BGFed.be

As I mentioned in my first report, Friday morning I visited the new playing room. It’s a very nice place, well suited for the occasion. I repeat that the hotel is an excellent venue for such a tournament and the organisers made some good deals with the management.

The comfortable playing room

Guy lost his match in the fighters bracket against Italian Fabrizio Lo Surdo. Guy doubled correctly at 2-away/-3-away, but was sadly punished for his decision after a hit in the bear off.

I will not cover the Intermediate tournament, because I would plagiarize the book Catch 22. In short: after the 7^th round, the director decided to stop the tournament. Zsolt and Maurits finished equal third with a 5-2 score. Maybe the interested reader can contact Zsolt and Maurits for more information, because maybe they know and understand what happened. I don’t.

Before the start of the official program, the Belgium team had a photo session. Dressed to kill in their outfit generously provided by the Brugse Zot brewery, we gathered in the garden of the hotel. I suspect that the 8 players are considered by their environment as “sensible”, but when a camera appears, panic strikes. On the photographs you see smiling faces, but you can never imagine the fierce struggles and discussions that lead to these innocent pictures. Personal note to myself: if incarnation exists, never become a photographer of models or actresses in a next life.

The team tournament started half an hour later as scheduled. Again, I will refrain from any comments on the openings procedures. At the moment as we speak, our president Guy is participating at the general assembly of the European Federation where these matters will be discussed. He surely will inform you later about everything.

The team competition is a Swiss System tournament with 15 teams and 7 rounds. The top 4 qualifies for the play-offs. It is still not clear if match points or board points takes preference. In every round a team will have a bye, which can lead to very annoying situations in the final round. The team with a bye wins the match 3-1. Playing time for the 15-point matches is 40 minutes + 12 seconds but breaks are included in the players‘ time. This system was also used at the first Brugge Backgammon Day, and we were convinced that this was not a good idea. In Budapest I see the same tendency: people hardly take a break and use their time playing, which of course delays procedures.

The tournament in full swing

I don’t know how much detailed information about the results is distributed on the internet. But it seems that the most important results are already known by now. Belgium received the bye in the first round. This gave some accidental bypassers the opportunity to watch proceedings.

In between two Thai massages …

In the second round we had four close matches against Austria, of which we won 3 (Michel, Geert and Walter) and lost 1 (Zsolt in DMP).

The score board on large screen.

Although scheduled for 10 o’clock, the third round only started around midnight. Michel took the sensible decision to go to bed, and to have a fresh start tomorrow. Again, all four matches were very close. Walter en Maurits lost, but around 3 o’clock, things went our way. First Geert won his match, and shortly before half past 3, I scrambled home with my last checkers. Final score: 2-2. Belgium has not missed the start of the tournament.

1st round : Belgium – … 3-1 (bye)

2nd round : Belgium – Austria 3-1

3rd round : Belgium – Greece : 2-2

With 8/12 we have a 66% result.  An excellent start!

The Belgium Backgammon Team shortly before start of the Championship.

From top left : Maurits Pino, Walter Meuwis, Alain Chif, Guy Van Middelem (captain) and Luc Palmans.

From bottom left : Zsolt Tasnadi, Geert Van der Stricht and Michel Lamote.

Belgium participates at the 2nd European Backgammon Team Championship in Budapest, Hungary.  The team consists of : Guy Van Middelem (captain), Alain Chif, Michel Lamote,  Walter Meuwis, Luc Palmans, Maurits Pino, Zsolt Tasnadi and Geert Van der Stricht.  Luc Palmans will provide daily updates.

It’s after midnight. The first day of the Budapest tournament has finished, and contemplating in my hotel room, enjoying a glorious panorama of the Danube and the Margaritha Island by night, I let my Waterman fountain pen go its own way and inform you about the events so far.

Every second hotel in Budapest has “Danube” in its name, and after a lot of confusion, we managed ultimately to detect the correct one. It is a modern hotel with all facilities situated at the border of the Danube in Pest. Sadly, it takes a half hour stroll to reach the centre. Which is of course a pleasure with temperatures of 30°, a lovely sun and refreshing wind.

Nothing is perfect, and therefore I complained to the cleaning lady that the flush from my toilet didn’t work. H

No matter how  hard I tried, pushing and turning and pulling and swearing, it just didn’t work. “No problem,” the cleaning lady informed me and after a forceful hit, which you only see in the decisive fight in a kung fu-film, the system suddenly worked. I learned my first lesson in Hungary: never mess with Hungarian women.

The main event is of course the team tournament, which starts Friday, and we will discuss it in the next report. Thursday there was the “Budapest Open” –  more or less a regular individual tournament. There is a Masters division (330 euro registration –rather cheap for a tournament of that level) and an Intermediate division (50 euro). The Masters with 48 players was well attended with a lot of world top class players. The Intermediate had 32 players. But that’s only the beginning of the story.

Here are the facts: Masters was the traditional system with a main and a fighters bracket. When you lose twice, you are out. When you lose once, you still have a chance for the tournament win. First round 13 points.

Here is the reality: first round 11 points…

Here are the facts: Intermediate: Swiss system, 7 rounds, 9 points.

Here is the reality: “9 rounds, 7 points”, but later it became the dreadful system with “3 losses and you are out”, and even later I was informed that it would only take 7 rounds (such a tournament normally needs 11 to 14 rounds to finish).

Registration, announcement of the draw and the rules, players in search for boards and clocks: it was quite a mess.

Anonymous player waiting for a board…

And it could have been so easy: table numbers, correct pronunciation of the names of the players, etc. I will spare you all the details. After a delay of one hour we could start. In the corridor there was a lot of discussion about the organisation and the European Federation. I will discuss this matter in detail in a subsequent article. But I also have to admit that after the initial problems, the tournaments quickly found their natural flow.

Michel and Geert didn’t participate, because they focus all their attention on the team tournament. Walter decided to play the Masters, because he lacked practice. Guy and your humble narrator followed him. Alain, Zsolt and Maurits preferred the intermediate, because they were guaranteed seven 9-point matches – at least they thought. But, as mentioned earlier, that would not be the case.

In the intermediate division things went quite well for our members. Maurits finished the day with 4 wins and 1 loss; Zsolt with 3 wins and 2 losses. Alain was eliminated after some fierce battles with half of the Iceland population. Maurits received a free point after one of his opponents didn’t show up. At least one good decision by the tournament director.

In the Masters Walter started with a good win against a Danish player, but lost to (also Danish) top player Thomas Kristensen.

Walter (left) plays Kristensen (right)

In the fighters bracket he could only win one game, and was then finally eliminated. Your humble narrator experienced his yearly loss against Norwegian Tore Frederiksen, and in the fighters bracket had to face two Romanian players. I could manage one, but the second was too much for me.

Guy had a good run, and after winning his first match, he beat German top player Jan Jakobowitz. But leading 9-1 against Norwegian Hans Liby, suddenly everything went completely wrong, and he lost the match. He will continue his struggle Friday morning in the fighters bracket.

After working hours in the bar, we discussed the favourites for the nations tournament.Walter prefers the Germans. And while Orlowski, Hellwag and Jakobowitz are certainly good players, I consider the Danes Kristensen, Bredahl and Gronbech the better players. The future will tell.

Latest news: this morning at 10 o’clock I had a short visit to the tournament hall. Yesterday we played in two rather small rooms – but still sufficient for the number of players.

Cramped playing room on Day 1

The nations cup, however,  will take place in a nice and spacious room, with a big screen for the results. It seems the critics have lost some of their ammunition…

Luc