Because it looked like we were going to have to move to another location for our backgammon exploits, we decided to have the Gent Open Backgammon tournament earlier in 2024 on February 11, announced as the last one in the current location. In the meantime however, we heard good news: we can stay for at least another three years!
23 players showed up to compete in 3 categories. 6 masters, 10 intermediates, 6 beginners and 1 ‘hors catégorie’.
During the registration, players could enjoy ‘koffiekoeken’ to ensure enough energy for the first three rounds.
Tournament director Bert Van Kerckhove had the lucky bye in the first round, so he had time to help out Robin Bilderbeek to fix the YouTube live streaming.
After 3 rounds, 3 players without a loss were Johan Brisaert, Lorenzo Pacini and Firat Tekil, followed by a pack of players with 2 points. Winner of the last 2 editions, Michel Lamote scored only 1 victory. Johan Segers, winner of the beginners last year and Alf Martin were the unlucky ones with 0 points.
Before round 4 took off, we had lunch break. A very tasty Asian stew was provided by Alf and fresh soup by Liva.
After round 5 the ranking looked as follows:
Firat Tekil with 5 points, Csaba Daday, Lorenzo, Vincent Hubert and Bert with 4.
At this moment, both Johan Segers and Hubert Vertsraeten decided to leave the tournament early with a score of 1 point.
With still two more rounds to play, nothing is certain…
In round 6, Firat scored another victory, strengthening his lead. Vincent Hubert also won a clash between intermediates and is now on 5 points. Bert scored a win over Toon Van Herreweghen for a total of 5 points. In the beginners category, Johan Brisaert won from Line Vandamme, arriving at 4 points, while his closest competitor, Riza Yalçin, remained at 3 points after losing from Ronny Conaert.
The final round then:
As is often the case, the final round decides everything.
Firat’s dice were too strong for Bert as he scored his 7th victory of the day, ensuring a comfortable win of the intermediates category and leaving Bert stuck with 5 points. In the masters, Guy Van Middelem could still tie with 5 points if he could win from Johan Brisaert. In that case he would win the trophy as Bert did not collect enough resistance points because of his ‘lucky’ bye in the first round. Johan, who incidentally also beat Bert in round 2, took the point and secured winning the beginners category and kept Guy from winning the masters.
Bert, the highest ranked player in the masters category with 5 points, took the masters trophy. Guy, Otto and Michel shared 2nd place with 4 points.
Firat, undefeated with 7 points took home the intermediates trophy. Csaba, Vincent and Lorenzo shared 2nd place with 5 points.
Johan Brisaert won the beginners category, trophy and backgammon book with 5 points.
A big thank you to all the players who participated. A very big thank you to Robin Bilderbeek for the transcriptions and professional live streaming on YouTube, to Alf Martijn for the excellent catering, to Nick De Ruyck for general assistance, to Toon Van Herreweghen for the excellent ludite tournament software and to BGFed.be for the financial support.
Also a special thank you to Roos, Bob and Liva for tending the bar.
See you all next time!
Bert
Final ranking here: https://www.ludite.be/?andtourney_key=Nzo4MDBjMjU5Yi0zNGEwLTQ1NjktYTJjZi0wMGRiZTE2Mjk5ZWM%3D
YouTube live stream here: