Hi everybody, just a few words to let you know Comité International des Jeux Mathématiques, a French association, is going to organize an Hex tournament in Paris on May 31, 2015. The tournament will start at 3:00 p.m. Salon Culture & Jeux Mathématiques, from Thursday 28 to Sunday 31: stands, animations, games and presentations.

Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris 6ième arrondissement.

I and a friend of mine will be there to have some fun with maths and Hex. We hope to find some of you there guys!

more in info(French):http://www.cijm.org

Hi everybody, my chances of going to the tournament is approximately 50%… anybody else ?

Hi Giupiter and Bennok, I also want to go to the tournament. I have to figure put the trip and the cost.

There's no way I can go, but I am still curious: what size grid will the tournament use?

Hi everybody! Very nice! I hope bennok can join too. I guess they will use same boards we used in Cannes, 11 X 11 with black & white tiles: http://jeuxsoc.fr. I'll be in Paris on Friday 29, when are you arriving?

Hello. Proof for 1st player winning game on 11x11 board has still not been presented, but it is sure that this size isn't fair. Regards!

It has been presented, it is non-constructive though :) it is known for any board size.

The Jeu de Hex de CIJM has a size 14 and size 19 hexboard as well.

I will be coming to Paris with my family next week and join the tournament together with my son. We don't mind if it is a very serious tournament or just a game demonstration. I am sure it will be fun. Hope to see all of you there!

Christian, ok. it is theory but hexproof was presented only up to 9x9. Larger boards remains unresolved.

For sure there will be a lot of fun in Paris. I wish you luck and hopefully next time I'll join you.

Any size (above 9) is fair with swap. Will the games be played with or without swap rule?

I wish I could come, too.

hi guys. Tony it's great you can come and  it's a serious tournament not a demo. They have this tournament every year and there are also strong players. There are other players coming from B.G.A. too … I think this year will be a more international and a more interesting tournament :). And Tony, about the size, I saw their boards have many sizes, but as far as I know the tournament is played on the 121 cells board, with swap rule. See you there!!!

To sum  up: Yesterday (before time travel) this forum taught us that 1) Florian Jamain is participating.And 2) I confirmed that I would indeed be present. on Sunday.

Looking forward to meet you!

Hi in a few hours I'm going to take the train to Paris :) bennok it's ok to register for the tournament at the Salon reception on Sunday, just don't be late :) So guys… HAVE FUN :)

Hi, will anyone give out the news or do I really have to do everything myself !

We are bad, I think everybody is waiting someone do it (-;

So it was a funny tournament on 11x11 (5min KO) and the finals in 14x14 (10min KO).There were 24 players, 4 groups of 6 players, the 2 first were qualified for 1/4 finals.

In 1/4 finals there were almost only LG players I think.

There I can say that Bennok crushed me :-(I was confused by him ! I thought i got a winning strategy, then i told to myself “what, it does not work??” then I lost, then bennok just told me “But man, it worked…” :D

Then he won against broutcha in semi-finals and against pim in finals so that he became the new champion!!!

I think someone took photos/videos.

PS: Désolé j'ai du partir avant la remise des prix Bennok, mais je te félicite à nouveau (-;

Congrats Benno for winning the final against Pim! Very nice to meet so many Hex players from nine different European countries at the CIJM Hex tournament in Paris this weekend. I would like to play again next year, although it was a pity that the games had only 5 minutes thinking time and that I could not join the semi-finals because three players of my poule ended on a par, and it was decided by the arbitrator that the oldest player could not participate.

Don't know what is this line on my post …

Congrats Bennok !!!I'll try to be there next year. ..

Thank you all. - Wow, this victory was a total surprise to me !

Florian and Tony were the ones I was afraid of : Florian already explain how I bluffed him in thinking I had a great plan! And… I never got to play Tony !

As for pim, I had never played him before. He is a very deep calculator and analyzer, even with the tight time limit. My very first game was against pim, and the only one I lost : he was the reason I came out second of my pool ! Funny that we played both the first and last game together. What saved me is probably my style of play (more instinct than calculation, trying to find strong shapes, avoiding to play ladders too soon, saving time with confusing moves). I spent a lot of energy but less than, if I had tried to achieve precise planification.

I don't know, if Tony managed to capture our game (on video). But I have the feeling I was in trouble in my middle game. I sort of gambled at one point speculating on the fact that pim wasn't seeing a mistake I was making. I am not so proud of that, but had he seen it the game would have been much longer and one of us would have lost on time (of which I had more).

Thanks a lot to Giupiter (who finished fourth !) for letting us know of this event and it was great meeting you guys !Now I will be obliged to come back 2016 !

Here is a picture my wife made of the price distribution. From left to right bennok, pim, broutcha and giupiter. See you all next year !

Wow that was a fast time limit. I guess they had limited time to conduct the tournament. Did you use digital clocks?

Challenging, but Ludoteka gives you only 1 min ;)

Of course, congrats for all players!

Sorry guys, I don't have much time in these days!

So it was a great tournament, 24 players in total; most of them from France, but also players coming from 7 other countries of Europe!

You know already the winner was Benno (congrats again!), he is the champion to beat next year :)

He won against Pierre (“pim” on Little Golem) a French player who won the tournament in 2014.

Third was Fabien (if I'm not wrong, he is “broutcha” on LG) who beat me :)

Of course I was lucky to get there, Tony deserved much more, but as he wrote, there were some problems.

Anyway I loved it! The Salon was also interesting and there was lot of people walking and playing different games.

And it was really great to play live with Tony, Benno, Michal “(mikeOo”), Fabien, Pierre and all the other players.

We had also time to take some to drinks and to talk about Hex and other games. Very good vibes :) Thanks a lot  to everybody!!!

Of course I'll be there for next tournament in 2016 and I hope this time there will be there others!!!

Congratulations Benno!!! Very good games!

Pierre vs. Benno in the final game.

John Nash Tournament ! On Little Golem, starting on June 8, 2015 here:http://www.littlegolem.net/ng/a/Ctrn.action?view=&dto.id=960

It's really wonderfull, that you had a live tournament. Congrats to all participants. I wish i could participate in some tournament, but it's hard for me to travel :(

Have you recorded some of your games? it will be interesting to see them)

Since you did use digital clocks, I am surprised no increment or delay was used. (Was there?) Even Ludoteka, with its fast one minute time control, provides a five second increment per move. And there is a big difference between using a mouse to click on a cell versus picking up a token (from inside a plastic cup no less), placing it on the board, and then pushing the clock button in a face to face game. Without some sort of increment or delay, the game can change from a mental battle to a dexterity contest in the final moves. I hope no game deteriorated in quality because of this.

Yeah David, it was 5min KO.

I agree with David. For the sake of the game time increment would be good. But I must say that all 9 rounds of games had to be played between 3PM and 6PM, the time when the event was closing ! I wish they would choose an earlier schedule for the next tournament, saturday for example, or at least sunday morning !

Well I don't know if I will ever be able to fly to Paris in May, not if I also plan to fly to London in August. And I can't even do that, this year. So perhaps I should save my helpful suggestions for the MSO.

A picture of the board in the final game.