Date: Jul 25 17:47
User: roo
Message:
The finish to the masters currently in progress is going to be interesting. As I write only one game has not been solved and calicokid is leading on 29 wins.

Date: Jul 25 18:05
User: roo
Message:
93 has taken the lead with 34 wins, two games clear of MabdulD and mabb. Game #2, an 8x3, has only 1 win so far. Time will tell as to who that early winner was.

Date: Jul 25 18:09
User: roo
Message:
It wasn't mabb, who only just won that game. I can tell because I was looking at the game stats and it changed from 1/66 to 2/67 and mabb moved to 33 wins at that point.

Date: Jul 25 18:14
User: roo
Message:
MabdulD also won it and then just won #19 6x4 to join 93 on 34 wins.

Date: Jul 25 18:17
User: roo
Message:
mabb just won #35 4x8 to move up to 34 wins and a fourth player won #2 8x3. So now there are three on 34 and 35 games have been won.

Date: Jul 25 18:20
User: roo
Message:
... and mabb just moved to 35 wins, astonishingly quickly ofter the 34th and will take out the chequered flag ... unless #26 level 11 8x2 is solved.

Date: Jul 25 18:24
User: roo
Message:
MabdulD just moved up to second place on 35 wins and left 93 who has been languishing for 20 minutes on that final game in third. pcu has joined the scene with early leader calicokid now way down the list.

Date: Jul 25 18:26
User: roo
Message:
pcu swiftly moved to third and calico has made a move to get back to fifth spot.

Date: Jul 25 18:30
User: roo
Message:
With the game stats of that 8x2 25511-11 at only 0/42 it is obviously a dead duck so it looks like mabb took it out. Congrats!

Date: Jul 25 19:01
User: MabdulD
Message:
So close, yet so 2nd place. Nice win, mabb.

And thanks roo for the running commentary. I never really check the standings until the very end (don't want to waste precious seconds), so it's interesting to find out later how the horse race went.

I thought I had that 8x2 for a few seconds there, but just couldn't get it to drop.

Date: Jul 25 19:06
User: !_--FAST-ISHAM--_
Message:
It was the pesky 2/spades that killed that last game for everyone.

Date: Jul 25 20:16
User: mabb
Message:
Thank you roo and MabdulD...and thanks as always roo, for the summary.

I'm like you, MabdulD, I never have the courage or the time to check standings until I've won all the winnable games, usually not until the very end. Too much agonizing over who might be in front or behind me! I was quite relieved to hold first place... I needed a stong showing to make up for last week's beating, or else the red arrow would have smitten me!

Yep, and I thought that last 8x2 was gonna fall any minute. It was one of the closest "unwons" that I've seen in some time.

Date: Jul 25 20:40
User: roo
Message:
No worries MabdulD and mabb, it was just a snap decision when I saw the potential for a close finish. I haven't done a masters report for years.

I haven't looked at the 8x2. I figured it had been written off as a waste of time by the low number of plays so late into the tourney. Now I'll have to check it out.

I'm still trying to figure out who 93 is. WRAC came to mind, but I think it's more likely to be Uberman or peter75, both of whom we haven't seen for awhile, or Arheus making a comeback perhaps.

Date: Jul 25 21:46
User: mabb
Message:
I miss seing all those guys in the masters... Sprock and Laffman, too.

Date: Jul 26 01:03
User: Mastermind
Message:
Solution for #25511 8x2 11

3H under 4C
JH and 10S under QS
8C to freecell
5C under 6H
KS to freecell
QC under KH
9H and 8C under 10S
4H and 3C under 5C
5S to freecell
7H under 8C
6S under 7H
JD under QC
5D under 6S
2D under 3C
9S under 10H
KS to col.5
KD to freecell
QH under KS
KD to col.3
QC and JD under KD
KH to freecell
2H under 3C
JS under QH

After this some twiddling here and there and the game is easily solved.

Date: Jul 26 11:38
User: mabb
Message:
Way to go, Mastermind.... You can always be counted on to bring those supicious games down! Thanks!

Date: Jul 26 15:45
User: roo
Message:
Well how about that? Mastermind has done it again. I'm fairly sure that is the first masters in the new format where all 36 games have been proven winnable. Twice the winner has solved 35 games, both being mabb.

Date: Jul 27 05:43
User: kangaroo
Message:
Masters #95191 as predicted by ratings at #94951.

All models were updated to last week's results and the number of contributing records passed the 20,000 mark for 526 masters tournaments. The ALL-in model uses every result and this stands at 26,045 records in 532 weeks.

Correlation coefficients (CCs) of predicted v actual finish positions (x 100) and number of players contributing, as predicted by various methods.

82.702 --- 31 --- Revised

82.698 --- 32 --- ALL-in

81.13 --- 31 --- Original

80.39 --- 29 --- Published-actual (Original equivalent is 82.71)

81.09 --- 31 --- CMax-only

79.64 --- 31 --- Published-facsimile

The CCs are lower this week as a few players ended up where they normally don't, eg pcu (high), skipperocky (high) and evilqueen (low). The Revised model takes first place for the first time, barely ahead of the ALL-in model and in fact it needed three decimal places to show the difference.