Luxembourg DD Tournament Summery:

To review the tournament from the start game by game click here and follow the new posts link at the bottom of the page, bellow are Tournament points charts game by game.

After a very good show from Arwin Caljouw and Stijn van der Vlueten, who were marked as possible winners for the tournament, our 3rd favorite David Luxembourg takes the tournament with 2 stunning games. beating Arwin 29 - 103 and Stijn 53 - 107. A surprising end to the day from the Domino Master who had high hopes to see one of his apprentices win, but could not give them their victory so easily.


(In the photo: Stijn and David Shake hands at the end of the tournament final game)

While the main games were going on, a series of Friendly games between the players who went out continued, the target of these games was to make sure that all players participating in the tournament will 5 games, and in the case of a winning of the tournament by David or Daniela, the grand prize will to the player who has the lowest score after 5 games.


During the games we have also seen 2 new Luxembourg Draw Dominoes records take place:

Arwin Caljouw set the record for the smallest amount of points ever collected during a Luxembourg game - 23 points
Lea Liabastre-Chopin set the record for the most points ever taken in a single round -58 points

At the end of Day, after all players completed the game we compose the following score chart:

From which we can create the Luxembourg DD Tournament Rankings:

#1 - David Luxmebourg - 322 points
#2 - Arwin Caljouw - 343 points
#3 - Stijn van der Vlueten -356 points
#4 - Florian de Visser -432 points
#5 - Jannita van den Haak -450 points
#6 - Daniela Pais -507 points
#7 - Lea Liabastre-Chopin -520
#8 -Tzhan Yeh - forfeit
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day is to find Daniela and Lea in the last positions. seeing 2 of the most experienced Luxembourg DD players in the tournament reach those positions was as surprising as watching Arwin , practically a newcomer, blitzing them out of the tournament in game 2b.

And the Grand Prize goes for Arwin Caljouw, with only 343 points collected in 5 games he is the next eligible palyer for the prize, and after such good performance during games 1, 2 & 3, including a new Luxembourg DD record we think he deserves it!

(In the photo: Arwin Receives the Grand Prize from the Luxembourg Domino Dojo Master himself - David Luxembourg. Well done dude!)

The organizers of the Luxembourg DD tournament would like to thank all those who participated in the tournaments and also to those who followed. Next tournament will happen in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, this July - stay Tuned!!

Luxembourg DD Tournament Game 5 Results:

FINAL (David, Stijn)

And here are the results round by round:

Round 1

(In the photo: end of the round - - very good start for David)

Score:
D -0
S -26

Round 2

(In the photo: Arwin, observer, gives advice to Stijn)

(In the photo: end of the round and Stijns strikes back)

Score:
D -10
S -0

Round 3

Stijn wins again, but David slips away form any serious damage.

Score:
D -14 (24)
S -0 (26)

Round 4

(In the photo: end of the round and another Master storke for David)

Score:
D -0
S -25

Round 5

David keeps up presuring Stijn.

Score:
D -0
S -15

round 6

(In the photo: end of the round as Stijn beats David to the finish, placing his double 4, before David gets the chance to Lock the game with his 4 /2 piece )

Score:
D -6
S -0

round 7
Score:
D -0
S -9

round 8

At the end of round 8 the gap between the players stands on 50 points.

Score:
D -0 (30)
S -13 (88)

round 9

(In the photo: end of the round, Stijn gets this one right, leaving David with 23 points. If he can keep this up, he might just get it, though the efort of holding on for another 4-5 rounds with only 12 points in reserve is quite impossible )

Score:
D -23
S -0

Round 10

(In the photo: end of the round, Despite last round's succes, it a K.O. for Stijn with 19 points, as David Plays a power game with the 4s and 3s, and beats Stijn to the Domino)

Final score:
D -0 (53)
S -19 (107)

(In the photo: Players shaking hands at the end of a great tournament and an amazing final)

Luxembourg DD Tournament GAME 4 Results:

SEMI-FINAL (Arwin, David Stijn)

(in the Photo: Round 1 in progress.)

