Othello news

Athens EGP 2024

1 September 2024
Written by Andreas Litsas

Celebration of Greco-Japanese friendship and 40 years of Greek Othello

At 15-16 of June, Athens EGP tournament took place at Conference Center of Municipality of “Nea Ionia”. The tournament was official event for “2024: Year of culture and tourism, Japan – Greece”.

5 Greeks and 7 players from other countries participated in the second round of this years’ EGP. Top rating players like Takuji Kashiwabara, Lari and Katie Pihlajapuro and Marc Tastet had a strong competition. For Takuji and Marc, this was their fourth participation in Athens EGP, the most among non Greek players. Only Andreas Litsas has participated in all five Greek EGPs. Takuji was present in the very first Greek EGP tournament, back in 2013. Imre Leader also came in Athens this year but unfortunately was n’t able to participate. Lari’s and Katie’s children Cobby and Teddy were the junior participants. Pihlajapuro family had their first ever presence in Athens EGP. The same stands for Bintsa Andriani who represented France.
Just 12 participants, so a round robin system was followed in order to complete 11 rounds. In the first place there was a tie between Lari Pihlajapuro and Takuji Kashiwabara, with 10 points. In the rounds phase, Takuji lost only the match against Katie and Lari lost only the game against Takuji. Marc Tastet played well against Takuji, losing with a 34-30 score and won against Katie with 36-28. He finished third with 9 wins. Katie, lost also against Lari and more unexpectedly against the Greek player Andreas Litsas with 33-31. She took the forth place with 8 wins. 5^th in general and 1^st Greek was Andreas Litsas, losing against the top 3 players and also against Bintsa with 36-28. He had 7 points, the same with Bintsa. Best of the rest was the Greek Natalia Kotsani with 5 wins. Natalia played at her second Athens EGP. Her first participation was at 2019, where she took the 3d place! In the 8^th place we had a newcomer, the Greek Vasiliki Giantamidou. She scored 3.5 points, having some good results: she lost against Bintsa with 33-31, she had a tie against the Best Greek female player Christina Mitsi and she won against the Greek Thanos Christidis who had a successful participation in 2023 WOC with 5 wins. 9^th place for Christina Mitsi, with 2.5 points. She surpassed only Thanos Christidis and the junior players. A very good result for Teddy Pihlajapuro with 2 wins, one of them against Thanos who had the same score of 2 points. For Thanos, EGP seems to be more difficult than WOC where he had 5 wins! Last but not least, Cobby had no wins but he enjoyed playing in the tournament and we all were glad to see him participating.
In the final rounds, Katie and Marc played for the 3^rd / 4^th place and this time the winner was Katie. The Finals for the 1^st / 2^nd place started with a tie while in the second game Takuji won with 39-25. Those resuls were promising for a stong battle in the third match but Takuji won easily with 50-14 taking a big win against Lari and the trophy in Athens EGP 2024. This is the third time Takuji wins the Athens EGP. The previous winner was Andreas Litsas, in 2019, having a 2-0 score against Marc Tastet in the finals. In 5 editions of Athens EGP there are only 3 winners and this year, Greek Othello Federation wanted to honor the first ever winner. He was Francesco Marconi, an Italian Player who won the 2013 Athens EGP and passed away some years ago. A special prize in memoriam of him from Greek Othello Federation will be sent at the Italian Othello Federation FNGO.
2024, after an agreement between the governments of Japan and Greece, is the “year of culture and tourism: Japan-Greece”. Japanese embassy in Greece very happily accepted for our tournament to be included in the list with the official events of this celebration. During the tournament, cultural ataché of Japanese embassy in Greece Mr Shiratori attended a special ceremony honoring Greco-Japanese friendship. He had conversations with the players and especially with the president of Greek othello federation, Andreas Litsas. The mayor and vice mayor of municipality of Nea Ionia, Mr Panagiotis Manouris and Mrs Sofia Naisidou were present in that particular moment, taking prizes from Greek Othello Federation for their contribution to the organisation of the tournament. Municipality of Nea Ionia offered it’s conference center to be used as venue for the tournament.	Mr Shiratori, cultural attaché of Japanese Embassy in Greece and Mr Andreas Litsas, the president of Greek Othello Federation
	Mr Shiratori, Mr Panagiotis Manouris, Mrs Sofia Naisidou Pic to left: Prize nomination to Mr Shiratori from the Mayor of Municipality of Nea Ionia and the Greek Othello Federation
During the award ceremony, a text specially written for the occasion by the Japanese othello player Takeshi Murakami, 3 times world champion, was read out. The reading was done in three languages: in Japanese by Takuji Kashiwabara, in English by Imre Leader and in Greek by Andreas Litsas. The text captures the game's special relationship with Japan and at the same time reminds that Greece is also an important country for the game. In fact, in the past, the Othello world championship was organized in Greece 3 times (1985, 1997, 2007).
	During this year's event, there was also the celebration of 40 years since the first participation of a Greek player in a World Championship. This happened in 1984 in Melbourne, Australia. The player who represented Greece was Vassilis Theofanopoulos, probably a Greek expatriate from Australia. One of the honorary awards was dedicated to him.
Members of Greek Othello Federation want to thank the Mayor and vice Mayor of Municipality of Nea Ionia Mr Panagiotis Manouris, Mrs Sofia Naisidou for their help in organising the tournament. After summer, Greek Othello Federation and Municipality of Nea Ionia will organise local events in order to promote othello. Special thanks to Takeshi Murakami for writing a very nice script for our event. Also, special thanks to Filothea company and Mr Andreas Milionis.