Forthcoming competitions (non-UK)

• World Championships for Pacru/Azacru/Shacru were held at MSO 12 in London in August 2008

  at Royal Horticultural Halls, 80 Vincent Square, (Westminster) London SW1P 2PE
  
  These Pacru/Azacru/Shacru events formed part of the 2008 IAGO World Tour. IAGO is the International Abstract Games Organization.
  
  

  • 1st Shacru Blitz

    (also counted as 2nd Shacru World Championships):
    Gold David M Pearce, Silver Martyn Hamer, Bronze Alain Dekker
    
    4 contestants, each playing the other twice. 10 minutes per player. Fourth contestant was Tim Hebbes who was the only player to defeat David M Pearce.
    
    
    

  • 1st Azacru Blitz

    
    Gold Martyn Hamer, Silver David M Pearce, Bronze Alain Dekker
    
    4 contestants, each playing the other twice. 10 minutes per player. Jan Stastna put up an excellent performance although he had only learnt the game that day. He was the only person to take any points from Martyn Hamer (defeating him in one game) and took part in the only tied game of the competition with Alain Dekker.
    
    
    

  • 1st Pacru Blitz

    
    Gold Alain Dekker, Silver Bijan Mehdinejad, Bronze David M Pearce
    
    6 contestants. 20 minutes per player. Three players had the same points, and were not separated by the first tie break, but had gained very different points scores (this is used as a 2nd time break - 5 points per chevron and 1 point per marker, subtracting your opponent's total on the same basis). Several of the games were won "on the clock" including some where the losing player had a clear advantage in terms of chevrons and markers, but had lost too much time in achieving it. Etan Ilfeld put up a good performance despite only having learnt the rules that day.
    
    
    

  • 3rd Azacru World Championship

    
    Gold Martyn Hamer, Silver Bijan Mehdinejad, Bronze Alain Dekker
    
    6 contestants, including Browen Dekker who had won the Bronze the previous year, and E Josiah Lutton who had not previously played Azacru and has the distinction of being the only person to have beaten Alain Dekker at Pacru in a World Championship (that being the first one 5 years ago). 20 minutes per game per player. There was just one tied game: that between Bronwen & Bharat Thakar. Martyn Hamer won all his games.
    
    
    

  • 6th Pacru World Championship

    
    Gold Alain Dekker, Silver Martyn Hamer, Bronze David M Pearce
    
    4 contestants, each playing the other twice. 30 minutes per player. Alain Dekker won each game played. Mike Wellman, inventor of Pacru, lost every game ... but declared that he had had a very enjoyable day.
    
    
    
  
  

The 5th Pacru world championships, 2nd Azacru world championships and 1st Shacru world championships all took place in August 2007 at the MSO11.





• 5th Pacru World Championships

  The Pacru championship had six entrants: all had entered the championship before. Players were allowed 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move using clocks. None of the games were ended by the clock (in previous years with just 25 minutes per player this has sometimes occurred), and the vast majority of the games were over in 35-50 minutes, and a few quicker.
  
  Alain Dekker won all his matches and so retained his title which he has held over all five years the competition has run. Second place went to Bijan Mehdinejad who shared the same points as third placed David M Pearce, but took second place as he had defeated David in their match. Bijan had earlier lost to Martyn Hamer but he had lost to Mike Wellman (Mike has entered 4 out of the 5 Pacru championships, but apart from 2nd place two years ago, has not finished in the top three).
  
  Of the 15 games, five were won by achieving the target of 42 fields, two by eliminating the opponents chevrons, and two by the opponent having a blocked turn. Six of the games ended in resignation but of these two had the winner already on 39 fields, and one had the loser with just one chevron left. The other three appeared to be resignations when the position was judged unwinnable (in two of these cases the winner was Alain Dekker). This suggests that the general experience that game wins are fairly evenly divided between reaching the field target, eliminating the opponents chevrons, the opponent being blocked, is modified somewhat with stronger players who are less likely to succumb to an early defeat by getting blocked or losing all their chevrons.
  
  

• 2nd Azacru World Championships

  The Azacru Championships had six entrants and 5 rounds were played in which each player played every other once. Players had 15 minutes each and just one of the games were decided by the clock, though in several games one of the players was into their last 3 minutes. The vast majority of games were over in between 15 and 25 minutes. Players received 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.
  
  The tournament was won by Martyn Hamer who won each of his games, with margins varying from 2 to 7 fields. Alain Dekker came in second, recovering after a surprise outcome to his first match against Peter Horlock who went for an early exit in the game and defeated him 20-19. Third place saw three people tied on points but Bronwen Dekker won by virtue of her better field difference placing (Bronwen losing to Martyn and Alain by one and two fields respectively). Also on 6 points were David M Pearce & Matthew Hathrell).
  
  Many of the players did not know at the end of the game whether they had won, concentrating on strategy and tactics rather than maintaining a count of field difference: and occasionally the result or margin of victory came as something of a surprise. It makes sense therefore that in none of the games did a player resign.
  
  Appendix for those who like figures.
  
  Just over half the games ended with 24 or less blank fields left on the board. The games which ended earlier (i.e. with more blank fields left) had an average (mean) difference between the players of 3.4 fields, whereas the longer games had a figure of 5.7. Within these figures there were considerable variations (one of the shorter games had a margin of 11, one of the longer game a margin of just 1).
  
  Unfortunately we didnt record who was the first player to say I cant move and whether this player usually won the game. Two thirds of the games were won by the first player to move, and there may be some advantage to playing first, though it is hard to know from this size of sample (or know which player then goes on to say I cant move).
  
  

• 1st Shacru World Championships

  The Shacru Championships had six entrants and 5 rounds were played in which each player played every other once. Players had 15 minutes each but none of the games were decided by the clock, though in a few games one of the players was into their last 3 minutes. The vast majority of games were over in between 15 and 20 minutes. Players received 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.
  
