I was born in Chelyabinsk on April 25, 1984. Probably you'll read this on my 20th birthday (thanks for congratulations). I jumped over some grades in elementaty school, so in 1992 I was in 5th grade and for the next 12 years all my class-mates in school and university were older than I for 2 years. My school had specialization in mathematics and physics, I attended mathematical seminar where we were trained to participation in mathematical olympiads. I had good skills in it, but I had only one great achievement - first prize in fourth mathematical olympiad in the network of International Soros Science Education Program (this olympiad was carried out in former USSR). Also I participated a lot in various phases of All-Russian math olympiad including final phase. In 1999 I entered the department of mathematics and mechanics of Moscow State University, my specialization is theory of functions of complex variable, complex manifolds and related topics. I'll graduate in July, 2004.
After university I'd like to enter post-graduate study to continue my math education. Maybe I would be a scientist/professor or someone like this.
My minesweeper career:
My minesweeper career started in 1999 when I saw my friend Alexander Perevoschikov (he is in bestever) solving expert pretty fast. He played on my computer permanently and suggested me some ways to increase my speed. One year later I had acceptable results - approximately 5-30-85. In 2001 I improved my best times and became a sub100 player (3-21-75), also I was introduced to Danila Tararukhin (he is in bestever too), who was sub70 expert player. I was deeply impressed by his game speed and tried to change mine. Next spring I finished easy intermediate board in 17 seconds, but I never got 18 and 19 before. At August 17,2002 my best expert time changed to 65. This result hold out for a year, because my favorite game for that period was Civilization (3) and I played minesweeper rarely. At August 9, 2003 I surpassed my best expert time by 5 seconds. As all guys who had never heard about Damien's website I thought I was the best player in the world. In November, 2003
I found Stephan Bechtel's homepage and links to other websites, I was shocked. My first position in bestver was 52,
I thought it's bad (I always want to be first, it's not possible in some cases, but I try even if I have no chances). So I played maybe 5-6 hours per day since then. Very quickly I got 2 on beginner, during New Year holidays I got 16 on int, 59,58,57 on expert. In February I got 54 on expert, 14 and NF 13 on int, in March I got 53 on expert. My current records are
2-13-53. I think I'll get 50 or less some day. About my playing style: it's flagging, click-a-lot - 4 left clicks per second and 5 right clicks per second on average, maybe I mark too many mines, but it depends on a board. As NF-player I'm not good, but my int record is NF. About my mouse: I use Mitsumi Classic Mouse - very old model even without scroll wheel. I break one mouse in one month on average, it's hard to buy such old mouse, so one day I'll use another model, it will be bad day, maybe it will be the end of my minesweeper career.
My interests:
Mathematics is a big part of my life, I like to solve mathematical problems. It's great feeling when you discover or prove something which no one else didn't before. I like to play football, to attend the stadium on Russian Team or Champions League matches. I like inline-skating, skiing, table tennis, biatlon (to watch on TV). On summer vacation I live in Chelyabinsk and I'm fan of football teams "Zenit Chelyabinsk" and "FC Lukoil" which are playing in the second russian league.
Interesting website I like to check out is http://www.membrana.ru. It is dedicated to development of science and hi-tech. I'm fan of cinema.
I'm glad to be a member of minesweeper community. I wish you low 3BV and high 3BV/s. Good luck.
Roman Gammel.