After 5 Premier Days out of 7, defending Grand Prix champion Maciej Brzeski has taken the lead of the overall standings with Golds in Lines of Action and the Chess Variants Medley forming the backbone of the Pole’s score. Former Pentamind champion James Heppell is in second place, with the Englishman finding Gold in the HeadsUp Omaha Poker event. Romania’s Marian Curcan is in third place overall, with a Silver in Catan helping him to a high score.

In the Abstract category, Maurizio De Leo’s Gold in Circle of Life is backed up by three Silvers to make him the only player across the 400 points mark. The Italian’s closest challengers are Stephane Melcer, Yat Hin, Yorkson Cheung.

Romania’s Georgeta-Olga Preotesoiu leads a tight Backgammon field by a narrow margin over Daniel Olivares and Cornel Mihai Oleniuc. There are still two of the six Backgammon events to go, so very much all to play for!

Zoran Kuzmanoski is our long time Chess leader with seven medals, although he is still to win his first Gold medal! The Macedonian is closely chased by Florin Popa and Riccardo Gueci, with three events to go.

Lithuania’s Mantas Janavicius heads the Draughts category. Last year’s runner up is aiming to go one better with just three events remaining to decide the final standings. Marino Carpignano and Kanstantsin Nord remain second and third respectively.

Matt Tucker, the winner of the 2022 in person Imperfect Information category, leads the corresponding Grand Prix category this year. His brother, Chris Tucker, is in second, but Nicolas Wittmann is well positioned in third as he has only used four events in his score, with three to go.

Hong Kong has currently locked out all three podium positions in the Multiplayer category! Tung Yat Cheng‘s Golds in Marco Polo and Great Western Trail give him a 10 point lead, with barely anything separating Raphael Tse from Terry Chan in second and third.

Florin Popa is the only player to currently be in the top 3 of multiple categories. The Romanian is second in Chess, and has recently hit the front of the Poker category – with two events to go! Manfredi Barbaro and former leader Hugo Martins Pereira are still in contention behind Florin.

It is super tight in the overall nations standings, with Hong Kong, Italy and USA all with 8 Gold medals. Hong Kong top the charts with more Silvers, but Italy have an unmatched 28 medals in total from this Grand Prix. With 32 events still to conclude anything could change here!

 
The global reach of the MSO has been demonstrated yet again in our medals table with medals going to 44 countries. 5 different continents have won a Gold medal this year!
 
Our most popular event has been the Carcassonne 2-player tournament. This year we have been able to offer a special prize of a qualification spot for the 2023 Carcassonne World Championships. 161 players took part and Chile’s Jorim Mella will be heading to Germany later this year to compete for the World title!
 
The 2023 MSO Grand Prix wraps on March 12 and is open to all.