BGFed.be

Geert (last year at BBD1).

If you want to compete at the highest level, it is absolutely necessary to familiarize yourself with the dynamics of long matches.  Certain cube decisions can be pretty plain at a normal score, but can become quite sophisticated at scores like 12-away 5-away.  A player with no schooling in long matches will be like a 17th-century mariner on a nocturnal ocean without a compass.  Of course, if the skies are clear, he can navigate by the stars, but what if it’s cloudy? Experience with long matches is the compass without which you will be – and I weigh my words – completely helpless when faced with (re-)cube-decisions in, say, a 15-point match.

To become more acquainted with this subject matter, Geert and I have played another set of ten 15-point matches.  Here is how we did :

Geert’s performance over ten 15-pointers (loses 3-7).

Michel’s performance over ten 15-pointers (wins 7-3).

Once again we see that playing the checkers is not the issue.  Checker-plays do not differ much depending on score.  You can practise that aspect of the game as well in a 3-point match as in a 15-point match.  The cube is a different story, however.  Both Geert and I made some skilled cube decisions in our ten matches, but also messed it up way too often. Since  cube blunders tend to be  costly as far as equity goes, this has an extremely detrimental effect on our respective PRs.

En forgeant on devient forgeron, my father used to say.  It is now up to Geert and myself to review the matches we played, study our errors and blunders and hopefully gain some insight from that.

You can see  these performances reflected on the BMS Grading Table.  Just click on BMS(BE) in the black banner above.

M

Pairing of round 1 of BBD2 (100% random) :
1 Paulus Van Rooijen ( 0 ) – Johan Swyngedouw ( 0 )
2 Fakhri Salasi ( 0 ) – Geert Van der Stricht ( 0 )
3 Alain Chif ( 0 ) – Henri Pollet ( 0 )
4 Sassan Kachanian ( 0 ) – Bert Van Kerckhove ( 0 )
5 Marc Steyvers ( 0 ) – Akbar Soltani ( 0 )
6 Zsolt Tasnadi ( 0 ) – Luc Palmans ( 0 )
7 Paul Van Dijke ( 0 ) – Johan Brisaert ( 0 )
8 Nigel Vergaerde ( 0 ) – Dan Pascu ( 0 )
9 Johan Huyck ( 0 ) – Kristoffer De Weert ( 0 )
10 Leonidas Sotiriadis ( 0 ) – Johan Segers ( 0 )
11 Line Vandamme ( 0 ) – Eddy Cabooter ( 0 )
12 Isabelle Goeman ( 0 ) – Sofie Brisaert ( 0 )
13 Ronny Lecomte ( 0 ) – Maurits Pino ( 0 )

Note : the player mentioned first will have the clock on his/her right.  Bear-off is always towards the clock.

The defending champion : Johan Segers (right).

See you all on Saturday!

M

Boterkoeken at BBD

Hi everyone,

thank you all for joining BBD2.  We are looking forward to a fun day  of competitve backgammon.  Here are some practicalities :

1. Schedule.

9 – 10 : arrival : you will be welcomed by Line/Isabelle, who will give you 2 drankbonnen.  Upstairs in the playing room are 2 boterkoeken per person.

10 – 10.15 : seating at designated tables.

10.15 – 10.40 : player presentation.

10.45 : round 1.  Clocks are started.

18.45 : prize giving.

Please, be on time.  All matches start at the set times.

2. Boards.

Do not bring your own board to the venue.  You will not be able to use it.

3. Getting there.

Venue : De Hollandse Vismijn, Vismarkt, Brugge.

Coming by train is very convenient.  Buses will take you from the train station to the Vismarkt every 5 minutes.  You can also walk : from the station it takes about 20 minutes.

If you come by car, be aware that Saturday is market day in Brugge and that public parkings fill up quickly.  Allow for at least 45 minutes to get from the E40 (exit Oostkamp) to the venue. Your best bet is Parking Pandreitje (8,70€/day).  From there it is a 5 minute walk to the Hollandse Vismijn.  Cheaper is the parking at the train station : 3,50€/day.

