Saturday & Sunday, May 30-31 2026, Ghent, Belgium
On Saturday 30 May and Sunday 31 May, the Belgian Individual Backgammon Championship (BIC 2026) was held at the Sandeman Club in Ghent.
The tournament consisted of nine 9-point matches: five rounds on Saturday and four on Sunday. It was a demanding weekend requiring complete focus, concentration, and endurance from every participant.
Read the full article here.
We have a winner: Itzhak Solsky won the Belgian Individual Championship 2024 (Royal Orée, 15-16 July 2024), here receiving the beautiful BIC 2024 trophy from Guy Van Middelem, the organiser of this Belgian top backgammon event.
Congratz Itzhak with your top performance and thank you Guy for all your efforts!
Inge van den Dorpel
The Belgian Individual Championship (BIC) 2024 takes place on Saturday June 15 and Sunday June 16, 2024, at Tennis-Hockey-Bridge Club Orée, Drève des Brûlés 59, 1150 Brussels.
Swiss tournament format: 9 rounds of 9-point matches. Rounds 1 to 5 are played on Saturday, rounds 6 to 9 on Sunday.
Registration: 25 euro. The winner receives the BIC Trophy 2024.
Registration and information: Guy Van Middelem, 0476 41 86 88 or guy.van.middelem@gmail.com
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 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.
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.
On Saturday and Sunday June 25 and 26, twenty-four players gathered in the Tennis, Bridge and Hockey club Orée in Sint-Pieters-Woluwe for the Belgian Individual Championship (BIC) 2022 backgammon, organized by BGFed.be president Guy Van Middelem. Nine rounds of 9-point matches were disputed along the Swiss tournament format via the free software ludite, implemented by Toon Van Herreweghen. Before the start of the tournament, the winner of the 2020 edition, Paulus van Rooijen, received his well-deserved trophy. Paulus then proceeded as master of ceremony with the kick-off of the 2022 edition.
After day one, Itzhak Solsky was in pole position with five victories in five matches. On day two, however, his fortunes turned, and he was overtaken by his pursuers. In the end, it was Guy himself who only had to concede one match in the whole tournament, against former champion Paulus, to end on top of the ranking. Runner-up was Johan Segers, who lost only from Itzhak on day one and from Guy on day two. The third place (six victories in nine matches) was shared between Paul van Dijke and Toon Van Herreweghen.
The tournament format was different from that of the previous editions, which was based on a competition spanning a whole year and with players divided into leagues. The format for 2023 is still to be decided.
Congratulations to all players for the high level of play and sportsmanship and a big thanks to everybody involved in making this event a success.
Saturday June 25 & Sunday, June 26 at 10.00
At the Tennis – Hockey – Bridge Club Orée – Drève des Brûlés 59 – 1150 Brussels
The winner receives the BIC Trophy 2022.
(Format depending on the number of entries)
Swiss tournament: 9 rounds of 9-point matches
All matches played with clock: 18 min per match + 12 sec per move
(Program depending on the format)
Saturday, June 25
Sunday, June 26
Registration: 25, – €
Please register in advance by writing or calling tournament director and BGFed.be president Guy Van Middelem, +32 476 41 86 88, guy.van.middelem@gmail.com
Dear backgammon friends and/or BGFed.be BIC 2020 participants,
For the first time since +/- 4 months, we played live backgammon again with Brussels Friendly 99 on Friday the 3rd of July. With 16 participants and all the respect needed due to the strict Horeca-conditions security measures.
So, we can continue BIC 2020 again. Deadlines have been postponed for about 3-4 months. Expectation is to finish the D1 round-robin in December and the D2 groups A & B in September. Then the D2 group C can play till December. The BIC 2020 play-offs will be played from January till the end of March 2021.
Thanks for making the needed appointments, enjoy rolling,
kind regards,
Guy
Match #1 in the BIC 2019 final between Michel Lamote and Paul van Dijke took place on Tuesday, December 17, in Ghent.
Robin “rain” Bilderbeek filmed and transcribed the match and produced the following great video. Enjoy!
The first set (13 points) will be played on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 19:00. The second and possibly third sets (also to 13 points) will be played on Friday, December 20, 2019, at 19:00.
Venue: K.A. Union-Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent
Full results: BIC results 2019
Dear backgammon friends,
Please find hereby the BIC 2019 results so far. We are nearly reaching the play-off phase.
Hoeylaerts Steven & Yalçin Mahir play a play-off the 15th of September for 1st place in group B D2. Winner of this play-off is qualified for the BIC 2019 play-off and goes to BIC 2020 D1. Loser of this play-off plays against Pino Maurits (ranked 2nd in D2 group A) to try to qualify for the BIC 2019 play-off and to go to BIC 2020 D1.