And here are the results:

Arwin -103
David -29
Stijn -62

(In the Photo: End of round 1 - counting the score)

Highlights: What a suprise! After Keeping in low profile through out the tournament David does the Blitz. Round 1 ends with A -32, D -0 and S-30 points, unbelievable. Round 2 ends with a victory for Stijn, but david has only 1 stone left in his hand and that is the double zero. Arwing gains another 15 points. Round 3 goes for Arwin, Stijn is left with the double zero and david takes in only 10 points- his first points in the game. Round 4 David wins again leaving arwin with and extra 16 points and Stijn with extra 23! at the end of the round we see the sub total and it is: A- -63, D -10, S-53. What a game!.

(in the photo: a view over the field from David's position)

While stijn keeps his cool through the rest of the game, winning 2 of the 3 follwoing rounds and taking in only 9 points, Arwin looses his game completly taking in another 40 points and at the end of round 8 finds himself out of the tournamnet with 103 points. David plays truely at another level, collecting only 29 points through out the whole game and even performing the ultimate Luxembourg Domino Dojo move 'Divine Intervention' - a form of game blocking that forces other rivals to keep on taking in more stones.

So its David and Stijn into the final.

Luxembourg DD Tournament GAME 3 Results:

(In the photo bellow: Game 3 - keeping the score, View of the game from Daniela's position)


And her the results for game 3 of the tournament.

David -87
Arwin -71
Daniela -105
Stijn -67

(In the photo: Game end in round 9, Stijn takes the round, David, Daniela and Arwin find themselves stuck with 14,13 and 16 points respectively. Daniela is out of the tournament.)

Highlights: David & Arwin open the game very well and after 4 rounds this is what we see: Dv -37, A -28, Dn -60 and S -56. At this point Stijn took control of the game, winning 3 of the 5 following rounds and inflicting 50, 43 and 45 points on David, Arwin and Daniela respectively, while taking in 11 points himself. After the 9th round Daniela finds herself out of the tournament not surprisingly, considering her score in past games in which she narrowly avoided the 'getting kick out option' with 101 & 97 points.

Stijn Definitely managed to surprise both Arwin and David pushing them both out of the lead and even inflicting 29 points to David on round 6. Arwin, whether still in by skill or luck, has performed quite well during the game keeping his losses under an average of 8 points per round and never taking in more then 19 point. David who could have defiantly played better in this game, as well as in the previous ones, has to wonder whether he'll still be around after the next one.

Luxembourg DD Tournament GAME 2 Results:

For Game 2 the players starting positions in groups A and B have been reshuffled, here are the Game's results:

Group 2A (David, Stijn, Jannita)

(In the photo: Game 2A in progress)

(In the photo: end of round 4, jannita wins, David & Stijn in Trouble)

David -65
Stijn -97
Jannita -102

Highlights: very soon in the game David gains the upper hand, with Jannita and Stijn hardly keeping up. At the end of round 6 this is how things look like: D -23, J- 66, S -56. By round 9 Stijn stand at 97 points while Jannita plays very well with 2 victories and 1 loss of 5 points and David gaining another 21. The surprise strikes the round after with an amazing victory for Stijn, gifting Jannita with 25 point and and David with 13. Stijn continues to collect another victory gifting Jannita and David 6 and 8point s respectively and pushing Jannita out of the tournament after 12 rounds.

Group 2B (LEa, Daniela, Arwin)

(In the Photo: End of round 4 - a disaster for Daniela, Arwin wins, Lea escapes the Damage)

Lea -123
Daniela -97
Arwin -23

Highlights: it took Arwin only 6 rounds to win the game and kick Lea out of the tournament. In his blitz on the girls Arwin managed to inflict 50 points to Daniela in round 4, and 58 point to Lea in round 5. An achievement that marks him as a viable favorite for winning the tournament and marks Lea with a new Luxembourg Domino Dojo record for the most point collected in a single round.

(In the photo: Round 5 - Lea's new record - 58 points)

(in the Photo: Keeping the score at the end of game 2B)

(in the Photo: Keeping the score at the end of game 2a)

Luxembourg DD Tournament GAME 1 Results:

Group 1A (David, Stijn Lea, Tzuhan)
(In the photo: View over the domino field from david's position at the start round 4)

Unfortunately Tzuhan could not join the tournament, even though the beginning of the games was delayed, and we were waiting for her. The game went on as a friendly game between the 3 remaining contestants, here are the end results after 9 rounds:

David -88
Stijn -84
Lea -101

Highlights: Game started good for Lea with 1 victory and one 5 points after 2 rounds, but turned very rough as David began blocking massively leading to 24 points to Him and Lea, and 22 points to Stijn at round 3. These sort of amounts in points continued for 2 more rounds bringing the score to D- 78, L -73, S -64. From then on David Changed his style, taking in only 10 more points and inflicting 28 and 20 points on Lea and Stijn respectively. Still not enough point to take the game which went to Stijn.

