The organization of the tournament was very good, as it was in previous years. Udo Schmitz also came to the tournament and we have plenty of time to talk!
Udo brought some prizes for tournament participants: Klaus-Jürgen signed cards, Carcassonne bags, Wind Roses, German Monasteries. Every participant (40 people) has received at least one of them.
This year tournament format was little bit different. Last year there was one big group, after 6 games 4 best players advanced to semifinal. With 44 participants it was very hard to get to the top! Now there were two groups with 20 players each and after 5 games 4 top players from each group advanced to quarterfinal, then semifinal and final. This year also new was match for the "bronze medal".
I started tournament with a loss and realized that I need to win all remaining 4 games to advance to QF. I managed to do so, 5th game was the hardest - we both struggled for the place in QF and I won only by 2 points! So I started from the 2nd place in the group, top player of our group was the one to whom I lost my first game - his result was perfect so far. Quarterfinal game was quite easy for me and the semifinal was scheduled with Alexey Pegushev, my opponent from previous year's final (by the way, the top player from my group lost his QF). I was leading throughout the whole game more than half of the scoreboard, 1/3 of the game Alexey was even out of followers! I thought that the game was already won, but than he made an attempt to connect to the big 36-point farm that we shared till that moment with 3 followers each. With 2 tiles left I understood that he has a opportunity to succeed in his connect as we both have counted tiles and there was 1 right tile left, but I couldn't do anything with my tile to stop his connect or to try my own connect (CCCF tile is very specific for connections to farms). He has got his CCFF tile and won by just 8 points.
After that I had not so difficult match for the 3rd place that I won and Alexey in the final won his opponent from other semifinal also by 8 or 9 points. Now he will go to Essen again and will try to win the Worlds!
