...for my very very very bad English, but I need to share with you the main news of August 2014.

After two years of demos, presentations and tournaments (the full list is available in the italian version of this website) VEGE tables is now an Official Discipline of the Mind Sports Olympiad!

This great event is played since 18 years in London: hundreds of players from all the world fight with Chess, Backgammon, Go and a great number of other games... you can read all informations in the official website.

And it's an honor to thanks two friends: with their great work, they make possible, for everybody, to play the MSO and have great fun with people loving "brain competition"... Antony and Etan! Thank you for all!

Now I'll show you an article written by Matthew Hatthrell, the gold medal winner in the VEGE tables tournament.

I'm really proud of this result reached by my game. Never a game "made in Italy" (and self-producted) arrived on a scene so important. See you next year, folks and God bless you.

This is an account of my experience during the VEGE tables tournament at the 2014 MSO. This was one of 5 gold medals I received during the event, on my way to second place in the Pentamind World Championship.

Having only really played the four player variant of the game, I can honestly say that I only entered the VEGE tables tournament because I thought it was a soft option, and I wanted an easy morning after having had several ‘headache’ games the day before. The arrogance possibly cost me in the first round, when I found out the hard way how involved the game is. You have to track your opponents cards, hold enough blocking cards to stop them winning, and maintain control over the card row, most of which I failed to do, and my opponent was given an easy victory when the game went beyond the early stages.

Having then realised the depth of the game, I spent the next few rounds, now on lower boards, honing the strategies, so that I would know what I was doing by the final rounds. Aided by good fortune, and some mistakes from my opponents, I won the next 3 rounds to find myself facing off against the favourite for the tournament, Carlo Sgambati, undefeated to that point.

I was dealt a slightly weaker position at the start, but both of us had enough defence for the game to progress to the late stages. As the more experienced player, Carlo managed to get the better of the midgame exchanges, but some good defensive play, and a few decent blind draws, kept me in the game until the card row nearly ran out. At this point I was ‘forced’ into what turned out to be a game winning play; a tactic that I will not reveal at this time in an attempt to maintain an edge in future games. It was a few moves later that I realised the significance, and a huge wave of relief came over me as it became apparent that the game was mine, claiming three 30 point bonuses, before leaving Carlo unable to play his final card. The match was officially mine, and I was in the lead in the tournament.

My final round game was made a formality by the card draw. My opponent was strong, but couldn’t overcome the control that luck had handed me, and the Gold Medal was mine.

I am very glad that I chose the ‘easy option’ that day as it turned out that I thoroughly enjoyed a brand new headache game. My thanks go to Daniele for running a great tournament, and for creating a fun and though provoking game. I will definitely attempt to defend the gold medal next year.

Matthew Hathrell