Group 1B (Jannita, Arwin, Florian, Daniela)

(in the Photo: end of game 2, Florian at the top with 24 points and becoming the first player to drop out of the tournament)

The game lasted 12 rounds, here are the results:

Jannita -70
Arwin -64
Florian -115
Daniela -101

Highlights: the first rounds were were slow and defensive as each player was dumping stones. Arwin especially managed to keep his losses low and in the rounds after opened a gap of 14 between him and Jannita and of 27 between him and Daniela. rounds 5-8 saw Jannita take in 23 points and Florian 29, extending the gap between 1st and 2nd places to 22 points leaving the game at A- 20, J -50, D -64, F -69. At this point it appears both Daniela and Florian lost their balance and began collecting points. on the 12th round Florian made the mistake of his tournament, with 91 points for him and 96 for Daniela, he locked the game on sixes while still holding 4 heavy stones. The round ended with A -3, J -4, D -5, F -24.

Special adjustment to rules regarding Grand Prize,

In a meeting between the organizers of the tournament it was decided that in the case of either David or Daniela winning the tournament the prize will go the next player with the lowest score.

This means side by side during the tournament, players who were taken out will continue to play till all the contestants of the tournament have played 5 games. the points of each player from each game will then be counted and in case that David or Daniela win - the grand prize will go to the player (other then David or Daniela) with the lowest score.

Here is the record chart:

Luxembourg DD Tournament *Special Report*

Today the first ever Luxembourg DD Tournament will take place between5 PM and 10.30 PM.

To win the tournament, a contestant had to win 5 games: 2 games of 4 players, 2 of with 3 players and 1 game of 2 players - the final. All games were played till 100 point where the first player reaching 100 both ending the game and being removed from the rest of the tournament.

Meaning: in games 1 & 3 the 3 players holding the smaller scores will be allowed to advance (and the first player to reach 100 points is out of the tournament). These 2 games, with 4 players are games of luck, giving as much good and bad chances to advanced Luxembourg DD players as they do with beginners. Anything can happen!

Games 2 & 4 the advantage will surely be with the experienced players, and the final game of 1 vs 1 will be the pinnacle of the domino strategy and tactics.

And here are the contestants:

*David Luxembourg - the Luxembourg Domino Dojo Master himself, a strong favorite for winning the tournament, possible also the player with most experience.
*Stijn van der Vleuten - Also a strong favorite for winning the tournament. Although receiving only a crash course introduction to the secrets of Luxembourg Draw Dominoes, Stijn has showed great Domino talent, loosing only 2 out of the 20 to 30 games he played against/with David.
*Lea Liabastre-Chopin - Lea has been a full time apprentice in the Domino Dojo for the past few months, and has shown great potential. A player of the Intern League in the past weeks she managed to cut her losses down and move to the leading position. If she plays well she might just take the grand prize.
*Tzuhan Yeh - has only fundamental knowledge of the game. She might make it all the way to game 4, but chances are low on her making it to the final.
*Arwin Caljouw - despite having some small experience Arwin has only fundamental knowledge of the game as well. He might make it all the way to game 4, but chances are low on him making it to the final.
*Jannita van den Haak - Another Domino player with basic Domino skills, again might make it all the way to game 4, but chances are low on making it to the final.
*Florian de Visser - joining the Dojo only a few weeks ago, Florian has gain already some experience and might even make into the final, it will require a good mix of talent and lack to get him there however.
*Daniela Pais - a very strong favorite for winning the tournament, and the 2nd most experienced Domino player to enter the competition. although never completing her domino architecture levels Daniela is consider as an informal Domino Dojo master.

Marking them according to their Luxembourg DD experience this is what we can see:
1- David Luxembourg
2- Daniela Pais
3- Lea Liabstre-Chopin
4- stijn van der Vlueten
5- Florian de visser
6- Arwin Caljouw
7- Jannita van den Haak
8- Tzuhan Yeh

Luxembourg DD Tournament List of Contestants

And here are the names of today contestants divided by lottery to qualifying groups:

Game 1 Group 1

David Luxembourg
Stijn van der Vleuten
Lea Liabastre-Chopin
Tzuhan Heh

Game 1 Group 2

Arwin Caljouw
Jannita van den Haak
Florian de Visser
Daniela Pais

And so we have an exiting day infornt of us!

