转译自世界黑白棋联盟
原文地址：https://www.worldothello.org/news/466/fun-chaos-the-double-showdown-at-the-xot-european-championship
原作者：Carlo Affatigato
There were 30 of us in Dortmund. Thirty fearless players ready to test themselves in a completely new arena: the infamous XOT openings, which turn the game into a pure test of analytical vision.
我们共有30人在多特蒙德。三十位无畏的棋手，准备在一个全新的竞技场中检验自己：臭名昭著的 XOT 开局，它把比赛变成一场纯粹的分析洞察力测试。
Anyone watching how things played out has surely noticed plenty of surprises compared to standard tournaments. You can lose much more easily, even if you’re a top player. The standings are more dynamic, there’s a stronger element of randomness shuffling the deck, and even the positions analyzed live were much more dramatic. Often, it wasn’t about finding the most analytically natural or safe move, but the one capable of navigating the chaos most effectively.
任何观看比赛进程的人，肯定都注意到与标准赛事相比有大量意外。即使你是顶尖棋手，也更容易输棋。排名更具动态性，随机性洗牌的因素更强，甚至直播中分析的棋局也戏剧性得多。很多时候，关键不在于找到分析上最自然或最安全的着法，而是找到最能有效驾驭混乱的那一步。
Therefore, huge congratulations to Felix, the 2026 European Othello XOT Champion, to Michele as runner-up, and to everyone else who finished near the top. But since we experienced it firsthand, it’s worth taking a look at what actually makes XOT Othello so unique.
因此，热烈祝贺 Felix，2026年欧洲黑白棋 XOT 冠军；祝贺 Michele 获得亚军；也祝贺所有接近榜首的棋手。但既然我们亲身体验过，就值得看看究竟是什么让 XOT 黑白棋如此独特。
纯分析洞察力/Pure Analytical Vision
In a standard Othello tournament, players typically have a few different weapons at their disposal to succeed. Core Othello skills form the baseline, of course, but alongside them comes the option to do targeted preparation, sharpening other tools that can give you an extra edge.
在标准黑白棋锦标赛中，棋手通常有几种不同的武器可以用来取胜。当然，核心黑白棋技能是基础，但除此之外，还可以进行针对性备战，磨砺其他能带来额外优势的工具。
The recent debate around memorizing long draw sequences is just one of those weapons. Using memory to cut down on real-time calculation, save precious time, and handle the gameplay dynamics top players force on you is one of the things you can build up through hours of study before a major tournament. It doesn’t strictly require Othello skills so much as pure memory, and it obviously gives you a concrete advantage. For some, that’s just part of the game, while for others it can make the sport boring to watch from the outside. We won’t get into that debate here.
最近围绕记忆长和棋序列的争论，只是其中一种武器。用记忆来减少实时计算、节省宝贵时间，并应对顶尖棋手强加给你的对局动态，是你可以通过大赛前数小时研究积累起来的能力之一。它严格来说并不那么需要黑白棋技巧，而更需要纯粹的记忆力，而且显然会给你带来具体优势。对一些人来说，这就是比赛的一部分；对另一些人来说，这会让这项运动从外部看起来乏味。我们在这里不深入讨论那场争论。
Other ways to prepare for a tournament include studying specific players, perhaps steering them onto familiar ground based on their usual openings, or preparing alternative lines to catch opponents off guard. All things considered, the conclusion is obvious: a player can perform much better if they spend hours every day preparing for a specific competition. The longer the preparation, the bigger the potential edge over someone who prepared less, or didn’t prepare at all. From this perspective, a standard Othello tournament rewards the player with the highest combination of raw skill plus preparation. And when you think about it, that makes total sense: in every sport, an athlete’s success depends not just on natural talent, but on the effort put into training before a specific competition, and it’s only right for that effort to be rewarded.
为锦标赛备战的其它方式包括研究特定棋手，或许根据他们惯用开局把他们引到熟悉的领域，或者准备替代线路以打对手一个措手不及。综合来看，结论很明显：如果棋手每天花数小时为某项特定赛事备战，就能表现得更好。备战时间越长，相对于备战较少或完全没有备战的人，潜在优势就越大。从这个角度看，标准黑白棋锦标赛奖励的是原始技能加备战程度综合最高的棋手。仔细想想，这完全合理：在每一项运动中，运动员的成功不仅取决于天赋，也取决于赛前训练投入的努力，而这种努力得到回报也是理所应当的。
By contrast, with XOT Othello, preparation is essentially off the table (assuming that attempting to memorize every single XOT opening in existence and study its continuations is an almost superhuman feat, and completely impractical in terms of effort versus reward). Without that prep work, XOT Othello comes down to pure skill and raw natural talent. From a purely theoretical standpoint, that’s fascinating, and it makes sense why so many players have fallen in love with it, while others still prefer having those surrounding variables that give them more control over the outcome.
相比之下，在 XOT 黑白棋中，备战基本上不在考虑范围内（假设试图记住现存每一个 XOT 开局并研究其后续变化，几乎是超人般的壮举，而且从投入与回报来看完全不切实际）。没有这些备战工作，XOT 黑白棋就归结为纯粹技能和原始天赋。从纯理论角度看，这很迷人，也解释了为什么这么多棋手爱上了它，而另一些人仍然更喜欢那些能让他们对结果有更多控制权的周边变量。
So, have we found the perfect answer for the future of Othello? Yes and no, actually. Because alongside the thrill of a competition purely driven by raw skill, there’s a subtle, trickier side to it…
那么，我们是否找到了黑白棋未来的完美答案？实际上，是，也不是。因为除了纯粹由原始技能驱动的竞赛所带来的刺激之外，它还有一个微妙而更棘手的侧面……
混乱之重/The Weight of Chaos
XOT Othello carries a much heavier element of randomness. Chaos on the board isn’t the exception, it’s the rule. And chaos naturally creates more unpredictable situations, which can lead to a loss even if you execute all your Othello skills to perfection. That explains why we saw lower average scores compared to standard tournaments. Simply put, everyone loses more often. And it isn’t something you can prevent with extra preparation or hours of study.
