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Forthcoming competitions

Past competitions

Forthcoming competitions in UK

Forthcoming competitions (non-UK)

Forthcoming competitions in UK

Forthcoming competitions (non-UK)

5th Pacru World Championships

2nd Azacru World Championships

1st Shacru World Championships

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

World Pacru Championships

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

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MSO

What & why
Pacru, Shacru
& Azacru?

Next World Championships for Pacru/Azacru/Shacru will be at MSO 12 in London in August. The MSO runs from Friday evening Aug 15th through to Aug 25th 2008 - more info on dates of Pacru Azacru & Shacru Championships when available. The venue is Royal Horticultural Halls, 80 Vincent Square, (Westminster) London SW1P 2PE, 10 minutes from Victoria railway and underground station , Pimlico and St James's Park tube, fifteen minutes from Westminster tube. There will be Pacru, Azacru & Shacru events but dates not yet confirmed. Information about entering the Mind Games event MSO12 in 2008 (probably not yet available) will be at external page: Mind Sports Olympiad.

If you are in a country where there is currently no Pacru or Azacru competition but you'd like to organise one then please get in touch and we should be able to assist.

Manchester UK competitions Spring 2008

The next Pacru, Azacru & Shacru world championship will be likely to take place at the 12th Mind Sports Olympiad in 2008 (dates to be confirmed).

Generally all Pacru/Azacru competitive events work on the "Swiss System" which is a non-knockout system, so that all players (unless the number of entrants is an odd number) play in every round. Points are awarded for a win or draw and then the "Swiss System" is worked by arranging the matches after the first round so that players compete against those who have a similar number of points. If enough rounds are played then by the end of the competition the players with the most points will all have played each other, and similarly with the players with the least. It is a reasonable way of deciding a competition without having to play a league where every entrant must play every other entrant, for which there may not be sufficient time (though this is done where possible). For more information try using a search engine with the search terms encyclopedia "swiss system" .

Past competitions

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

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What & why
Pacru, Shacru
& Azacru?

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