The 3^rd Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games

During March, 9, 2007, 750 students (aging 7 to 17) from all Portugal join at Évora to play six different abstract games.

The Third Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games started months before in about 170 schools, scattered thru all Portugal, with local tournaments to find what students were the best players (you can check some info from the first tournament).

The games were:

• Dots'n'Boxes - the CGT game studied by Berlekamp
• Traffic Lights - the 3x4 variant from Alan Parr's original game
• Wari - a Mancala variant
• Amazons - two armies of eight queens trying to stalemate each other.
• Hex - the famous connection game.
• Go - we used a 7x7 variant for faster plays during the tournament (and to facilitate its introduction for a wider public in Portugal)

The games were divided by students' age:

• First cycle (7-10 years) students played Dots'n'boxes, Traffic Lights or Wari
• Second Cycle (10-12 years) students played Traffic Lights, Wari or Hex
• Third Cycle (12-15 years) students played Wari, Amazons or Hex
• Secondary (15-17 years) students played Amazons, Hex or Go

This meant 12 independent tournaments (a tournament per age per game). The finals happened at the Palácio Dom Manuel:

More information can be found at ludicum.org (in Portuguese). Here are some pictures just before the event started:

Each group had 12 students in a Swiss tournament with 4 rounds

The biggest tournaments at Hex, Wari & Amazons

Amazons ready for combat

A Semaphore table

Go packed

The Dots'n'Squares corner

Dots'n'boxes 

making boxes...

Traffic Lights

ending a tournament

Wari

sowing the boards

Amazons

blocking the adversary

Hex

Go

The finalists

In the morning there were the first phase. Then, around 12-22 players at each game/cycle were selected to participate, after lunch, at the finals. The names of the winners are: 

	1º	C. Teixeira-Col. Sagrado Coração de Maria
P & Q 1º ciclo	2º	Diogo Carvalho-Alcacer do Sal
	3º	Sara Quertel-Col do Vale, Charneca da Caparica
	1º	Miguel Lino-Encosta do Sol, Caldas da Rainha
Semáforo 1º ciclo	2º	Patrícia Igreja-Col. Cesário Verde, Moscavide
	3º	Pedro Carapau- Ext. S. José, Évora
	1º	Miguel Carvalho-Col do Vale, Charneca da Caparica
Ouri 1º ciclo	2º	Tomás Fazenda-Col. Sagrado Coração de Maria
	3º	Margarida Baptista- Santa Catarina
	1º	Nuno Nonitake-Escola Salesiana de Monchique
Ouri 2º ciclo	2º	Ana Sousa- Col. de Quiaios
	3º	Cristiano Silva- Inst. D. João V
	1º	João Gomes- Visconde da Jurumenha, tapada das mercês
Semáforo 2º ciclo	2º	Cristiana Duarte- Penacova
	3º	Luís Oliveira- Col. de Quiaios
	1º	Diogo Mesquita- Eugénio de Castro, Coimbra
Hex 2º ciclo	2º	José Perdigão- Col. Laura Vecunha, Vendas Novas
	3º	André Santana- Santa Maria, Beja
	1º	Manuel Pereira- Didáxis Coop. de Ensino, Riba de Ave
Ouri 3º ciclo	2º	Jorge Miranda- Externato das Neves, Mujães
	3º	Luís Freixinho- Col. Cesário Verde, Moscavide
	1º	Luís Maduro- Eugénio de Castro, Coimbra
Hex 3º ciclo	2º	Fabio Costa- Col. de Quiaios
	3º	Tiago Azevedo- Oliveira do Douro, V. N. de Gaia
	1º	Rui Machado- Tondela
Amazonas 3º ciclo	2º	João Oliveira- Santana
	3º	Hugo Domingues- Col. Dr. Luís Pereira da Costa
	1º	Pedro Jorge- Col.  Luís Pereira da Costa
Hex secundário	2º	Caio Rodrigues- ES Amadora
	3º	Joana Lúcio- ES Caneças
	1º	Cristóvão Gomes- Col.  Luís Pereira da Costa
Amazonas secundário	2º	Rui Ferreira- Escola José Estevão
	3º	Ruben Mendes- Inst. de Ed. Técnica de Lisboa
	1º	João Oliveira- Escola Profissional de Ourém
Go secundário	2º	Sara Ramos- ES Oliveira do Douro
	3º	André Alexandre- ES Leal da Câmara

The people behind this event

This would not be possible without the help of hundreds of persons, from all math teachers across Portugal to all of those who helped at the finals. Here are main people that worked in this great event: Alda Santos, Ana Fraga, Carlos Santos, João Almiro, João Pedro Neto, Jorge Nuno Silva, Luís Reis, Manuel Branco, Maria Teresa Santos, Paulo Infante, Sandra Vinagre, Teresa Caissotti.