Red Beaver League: Bert, Johan S. and Maurits book important victories

In Level 4, Bert Van Kerckhove and Johan Segers awaited the winners of the Level 5 duels Guy Van Middelem and Itzhak Solsky. In Level 5, Maurits Pino and Alain Chif played their Barrage duel.

Based on recent Performance Rating (PR) performances Bert had to be the favourite against Guy, but the latter is known for his competitiveness and never-give-up attitude. Bert took a good start, winning match 1 (M1, 7-3) with a far better PR: 2-0. Guy regrouped in M2, winning 7-5 and taking advantage of Bert’s below-par PR to score two points: 2-2. All to fight for in M3 then. Guy, who is always at his best when he smells victory, rolled Bert off the board (7-0) and found a decent PR of 7,28. Not enough though to take the two points, as Bert rose to the occasion with a World Class PR of 4,10 (!), thus securing a 3-3 draw and a win based on Overall PR. This means that Bert progresses to Level 3 where he will meet Paul van Dijke. Guy’s aim from now on is to consolidate his conquered ground in Level 4.

The second much anticipated Level 4 duel was played at Johan’s place in Korbeek-Lo. His opponent was the upstart phenom Itzhak Solsky, who steamrollered the opposition in last year’s RBL Qualifiers (RBLQ) and hammered Maurits Pino in Level 5. Nobody could predict the outcome of this duel and a tense affair it was to be. Itzhak won M1 (7-4), but his 6+ PR was not good enough to take a second point as Johan came up with a strong 4,8: 1-1. After lunch on the shady garden terrace, both players saw the roles reversed in M2: Johan took a 6-0 lead, but Itzhak came back: 6-6. Johan ended up winning the agonizingly difficult DMP game, but his 6+ PR was not enough to beat Itzhak’s extremely strong 3,73 PR (!!): 2-2. With OPR’s now extremely close, M3 was going to be decisive. Johan won it comfortably (7-0), but would he be able to outperform Itzhak? He did, with a stellar 1,46 PR (!!!): 4-2. Itzhak accepted defeat with grace and rewarded both Johan and me (TR) with fantastic impromptu renderings of Chopin and Beethoven on Johan’s home piano, leaving both watchers grateful and visibly moved. Johan now progresses to Level 3 where he will meet Paulus van Rooijen (3 September), whereas Itzhak will play Guy in the Level 4 Barrage duel.

Having lost their first-round duels in Level 5, Maurits and Alain now need to start winning if they want to stay in the RBL. The duel took place at Maurits’ spacious and airy apartment, optimal playing conditions for a crucial RBL encounter. Maurits won M1 (7-3) with a strong 6+ PR, leaving Alain trailing 2-0. Alain, who staged last season a memorable comeback from 1-5 down against Nick De Ruyck, was not intimidated and won M2 (7-3) with a PR of 9,93, beating Maurits’ PR of 9,99 with an excruciatingly small margin of 0,06: 2-2. Since nobody could be sure if these PRs would hold under the sharper XG ++ analysis, both players remained in the dark as to the exact score, 2-2 or 3-1. That is, however, part of the format as there is no time between matches to do the time-consuming re-analysis. Maurits left nothing to chance in M3: he produced his best PR of the season (5,57!) and eventually won the match after some harrowing turnarounds: 4-2. Note: XG++ did reverse the PRs of M2 to 10,38 (Maurits) vs 10,42 (Alain) yielding an official result of 5-1.

Maurits can now secure his spot in Level 5 by winning against the loser of the Guy v Itzhak duel, whereas Alain is set to play the winner of RBLQ in the spring of 2024.

Upcoming program: Paulus van Rooijen v Johan Segers (L3), Paul van Dijke v Bert Van Kerckhove (L3) and Guy Van Middelem v Itzhak Solsky (L4 Barrage).

For RBL — Michel

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In memoriam Johan Swyngedouw

Johan Swyngedouw (26/03/1954 – 03/07/2023), member of the Backgammon Club Brugge

Johan Swyngedouw, an active member of the Backgammon Club Brugge, passed a way a few days ago. His lively and joyful presence will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family. Obituary: [web | pdf].

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BIC 2023 decided by exciting tie-break match

In the past, the Belgian Individual Championship was a year long gruelling contest with long matches. Maybe too gruelling, and some regular participants lacked the motivation and dropped out. The lockdown gave the final blow to this project. But there was still need for a Belgian Champion and last year an experiment was started with a weekend tournament in Swiss format with 9 rounds of 9 point matches in two days. This proved to be a success. In 2022, main organiser Guy Van Middelem crowned himself champion in the tournament, which was held in the well known Orée Hockey and Tennis Club in Brussels.

