The 11^th Portuguese Tournament of Mathematical Games

During March 6, 2015, around 1400 students (aging 7 to 17) from all Portugal joined at Vila Real to play six different abstract games. The event was organized locally by professors from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, namely: Ana Paula Aires, Anabela Borges, Catarina Avelino, Elisabete Sousa, Luís Roçadas, Maria Manuel Nascimento, Maria Teresa Silva, e Miguel Candeias.

The event occurred at its sports pavilion:

The 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 following:

• Traffic Lights - the 3x4 variant from Alan Parr's original game
• Cats & Dogs - A 1970s game from Simon Norton
• Slimetrail - 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
• Product - Nick Bentley's game with some adaptations
• Sesqui - A connection game by Bill Taylor and João Neto

The games were divided by students' age:

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

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

Here's a video from a public broadcast TV (in Portuguese...):

Some pictures:

The best student of each tournament was selected to the afternoon's final. This last tournament decided the winners. There were about 120 students.

The winners

1º Ciclo	Semáforo	1	André Teixeira - Agrupamento de Escolas de Armamar
		2	Diogo Alves – Básico de Bairro
		3	Vania Farinha - Básica n.º 2 de Abrantes
1º Ciclo	Cães e Gatos	1	Tomás Bastião - Jardim João de Deus n.º 2
		2	Guilherme Lopes - Básica n.º 1 de Peso da Régua
		3	João Azevedo - Básica e Secundária de Moimenta da Beira
1º Ciclo	Rastros	1	Simão Gonçalves – Básica de S. Luís
		2	Diogo Aguiar - Básica de Estrada
		3	Afonso Correia - Básica n.º 2 de Vila Real
2º Ciclo	Cães e Gatos	1	João Rocha - Colégio de São João de Brito
		2	Guilherme Coelho - Técnica e Liceal Salesiana de Stº António
		3	Diana Brotas - Básica de Santa Clara
2º Ciclo	Rastros	1	Nuno Silva - Colégio de São João de Brito
		2	João Vieira - Básica André de Resende
		3	Fábio Marques - Básica e Secundária Ordem de Sant´Iago
2º Ciclo	Avanço	1	Rafael Pires - Gambozinos, Associação Cultural
		2	José fernandes - Colégio do Castanheiro
		3	Manuel Modelino - Básica e Secundária Dr. Manuel Fernandes
3º Ciclo	Rastros	1	Rui Vieira - Básica André de Resende
		2	Nuno Cardoso - EB 2,3 de Gonçalo Nunes
		3	Marco Martins – ES de Lagoa
3º Ciclo	Produto	1	Miguel Braga - Básica de Távora
		2	Tiago Mota - Colégio de São João de Brito
		3	Diogo Ferreira - Básica e Secundária de Valdevez
3º Ciclo	Avanço	1	João fernandes - Básica Dr.ª Maria Alice Gouveia
		2	João Silva - Básica e Secundária Dr. Jaime Magalhães Lima
		3	Pedro Carvalho - Básica de Santa Clara
Secundário	Produto	1	Luís Agostinho - Secundária de Mem Martins
		2	José Cunha - Secundária Ferreira Dias
		3	António Castro - Secundária de Caldas das Taipas
Secundário	Avanço	1	Raul Sarkar - Secundária Gabriel Pereira
		2	Gabriel Araújo - Secundária Francisco de Holanda
		3	Diogo Viane - Secundária de Tondela
Secundário	Sesqui	1	Diogo Meneses - Secundária Castro Daire
		2	António Fernandes - ES das Laranjeiras
		3	Leonardo Ramalho - Escola Secundária c/3º Ciclo Carlos Amarante

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank all the organizations that made this possible and also the wonderful people that work really hard to make this possible. Also, to the usual suspects: Alda Carvalho, Ana Fraga, Carlos Santos, João Neto, Jorge Nuno Silva, Luís Malheiro, Teresa Santos and all the great professors and assistants that volunteer to help us with this wonderful event.

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