of two, as we can have 'byes' in a preliminary round.

Thanks again.

Thanks Richard and have fun all :)

Yes, thanks Richard for organizing this.

Hopefully you will let us know about the situation here as well, e.g. once the bracket is done. I visit LG daily, unlike the other sites.

I've just received the prize for the joint third place - a lovely Morelli set. Thanks again to Richard and the sponsor, Morellis Gelato:)