This year, 32 players competed to become his successor in the same venue on the very warm last weekend of June, 24-25. It was an “open tournament” and we welcomed also players from the Netherlands, France and Germany, although only the Belgian title was on stake. Not all the best Belgian players were present, but it was still a good crowd with a lot of quality.

The playing room in the Orée Hockey and Tennis club, venue of the Belgian Individual Championship Backgammon 2023 on June 24-25.

The bookmakers in all their wisdom saw about ten favourites, but in this highly competitive environment, nobody was sure of his or her place. Such a tournament is an ideal opportunity to study one’s game and a lot of players filmed their matches, to review their decisions afterwards and hopefully learn something from their mistakes.

After the first day the bookmakers questioned their own wisdom, because some outsiders took the initiative in the rankings. Sole leader with maximum 5 points was Henri Pollet, followed by Sonja Custers, Paul van Dijke, Ronny Conaert en Archil Katamadze with 4 points. The group of players with 3 points was not yet eliminated, but their task on the second day would not be easy.

Sunday morning Henri continued his good streak and beat Paul, while Ronny overcame the difficult hurdle of Archil. In a Swiss tournament, it is always possible that one player runs away and is never caught. But in the seventh round Ronny interrupted Henri’s road to the title and now everything was wide open again.

Ronny and Henri won both their next game, but also both lost in the last round: Ronny from Patrice de Sainte-Marie, and Henri from Paulus van Rooijen. Three players thus shared the first place with 7 points: Ronny, Paulus and Henri. Especially the performance from Paulus was impressive: he lost his first two games to win seven in a row.

Ronny Conaert (back) in the final of the Belgian Individual Championship 2023 against Paulus van Rooijen (front). Ronny would win the match and secure the title.

Mutual results was the decisive factor to produce a final ranking. Because Henri had lost from both Ronny and Paulus while the latter two had never met in the tournament, it was decided that these two would play a five-point final for the title. This exciting match was won by Ronny, which gave him the well deserved title of Belgian Champion 2023. Lately, he has been working hard on his game, and his consistency was surely one of the deciding factors in his success.

Congratulations to the winner and thank you to everybody who contributed to make this tournament a success!

— Luc Palmans

PS: The detailed match results can be obtained from the rating list.

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Live Backgammon in July and August

Congratulations to Ronny Conaert, winner of the Belgian Individual Championship 2023! Detailed report to follow.

Club gatherings

  • Brugge: alternatingly on Thursday or Friday evening, Sports bar Extra Time, Nijverheidsstraat 113, 8310 Assebroek. Contact: Line Vandamme, linevandamme@gmail.com
  • Brussels: every Wednesday evening at 18h15, at The Black Beard — La Barbe Noire, Lakensestraat 166 Rue de Laeken, Brussels 1000
  • Ghent: every Tuesday evening, at 19h, at Union-Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent
  • Leuven: the Leuven Monthly series takes a Summer break, but there may be some spontaneous club gatherings. Keep an eye on their website.

Looking ahead

  • Belgian Backgammon Beach Day: September 10, 2023Restaurant Villa Marie Joseph, Westende. Contact: Johan Brisaert
  • 14th Leuven Open: November 12, 2023. Sport & Squash Club De Vaart, Kolonel Begaultlaan 15, 3012 Wilsele
  • 4 Cubes 2023: final Ghent vs Brussels to be planned.
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Red Beaver League: Guy and Itzhak advance to Level 4

In Red Beaver League (RBL) duels, three matches to 7 points are played whereby one point is awarded for the match win and one point for the better performance rating (PR). Does this mean the best player always wins? Well, not always, but he certainly has an edge.

This is what Guy Van Middelem experienced in his opening duel of the season against Alain Chif. At Orée on 29 May Guy won the opening match (1-0) but squandered away the PR point with a 15+ PR (1-1). This gave Alain a realistic opportunity for an upset. The dice gave Alain a little push in the back (he won M2 7-0), which gave him a 1-2 lead, but sadly Alain could not take advantage of Guy’s 10+ PR, so that the PR point went to Guy (2-2). All to play for in M3 then. Guy, under threat of an ignominious defeat, was able to sufficiently lift his level of play to take one point with a fine PR of 8,33 (3-2) and although he lost M3 (3-3) came out the winner with a better overall PR (OPR). A narrow escape for Guy and a missed opportunity for Alain, whose play was just too erratic to topple the 2022 Belgian Individual Champion (BIC).

The second Level 5 duel was played on 9 June between Itzhak Solsky and Maurits Pino. In the comfortable surroundings of Itzhak’s flat in Uccle, Itzhak made sure he did not fall into the same trap and left no doubt as to his intentions. He won M1 with an excellent 3,73 PR (enough to beat Maurits’ good 7,69 PR) and a match win: 2-0. Maurits, however, had an easy ride in M2 which he won 7-0, but just like Alain, he could not take advantage of Itzhak’s unexpected 10+ PR: 3-1. In M3 Itzhak cruised to a 7-3 victory, which together with a better PR, secured a comfortable win: 5-1.