Tournamet's results and comentery will be published tomorrow night.

First ever Luxembourg DD Tournament! this sunday 30/05/10

We are very happy to inform you that the first ever Luxembourg Draw Dominoes Tournament will take place in Eindhoven, the Netherlands this upcoming sunday 30th of May.

The grand prize of the tournament is this wonderful 70's styled golden pips Dominoes we picked up from toys'r'us today:


But to get to it the winner will have to win 5 games: 2 games vs 3 opponents, 2 games vs 2 opponents and 1 game of 1 on 1.

All games will be played till 100 points. In games 1 & 3 the 3 players holding the smaller scores will be allowed to advance (meaning the first player to reach 100 points is out of the tournament.
These 2 games, with 4 players are games of luck, giving as much good and bad chances to advanced Luxembourg DD players as they do with beginners. so anything can happen!

Games 2 & 4 the advantage will surely be with the experienced players, and the final game of 1 vs 1 will be the pinnacle of the domino strategy and tactics.

here are still a couple of places left, registration closes tomorrow, on Sunday morning we will publish the list of contestants.

Stay tuned!

Today's Games' Results: 28/05/10

In the photo bellow: round 3 game 2 lea wins, David end with a double 6 still can't stop loosing point at the end of a very bad game.


And here are the results for today's Intern league games :

Intern League
(coffee break 11:00)

3 Rounds:
David -44
Daniela -30
Lea -12

Intern League
(Lunch 01:00)

3 Rounds:
David -51
Daniela -13
Lea -19

Today we a very ballance amount of victories as each player won 2 rounds throught today's games.

A very bad day for David however, not since the beginning of the league have we seen David Luxembourg loose a game of domino with so many points lost in 1 game. Pushed down to the bottom of the league by 2 well played games of Lea and Daniela, with Lea the big winner of the day, finding her self neck to neck with Daniela and at the lead with 1 point ahead.

In the photo: round 2 of game 2 spelled disaster with 39 for David

The decisive rounds of the day were round 3 of the Morning game and round 2 of the Matinee game, both won by Daniela, and with Lea almost playing hand with hand with Daniela and avoiding large losses like the ones David has to deal with at this moment.

With only a few games left till the end of the leage this is how things are standing at the end of this week:

Lea -985
Daniela -986
David -1014

Games will resume next week, But stay tuned for the first ever Luxembourg DD Tournament coming up this sunday 30/05/10!

Today's Games' Results: 26/05/10

Before resuming with the intern League our contestant started with a warming up game. Here are the results:

Morning Practice/warm up
(coffee break 11:00)

3 rounds:

David- 1 victories
Daniela- 2 victories
Lea- No Victory ( but still a good play)

Intern League
(Lunch 01:00)

3 Rounds:
David -19
Daniela -32
Lea -11

The first game played in Holland after the Portuguese leg of league open well for David, winning 1st round, gaining only 2 points in the 2nd round and blocking the game at the 3rd leaving him with an extra of 8 points and giving the game to Lea who scored only 7 extra points.

Lea got a clear victory in the 2nd round, together with her technical victory in round 3 she takes the game.

After decisive victories in the her last 6 games our analysts wonder if Daniela's golden age is over or if today's loss was due to the change of environment.

!Update! Intern League @ PORTUGAL

Between 12 and 23 of May the Intern League continued in Portugal with with 5 games ( 15 rounds) played in Porto, Barroca, fundao, Alcaida & Lisbon.

(In the photo: first game of the Portuguese series played in Porto with the XISTO DOMINO prototype over a celebratory coffee and cakes)

These games had disastrous results for David who did not do well at all, besides of winning the first game with 3 vs 25 & 10 to Daniela and Lea respectively, David lost all other games: - 59, -30, -35 and -22. Despite this tremendous losses David still keep his lead over Daniela and Lea, but only by a shoe string, as the end results of the Portuguese leg of the intern league are: David -909, Daniela -911, and Lea -943.

(in the photo: view over the *battle filed* from Daniela position)

Lea did very well through the whole whole series, keeping her losses low and winning 3 out of the 5 games played. In total she gained only 62 points throughout the Portuguese leg of the Intern League, meaning that now only 34 point stand between her and the championship.

