Category: Red Beaver League

RBL will undergo a facelift in the coming season. Please find all relevant information in the attached file: RED BEAVER LEAGUE 25-26.

— Michel Lamote

Through participation in the Red Beaver League Qualifiers (RBL Q), ambitious players can gain a place among the RBL Contenders (RBL C).

The two winners of RBL C from season 24-25 will then take on the two lowest-ranked players from RBL in March/April 2025.

The winners of these Relegation/Promotion duels will occupy places (11) and (12) on the RBL 25-26 starting grid.

Michel Lamote (RBL TD)

Hi everyone,

Please find in attachment the RBL 24-25 Kick-off document.

Michel (RBL Tournament Director)

Marc Van Damme is the new RBL Champion and BGFed.be’s 23-24 UBC Champion! He beat last year’s winner Geert Van der Stricht by a tiny margin: 9-9. Marc wins on Overall PR (OPR)

Marc did not receive the RBL trophy on a silver platter. He survived a nailbiter against Bert Van Kerckhove, then beat Michel Lamote in convincing fashion and eventually defeated Geert in a thrilling final, which can be watched on Rain’s YouTube channel.

Geert took two crucial points in M7 with a super 2.90 PR and suddenly had good prospects of retaining his title: 8-6. However, in M8 Marc was able to regain the advantage with a narrow 7-5 win and an equally impressive 2.54 PR: 8-8.

Time pressure was a recurring theme in this contest and M9 was not different. With only a handful of seconds on the clock, Marc was able to stumble over the finish line with a 7-5 victory and a narrow PR loss: 9-9. In the end, it was his fine, but not impressive 4.09 OPR which won him the title as Geert came harrowingly close to a major upset. Geert’s OPR of 4,36 fell only 0.27 PR points short of a major surprise!

A glance at the Final Leaderboard tells us Marc is the deserved winner although it turned out to be a coin toss in the end.

Marc can now rest on his laurels till spring 2025 and Geert will occupy the top spot in RBL 24-25’s start grid.

Congratulations and many thanks to our two best players for an entertaining and instructive Final!

Michel Lamote (tournament director)

In the RBL 2024 Final between Geert Van der Stricht and Marc Van Damme the score after the second session, played on Tuesday May 7 in the Union Sandeman in Ghent, is 6-6.

Being 2-4 down after the first three matches in the first session (report), Marc had to come up with something special …, and he did. Although he lost Match 4 narrowly (6-7) his Performance Rating of 2,96 (!) made sure the score gap remained the same as Geert paid a heavy equity price for some less than accurate cube decisions: 3-5.

Match 5 was riddled with complicated positions and found its apotheosis in Game 5 (5-away 3-away): Geert made a fatal cube decision by taking a Too Good position and Marc showed no mercy. He scored two points and leveled the duel: 5-5.

Geert did not crumble though. He showed enormous drive in Match 6 where he stood his ground under pressure. He lost 7-1, but meticulous play and a PR of 1,84 (!) resulted in a 6-6 score.

In this second session, Marc closed the gap and overturned his Overall PR deficit. He now has the momentum and a slight, but significant OPR advantage going into the third and final session: 3,63 (Marc) vs 4,23 (Geert).

No reason for Marc to be exultant as yet. He has the wind in his sails, but Geert’s intense focus may be hard to match. All to play for in the final session…

Coverage of this second session in the form of Rain’s videos will be made available in a week or two. Make sure to watch every move and cube decision as Robin walks and talks you through the action.

Michel Lamote (RBL tournament director)

In the 23-24 RBL Final (9 matches), Geert Van der Stricht leads Marc Van Damme4-2 after the First Three.

Having rested on his laurels for almost a full year, reigning RBL Champion Geert Van der Stricht appeared at the board fit and energetic. His very strong 2,72 PR (!!) in M1 salvaged a point as Marc won 7-3 with an equally remarkable performance (3,15 PR): 1-1.M2 turned into a classic prime-v-prime game where the cube eventually landed on 8. Geert gave an aggressive, but correct initial cube which Marc was able to reship to 4 as he suddenly had Geert’s last man stuck behind a 6-prime. However, as Marc had two men behind a 5-prime himself, Geert found a correct take. After some hair-raising exchanges, Geert was able to wriggle out of Marc’s board as the latter failed to roll the badly needed sixes. Geert then put the match on the line as he threatened to bring his last man home: cube to 8! He succeeded, survived a late shot and so won M2. The decisions in this game were few, but momentous. Marc misjudged some tricky containment checker-plays which cost him the PR point resulting in a 3-1 advantage for Geert.

