Brecht Van Damme and Fabio Buccoliero victorious in Ursel Othello Open
25 January 2026For the seventh time, the Belgian Othello scene descended on the rural village of Ursel. Bart and Mieke were hosts and welcomed us with coffee and cake. With a tasty sandwich lunch in mind, nineteen participants eventually showed up at roll call. The number of participants could easily have reached thirty, but three cases of flu — which also kept family members at home — and a family celebration decided otherwise. Five of the nineteen attendees arrived unannounced, including three new players. They competed in the beginner’s tournament.
Advanced players
With the recent Belgian Championship still fresh in mind, it was impossible to point to a clear favorite beforehand. Of course, a bet on Tom Schotte would have yielded the smallest return with bookmakers, but the field was closer than ever. The draw mattered less today, since with eight participants and seven rounds, everyone played against everyone over the course of the day.
The morning already brought several surprises. Whether the coffee wasn’t strong enough or he had slept badly, Tom Schotte lost his first two games. Just like in the first round of the Belgian Championship, Tuur Jena (45–19) was too strong, and he also suffered his first loss in twelve games against Brecht Van Damme (27–37). Belgian champion Nick Reunes already had two wins to his name by then. In a replay of the final, he defeated Nadja De Moor (31–33) and beat Tuur Jena (38–26). Ralph Reijnders was also still unbeaten at that point, with smooth victories over Jan Van Damme (10–54) and Dimitri Vaes (43–21). Even before lunch, Nick Reunes stood alone at the top (24–40), leaving Ralph Reijnders stuck on two points. Brecht Van Damme and Dimitri Vaes joined him with 2/3. All in all, it was a logical ranking, except for Tom Schotte’s seventh place, who had only just managed to hold off Nadja De Moor (38–26).
After lunch, Nick Reunes kept his perfect score against Dimitri Vaes (44–20), and Brecht Van Damme triumphed over Ralph Reijnders (35–29). Then Brecht Van Damme seized his moment with a 24–40 win against the leader in round five, bringing both players to four points. Dimitri Vaes and Tom Schotte followed closely with three wins. Tom Schotte still had to face the top three players in the final rounds and met Nick Reunes in round six. After a 43–21 victory, he caught up with Nick Reunes in the standings, but saw Brecht Van Damme score his fifth point against Jan Van Damme (22–42). Dimitri Vaes also secured a fourth point against Tuur Jena (48–16). The three players with four points were hoping for a win by Nadja De Moor against the proud leader in the final round, but with a convincing victory (53–11), Brecht Van Damme secured his very first tournament win after 57 tournaments and 392 official games. Tom Schotte completed his comeback with a narrow 31–33 win over Dimitri Vaes and claimed second place on tie-break, just ahead of Nick Reunes, who defeated Jan Van Damme (35–29). They finished second and third.
Promising players and beginners
This year’s traditional B-tournament was a colorful mix of participants: three beginners, four promising players, and three new players. The three newcomers held their own and won games against ranked players, meaning all three will appear in the next world rankings. Fabio Buccoliero, an Italian living in Belgium, played extremely strongly and defeated all his opponents. Eline Verstuyft managed to keep the largest number of stones on the board (24–40). Winning everything is like losing everything: the rating system can’t properly estimate someone’s strength. The tournament organization found a solution: a final match between the winners of both tournaments. This was won by the A-tournament winner with a clear (but exaggerated) 64–0. As a result, Fabio Buccoliero will receive a rating in the next update. For now, he remains a beginner until he can defeat one or more advanced players.
Although it quickly became clear that our Italian resident was a class above the rest of the field, the battle for the remaining podium places stayed open for a long time. The three beginners fought for position against four talented promising players. The highest-ranked beginner, Bart Verstuyft, did not have his best day and lost to promising players Sander Schotte (36–28) and Jana Verstuyft (27–37). He also lost to fellow beginner Wout Schotte (13–51) and drew against Pat Rine (32–32). He was therefore out of contention for a top-three place. This also shows that the level of these beginners is not much higher than that of the strongest promising players. Like Bart Verstuyft, the second-ranked beginner remained stuck on 2.5 points. Pat Rine also lost to beginner Wout Schotte (19–45) and to two promising players: Mieke Hooghe (38–26) and Jana Verstuyft (47–17) proved too strong. All beginner hopes were therefore pinned on Wout Schotte, who had won the promising players’ tournament in the previous two editions. As mentioned earlier, he defeated his fellow beginners and also won against promising players. But in the sixth round he lost another game: Jana Verstuyft (50–14) proved too strong and relegated him to the lowest podium spot. As a newly turned 16-year-old, and with experience from several international tournaments, she claimed second place in this tournament. This will likely earn her a significant boost in the rankings, possibly even a promotion to beginner status as a bonus.
Debutants Sverre Reunes and Tobe Devaere both won two games. Seven-year-old Sverre Reunes defeated his eighteen-year-old opponent in their head-to-head match (27–37). He also surprised Sander Schotte in the final round (34–30), while Tobe Devaere beat Mieke Hooghe (24–40) and Tony Claeys (25–39). The latter once again came to play his games this year. He replaced Mieke Hooghe for the final two rounds but was unable to record a victory this time.
Belgian Grand Prix
As tournament winner, Brecht Van Damme also takes the lead in the Belgian Grand Prix, while Nadja De Moor leads the women’s standings. Among the juniors, Sverre Reunes takes maximum points. Both competitions award tickets to the World Championship later this year.
DAN ranking
Wout Schotte is the 45th player to be promoted to 5 DAN, becoming the youngest ever to achieve this. On his debut, Fabio Buccoliero is immediately ranked 3 DAN. Sverre Reunes and Tobe Devaere are promoted to 2 DAN. Ralph Reijnders is now one win away from promotion to 6 DAN. Among the players who did not advance, Jana Verstuyft made the biggest gain, earning four additional points.