Teen goes from beginner to Singapore’s first world youth champion in Othello in three years

SINGAPORE – Just four months after learning to play the game of Othello in 2022, Calvin Koh Ding Sheng competed in his first World Othello Championship and placed a respectable seventh out of 20 in the junior category that year.

Since then, the Singaporean teenager has gone from strength to strength, finishing runner-up in the last two years before emerging victorious in Ankara, Turkey on Nov 15 to become the Republic’s first world youth champion in the board game.

Also known as Reversi, Othello is a mind sport in which two players take turns placing black or white discs on a board. The aim is to sandwich the opponent’s pieces between your own so that you can flip the discs to your colour. The winner is the player with more discs of their colour when the board is full.

With the world championship pitting competitors of all ages against one another, Calvin’s record of seven wins and six losses saw him earn the second-highest score among 20 players under the age of 18. He was also 31st overall in the standings.

That earned the 16-year-old a place in the juniors’ semi-finals, where his opponent, Misheel Altanshagai of Mongolia, conceded a walkover. Advancing straight to the final, Calvin defeated China’s Chen Xuanrui 35-29 to clinch the juniors’ title.

He said: “I’m very ecstatic and grateful. All the progress throughout the years and all the effort I put in, I kind of finally made it count.

“A lot of people supported me over these four years – the Othello community, friends and family. They supported me for so many years and I finally achieved my goal.”

He was introduced to the game only three years ago through his sister’s friends, who took Othello as a co-curricular activity at Nanyang Girls’ High School.

Hooked on the game, he took part in the 2022 Singapore National Othello Championship just three weeks later and placed second in the junior category. That earned him the right to compete in the World Othello Championship in Paris that year after the first-placed junior pulled out of the Singapore squad.

Despite having had only four months’ playing experience, he racked up five wins and eight losses in France to place seventh in the junior category and 68th overall in the open category.

While he had a coach to guide him on basic strategies for the first few months after taking up the game, he practised on his own from November 2022 by playing online matches and organising weekly playing sessions with friends from the community.

“When I play online, I use computer programs that can analyse my games. I have to kind of ask myself why I made a particular mistake,” he said.

“I think it’s easier to self-learn, because you know why you made the move, so you also know where you went wrong,” added the first-year National Junior College student, who also juggles thrice-weekly basketball training with his Othello sessions.

Othello Singapore spokesman Alex Koh said that Calvin has “set a great milestone achievement for Singapore” with his world youth title.

“Calvin has proven that for somebody who has only picked up the game some three years ago, to win a world youth title, it shows that it’s very possible that anyone at the youth level, with proper dedication and commitment, will be able to excel at this game,” said the 38-year-old, who added that there are about 200 competitive players in Singapore.

But Alex also believes Calvin has the potential for greater feats, saying: “He finished 31st place out of 92 participants in the open category, so we do wish to continue to push (him) to achieve more at a world level.”

While Calvin does not see himself competing in the world championship for the next three years as he will be focusing on his A-level examinations in 2026, followed by national service, he has set his sights on the bigger goal.

“Singapore has never gotten like world champion in the open category and I feel I still have a long way to go,” he said.

“I’m quite young. I’d still call myself a beginner. I have a lot of things to learn, many more years to play. So if one day I can become world champion in the open category, that’s definitely my goal.”