Marc, however, whose confidence appeared brittle over the board, did not let his head down. As M3 turned into the longest match so far (7 games), he stayed focused and ended up winning (7-3) with an excellent 3,09 PR (!). Sadly for Marc, this was not enough to equalize the duel as Geert played in true Mochy-style and produced a fantastic 2,83 PR (!): 4-2 to Geert.

Belgium’s two best players are dishing up some world-class backgammon. Geert’s OPR of 2,83 is truly amazing, undoubtedly the result of sustained dedicated practice. Can he keep it up in the next session? Marc played solidly at an OPR of 3,54, but although this might be good enough to beat anyone in Belgium, he will have to dig a bit deeper if he wants to take the trophy away from BGFed.be’s current UBC Champ. To be continued.

Michel Lamote (RBL tournament director)

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

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

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

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.

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

The Final of the Red Beaver League was looked forward to with much anticipation. Insiders expected smooth sailing for Marc Van Damme, as he had scored amazing PRs in his Level 1 duel. Geert Van der Stricht, however, has years of international chess experience under his belt, plenty of stamina, and is by no means a pushover.

With the dice on his side (Luck Rates of +5, +2,6 and +3,8) Geert quite easily won the opening three matches, but did not manage to do so with below-5 PRs. Astonishingly, Marc (feeling slightly out of sorts after some days of illness) failed to take advantage of this as he ended up with (marginally) worse PRs. In each match he made just one error/blunder too many. The result: a bewildering 6-0 lead for Geert.

Surely Geert was not going to become BGFed.be UBC Champion with an 8-0 whitewash? M4 was therefore crucial for Marc, who showed commendable resilience. He was able to remain positive, regrouped and won M4 with a winning PR of 2,5: 6-2.

After all these trials and tribulations Geert is clearly in the driver’s seat: he only needs two points out of the three remaining matches. Marc will be looking for a match win with a better PR in M5, hoping to close the gap to 6-4 and thus keep his chances to become the first winner of the RBL alive.

— Michel Lamote

The Red Beaver League season is getting into its final stages. In Level 1, Marc Van Damme slaughtered Michel Lamote 10-2 while in the Level 5 barrage duel, Maurits Pino came back from 2-4 down against Alain Chif to win 6-4. In RBLQ Nick De Ruyck narrowly defeated Sonja Custers in a crucial promotion duel.

Marc Van Damme has been the standard bearer of Belgian backgammon for more than 20 years. In the beginning of the century, he was already competing in the international arena and today, after long spells of absence (covid, other interests such as chess) he is back. And how…

In his first appearance in the RBL Marc started off his Level 1 duel (seven matches to 7) against Michel Lamote with two SGM (= Super Grandmaster) PRs of 1,94 and 2,57, good for a confidence boosting lead: 3-1. In M3, however, Marc’s 4,25 PR was not enough to take the PR point, but luckily a 17-to-1 shot from the bar saved the match so that it was not 3-3, but 4-2. Then Match 4 proved to be the match too many for both Marc and Michel. Marc won the match point and was unhappy with his 7+ PR, but Michel suffered a complete mental meltdown (dejection, fatigue…?) and played a 17+ PR (!). This meant that the opening session of the duel (four matches) ended with a 6-2 score. With his better OPR (= Overall PR), Marc would only need two points out of the last three matches to reach Level O (= the Final).

The week after, on Tuesday 21 February, both players met again at the Sandeman (Ghent) to play their duel to a finish. Marc delivered the coup de grâce by winning M5 with another SGM PR of 1,77 so that Michel’s PR of 3,00 was of no consequence: 8-2. Although the duel was thereby decided, M6 was played as a gentleman’s gesture: 10-2.

In short, Marc mercilessly steamrollered Michel into insignificance with a first-rate OPR of 3,43 and progresses to Level 0 where he awaits the winner of the Level 1 duel between Belgium’s numbers 2 and 3, Geert Van der Stricht and Johan Huyck.

Meanwhile, in the lower regions of the RBL, Maurits Pino staged a remarkable comeback in his Level 5 barrage duel against Alain Chif. After the opening session (three matches), Alain was 4-2 up, but saw his advantage evaporate as Maurits won both M4 and M5 with better PRs: 4-6. Maurits thereby secures his spot in the 2023-2024 RBL Playing Grid whereas Alain will play the runner-up of RBLQ (= the qualifiers) in a last-ditch effort to stay in the RBL.

