I know all of you must be in complete suspense as to who won the vicious showdown between battle-hardy veteran Ben and the hot-blooded prodigy Vrushali. To be sure, the game’s result was ultimately very surprising.
It started out as a simple match, but due to Yahoo’s default setting of a 5 minute wait-time for moves, the first game ended in a “forfeit” when I took a few minutes too long to make a decision about what to do.
Striking that from the record (as agreed upon by both contestants), Vrushali and I again went head-to-head. While Vrushali was systematic and tactical, I attempted to throw caution to the wind, only checking every now and then to make certain I had not made a tactical blunder, but ultimately jumping around the board, hoping to find some opening to attack.
That opening never came. Vrushali’s systematic approach got her to the edge first. While I attempted to do damage control by the fact that she had reached the edge of the board before I did, Vrushali solidified her position in the center of the board, making her immune to my attacks which concentrated on the perimeter. Her edge lead developed briskly, and in no time at all she had fortified her position on the edge and had already proceeded to “colonize” various other positions.
However, as I had a very large chip lead, I was not worried and slowly colonized positions on the edge here and there, again proceeding semi-haphazardly, hoping to find a strategic opening for me to gain an impregnable footing. That chip lead slowly shrank until I made a big blunder, giving her the ability to cut my holdings in half geometrically, and destroying my chip lead completely. I tried to make the most of it and capture the first corner — the one in the top-left, the one that I had won my previous match with. But, it was no avail. Vrushali out-thought me and out-planned me and quickly gained the first corner and a very solid strategic footing.
Following that, I became desperate. I tried to be more careful but everytime I thought that there was even a small possibility of gain, I acted — and each time, Vrushali pointed out with actions more than in words why I should act with greater caution. Soon, there was no evidence that I had ever had a chip lead. The only white chips of mine that were still on the board were the ones that Vrushali had completely surrounded.
Luckily, shortly after Vrushali captured her first corner, I had the foresight to wall off the corner, to again deprive of her any offensive capability. I had fought hard, and damn it — even if she won, I wasn’t going to let her use that victory. That, more than anything bought me time and breathing space, although not much, as there was a sequence of moves that Vrushali executed that left me without any possible move to do and, unlike chess, if one player has no possible move it is not a stalemate, it just means the other player gets to keep on moving.
Using that one walled off piece, I blunted most of Vrushali’s dodges, as she tried to reach the other three corners. However, we had used up so much of the board by the time she had finally gotten her last corner that I made the strategic realization, that the corners no longer mattered. Of the three corners left, one had no offensive value and the other two had very little. Seeing this, I changed my strategy from capturing the corners for their own sake, to capturing the greatest number of pieces. Coincidentally, this shift in strategy gave me the openings that I needed to capture the corners.
We were now down to the last 10 moves and we were getting closer to the last three corners. Vrushali’s former massive chip lead had now dwindled to near chip-parity at this point. I used a stalling technique to force her to make one wrong move, allowing me to guarantee the capture of two corners — or so I thought. Ultimately, Vrushali had another trick up her sleeve. Distracted with the thought that my capture of the corners was complete, I made a move to solidify my position, allowing her to capture one of the corners still with offensive value.
I cursed. I swore. I knew it — defeat was at my hands, and I even typed to Vrushali that it was over, that she would win. But, she was very hesitant, remembering my dominance at the end-game in our last match. I looked at the last remaining 6 positions, and I suddenly realized, that in one bold move, I could take a corner and set myself up for victory. I took a corner and, although I did not see it at the time, I forced Vrushali to choose between two possibilities, both of which would allow me to capture many of her pieces — this was all completely accidental and lucky on my part. With such a move, I quickly captured a huge portion of her pieces, winning the game 3 pieces before the game was over. The last 3 moves were trivial, as they resulted in the capture of one or two pieces, but yes… that is correct
the aged veteran Ben has triumphed yet again!
the final score: 38-26
the board at the final move
stay tuned tomorrow for the last bit of coverage — the post-game interview!
And the game is on! If you want to watch, its in the Veteran’s Vortex game room for Yahoo Reversi (yes, that’s right, we’re veterans)
If you missed out on any of the coverage thus far:
Announcement
Interview with Vrushali
Interview with Ben
Earlier, we featured an interview with Vrushali, the hot-shot contender. Now, the aged veteran has his say about the game:
Interviewer: What do you think of Vrushali?
Ben: As a person? She’s great. As a reversi player? She’s doomed against me.
Interviewer: Oh really, and why’s that?
Ben: Well, I beat her last time, didn’t I?
Interviewer: Good point. On the subject of your last game, Vrushali said that she had you beat for most of the game.
Ben: I wouldn’t say most of the game.
Interviewer: No?
Ben: Nope. I mean look, I’ll admit she had me beat for much of the midgame to the point where I thought all my moves would be just about survival and damage control. But, I think that at the start of the game, I was winning.
Interviewer: So what happened?
Ben: I didn’t see a couple of openings that I had left for her, and she capitalized on them. Again. And again.
Interviewer: So, she was a good opponent?
Ben: Definitely. A big chunk of my fall from the lead in the beginning was due to her being able to find good ways around my traps and to find the weaknesses in my formations. I mean, she was totally merciless in the mid-game. She left me no good place to run, and when I made a mistake, she straight PWNED me every time.
Interviewer: Did you think you were going to lose?
Ben: Oh yeah. While I got to an edge first, it didn’t matter. She positioned her pieces so well that she captured two corners before I even got one. AND SHE JUST DIDN’T MAKE ANY MISTAKES!
Interviewer: When did it turn around then?
Ben: Well, towards the end of the mid-game she started getting sloppy. She made quite a few mistakes and I’ll admit I was so desperate she probably wasn’t quite sure what I was doing.
Interviewer: So you confused her?
Ben: Not on purpose. But, I think her making mistakes was only part of it. The real reason she lost was because the two corners that she had captured were useless to her.
Interviewer: What do you mean?
Ben: Well, in our attempts to fight for the corners, we had made it so that the two corners she captured didn’t amount to much of a bonus for her. We had so many pieces on that side of the map [both of her corners were on the same edge] that she couldn’t do anything with them. But, because I got a corner that was still useful, I was able to quickly turn the score.
Interviewer: I see. So, to wrap this up, what do you think will happen in today’s game?
Ben: Well, more of the same. There was nothing wrong with my strategy in the last game – I just have to make sure I don’t make too many mistakes. But, it will be a good game. Vrushali and I are very evenly-matched.
Interviewer: Well, good luck to you.
Ben: Thank you!
