The 4^th Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games

During February, 29, 2008, 1100 students (aging 7 to 17) from all Portugal join at Braga to play six different abstract games.

The Fourth Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games started months before in about 280 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.
• Slimetrail - we used the 7x7 square variant for faster plays during the tournament.

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 Slimetrail

This meant 12 independent tournaments (a tournament per age per game). The finals happened at University of Minho:

More information can be found at ludicum.org (in Portuguese). More photos here.

Here are some pictures just before the event started:

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

There were 2 groups of Dots'n'Squares  and 4 for Traffic Lights

8 groups for Amazons

Also 8 for Hex games

A total of 9 groups for Wari matches

And 2 for 7x7 Slimetrail

Dots'n'boxes 

sharing pens...

Traffic Lights

middle games and endgames

Wari

sowing the boards

Amazons

studying the adversary

Hex

always searching for the right connections

Slimetrail

and meet the new kid on the block

The finalists

In the morning there were the first phase. Then, around 10-25 players for each game/cycle were selected to participate, after lunch, at the finals. The names of the winners (student - school) are: 

	1º	Gonçalo Ribeiro - Col. Sagrado Coração de Maria
P & Q 1º ciclo	2º	Miguel Sousa - EB1 de Salgueiros, Sousa
	3º	Diogo Mateus - EB1 de Solum, Coimbra
	1º	Maria Cordeiro - Col. Sagrado Coração de Maria
Semáforo 1º ciclo	2º	Maria Francisca Assunção - Col. Nossa Srª de Lourdes, Porto
	3º	João Miguel Caridade - 2º Jardim-Escola oão de Deus, Coimbra
	1º	Luana Dionísio - Eb1,2 Zambujal, Santana
Ouri 1º ciclo	2º	Ema Ferreira - Col. Sagrado Coração de Maria
	3º	Tiago Grade - Col. Cesário Berde, Lisboa
	1º	Vítor Bruno Figueiredo - E2,3 Gonçalo Nunes, Barcelos
Semáforo 2º ciclo	2º	Matilde Neves - EB2,3, Lamaçães, Braga
	3º	Beatriz Bento - Esc.Salesiana de Manique, Alcabideche
	1º	Ana Rita Barbosa - Ext. das Neves, Mujães, Viana do Castelo
Ouri 2º ciclo	2º	Diogo Oliveira - EB2,3 "A Ribeirinha", Madeira da Maia
	3º	Luís Silva - Col. Ellen Key, Porto
	1º	Haroun Tlengari - EB2,3 Stª Clara, Évora
Hex 2º ciclo	2º	Leonardo Oliveira - EB2,3 Aires Barbosa, Aveiro
	3º	Nuno Miguel Seabra - EBI/JI da Barranha, Porto
	1º	Jonatas Rodrigues - Col. Quiaios, Figueira da Foz
Ouri 3º ciclo	2º	Bernardo Brito - EB2,3 Dr. José Neves Jr., Faro
	3º	Jorge Miranda - Ext. das Neves, Mujães, Viana do Castelo
	1º	Luís Maduro - EB2,3 Eugénio de Castro, Coimbra
Hex 3º ciclo	2º	João Gouveia - EB2,3/S Penacova
	3º	Gonçalo Nunes - Col. do Vale, Marisol
	1º	Rui Miguel Machado - ES/3 de Tondela, Tondela
Amazonas 3º ciclo	2º	Miguel Nunes - EB2,3 Stª Clara, Évora
	3º	João Miguel Monge - EB2,3 de Moimenta da Beira, Moimenta da Beira
	1º	Miguel Silva - ES Dr.Manuel Candeias Gonçalves, Odemira
Hex secundário	2º	Fábio Costa - ES/3 Dr. Bernardino Machado, Figueira da foz
	3º	Sara Ramos - Col. Dr. Luís Pereira da Costa, Monte Redondo
	1º	Rui Miguel Silva - ES de Barcelos, Barcelos
Amazonas secundário	2º	Tiago Pereira - Centro de Estudos de Fátima, Fátima
	3º	Sara Ramos - ES/3 de Oliveira do Douro, Oliv. do Douro
	1º	Rui Gonçalo Sousa - ES/3 Montejunto, Cadaval
Rastros secundário	2º	João Filipe Peixoto - ES de Leal da Câmara, Rio de Mouro
	3º	Antº Manuel Pacheco - ES de S. Lourenço, Portalegre

"Invent your Game"

There was a contest to invent a new board game (rules in Portuguese). We received 20 submissions, and the winner was Pedro Feijó from ES. de Camões, Lisboa. You can check the rules here (in Portuguese, pdf with 1.8Mb).

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 Carvalho, Carlos Santos, Cláudia Mendes Araújo, Joana Torres, João Almiro, João Pedro Neto, Jorge Nuno Silva, Maria Teresa Santos, Paula Martins, Pedro Palhares, Pedro Patrício e Suzana Gonçalves.