WOC 2023 NEWS!

Yasushi Nagano is the 2023 World Othello Champion!!!

The semi-finals took place on Sunday morning and Yasushi Nagano defeated his Japanese teammate Seiya Kurita who had gone undefeated in the two previous days of the competition. In the other semi-final Rujipas Aunchulee of Thailand defeated Michele Borassi of Switzerland.

Yasushi Nagano went on to defeat Rujipas Aunchulee in two straight games in the final to win his first world title!!

It was a clean sweep of titles for Japan winning the team championship, the main individual title, the women's title and the junior title!

Here are all the results of the day in each category: 

Open / Main title

1. Yasushi Nagano (JPN)

2. Rujipas Aunchulee (THA)

3. Seiya Kurita (JPN)

4. Michele Borassi (CHE)

Women

1. Hisako Kinoshita (JPN)

2. Katie Pihlajapuro (FIN)

3. Veronica Stenberg (SWE)

4. Chiara Gigliucci (ITA)

Juniors (under 16)

1.  Osuke Kawazoe (JPN)

2. Calvin Koh (SGP)

3. Daniel Dufour (NDL)

4. Konstantin Dvivon (ISR)

You can find all the games from the final day of WOC2023 on the Standings page.

WOC2023 Day 2 : Seiya Kurita goes undefeated in the swiss

Seiya Kurita continued his impressive run today going undefeated in another 6 rounds, which included a win against the defending world champion Kento Urano in round 11.

A playoff game between Yasushi Nagano and Tetsu Satani both tied for 4th place was necessary to determine the 4 semi-finalists. Kento Urano, the defending world champion, was also tied for 4th but had the lowest tie-break (Mixed Brightwell System) among the three.

Nagano won the playoff game so the 4 semi-finalists for tomorrow are : Seiya Kurita(JPN), Rujipas Aunchulee(THA), Michele Borassi(CHE), Yasushi Nagano(JPN).

It's probably no surprise that the winners of the team championship are yet again the Japanese team with 32 points.

The women semi-finalists for tomorrow are : Hisako Kinoshita(JPN), Katie Pihlajapuro(FIN), Chiara Gigliucci(ITA), Veronica Stenberg(SWE)

The junior(under 16) semi-finalists for tomorrow are : Osuke Kawazoe(JPN), Daniel Dufour(NLD), Calvin Koh(SGP), Konstantin Dvivon(ISR)

See the Standings page for more details and to browse all the games.

WOC2023 Day 1 : Seiya Kurita of Japan leads undefeated

The WOC 2023 starts tomorrow with a record 98 players from 32 nations!

The welcome reception for the 45th World Othello Championships just took place at the Roma Scout Center and a record 98 players representing 32 different nations were registered.

The first round was completed and you can find all the pairings on the live Standings page.

Nicky van den Biggelaar wins the XOT WOC!

On the Open Day of the WOC 2023 (Wednesday November 1st) 62 players from 18 different nations took part in the 3rd XOT (random openings) World Othello Championship. Seven rounds were played followed by a one game final for the main "open" category, the Senior category (over 60), the Junior category (under 16) and the Ladies category.

Nicky van den Biggelaar of the Netherlands won the open final against his teammate Makoto Suekuni. Makoto was winning over the board but lost on time in the final move!

Congratulations to Nicky, the 2023 XOT World Othello Champion!

All the final games in each category can be viewed on LiveOthello

WOC 2023 Teams: Articles about the national teams in WOC! 

Last days to register for the XOT WOC on November 1st at the discounted price

If you will be in Rome on November 1st for the Open Day don't forget to register for the XOT (random openings) tournament which is open to everyone. On Wednesday October 25th the entry fee for the XOT will increase from 15€ to 20€ for adults.

Even if you are not taking part in the tournament you might be interested in joining the "Toto-Othello" betting competition run by the FNGO (Italian Othello Federation) to try and guess the winners of each category of the XOT.

Fantasy Othello is back for the WOC 2023 

After the huge success in its first edition last year, the Fantasy Othello competition is back for the WOC 2023 in Rome.

Create your team before November 2nd and if you finish in the top 10 you will win a prize!

116 players registered for the WOC 2023!

The registrations have closed for the WOC 2023 in Rome and we have a total of 116 players registered from 34 different countries! 

You can find all the registered players on the Teams page.

WOC 2023 invitations and information sent out to WOF members

REMINDER ABOUT YOUTH AGE

The WOC was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19, therefore the WOF Youth Committee and WOF Tournament Committee decided to temporarily change the age limit for youth players in 2022 and 2023. 

8. Extra youth player:**
Each W.O.F. member can allow one youth player to attend to the W.O.C. 
Each member nation is allowed to send one additional young player as team member.
 A player qualifies as “young” if he/she is aged 16 or less on the 31st of December 2023 (i.e. : he/she must be born later than the 31st of December 2006).

The youth player is included in the 4+1 national team!

The extra Youth player should also be registered latest August 30th, 2023, for the W.O.C. 2023 in Italy. The name can be registered latest 15th September, 2023.
Parents and guardians to youth players need to register at the latest on August 30th, 2023. One parent/guardian per youth player. 

WOC 2023 SITE ONLINE!