4. BPR.

Players who will submit their matches as BPR clusters, need to announce their intention to do so beforehand.  To facilitate match filming, they will be given a fixed playing table where they can play all their matches.  They are urged to show up well before start of the tournament, so there is plenty of time to set up the recording equipment.

5. Draw.

The draw will be done on Wednesday 24 February, at 18.00.  It will be posted on this website later that evening, together with the designated table seating.

See you on Saturday!

M

The Four Cubes

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,

And treat those two impostors just the same…

To kick off the 2016 Four Cubes competition, Brussels  sent its elite troups to Gent.  Alain Chif (c), Maurits Pino and Zsolt Tasnadi arrived well on time to face the ambitious Ghent team : Geert Van der Stricht (c), Bert Van Kerckhove and Johan Huyck.

After 2 rounds of play, the score was tied : 3-3.  Then Maurits beat Johan and Bert beat Zsolt : 4-4.  All eyes now turned to the feature table, where the two captains had to fight it out.  It had all looked very promising for Ghent when Geert took a 6-3 lead.  Alain, however, was able to win the Crawford game and with the cube turned in the post-Crawford game, it looked as if it was all over :

What can possibly go wrong here? Have a look at the numbers :

Alain will only lose this game 2 times in 1000 and will win a gammon (and the complete Four Cubes encounter for his team) 989 times in a 1000.  Many people would feel comfortable with these numbers on their side.  Not Alain though.  He had had a bad premonition in the morning, and this had been confirmed in his earlier matches against Bert and Johan, where almost-sure wins went awry.  If Geert comes in, the victory is assured, but … Geert rolls 32 and stays on the bar.  Alain then rolled 62, clearing the 3-point.  For Geert to dance, he would now have to roll 11,22 or 21. He rolls 11.  Ok, this sequence is nasty (the chance is about 1 in 40), but that happens in backgammon.  Now, however, with 3 men on the 2-point, Alain finds his 3rd consecutive 62, leaving a blot on the deuce… which Geert hits with a 32.  Gasps all around.  Alain is thrown back to enemy territory and has to try and scramble his way home through a mine-field.  He tries, but is hit several times and ends up being closed out.  Ok, the gammon is gone, but with 10 men off, Alain is still favourite to win the game (67%).  But Alain dances a couple of times and is suddenly a huge underdog.  Geert has about 81% chance here to win the encounter for Ghent :

For those of you who do not know what a swing is, well, this is one.  Alain went from 99,8% favourite to 19% underdog.  I am sure he experienced a sense of doom here, but, to his credit, he did not betray it.  At least not in histrionic fashion. Experienced backgammon players know these things can and will happen and they can keep their composure.  And, lo and behold, see what happens next :

In his time of deepest despair, Alain is blessed with this affectionate caress by Lady Fortune.  It came so unexpected that Alain could hardly believe he could take 3 checkers off.  He did though, meticulously,  and so was catapulted back from 23% to 83%! Geert needed a double to win, but could not produce it and so the score was 6-6.

It is hard to describe the nerve-shredding effect these swings can have on a player’s psyche. We should not forget that Geert too had to undergo a horrific swing : he went from giant underdog (0,2%) to big favourite, only to see victory slip away.  Both captains kept their cool in exemplary fashion here.

Of course, everything remained to be played for in the DMP-game.  An unfortunate dance by Geert on a two-point board allowed Alain to convert a pretty hopeless blitz-attempt into a winning game-plan and so gain a precious victory for Brussels.  A decisive battle or a skirmish? Only the future will tell…

… you’ll be a Man… (R. Kipling)

M

On 30 October 2015, in an office building in Brussels,  Maurits and Zsolt played the first of a series of ten 9-point matches.  They did so during the lunch break at their job, in a cramped room  where cleaning products, plastic buckets and dust brooms are stored. Hardly a worthy sporting arena, but adequate enough to play  backgammon.  In their eagerness to learn and improve, they recorded and transcribed the match and kept this up till they finished their Master Series (10 x 9) early February 2016.

