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 19h, at Au Bassin, Baksteenkaai 74 Quai Aux Briques, 1000 Brussels
Ghent: every Tuesday evening, at 19h, at Union-Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent
Leuven Monthly, Sunday, February 19, at 12h45, at Squash Club De Vaart, Kolonel Begaultlaan 15, 3012 Wilsele
Looking ahead
XVI Ghent Open: presumably in April 2023, to be confirmed. Union-Sandeman, Ghent
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 derStricht
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.
Wrapping up the Vlissingen Blitz Masters International Backgammon Tournament that took place January 14-15, 2023, in the Fletcher Hotel, Vlissingen (NL).
10 different nationalities were present.
Live stream replays and final with XG analysis and commentary by Michel Lamote
Final between Bert Van Kerckhove (left) and Christian Sørensen of the Vlissingen Masters, January 15, 2023. Streamed by Robin Bilderbeek, aka Rain, with XG analysis and later commented by Michel Lamote: https://youtu.be/z4djhgNDtFM
First of all, from myself, and on behalf of BGFed.be, our federation, my best wishes for
~ a splendid 2023 ~
Our desires, of course, include your best of luck with all sorts of doubles in the beginning of the game and mainly double 5’s & 6’s in the bear-off.
I hope (and I’m pretty sure) you can handle these rolls valuably!
I thank particularly Johan Segers (rating list & website), Michel Lamote (articles & Red Beaver League), Toon Van Herreweghen (Ludite), Chantal Lensen (org. Brussels), Bert Van Kerckhove (org. Ghent), Henri Pollet (org. Leuven), Line Vandamme (org. Brugge), Johan Huyck (national teams).
Please, take a (regular) look at our website, where you’ll find some recent articles & photo’s, the rating list and other results and rankings.
Besides the 4 Cubes (interclub competition) and the Red Beaver League (UBC-style individual competition), BGFed.be tournaments include :
Brugge club evening (contact Line Vandamme +32 497 41 03 20)
Ghent club evening, every Tuesday evening at Union-Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Ghent
Leuven Monthly and Leuven Club Championship, organized on Sunday afternoons in Squash Club de Vaart, Kolonel Begaultlaan 15, 3012 Wilsele (starting at 12:45 on January 8, 2023, see announcement)
Brussels club evening, every Wednesday Au Bassin, Baksteenkaai 74 Quai Aux Briques, 1000 Brussels (starting at 19:00 on January 11, 2023)
Vlissingen Masters, January 14-15, 2023 (contact Paulus van Rooijen +31 6 53 27 68 35, see flyer)
Belgian Individual Championship, in Royal Orée, Verbrandendreef 59 Drève des Brûlés, 1150 Sint-Pieters-Woluwe on June 24-25, 2023 (contact Guy Van Middelem +32 476 41 86 88, see flyer)
Belgian Backgammon Beach Day, in Restaurant Villa Marie Joseph, Westende on September 10, 2023 (contact Johan Brisaert +32 497 15 52 82)
Ghent Open (around March/April)
Leuven Open on November 12, 2023
We’ll meet on all these occasions and you can improve your rating (which changes every week).
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.
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
Winners of the Gent Open Backgammon XV, from left to right: Line Vandamme (Intermediates), Michel Lamote (Masters), Hubert Verstraeten (Beginners)
Ghent Open Backgammon XV: Sunday, November 20, K.A. Club Union Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent. Contact: Bert Van Kerckhove, bert.vankerckhove@skynet.be, +32 (0) 474 237 656
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