In the RBLQ, Nick De Ruyck won a nervy duel against Sonja Custers (3-3/Nick wins narrowly on OPR) and stays in contention for promotion to the RBL. Nick will meet the favourite, Itzhak Solsky, on Wednesday 1 March in the Sandeman.

Please find the updated Results and Leaderboards by clicking on the RBL tab.

— Michel Lamote

On Tuesday 20 December 2022, Robin Bilderbeek and I (Michel Lamote) met at the Sandeman to play the opening three matches of our Level 2 duel (TR: Geert Van der Stricht). I started off well by narrowly winning M1 (7-6), but Robin took the PR point by a tiny margin (PR 4,44 v PR 4,59): 1-1. Robin went on to win M2 with a PR of 2,8 (!) which would have been enough for a 3-1 lead, had it not been for my better PR of 2,14: 2-2. Finally, Match 3 also went to Robin, albeit with an outlier PR of 8,57: 3-3.

Then, five weeks later, on Tuesday 31 January 2023, this Level 2 duel was played to a finish. In the monastic quiet of the Sandeman I won Match 4, but some inexplicable checker play blunders (“oversights”, “lapses of concentration” – think up your own euphemism) resulted in a disturbing PR of 8,00. This not only gave Robin the PR point, but also narrowed the gap in overall PR to 0,5: 4-4. All to play for…

For Robin, a major upset is in the making. He started the RBL season in Level 5, but excellent performances against Maurits Pino, Bert Van Kerckhove and Johan Segers catapulted him to Level 2. If he can somehow win M5 with a better PR, he would move up to Level 1 and achieve the unthinkable.

Fast forward to the climax of this match. It is DMP and we are in the bear-off. Robin is a huge favourite with 95% winning chances. Moreover, albeit unbeknownst to either Robin or myself, Robin is also leading on PR (!). In other words, in 19 out of 20 cases, Robin will win M5 and take the PR point for an astounding 6-4 victory and a Level 1 encounter with Belgium’s best player, Marc Vandamme.

However, after a blood-curdling sequence of dice rolls, M5 slipped away from Robin’s grasp. This brought the final score to 5-5. Now, the overall PR was going to break the tie. Here again Robin was tantalizingly close, but to the open-mouthed bewilderment of all present, a fractional difference of 0,18 meant that Robin’s ascent had come to an end.

Still, Robin’s RBL odyssey continues. He now has a barrage duel to play against Paul van Dijke (five matches). Dipping below the 5PR mark would certainly give his amazing run even more polish. For Paul, this duel presents an ultimate opportunity to make his RBL season a success: a win would secure a spot in Level 2 for next year and send RBL’s potential Player of the Year back to Level 3.

— Michel

In the Red Beaver League, players play three, five, or seven matches against each other whereby one point is awarded for the winner of the game and one point for the player with the best PR. This Ultimate Backgammon Championship (UBC) format has provided some intense backgammon drama in the course of this playing season.

On Tuesday 27 December 2022 six players and three TR’s (= Transcriber Referees) met at the Sandeman in Gent to play their duels to a finish. Here is what happened.

In the first encounter of Level 2 (TR: Robin Bilderbeek), Johan Huyck proved a bit too strong for Paul van Dijke. The points were shared in Match 1 (1-1), but Matches 2 and 3 swept the carpet from under Paul’s feet. Johan won both of them convincingly (7-0 and 7-1), thanks not only to excellent form, but also to better Luck rates (+2 and +3). This brought the score to 5-1. The only way for Paul to still win the duel was by winning the two remaining matches with better PR’s. This did not happen, although Paul went down fighting. He won Match 4 on PR (3,73 v 3,83), but stood no chance against Johan’s +3,8 Luck rate. As Paul was now 6-2 down with one match to play, there was no need to play Match 5.

This result allows Johan to progress to Level 1 where he will meet Geert Van der Stricht in a duel consisting of seven matches. If Paul can win his barrage duel (five matches) against either Robin Bilderbeek or me (Michel Lamote) he will secure a spot in Level 2 for the upcoming season.

The second encounter on that midwinter Tuesday was the Level 3 barrage duel between Johan Segers and Paulus van Rooijen (TR: Michel Lamote). The winner would be sure to start the next RBL playing season in Level 3, whereas the loser would relegate to Level 4. Paulus took a blistering start by winning M1 and M2 with better PR’s, giving him a 4-0 advantage. Insurmountable? Not so fast. Johan promptly won M3 with a better PR so that everything was still possible: 4-2. However, Paulus took two vital points in M4, which sealed Johan’s fate. Final score: 6-2.

