BGFed.be

The 2nd Brugge Backgammon Day opened innocently enough with an introduction of all players (click on photos to enlarge) :

Player presentation at BBD2.

In the first round, defending champion Johan Segers’ streak of 5 consecutive wins ended at the hands of Leonidas, ranked n° 4 on the BGFed Rating list :

Leonidas, staring down Johan (l) (photo : Paulus van Rooijen / frank viergever)

After 2 rounds, players took a break for lunch :

(l to r) Dan, Nigel, Eddy, Isabelle and Ronny (photo : Robin)

The 3rd round match between Alain Chif and Eddy Cabooter was a close affair.  The exciting climax was watched by 10 kibitzers (!) : (left to right : Johan, Sassan, Zsolt, Dan, Leonidas, Michel, Geert, Kristoffer, Maurits and Marc)

Watching Eddy and Alain battling it out (photo Paulus van Rooijen / frank viergever)

The 4th round saw some players shifting their focus to more rewarding matters :

We can recognize Luc behind a dark Leffe… (photo : Paulus vanRooijen / frank viergever)

After 4 rounds of play, two players were still unbeaten : Geert and Johan Huyck, both professional mathematicians :

Johan (l) en Geert (r) in the final (foto : Robin)

The thrilling final went all the way to DMP in which Geert was able to bust Johan’s well-timed 5-1 backgame after surviving a double shot while bearing in.  Congratulations to a deserving winner!

Geert left) proudly poses with BBD2 trophy.

The trophy : a handmade, wooden baffle-box (created by : Robin Bilderbeek).

Since the match was recorded, we know that Geert and Johan both put down a worthy performance :

(Geert plays 3,53. Johan plays 2,87)

Johan ended up sharing 2nd place with Maurits Pino, Luc Palmans and Marc Steyvers.

Here is the final ranking :

Sofie Brisaert received a BBD2 memento as youngest participant :

Sofie (l) playing Isabelle (r) on Maurits’s flashy new board.

Sofie’s prize (created by : Robin Bilderbeek)

Hope to see you all at the 11th Gent Open on Saturday March 19.

M

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