A Brief History of the WOC

The first World Othello Championship (WOC) was organised in Tokyo in 1977. The Japanese champion Hiroshi Inoue went undefeated to become the first Othello world champion. It was clear from the start that the Japanese were much stronger than anyone else in the world. However three years later, the American champion Jonathan Cerf created history by becoming the first non-Japanese world champion defeating Takuya Mimura in the 1980 London finals.

Despite a handful of world titles won by Americans and Europeans, the first 20 years of the WOC were clearly dominated by the Japanese. But in the last few years Americans have won most individual and team titles at the WOC. The team titles were introduced in 1987 when the rules were changed to allow teams of up to three players from each nation.

For more information on the WOC and past results check out www.worldothellochampionships.com.

Australians at the WOC

 The first Australian to play at the World Othello Championships was Paul Fuller when the event was hosted in Australia for the first time in 1984 in Melbourne. The following two years Australia was represented by Simon Jones at Athens 1985 and Tokyo 1986.

Then for nearly ten years there were no Australians at the WOC until the event returned to Melbourne in 1995. By now the rules allowed for teams of three players and Simon Jones, Geoff Hubbard, and George Ortiz made up the first Australian team to play at the WOC.

Since 1995 we've managed to have at least one Australian representative at the WOC nearly every year despite not having any sponsors.

Best Australian individual performance at the WOC
Stockholm 2003		Geoff Hubbard	7 wins (from 13 rounds)
Best Australian team performance at the WOC
Mito 2006		Matt Vinar (6), Amy Fu (5.5), George Ortiz (5)	16.5 wins in total