Kind regards and don’t forget to “keep on rolling”,
— Kristoffer
Just a little reminder to all participants of the Belgian Individual Championship 2019 that the deadline for completion of the group phase is getting closer. As stipulated in the rules, all matches are required to be finished by September 14, 2019.
Matches in Division 2A are already complete. In Divisions 1 and 2B, a few more matches need to be played.
At stake are spots in the quarter finals as well as promotion/demotion to/from Divisions 1 and 2.
The early withdrawal of Walter Meuwis from BIC 2018 Division 1 after 4 out of 7 encounters (8 out of 14 matches) had as side effect that the ranking of the first four players in that division, the ones that are qualified for the play-off, depended on how Walter’s partial results would be taken into account.
The BIC 2018 rules do not cover such a situation. Since Walter had played more than half of his matches, the BIC 2018 comittee’s decision was to keep Walter’s result in the table and to declare the 3 remaining encounters as 2-0 victories for Walter’s opponents. This decision is not uncommon in other sports.
This decision, however, was to the disadvantage of Michel Lamote, who thereby ended 5th with 7 victories out of 14 matches, while Paulus van Rooijen, receiving a 2-point forfait bonus, ended 4th with 8 points out of 14.
On September 17, 2018, Michel wrote to the BGFed.be board to introduce an appeal. The same day, the board appointed an appeal committee to settle the matter.
Today, September 30, 2018, the appeal committee has come to a decision [free translation of the Dutch original]:
Given the high impact on the ranking of 6 forfaited matches out of 56 (more than 10%) in a double round-robin tournament without home and away stages, and given the fact that not all players in the running for the four qualifying places in Division 1 have had to do the same program, the appeal committee has ruled that all of Walter’s results need to be removed from the ranking.
The extensive and detailed argumentation (in Dutch) can be read here.
The appeal comittee’s decision is binding and, at least within the federation, no further appeal is possible.
In line with the decision, the BIC 2018 committee will calculate the new ranking in Division 1 and inform the players involved, so that the tournament can proceed.
In the name of the federation, I would like to say a big and warm THANK YOU to the appeals committee for a thorough and efficient job. In less than two weeks time, they have exchanged numerous messages, investigated what happens in other sports (cricket, chess, correspondence chess), crossed the country to meet in person, and crafted an extensive and well-structured document, answering not only the initial question but also making extremely useful recommendations for the future. Kris, Luc, en Nick, dank je wel!
Twenty-five players registered for BIC (Belgium Individual Championship) 2017, eight of which qualified for Division 1 through 2016 results, while the others (17) joined Division 2, divided in groups A & B. After playing a lot of 13- and 11-points matches at home and/or away throughout the year till September, the best four from D1 and D2 qualified for the BIC play-off. There, the slaughter begun : in the ¼ finals, two-times overall winner Walter Meuwis fell surprisingly to Metin Ates, who qualified narrowly in D2 group B ; ranked n°1 Michel Lamote lost from Johan Huyck, easy winner of D1 group A ; Guy Van Middelem, ultimate survivor from D2, beat Paulus van Rooijen, 2nd in D1 in Vlissingen (NL) and Johan Segers, BGFed.be vice-president, won against 1st ever champion Geert Van der Stricht. The slugfest continued in the semi-finals : Johan H. beat deservingly Guy and Metin had his share of luck at the right moment against Johan S.
The big BIC final 2017 (best of 3 till 13-points) would be Metin Ates against Johan Huyck on Saturday the 16th of December, in Longchamp (Brussels) in front of an interested crowd. There was really no match : Metin emerged 2-0 with some checker play magic and could lift the BGFed.be trophy despite outstanding play by Johan in the second set.
Congratulations to the 4th winner of the 5th BIC competition : Metin Ates.
BIC records :
2017 : Metin Ates ;
2016 : Walter Meuwis ;
2015 : Michel Lamote ;
2014 : Walter Meuwis ;
2013 : Geert Van der Stricht
Looking forward to BIC 2018 !
— GVM
This is the second and last 13-point match of the BIC 2016 final between Sassan Kashanian and Walter Meuwis. The match was played on December 16, 2016, at Longchamp’s, Uccle (Brussels).
Live commentary: Michel Lamote and Geert Van der Stricht
Transcription and XG analysis: Luc Palmans
Tournament director: Guy Van Middelem
Video: Nader K. Rad and Johan Segers
In 2016, for the first time, players could have their matches validated for BMAB. That meant they would have to record ALL their matches, transcribe them, and make the videos and XG transcriptions available to BMS(BE) and BMAB.