  The tournament was won by David M Pearce who won three matches and drew one (the only drawn game of the tournament), that match being against Bijan Mehdinejad who came in second place. Bijan only lost to Martyn Hamer who himself came in third place. First, second and third places were decided on the final round of matches. One junior entered the tournament and recorded one win, and acquired at least 32 fields in all games he played.
  
  As the designer of the game, I was delighted to find that there were games players with a wide range of experience of different abstract games who found that the game strategy was more complex than might appear from the simplicity of the game rules and the apparent limitations in the mobility of the chevrons. The vast majority of games were not settled till near the actual end and none of the games ended up with a player resigning.
  
  Appendix for those who like figures.
  
  The average (mean) margin of fields (markers) between winner and loser across the non-drawn matches was nearly 11. Only in one match was the margin less than 6, and in that case the margin was still 3. This was something of a surprise, the explanation perhaps being that at this level of play the victors were generally managing to successfully block their opponents progress several turns prior to the end of the game and so secure for themselves a section of territories that they could then capture at leisure at the very end of the game. There was a mean average of nearly six fields still neutral at the end of the game, though this might have dropped to five if one of the players had not stopped when assured of victory at 42 fields. In the one game where the victor was placed in the bottom three and the winner in the top, the margin was still 9 fields.
  
  There was also no discernable advantage to being the first player, whereas this had intuitively appeared to be a likelihood: however this is a small survey involving only 15 games.
  

  USA Competitions: U-Con, Ann Arbor, Michigan
  

  • 2nd Year of Pacru & Azacru Competitions.
    
  • Azacru Sunday 11th Nov 2007 Winner Gabriel Tamaska
    
    
  • Pacru Sunday 11th Nov 2007 Winner Clark D. Rodeffer
    

  • Azacru Friday 19th Nov 2006 Winner Stewart Tame
    
    
  • Pacru Sunday 21st Nov 2006 Winner Alain Dekker
    

  Manchester Open Championships

  
  
  
  • First Manchester Open Azacru (free to enter) Saturday July 8th 2006 afternoon
    
    
  • First Manchester Open Pacru (free to enter) Sunday July 9th 2006 Morning & Afternoon
  
  
  See the pacru video page for a video which features - at the end - some pictures of the competition. Reports and photos to follow. Briefly winner of both was Alain Dekker. Bijan Mehdinejad was 2nd in Pacru and joint 2nd in Azacru. Mike Wellman 3rd in Pacru and joint 2nd in Azacru. There were 8 competitors in each event.

  World Pacru Championships

  
  
  
  Fourth World Pacru Championships (2006)

  Won again by Alain Dekker. Alain has now won the first four Pacru World Championships. We are intending to offer a special prize to Alain if he manages five in a row ... but also a special prize (in this case one of the exclusive glass tile Pacru sets) to anyone who dislodges him from the top spot. Second place was David Pearce whose game against Alain was one the highlights of the tournament. Third place was Ken Ho a late entrant to the competition and an under 18 contestant. There were no drawn games. Players were allowed 25 minutes each plus 5 seconds per move. There were contestants from France, South Africa & Hong Kong.
  
  
  
  First World Azacru Championships (2006)

  Mike Wellman, inventor of the game, won the competition, followed by Bijan Mehdinejad and Martyn Hamer. Players were allowed 15 minutes each but none of the games were decided on time. Mike was delighted with his win but expects not to be able to repeat the feat in future years as the game becomes more widespread.
  
  

  The 3rd Pacru Championships (2005) was won by Alain Dekker ... for the third year running. Inventor Mike Wellman was in second place, defeated only by Alain. Adam Flowers took bronze again, but had taken gold in the Pacru Olympiad (with a smaller number of players over an afternoon rather than a full day) earlier in the week. In the Pacru Olympiad Ankush Khandelwal took silver and Joey Ho bronze.
  
  

  The2nd World Pacru Championships (2004)   at the Mind Sports 8th Olympiad in Manchester, England  occured on Monday August 30th 2004.
  
  The champion was Alain Dekker for the second successive year, with Bijan Mehdinejad taking silver and Adam Flowers bronze.
  
  
  

  The first World Pacru Championship was held on 25th August 2003 as part of the MSO7.
  
  It was a keenly fought competition with 12 entrants, many with a strong background in other games (e.g. Chess, Go, Othello). There were 9 English entrants, 1 French, 1 Hungarian & 1 South African. Medals:
  Gold: Alain Dekker (South Africa)
  Silver: Josiah Lutton (England)
  Bronze: Ben Haytack (England) Josiah and Ben also picked up the top 2 junior medals
  Junior Bronze: Sam Hardy (England)
  
  Photos from the 1st Pacru World Championship

  
  
  
  

  MSO

  The Mind Sports Olympiad promotes various different "mind sports": not just abstract strategy games. Mainly active in the UK there are also tournaments elsewhere. This year the MSO will be at the University of Westminster campus on Marylebone Road, facing the London Planetarium.
  
  "Olympiad" is a term that gets used to cover regular international competitive events (so not just the 4 year period that starts with the Summer Olympic Games, which is the most familiar use). From comparision with "The Olympic Games" the MSO name might suggest teams coming from different countries to compete, but typically the events involve individual entrants, though their self-declared country is noted in the results. There is generally no barrier to entry to events (apart from the entry fee) - no previous national or regional round prior to the actual competitions themselves.
  
  To go offsite and find out more about the MSO: Mind Sports 10th Olympiad in London, England 2006.
  
  
  Pacru Ltd sponsored the Cambridge Mind Sports Olympiad held in May 2006 and 2008