Had they played for money, Zsolt would have made a nice profit, comfortably winning the Series 7-3. In this quasi academic format, however, where no pecuniary gain can be expected, players need not worry about the caprice of Lady Fortune, but instead can invest all their attention and mental energy in finding the optimal play.

Let us have a look at how they performed :

Autumn Series. Overall PR Maurits Pino.

Autumn Series. Overall PR Zsolt Tasnadi.

Both played at Advanced level.  This, undeniably, is an achievement.  It takes hundreds of hours of study and practice to achieve this.  One can imagine though that they will both be slightly disappointed by these data. I imagine they would have secretly hoped for PRs in the range of 6,50-8,00.  The playing conditions can certainly count as extenuating factor.  It is hard to focus on the game if you have just stepped away from your desk and know that you will be heading back to your paperwork once the match is finished.  Still, I would  evaluate this performance as below par for players of their level.

As always, the performance gap lies in the cube actions.  Maurits did astonishingly well in this respect. A PR below 10 is almost unmatched in Belgium.  It would be too rash to conclude that we have a cube magus in our midst, but the feat is definitely praiseworthy. Zsolt, on the other hand, seems to have suffered significantly from the strained playing conditions.  I am in no position to speculate further on the cause of this débâcle, but I will certainly be excused for stating that Zsolt under-achieved here.  The positive side-effect is that any improvement in that area will boost Zsolt’s overall PR enormously.  His checker-play is close to Expert-level, so any normal cube performance should lift Zsolt’s game to the 6,50-8,00 Performance level.

Maurits (left) and Zsolt (right) on the 1st Brugge Backgammon Day.

By playing this Master Series, Maurits and Zsolt have gained a spot on the BMS Grading Table.  Kudos to both players!

You can find the BMS GT by clicking on BMS(BE) in the black banner above and scrolling down to Backgammon Master Series.

M

In the course of a little under 3 months, Geert Van der Stricht and Johan Huyck played, recorded and transcribed ten 15-point matches.  These long matches are notoriously difficult as cube decisions can become very counter-intuitive at lopsided scores.  How did both players perform in this challenging format?

Well, honour where honour is due, let us start with Geert :

Geert dips below 6 on BMS Grading Table.

There can be no doubt that Geert is dexterous at checker-play : he played 8 matches at World Class level and the other 2 at Expert level.  However, whereas checker plays seldom deviate according to score, the cube decisions will alter dramatically once there is a 3- to 4-point gap in the score.  Mastering this aspect of the game requires in-depth knowledge of match equity tables, doubling-windows, gammon values, market-loss theory, and more of that fun stuff.  Here, Geert has work to do : in only 1 match was his cube play better than Advanced level. Still, an admirable performance by one of Belgium’s best.

Johan  is not known to many.  He studied and played the game intensively at the start of the 21st century, but then took a sabbatical break.  Now he’s back, encouraged and stimulated by the recent initiatives within the Belgian backgammon community, where the focus of attention has shifted  from winning to playing well.

Although Johan’s game is still a bit rusty, he still achieved a level of performance many will find hard to emulate :

Johan H. appears on the BMS Grading Table.

Johan played 2 matches at an astonishing level : PRs of 3,39 and 3,34 serve to illustrate his potential.  However, these promising performances were sadly offset by matches where PRs rose above 8.  It cannot be a coincidence that these were the matches where Johan’s cube play was at its worst.  Although his checker play was consistently Expert or better, his cube decisions were frequently wide of the mark.  Like all of us, Johan has room for improvement here.  But, hey, would we play this game if it were easy?

With this result, Johan gains a spot on the BMS GT.  There has been some high-intensity jockeying for position on both the BMS and BPR tables.  You can check what is going on by clicking on BMS(BE) in the black banner above, and chosing either table in the scroll-down menu.

Congrats to both players for a commendable effort!

See you soon.

M