Othello Competition-A game of wit and strategy?

I woke up at an unearthly hour of the day-5.30am. I had to meet Xinlan at 7am at the MRT station and had to rush like mad. Xinlan was so nervous about the Singapore Open Othello Competition today at North Buena Vista CC. She told me she couldn’t sleep. I, on the other hand, was so tired, I wished there was a bed for me to sleep. Hey it is a Sunday morning, should we all be sleeping? It is such a bother having a competition on Sunday! I think Xinlan expects a lot from this competition, hoping she can emerge in the top 10. I don’t know why she takes it so seriously. It is only an Othello competition! I am still harping over the fact that it is a Sunday!

We had to play 9 rounds of Othello…

The first round I played with the President of the Othello Association. What a start to the competition! Needless to say, I lost, but it wasn’t that bad. The score was 16-48. The second round, I played with Xinlan. Oh dear! I hate it playing with my friend in a competition. That only means if she loses she will be very sad, and our relationship might strain. This is a competition so I still have to play the game with her. She was so uptight. She set up many traps on the board but still I won, 44-20. She was so upset, she was grumbling to the seniors and I think she cried. She was so upset that she lost to me. I knew that would happen. The third round I played with a NYJC girl. She was very good. She controlled the game very well and I lost. The forth game was a walk over. Then we went for lunch. Xinlan was too depressed to eat anything. As a matter of fact, she did not eat anything the whole day. Not even when I offered her some M&Ms.

When we returned back to the competition, I kept munching on the Satay fish snack, I bought during lunch. It is somewhat like cuttlefish so it smells really bad. The game went on and I lost the 5th, 6th and 7th game. For the 8th game, I played with a NTU guy. The game was so intense. Luckily I predicted his moves and controlled the game well. I won by 48-16. See, girls can play Othello too! Then the last game I played with Fengzhi. She ran out of time and frantic at the last minute. She fell into a trap that I laid and so I won, 46-18.

In total, I won 4 games and lost 5. Actually, I think that's quite an acheivement already since I am pitting myself against some highly-skilled opponents. Most of them from the Othello association. Xinlan won 1 game only. I think she was too nervous and tired to play. That’s why she lost. The reason why I think she feels nervous is because she wants to achieve something but is uncertain about her abilities to reach her goal. Though her, I learnt a lesson that I have to be relaxed in order to do something well like in an exam. But sometimes it is not possible! ;-p

After the competition, the 12 of us squeezed into a van to bring us to East Coast Park for the farewell BBQ combined with the Maths Society people. This is the first time sitting in a van and it was so squeezy. I really need space to breathe! I felt as though we were illegal immigrants or some prisoners on the way to a concentration camp. But it was an experience! By the time we reached the BBQ, I was so hungry. Then Zhengyi came, I didn’t know Zhengyi from Maths Society. He waited for me to gobble some food down before challenging me to a game of Othello. Hahaha.. I beat him! Keith came along and asked me to drink and so I did. Daijing couldn’t stand the smell of it so I was practically chasing her all around the pit.

Xinlan didn’t eat again! She didn’t eat anything at all the whole day except for 2 pieces of M&Ms. Was she too depressed? Maybe!

After eating and all the photo taking, I left with Daijing, Chun, Dahao and Zi wei. We sat the van again. The red-face guy alighted us at Bedok. Dahao and I took the same bus home. It was so awkward!