Renjuplayers in the world - 14. Tomas Hagenfors
0.Your name, your nationality, your age, male or female.
0
Tomas Hagenfors, Swedish, 47 years, male
1.When
did you start to play renju and how did you learn it?
1
I´ ve played ever since I was a kid, winning some local tournaments at
school or at camps. I joined the Swedish federation in 1977 as soon as I found
out that there were serious competitions going on in Sweden. I still can regret
that I never heard of our federation until then, especially since it was founded
in 1958, and the first Swedish Championship was held in 1961. I lived in
Stockholm where it all took place, but I never heard anything though I was very
interested already as a kid.
Of
course I started playing Gomoku or ”luffarschack” which is a game that
everyone knows here in Sweden. My
first tournament was successful, and I became the Swedish Champion in 1977 right
from the outside. I also took part in the first renju-competition held in Sweden
in the year 1981 where I became
number 2 after our first champion, Tommy Maltell.
2.Do
you play in a club? In which clubs have you played?
2
I play in a club in my city of Kumla ( 200 km west of Stockholm). I am
the chairman and also one of the founders of the club. Earlier I have played in
and founded clubs in Örebro and Jönköping.
3.Which
are your best results in national and international tournaments (Usual
tournaments and e-mail tournaments). Which is your international rating for the
moment?
3
My best results are Swedish Champion in the years 1977, 1984 and 1985. I
was also number 2 in the first ever held world-championship of Gomoku by mail
(this was by slow-mail and the competition took one year). I also was number 2
in the first Swedish Championship of Renju.
4.Which
is the best player you have met?
4
In the seventies the best players were Viktor Kaufman and Alexander
Nosovsky in Moscow, and here in Sweden it was Alf Dahlgren, Tommy Maltell and my
cousin Stefan Jansson. Now I believe the quality of the games are so much higher and
the best players today are the Japanese champions and Ando Meritee.
5.Can
you explain why you enjoy renju?
5
I like logical games, and also I think it´s important to keep your brain
working in order to stay young at mind.
6.Which
is your plans for the future as a player?
6
I have no intention to become a top-player once again, but I still enjoy
competing from timt to time. Maybe I already am the player who have taken part
in most national championships? Anyway I intend to keep on playing at my ”touristlevel”.
I also enjoy training new kids in our club, and maybe one day we will have a
champion from our club again.
8.If you are one of the leaders in your club our in your country, please, tell us about your club.
Our club in Kumla is one of the biggest in Sweden and we meet every other monday at 18.00 We are around 30 members where the majority are children between 7 – 14 years. Every year we arrange school-championships (for our city) that last year attracted some 450 players. We are also hosting ”Svealand Open” a one-day Gomoku-competition in september that this year saw 50 participants from Sweden, Finland and Estonia.
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