XOT 黑白棋带有重得多的随机性因素。棋盘上的混乱不是例外，而是常态。而混乱自然会制造更多不可预测的局面，即使你把所有黑白棋技能都发挥到完美，也可能导致输棋。这解释了为什么与标准赛事相比，我们看到的平均得分更低。简而言之，每个人输得都更频繁。而且这不是靠额外备战或数小时研究就能防止的。
Playing XOT constantly forces you into uncomfortable situations. Taking an edge very early, playing outside the sweet sixteen ahead of time, finding an X-square already occupied, or being forced to play into one ridiculously early… these are all things that can happen in standard Othello too, but there we usually have freedom of choice. We can opt for acceptable continuations in more standard directions, or we can choose to switch openings earlier to avoid landing in positions where we lack confidence.
下 XOT 会不断把你逼入不舒服的局面。过早占边、提前走出“甜蜜十六步”范围、发现 X 格已经被占据，或者被迫早得离谱地走进一个 X 格……这些在标准黑白棋中也可能发生，但在那里我们通常有选择自由。我们可以选择走更标准方向上可接受的后续，或者选择更早切换开局，以避免落入自己缺乏信心的局面。
In XOT, on the other hand, you often don’t have that luxury. Either there is no alternative, or there is one, but it leads to an even worse disadvantage. It happens all the time that there’s only a single move keeping you afloat, and if you happen to miss it, or reject it because it leads to something completely absurd, the game can effectively be over long before the end.
另一方面，在 XOT 中，你往往没有这种奢侈。要么没有替代方案，要么有一个，但它会导致更糟糕的劣势。经常出现的情况是，只有唯一一步能让你维持不沉，而如果你碰巧没看到它，或者因为它通向完全荒谬的东西而拒绝它，那么棋局很可能在结束之前很久就已经实质性地结束了。
In short, you just have to embrace the chaos. And because it’s chaos, the entropy is higher, and the odds of making a mistake go way up. It feels as if a heavier element of randomness was suddenly introduced, almost like rolling dice at the start of the match. It’s still a completely deterministic game, of course, where the outcome depends solely on the decisions players make. But luck comes into play when you land in a position where the only correct move is so absurd or counter-intuitive that practically no human on earth would ever spot it. When that happens, you just have to accept that you lost simply because you were unlucky enough to get dealt an unreasonably difficult board. And that isn’t just true for the first eight moves, the ripple effect can carry right through the midgame, or even show up in the final stages.
简而言之，你只能拥抱混乱。而因为它是混乱，熵更高，犯错的几率也大幅上升。感觉就像突然引入了更重的随机因素，几乎像比赛开始时掷骰子。当然，它仍然是一个完全确定性的游戏，结果只取决于棋手做出的决定。但当你落入一个局面，其中唯一正确的着法如此荒谬或反直觉，以至于地球上几乎没有人能发现它时，运气就登场了。发生这种情况时，你只能接受：你输棋仅仅是因为你运气不好，被分到了一盘难得不合理的棋局。而且这不仅适用于前八步，涟漪效应可以一路贯穿中局，甚至出现在最后阶段。
Naturally, you either love this or you don’t. Many of us play Othello rather than Yahtzee or Texas Hold’em precisely because we love the deterministic nature of the game, and might not be thrilled about adding more chaos to it. On the flip side, others welcome it with open arms, feeling that complete control over every variable (including software-backed memorization during prep) is slowly killing the fun. It’s the other side of the coin, and something worth keeping in mind if you plan on entering more XOT tournaments in the future.
自然，你要么爱它，要么不爱。我们许多人下黑白棋而不是快艇骰子或德州扑克，正是因为我们热爱这项游戏的确定性本质，可能并不乐见其中加入更多混乱。反过来，另一些人则张开双臂欢迎它，觉得对每一个变量的完全控制（包括备战期间软件辅助的记忆）正在慢慢扼杀乐趣。这是硬币的另一面，如果你打算未来参加更多 XOT 锦标赛，这一点值得记住。
Personally, I had an absolute blast. As some of you already know, riding the chaos has basically become my modus operandi, so XOT feels much more aligned with how I like to play than standard Othello. Plenty of players feel the same way, while just as many prefer sticking to safer ground. There is no single right answer here, and hopefully both formats will keep developing side by side, offering full variety to both players and spectators.
就个人而言，我玩得非常尽兴。你们中有些人已经知道，驾驭混乱基本上已经成了我的行事方式，所以 XOT 感觉比标准黑白棋更契合我喜欢的下法。很多棋手也有同感，而同样多的人更喜欢坚持更安全的领地。这里没有唯一正确答案，希望两种赛制能继续并肩发展，为棋手和观众提供充分的多样性。
Either way, we encourage you to take the plunge. Drop the hesitation and dive headfirst into this unpredictable chaos, the wild combinations, the improbable board states, the sudden momentum shifts, the unbelievable comebacks, and the jaw-dropping blunders. Othello needed a shake-up, and now that it’s here, it might just become our regular shot of adrenaline.
无论如何，我们鼓励你大胆尝试。放下犹豫，一头扎进这种不可预测的混乱、狂野的组合、难以置信的棋盘状态、突然的势头转变、不可思议的逆转，以及令人瞠目结舌的失误。黑白棋需要一次大变革，而现在它来了，它或许会成为我们常规的一剂肾上腺素。