The three best performances came from the three players who, in the past 4 years, have divided the 4 BIC titles among them. They played at Master Class 2 level :
Not too far behind is Johan Segers, who played at Master Class 3 level :
Guy Van Middelem and Luc Palmans played at Advanced Class 2 level, whereas Maurits Pino only narrowly found an Advanced performance :
Congratulations to all players, who played to the best of their abilities and emerged with satisfactory results. Let us not forget that BIC is played over the course of a whole year in different settings. Sometimes players have to travel hours by train or car to go and play an away encounter at the home or club of their opponent. It is not easy to find consistency in that format.
Out of this batch of 80 matches, only 1 recording failure occurred. The 2nd match between Maurits Pino and Johan Huyck was incomplete and could not be validated. All other match recordings went flawlessly. Thank you to all players for their care in recording and transcribing the action.
In 2017, competitors in BIC can again apply for BMS and BMAB validation. Remember that you have to film ALL your matches and make the videos and XG files available to BMS and your opponent. For BMAB, processing fees have to be paid (50€). BMS(BE) validation is – as yet – free of charge, thanks to the dedicated voluntary work of BMS(BE) sympathizers.
M
(for : BMS Committee)
Main page: BIC 2017. See also the link ‘BIC results 2017’ in the menu for pairings, results, and standings.
Main page: 4 Cubes 2017. See also the link ‘4 Cubes 2017 results’ for the tournament book, containing the calendar and the rules.
We wish you lots of fun playing live backgammon in 2017!
At Longchamp on Friday night, Walter became BIC champion for the second time in 4 years. He beat Sassan Kachanian in two 13-point matches.
Walter had to play 22 (twenty-two) 13-point matches to take this title. BIC titles apparently do not come easy.
Congratulations to Walter on a well-deserved title and to Sassan on a remarkable achievement and fine performance.
BIC 2017 is just around the corner. First matches are to be played in January.
Dear backgammon friends,
On Friday the 16th of December at 19.00 hours, you’re kindly invited to watch the 2016 Belgium Individual Championship final !
In ‘Les Brasseries du Longchamp’, 836, chaussée de Waterloo, 1180 Brussels.
Best-of-3 13-pointers between Sassan Kachanian (Belgium 4 Cubes champion 2014) & Walter Meuwis (Belgium 4 Cubes champion 2014 & BIC champion 2014). Match 1 was played on Saturday 10 December and won by Walter (13-8).
Enjoy ‘live’ on a big screen ; see the brilliancies & blunders of our top players; appreciate the pleasant and technical commentary from the ranked n°1 & 2 players in Belgium, Michel Lamote & Geert Van Der Stricht; learn all about flexibility & connectivity – equity – holding & priming & containment & ace-point & back games; watch XG appreciate or condemn checker plays & cube handlings. We’ll tell you everything about backgammon and will welcome you with a free drink offered by the Brussels Backgammon Club.
See you then, keep on rolling,
Guy Van Middelem
In the past 9 months, Johan Segers recorded and transcribed the 19 matches (11 points) that made up his BIC 2016 BMS Series. Here is how he did :
There can be no doubt that Johan has made significant progress over the past year. Making the step from Advanced Class 1 (or Expert) level to Master (Class 3) level is not a walk in the park. Although Johan has to combine his backgammon study with the duties of a professional career and those of a devoted husband and father, he has succesfully managed to lift his game to the skill level that earns him the title of Backgammon Master. Congratulations!
Check the current BMS standings by clicking on BMS (BE) in the black banner above.
M
To stay in Div I and remain in contention for the BIC title, I had to win at least one out of 2 13-pointers against Alain Chif. If I lost both, I would probably be relegated to Div II. Well, for those interested, I lost both, the last one through a Resign Error (read : I lost on time). 3 seconds on the clock just was not enough to play a DMP game…
As if this was not bad enough, this unforgivable time management blunder ruined an otherwise fine PR : after thirteen 13-pointers, I stood at 4,85, but match 14 proved one too many. A merciless 9,35 PR in this fate decider sadly turned my overall performance from laudable to mediocre :
Why hasn’t anyone ever admonished me for managing my time so poorly?
M
Geert Van der Stricht (Gent BC) and Guy Van Middelem (Brugge BC) finished their 7 BIC encounters well within schedule. Here is how they did :
Geert won 10 of his 14 matches, but will not be allowed to promote to Division 1 due to a late entry. His performance in this BMAB-validated Master Series is of Master (Class 3) level, but fails to beat Walter Meuwis’s benchmark 5,17 performance :
Guy has been playing at Advanced level for some time now, but is finding it hard to confidently cross into Expert territory (< 7,50 PR). Guy won 8 and lost 6 of the fourteen 11-pointers :
M
Twenty-three players registered for the Belgian Individual Championship in 2015: 8 in Division 1 and 15 in Division 2. Compared to previous editions, a new rule allowed D2 players to reach the BIC final in December and go for the BIC title.
