Tom Schotte wins Moscow European Grand Prix
9 September 2018Tom Schotte, 10-fold Belgian Othello champion, travelled to Moscow to compete in the last tournament of the European Othello season. Nothing was really at stake any as this year's winner was already known. Matthias Berg from Germany was already more than one victory ahead of Marc Tastet from France. The latter also did not bother to travel to Russia. Actually, Tom Schotte was the only participating player with points in the ongoing season. A fourth place in Rotterdam and sixth places in Cambridge and Warsaw put him on a preliminary 12th position. Tough he was not the tournament favourite as the Russian Dmitry Atamanov was also one of the competitors. Tom Schotte could not defeat him before in one of their previous encounters. In 2016 for example, at the Saint Petersburg European Grand Prix, both played the final which was won by the Russian top player.
The tournament was serene with both favourites leading the pack after the Swiss. The confrontation between both was won again by Atamanov (35-29).
This result meant both would play against each other in the final. That final had three interesting games and was won by our Belgian representant. All games were won by black.
Game 1: Schotte 37 - 27 Atamanov (interesting corner exchange)
Game 2: Atamanov 40 - 24 Schotte (good position at at 29., but not able to find the good combination afterwards)
Game 3: Schotte 40 - 24 Atamanov (fight for g7)
With this victory Tom Schotte jumps to the third position in the European Grand Prix 2018, pushing Imre Leader to a fourth position. This bronze medal is the third overall podium after being runner-up in 2009 and 2016.
