Keisuke Fukuchi, the new youngest world champion of the board game Othello, was aboard an All Nippon Airways flight from Dusseldorf to Japan on Sunday when he suddenly heard a congratulatory message come over the intercom. It was from pilot Kunihiko Tanida, who just happened to be the Othello player whose record Fukuchi had usurped.
The 11-year-old fifth-grader in elementary school had just won the 42nd World Othello Championships in the Czech Republic. According to the Japan Othello Association, Fukuchi broke 51-year-old Tanida's record for youngest winner, which Tanida set at the sixth world championships in 1982 at the age of 15.
Tanida made the announcement while the plane was at Dusseldorf Airport, a stopover on Fukuchi's return trip from the Czech Republic. "The world Othello champion is aboard," Tanida said. As a buzz grew on the plane, the pilot continued: "I set the previous record in 1982 at the age of 15. The new champion broke it by a wide margin. It's a spectacular achievement."
ANA had learned in advance that Japan's Othello team would take the flight and assigned Tanida to fly the plane on the team's return to Japan.
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