In D1, after 7 rounds from January till September and 56 13-pointers, Michel Lamote, Belgium n°1 player, started with 8 victories out of 8 matches, emerged with 10 victories & 4 defeats and grabbed a place in the final. Luc Palmans (9 victories & 5 defeats) finished 2nd and Alain Chif beat Zsolt Tasnadi in a play-off to clinch the 3rd spot.
Meanwhile, the battle to avoid D2 was heavy. Maurits Pino (finalist in 2014) and Paul van Dijke played quite unlucky, their fate was rather quickly sealed. Walter Meuwis (winner in 2014) and Guy Van Middelem (finalist in 2013) reached average (7 victories & 7 defeats) but that was not enough for Guy who lost in a crucial and long play-off against Walter.
In D2, divided in 2 groups, after the round-robin and 98 11-pointers, Geert Dooms had an outstanding run to place 1 in Group A, qualifying for D1 2016. In Group B, Sassan Kachanian tied with Leonidas Sotiriadis but their mutual encounter was 2-0 for Sassan, who qualified too.
Geert beat Sassan in the D2 title match and Leonidas prevented a first woman ever in D1 by winning against Annick Hasdenteufel in a play-off for the 3rd qualifying spot.
In the quarter-final, Alain Chif beat Geert Dooms. In the semi-final Luc Palmans beat Alain. The final would be the expected one between the 2 best D1 players, Michel Lamote & Luc Palmans, in Longchamp on Friday the 18th of December.
Played in the afternoon, the first set went to Michel. The venue, Les Brasseries du Longchamp, was nearly crowded for the live evening representation. And what a show it was! Thanks to the fantastic job of Nader K. Rad, with help from Johan Segers, and with the skills of commentator Walter Meuwis, the audience (young & old, novice & experienced) saw a high-level backgammon match to 13 points on a big screen, with live computer analysis. Michel Lamote prevailed after a breath-taking take of a 4-cube to win 2-0. The favourite deserved his 1st BIC title – congratulations!
Winner Michel Lamote; runner-up Luc Palmans.
Go up to D1: Geert Dooms, Sassan Kachanian & Leonidas Sotiriadis.
Go down to D2: Maurits Pino, Paul van Dijke & Guy Van Middelem.
Are assured of a spot in D1 in BIC 2016 : Michel Lamote, Luc Palmans, Alain Chif, Zsolt Tasnadi, Walter Meuwis, Geert Dooms, Sassan Kachanian & Leonidas Sotiriadis.
Wishing you all great games in BIC 2016 (which has started already)!
Keep on rolling,
— Guy Van Middelem
BMS(BE) is proud to announce that the BIC competition has received official BMAB validation for 2016. That makes it the first European national competition to be acknowledged as official BMS tournament. Before, only Denmark could boast a similar achievement with their very ambitious and high-level XG Masters Event (35 players this year, ALL matches filmed!).
What does this mean for our BIC players?
All BIC competitors (24 players registered for 2016) can have their performances recognised by the international backgammon community if they so desire. No need to travel abroad and pay large entry fees and expensive hotel rooms. Just complete the 2016 BIC competition and you can receive an official BMAB Grading. This comes on top of the BMSB Grading (which only has national relevance).
Since all applications need to be submitted to BMS(BE), the procedure to follow is similar to playing a MS2 :
1) send an e-mail to me ( kynos8000@gmail.com) to have your BIC Series pre-designated.
2) film ALL your 2016 BIC matches (including play-offs and final rounds). Matches notated manually or on tablet are not valid for BMAB, but can be submitted as a MS2.
3) the video files need to be submitted to BMS(BE) within 8 days after completion of a match. This can be done either by e-mail or by uploading the video on YouTube.
4) the same holds for the XG-files. Applicants can either do the transcription work themselves or have it done by BMS(BE). In the latter case, a transcription fee of 20€ will be charged for 11- and 13-point matches.
5) players need to adhere to the BMSB Conditions of Play and the BMAB Consideration of Individual Applications for Awards (see : www.bgmastersab.com).
At this moment, 8 players have officially applied for their BIC 2016 matches to be BMAB validated : Walter M., Luc P., Paul Van D., Maurits P., Guy Van M., Johan S., Geert VdS. and myself.
Applications can be submitted till 10 January 2016.
Why not take up the gauntlet?
M