(In the photo: Game end in Porto after 3 rounds , cakes and coffee)

The title of 'Best Player' of of the Portuguese series goes for a Portuguese herself. Daniela Pais managed to keep the edge over David during the series, winning 1 game only but keeping her losses to an ultimate low of 50 points!

Today's Games' Results: 07/05/10

She's back! What a good day for Daniela especially after such a disastrous week. Today we have seen Daniela at her best, winning 5 of the 6 rounds played and pushing Lea back to third place.

And here are the results :

Intern League
(coffee break 11:00)

3 Rounds:
David -17
Daniela -5
Lea -27

Intern League
(Lunch 01:00)

3 Rounds:
David -35
Daniela -0
Lea -36

For David game 1 went quite well, but it was his attempt in the first round of game to horde on the sixes for a possible a 'divine intervention' move that cost dearly with 20 points. Lea had hard time today as she found herself continuously blocked through out both games forcing her take on more stones and points.

This it for the first week of May, the Intern League is off to a short vacation, but stay tune for next week as we follow other daily games from Portugal.

The Sneakiest Preview...

I just could help myself and had to take another piggy wiggie picture. While working on my domino set and the Domino architecture guide for it, this building *happened*! Never thought it work out, but then again energy flows in direct lines and so it stands. In my humble and biased opinion - simply amazing!

Today's Games' Results: 06/05/10

today's games developments can be summarized in 4 words and a question mark: is this the end? (in the photo: a bad omen? - Daniela's spilled accidentally her coffee at the start of game 1 round 3)

As far as the 2ND spot in the Intern League goes its bye bye Daniela and hello Lea, here are today's games' Results:

Intern League
(coffee break 11:00)

3 Rounds:
David -9
Daniela -28
Lea -9

Intern League
(Lunch 01:00)

3 Rounds:
David -15
Daniela -60
Lea -20

Things already seem to go wrong for Daniela in game one as she lost in all three game rounds and collected 28 points. Though David won most rounds Lea kept her ending hand in rounds1 & 3 light preventing David from a game victory.

In the photo: end of game 2 round 1. David blocking the game with with the sixes, leaving Daniela with a stunning 32 points! Lea squeaked herself out of this round with only 4 points.

If things weren't bad enough in game 1, game 2 was simply a disaster. In the photo: end of game2 round 3, David takes the round and the game, and if the 32 points from round 1 were not enough, now Daniela has collected another 20 for her score.

From starting with a strong lead over David, Daniela finds herself at the bottom with 831 points since the beginning of the season, but there is still enough time to fix this up till the season ends the July.

Today's Games' Results: 05-05-10

In the photo: End of game 2 - round 3, David blocking the game with 5's (Devine intervention) leaving himself and Daniela with 5 and 9 point respectively. Lea takes the round and the game.


Intern Leage
(coffee break 11:00)

3 Rounds:
David -32
Daniela -21
Lea -7

Intern Leage
(Lunch 01:00)

3 Rounds:
David -50
Daniela -67
Lea -11

In both games today we saw David and Daniela trying very hard to catch up with Lea who ended the day with only 18 points! indeed a tiny amount compared with 88 points for Daniela and 82 points for David.

After loosing badly with 32 points in game 1, David concentrated in game 2 on keeping his lead over Daniela, paying no attention to Lea who played fast and dominated the day with 4 victories.

In the beginning of the week Lea's gap from the lead was 189, today it all changed, no longer a loosing game - if Lea keeps this up she might even win the leage!

Domino Architecture Challage!

In the past week I have been busy building and collection the most mind boggling structures that can be build when using a double 6 set. From these I have selected 15 key structures for a publication I am making about Domino and Domino architecture.

I am actually busy designing a domino set made out of stone, which will be unveiled in 2 weeks in Lisbon (and which is also the reason for starting with this blog, well... that and Janine's Domino Dojo certificate). after wards, I am thinking of starting a monthly Domino Architecture Challenge (using some of these buildings) for domino enthusiasts, but mostly for my friends. The task will be to build / reverse engineer these structures, Those who manage to do this will enter a raffle, the winner will get a signed fortune chickens~! ;).

I decided to sign off this post with a small Domino Architecture Challenge, both as an exercise and a hint for the future competition. Good luck figuring this out and have fun!

PS.
This is a fortune chicken and here is another page about them.