At table 3, Bert Van Kerckhove and Guy Van Middelem were set to play their barrage duel to a finish (TR: Nick De Ruyck). A week before Bert had won M1, but Guy had snatched an unexpected point with a 4,48 PR: 1-1. Guy then proceeded to win M2 and M3, albeit with lesser PR’s, resulting in a 3-3 score.

Today, in the first match of the afternoon (M4), Bert cruised to a 6-0 lead, but Guy was close to staging a comeback. Eventually Bert won 7-2 and, with the better PR, was now 5-3 up. The only thing Bert had to avoid in M5 was to lose the match with a significantly worse PR, because in case of a 5-5 draw, the average PR would come into play. Guy was able to produce another world class performance (PR 4,45), but to no avail. Bert stood his ground by winning M5 with an equally good PR (4,80). This 6-4 victory means that Bert will hold on to his Level 4 spot whereas Guy will start the next playing season in Level 5.

You can peruse the updated RBL Results and Leaderboard by clicking on the RBL tab in the menu.

— Michel Lamote

Three BGFed.be members (Sonja Custers, Nick De Ruyck and Itzhak Solsky) are competing for one or two spots in the 2023-2024 Red Beaver League playing roster. In the first round, they played two duels each, whereby each duel consisted of three matches to 7 points.

Itzhak Solsky is proving to be the man of the hour by winning both his duels with eye-catching PR’s. In his last duel, he beat Sonja Custers 5-1 with an average PR of … 3,52 (!!). For somebody who has only recently appeared on the Belgian backgammon scene, this is phenomenal. His overall PR after six matches is 4,78, an achievement which even our best players – except maybe the top-3 – would be happy with.

The continuation of the RBL Qualifiers (or: RBL Q) consists of a final round whereby Sonja, Nick and Itzhak will once again play two duels against each other. All eyes will certainly be on Itzhak to see how much improvement this highly motivated and dedicated player can make in the coming months.

In the Red Beaver League 2022 spreadsheet, please check the RBL Q Results and RBL Q Leaderboard tabs for detailed results.

— Michel Lamote

After winning his duel in Level 5 against Maurits Pino (4-0) and surprisingly beating Bert Van Kerckhove in Level 4 (4-2), Robin faced seasoned Red Beaver Johan Segers in Level 3. Based on the pre-covid BMS Grading Table, Johan was the favourite with a PR of 5,65 behind his name. Robin’s PR of 7,25 indicated a small, but meaningful skill difference. Note that both these PRs were based on the players’ last 600 EP (= Experience Points), i.e. the equivalent of eighty-five 7-point matches. In short, a reliable indication of their playing strength … two years ago.

Johan was conscious of Robin’s recent eye-catching performances and did not take this duel lightly. He won the first match with a respectable PR (5,04), but saw Robin take a point with a better PR (4,57). That meant 1-1 after the first match.

As the tension rose, the second match went Robin’s way. He won 7-2. Moreover, his PR was again better than Johan’s: 3,51 (!) versus 5,22. So although Johan was playing better than his advertised PR (an accomplishment in itself), he had to undergo Robin’s consistently accurate play. Suddenly the score was 3-1 for Robin. Add to this, Robin’s overall PR was a full point better than Johan’s, so the only way for Johan to pull this duel out of the fire was to win the third match and score a significantly better PR.

Everything now hinged on the third 7-pointer. Robin’s efforts in the first two matches had clearly taken their toll. He fumbled some cube and checker play decisions. Could Johan take advantage of this? It looked like he would, but at 3-away 2-away, as Robin insta-cubed from the bar after having been Too Good for several rolls, Johan dropped this bluff-cube (0,056 No Double) which turned out to be a big, big Take (0,504). This gave his PR a brutal knock and from 3-away 1-away Crawford, it’s hard to make up a PR deficit as cube decisions almost become no-brainers. But… Johan did not know this of course.

So, Johan kept up the fight and invested all the mental energy he had in every decision. He clawed his way back in the match from 3-away 1-away Cr. and even won this gruelling 7-pointer after eleven games: 6-7. A better PR would have secured a 3-3 draw and then, who knows, maybe the overall PR would clinch the duel. In the end, however, the PR’s turned out to be close, with Robin – for the third consecutive time – having slightly the better of it: 6,33 v 6,58.

