Hereby a report (in Dutch) from Geert Van der Stricht about the 40th World Championship in Monte Carlo, August 4–9, 2015: “Nieuwe avonturen in Monte Carlo”.
In Monte Carlo, Geert played Michihito “Michy” Kageyama, a match which was streamed on YouTube (see earlier post here). The match record is now available too: *.xg.
As some of you have noticed, the website has been down for a bit over a day, from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and I thank you for your patience.
This downtime occurred when migrating the website to a different, cheaper web provider, from GoDaddy to One.com. Transferring the website was technically more involved than I thought: not only did it require transferring the domain name, it also meant transferring all the files from one host to the other with ftp, exporting and importing the database associated to the website, and manually edit a certain php file to connect the database to the website.
With the help of the friendly and helpful support staff from both providers, the transfer and reconfiguration was eventually brought to an end successfully. I’ve learned my lesson now and I promise to be more careful in the future.
Thank you for following bgfed.be. Let’s focus on backgammon again.
— JS
The final, nocturnal game of my second BIC match against Eric Aries was marked by some interesting high cubes. We’re playing at my place on a Friday night (August 14, 2015) and we are keeping ourselves awake with coffee, dark chocolate, and dried fruits. A jazz music TV channel fills the room. The score is equal, 4-4, in a 11-point match.
Pos. 1: Johan (Blue) vs Eric (White), 4-4 in an 11-point match. Johan to play: redouble to 4? Take/Pass?
In Position 1, I (playing blue) am pondering a redouble to 4. After some reflection, I decide to go for it: the prospect of closing my board in the next move or two is too hard to resist.
The temptation is a treacherous one, however: according to a rollout by GNU Backgammon, the redouble is way too early (0,144 blunder). Eric correctly takes. I fail to cover and Eric fails to hit.
Cube analysis
Rollout cubeless equity +0,264 (Money: +0,268)
Cubeful equities:
1. No double +0,512
2. Double, pass +1,000 ( +0,488)
3. Double, take +0,367 ( -0,144)
Proper cube action: No redouble, take (22,8%)
Pos. 2: Johan (Blue) vs Eric (white), 4-4 in an 11-point match. Eric on roll: redouble to 8? Take/Pass?
A few moves later, Position 2 arises, with Eric, playing White, on roll. The tide has turned and a redouble to 8 is in the air. Eric wants to go home (it’s after midnight already, it’s a one-hour drive from my place to his, and on Saturday morning he needs to get up early) and he turns the cube.
If I pass, I’m trailing 4-8 to 11 points: 7-away 3-away amounts to about 25% match winning chances, so my memory tells me after some effort. I guess that my chances to win the game are higher than that, so I take.
Both the redouble and the take turn out to be correct. My game winning chances with the cube frozen at 8 are about 29%.
Cube analysis
Rollout cubeless equity +0,428 (Money: +0,428)
Cubeful equities:
1. Double, take +0,812
2. Double, pass +1,000 ( +0,188)
3. No double +0,722 ( -0,090)
Proper cube action: Redouble, take
Despite some heroic attempts, my straggler does not make it home safely and gets closed out. A few minutes later, Eric wraps up the game and the match. The weekend can start.
— JS
In the main flight of the World Championship 2015 in Monaco, Belgian champion 2013 Geert Van der Stricht met Michihito “Michy” Kageyama. (In an earlier version of this post, I wrote that Michy was a former world champion. This is wrong however, as kindly pointed out to me by Zsolt. See also the List of World Backgammon Champions.)
The match was streamed live, and the video is available on YouTube:
A record of the match is available too: *.xg.
Antwerp Backgammon Club VZW
Argentiniëlaan 50
2030 Antwerpen
+32.475.256.734
Antwerpen, 20/07/2015
Beste backgammon liefhebbers,
Vandaag 20 Juli 2015 wat later dan gewoonlijk de aankondiging van de 13e editie van de Antwerp Open. Deze zal zoals gewoonlijk het tweede weekend van September plaats hebben.
Dit jaar op 12 & 13 september.
De formule blijft altijd dezelfde, main en consolation, registratie tussen 11 en 12 uur op zaterdag 12 september en dan hopen we rond 13 uur van start te kunnen gaan met het hoofdtornooi.
Op zondag 13 september spelen we de super jackpot, registratie tussen 12 en 13 uur.
Eddy en ik zullen weer van de partij zijn ik hoop jullie ook.
Ik wens jullie allemaal een prettige vakantie toe. ! ! !
See you in September, for some fun and games !
Paul
——
Practical info: please see the flyer: Antwerp Open 2015.