These two duels indicate that the stronger player toys with fire if he plays below par. The format is sufficiently volatile to give the underdog an outside chance to win if the favourite comes up with a slapdash performance.

Itzhak and Guy now progress to Level 4 where they will meet Johan Segers and Bert Van Kerckhove respectively.

You can find the updated Results and Leaderboard via the RBL 2023 links in the menu.

— Michel Lamote

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Live Backgammon in June

Club gatherings

  • Brugge: alternatingly on Thursday or Friday evening, Sports bar Extra Time, Nijverheidsstraat 113, 8310 Assebroek. Contact: Line Vandamme, linevandamme@gmail.com
  • Brussels: every Wednesday evening at 18h15, at The Black Beard — La Barbe Noire, Lakensestraat 166 Rue de Laeken, Brussels 1000
  • Ghent: every Tuesday evening, at 19h, at Union-Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent
  • Leuven Monthly, Sunday, June 18, at 12h45, at Squash Club De Vaart, Kolonel Begaultlaan 15, 3012 Wilsele

Belgian Individual Championship

Belgian Individual Championship: June 24-25, 2023Royal Orée, Sint-Pieters-Woluwe. Contact: Guy Van Middelem, guy.van.middelem@gmail.com

Looking ahead

To be planned: 4 Cubes 2023 final Ghent vs Brussels

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Gent Open XVI

On April 22nd the Gent Open XVI attracted 25 players over 3 categories: 8 masters, 8 intermediates and 9 beginners battled it out for 7 rounds of 7 point matches at the premises of K.A. Union Sandeman.  In the masters, last man standing after 7 rounds was Michel Lamote, who wins back-to-back editions of this tournament!

Paulus Van Rooijen and Bert Van Kerckhove share 2nd prize.  Jasper Watertor, organizer of the Rotterdam tournaments, wins the intermediates on resistance points and shares prize money with Robin Bilderbeek and Eric De Bouter. Johan Segers wins the beginners division and receives a backgammon book to up his level of play even more!  Maybe next time he can compete in a higher category…

Everything went fluently and according to the schedule.  A big thank you to Nick De Ruyck for the catering, and to Magda, Roos & Bob for tending the bar.  A special thank you to bgfed.be for the financial support and to Toon Van Herreweghen for the tournament software.

— Bert Van Kerckhove

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Red Beaver League 2023-2024 Kick-Off

Hereby please find the Red Beaver League 2023-2024 Kick-Off document as well as the RBL 2023-2024 Schedule.

Enjoy your RBL encounters!

— Michel Lamote

PS: Interested to join the Red Beaver League Qualifiers? Please write to redbeaverleague@gmail.com

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Red Beaver League 2022-2023 Wrap-Up

The maiden Red Beaver League season 2022-2023 has come to an end. First and foremost: thank you to all fifteen participants for playing all twenty-three duels in true sportsmanship spirit and within the set time frame.

Geert Van der Stricht was the last man standing, becoming BGFed.be 2023 Ultimate Backgammon Champion. Player of the year has to be Robin Bilderbeek, who promoted from Level 5 to Level 2. Itzhak Solsky prevailed in the RBL Qualifiers, winning all his duels in masterly fashion with a below-5 overall PR of 4,80 over twelve matches. A detailed report is to be found in the RBL 2022-2023 Wrap-Up document.

BGFed.be’s Red Beaver League: Starting grids Seasons 2022-2023 and 2023-2024

All duels (in RBL and RBL Q) were transcribed and overseen by a Transcriber/Referee, making every duel effectively a RBL threesome. A special thanks therefore to Guy Van Middelem, Nick De Ruyck, Geert Van der Stricht and Robin Bilderbeek for transcribing a big chunk of duels and helping make this start-up season a success.

RBL wishes everyone an exciting and rewarding 2023-2024 season. The schedule will be released in the upcoming RBL 203-2024 Kick-Off announcement.

— Michel Lamote

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Live Backgammon in May

Club gatherings

  • Brugge: alternatingly on Thursday or Friday evening, Sports bar Extra Time, Nijverheidsstraat 113, 8310 Assebroek. Contact: Line Vandamme, linevandamme@gmail.com
  • Brussels: every Wednesday evening at 18h15, at The Black Beard — La Barbe Noire, Lakensestraat 166 Rue de Laeken, Brussels 1000
  • Ghent: every Tuesday evening, at 19h, at Union-Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent
  • Leuven Monthly, Sunday, May 21, at 12h45, at Squash Club De Vaart, Kolonel Begaultlaan 15, 3012 Wilsele

Looking ahead

To be planned: 4 Cubes 2023 final Ghent vs Brussels

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