This 4-2 victory catapults Robin from a modest Level 5 starting position to Level 2 where he will meet one of Belgium’s four backgammon heavyweights. His noteworthy improvement is also reflected in the RBL Leaderboard, where he is far ahead of the pack with twelve points and an overall PR of 5,56 (after eight 7-pointers). Surely the man of the hour in Belgian backgammon!

Commiserations to Johan, who battled hard, but ended up playing slightly below his pre-covid standard. He will surely be looking to elevate his game in his Level 3 barrage duel against Paulus van Rooijen.

(Check Results in the menu on the side, including the leaderboard).

— Michel Lamote

The players who showed up at the Sandeman (Ghent) last Tuesday witnessed an exciting UBC-duel. Although Bert played at World Class level in the first two matches (PR 3,71 and PR 3,36!), his excellent performance was not enough to secure an advantage as Robin managed to score a point in match 2 with an outlier PR of… 1,91. This amazing feat resulted in a 2-2 score after two of the three matches. As Bert was leading on average PR, the only scenario he had to avoid in match 3 was a loss with a worse PR. Sure enough, this unlikely turn of events happened as Bert, down 0-1, took a gammonnish cube which was a 0,300 Pass and ended up losing four points. This misjudgement proved to be a seismic moment in the duel. Robin was now leading 5-0 in the score and had a significantly better PR. In the third game, however, Robin also took a 0,300 Pass, which brought the PR’s closer again. Fortunately for Robin he managed to win this crucial game from an underdog position and was able to finish the match while his PR was still better than Bert’s.

This 4-2 victory means that Robin is now certain of promotion to Level 4 next year. In the meantime, he progresses to Level 3 where he will meet Johan Segers. Robin also cashes a PR bounty of 30€ as his average PR over the three 7-pointers was 5,96, just 0,04 below the 6 PR bounty threshold. Bert, on the contrary, now faces Belgian Champion Guy Van Middelem in a barrage duel of five 7-pointers which will decide who stays in Level 4 and who will start the 2023-2024 RBL season in Level 5.

Congrats to both players for a memorable UBC-duel!

PS: Check out the Red Beaver League links in the menu on the side for detailed results, the playing schedule, and the rules of the competition.

— Michel Lamote

On Sunday 25 September in Vlissingen, NL, Paul van Dijke beat Paulus van Rooijen 4-2 in their Level 3 duel. Paul was lucky to win all three 7-pointers and so one PR-win was enough to secure victory.

Paul now moves up to Level 2 where he will meet Johan Huyck, whereas Paulus will play a barrage duel against Bert Van Kerckhove, Robin Bilderbeek or Johan Segers to ensure his spot in Level 3.

You can check the updated Results, Leaderboard and Playing Roster in the menu on the side.

At Orée on Monday afternoon, a hard-fought UBC-duel between Paulus van Rooijen and Belgian Champion Guy Van Middelem ended in a 3-3 draw. Paulus took a 2-0 lead after winning the first 7-point match, lost the 2^nd (but took a point for a better PR) and so went into match 3 with a 3-1 lead. Guy, however, did what he had to do, namely: win the match, both in score and (narrowly) on PR. So the final score was 3-3, which meant that the overall PR had to decide the winner. As could be expected from both players’ known skill levels, Paulus had the edge in that department (PR 5,58 v PR 7,77) making him the winner of this UBC-duel.

Paulus now moves up to Level 3 where he will meet Paul van Dijke. Guy will need to win against the loser of the match between Bert Van Kerckhove and Robin Bilderbeek to secure his spot in Level 4 of the 2023-2024 RBL playing roster.

For complete results, rules, and the schedule, please see the links in the menu.

Interested in joining the RBL 2023? Check out the call for candidates.

Last week, the two Level 5 duels were played.

At Orée on Wednesday afternoon, Guy Van Middelem beat Alain Chif 5-1 in a hard-fought duel. Guy now progresses to Level 4 where he will meet Paulus Van Rooijen. Alain, who saw his fine performance marred by two resignation errors, will play Maurits Pino to secure spot (10) in the 2023-2024 RBL playing roster.

On Sunday, Maurits was 0-4 down against Robin Bilderbeek after two matches, which made the 3rd match unimportant. Robin promotes to Level 4 where he will meet Bert Van Kerckhove in Autumn.

The first edition of the Red Beaver League, created by Michel Lamote, is about to kick off. More information here. For results, check out the RBL 2022 link in the menu on the right.