On Sunday November 20th the fifteenth edition of the Gent Open Backgammon tournament was held at the premises of the Union Sandeman, home location of the Ghent Backgammon club. 7 rounds of 7-point matches had to be played during this all-day event. All matches were played with clock, 14m 12s delay. This Swiss style of tournament ensured a lot of action until the final round. Thanks to Toon Van Herreweghen’s tournament management software, entering results and making new pairings was so easy that tournament director Bert Van Kerckhove had the time to join the tournament as well. On top of that the players could follow the ranking and draw on a big projection and on their phones.
Another feature of this tournament was the TV table, a setup from Robin Bilderbeek who has published the matches there on youtube.
32 players showed up and got coffee cakes for breakfast. Between rounds 3 and 4 there was catering provided by Alf Martijn.
All participants were playing in the same tournament mixing 14 masters, 12 intermediates and 6 beginners.
As expected, after 4 rounds there remained 2 players with 4 points who would have to battle for taking the sole lead in the tournament. In the masters division it was Michel Lamote who prevailed in round 5 over Arthur Braacx making him the first player with 5 points, followed by Arthur, Zeki Dogustan and Paul van Dijke with 4 points.
In the intermediates, after 5 rounds, Riza Yalçin and Sonja Custers lead with 4 points on a pack with 3 points.
Beginner Hubert Verstraeten won 3 out of 5. Still without any win by then is Chantal Lensen, who allowed Nardy Pillards to score his first point.
In round 6 it was Zeki who fell for a relentless Michel. Michel made a bid for the sole win if he could also win the final round. Arthur and Paul van Dijke both win their matches and have 5 wins out of 6. Sonja, Line and Mahir Yalçin share the lead in the intermediates with 4 wins.
The final round would be decisive for the final results. If Paul van Dijke won from Michel there could be 2 or 3 players with 6 wins out of 7 and resistance points would decide the winner. Michel did not fail and won his 7th match to claim first prize, the trophy and the title in the masters division. Arthur won too and finished with 6 points taking second prize, followed by Zeki, Paul van Dijke and Paul Van Koningshoven who shared 3rd prize with 5 points.
In the intermediates 7 players finished with 4 wins out of 7 and shared first and second prize. The trophy went to Line Vandamme who scored the most resistance points.
Hubert Verstraeten scored 5 wins and took home the trophy in the beginners division and a DGT game clock as a bonus.
Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to all players for attending.
Also thank you to Alf for the catering, Nick for assisting the td, Robin for the feature table and Toon for use of the software. Thanks also to BGFed.be for the financial support.
A special thank you for Ben Van den Brande for tending the bar on his own during the whole day.
— Bert
Results
| Player | Score | RP |
| Michel Lamote (M) | 7 | 33 |
| Arthur Braacx (M) | 6 | 30 |
| Zeki Dogustan (M) | 5 | 34 |
| Paul van Dijke (M) | 5 | 27 |
| Hubert Verstraeten (B) | 5 | 26 |
| Paul Van Koningshoven (M) | 5 | 24 |
| Line Vandamme (I) | 4 | 31 |
| Riza Yalçin (I) | 4 | 29 |
| Daniel Rozenberg (M) | 4 | 28 |
| Itzhak Solsky (M) | 4 | 28 |
| Sonja Custers (I) | 4 | 28 |
| Mahir Yalçin (I) | 4 | 24 |
| Firat Tekil (I) | 4 | 23 |
| Johan Vervust (M) | 4 | 22 |
| Dominique Leboulenger (M) | 4 | 22 |
| Johan Brisaert (I) | 4 | 22 |
| Ronny Conaert (I) | 4 | 19 |
| Kristoffer Deweert (I) | 3 | 27 |
| Alf Martijn (I) | 3 | 27 |
| Nick De Ruyck (B) | 3 | 23 |
| Vincent Hubert (B) | 3 | 22 |
| Paulus Van Rooijen (M) | 3 | 21 |
| Bert Van Kerckhove (M) | 3 | 20 |
| Christian Standaert (I) | 3 | 16 |
| Ed Baars (M) | 2 | 28 |
| Koen De Poorter (I) | 2 | 26 |
| Marjan Degraeve (B) | 2 | 21 |
| Chantal Lensen (B) | 2 | 12 |
| Eric de Bouter (I) | 1 | 18 |
| Joseph Meyns (B) | 1 | 17 |
| Nardy Pillards (M) | 1 | 16 |
| Toon Van Herreweghen (M) | 1 | 15 |
