A Player's Perspective

My goal in entering this World Championship Tournament was to be one of the candidates - as anyone wished to be I guess - but I didnt make it. The "man" to beat in my zone was Aaron A. ("Mc" as I was used to calling him). I played two games with him in the last round of our zone, giving him an edge in the first one (you are welcome Mc), and misclicked in the second game giving him a loop attack (you are welcome again Mc :o). That shows how Aaron A. played well in those games against me, making me so nervous that I made newbie's mistakes.

So after this "misclick", my hope to be a candidate was over. Almost at the same time, Robyn was defeated on her zone, and Crystal (Call_me_17) had already withdrawn the first round in my zone. So no female player would be a candidate for this year's tournament :o(. But as we say in French, "ce n'est que partie remise" :o).

However, even though I wasn't able to participate in the Candidate's Tournament as a player, I was able to take part as an assistant to David (Smith), helping him to schedule the games and refereeing when he was not available. While we were doing the schedules and juggling with the zone times, it was very interesting to feel how the world is big and at same time so small. We had to pay attention to what players were doing when scheduling them; when one was sleeping the other one was eating his breakfast or coming back from work.

For myself, the highlight of the Candidate's Tournament was the three games between Dan (Pless) and Carl Johan (Ragnarsson) which decided the Challenger for this year. Each game was played by both players to a high level of skills. Carl's style of play of is more attacking than any other Trax player I know, against Dan's style which is more tactical and technical. I remember chatting with Donald during all these games, and sharing our comments about the move just played or the next one we would play if we were making the move. It was very interesting to see Carl and Dan playing while discussing with the incumbent champion!

Thanks to David who asked me to help him in the Candidate's Tournament, that helps me to forget my bad "misclick" :o).

Thanks also to Mel Nicholson who supervised the qualifier's tournament in my zone. It was not easy for him to schedule more than 25 online games between 10 players of the "at large" group, plus the first rounds of the Bay Area Trax Club.
The Tournament
Commentary on Results