The 7^th Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games

During March 18, 2011, more than 2400 students (aging 7 to 17) from all Portugal joined at Lisbon to play six different abstract games. The final happened at ISEL, Lisbon Superior Engineering Institute.

The Seventh Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games started months before in several hundreds of schools, scattered thru all Portugal, with local tournaments to find what students were the best players.

The games were the same of the previous edition:

• Traffic Lights - the 3x4 variant from Alan Parr's original game
• Cats & Dogs - A 1970s game from Simon Norton
• Wari - a Mancala variant
• Hex - the famous connection game.
• Slimetrail - we used the Bill Taylor's 7x7 square variant for faster plays during the tournament.
• Breakthrough - The Dan Troyka game, winner of the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition

The games were divided by students' age:

• First cycle (7-10 years) students played Traffic Lights, Cats & Dogs or Wari
• Second Cycle (10-12 years) students played Konane, Wari or Hex
• Third Cycle (12-15 years) students played Wari, Hex or Slimetrail
• Secondary (15-17 years) students played Hex, Slimetrail or Breakthrough

This meant 12 independent tournaments (a tournament per age per game). More information can be found at ludicum.org (in Portuguese) and more photos here.

Here are some pictures just before the event started:

This time the games occurred in individual rooms.

An open space for teachers and gaming activities.

Seeding the boards.

Some minutes to start...

Then, students started to arrive and play:

Each group had 12 students in 4 rounds.

Each game had several tables.

Each group plays a Swiss tournament, so we need computers to solve this task.

Each game had a different color, so that students could be easily identified.

The best student of each tournament was selected to the afternoon's final. This last tournament decided the winners.

All the winners played here.

This meant around 180 students!

The finalists

The names of the winners [student  - school] are: 

1º Ciclo - Semáforo

1. João Pedro Oliveira - EB1 André de Resende, Évora
2. Gonçalo Pinheiro Silva - Colégio Cesário Verde, Moscavide
3. Matias Pereira - EB1 Santana, Sesimbra

1º Ciclo - Gatos e Cães

1. Gabriel Pais - Colégio dos Plátanos, Rio de Mouro
2. Gonçalo Bastião - 2º Jardim Escola João de Deus, Coimbra
3. Vasco Gonçalves - EB1 Loureiro, Porto

1º Ciclo - Ouri

1. Rodrigo Cameirão - EB1 de Manique do Intendente, Azambuja
2. Francisco Sousa - EB1/JI de Santa Catarina, Leiria
3. Rodrigo Veríssimo - EB1 nº2 Queluz, Queluz

2º Ciclo - Gatos e Cães

1. Ahmed Mansur - EB2,3 Maria Veleda, Loures
2. Fábio Jesus - Colégio Sagrado Coração de Maria, Fátima
3. Gonçalo Couto - Colégio de S. Tomás, Lisboa

2º Ciclo - Ouri

1. Tiago Fernandes - EB2,3 Aires Barbosa, Aveiro
2. Tomás Reis - Colégio dos Plátanos, Rio de Mouro
3. Ricardo Silva - EB2,3 Gonçalo Nunes, Barcelos

2º Ciclo - Hex

1. Diogo Carvalheira - Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian, Braga
2. Pedro Rodrigues - EB2,3 D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães
3. Tiago Sousa - Colégio de S. Tomás, Lisboa

3º Ciclo - Ouri

1. Tiago Rodrigues - EB2,3 Sta Clara, Évora
2. Afonso Carvalho - EB2,3 Dra Maria Alice Gouveia, Coimbra
3. Maria Francisca Quaresma - EB2,3 André de Resende, Évora

3º Ciclo - Hex

1. André Santana - E. D. Manuel I, Beja
2. Nuno Burney - ES da Portela, Loures
3. Luís Barreiro - E S. Mamede, Batalha

3º Ciclo - Rastros

1. Manuel Rosa - EBI2,3 André Resende, Évora
2. Rui Costa - ES António Sérgio, Gaia
3. João Valente - EB2,3 Aires Barbosa, Aveiro

Secundário - Rastros

1. Jorge Baltazar - EB2,3,S, Penacova
2. Diogo Florindo - ES Mem-Martins
3. Fernando Sá - ES Alcaides de Faria, Barcelos

Secundário - Hex

1. Diogo Teixeira - ES de Valbom, Valbom
2. Ana Silva - Colégio Dr Luís P. Costa, Leiria
3. João Lino - ES José Estevão, Aveiro

Secundário - Avanço

1. Ricardo Azevedo - ES João de Barros, Corroios
2. João Oliveira - ES Infanta D. Maria, Coimbra
3. João Veloso - ES D. Sancho I, Vila Nova de Famalicão

3º Ciclo - Rastros - Finalistas invisuais

• Francisco Mano
• João Mota
• Fábio Pinheiro

Waiting for the prizes:

A day of board games:

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