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The Red Beaver League season is getting into its final stages. In Level 1, Marc Van Damme slaughtered Michel Lamote 10-2 while in the Level 5 barrage duel, Maurits Pino came back from 2-4 down against Alain Chif to win 6-4. In RBLQ Nick De Ruyck narrowly defeated Sonja Custers in a crucial promotion duel.

Marc Van Damme has been the standard bearer of Belgian backgammon for more than 20 years. In the beginning of the century, he was already competing in the international arena and today, after long spells of absence (covid, other interests such as chess) he is back. And how…

In his first appearance in the RBL Marc started off his Level 1 duel (seven matches to 7) against Michel Lamote with two SGM (= Super Grandmaster) PRs of 1,94 and 2,57, good for a confidence boosting lead: 3-1. In M3, however, Marc’s 4,25 PR was not enough to take the PR point, but luckily a 17-to-1 shot from the bar saved the match so that it was not 3-3, but 4-2. Then Match 4 proved to be the match too many for both Marc and Michel. Marc won the match point and was unhappy with his 7+ PR, but Michel suffered a complete mental meltdown (dejection, fatigue…?) and played a 17+ PR (!). This meant that the opening session of the duel (four matches) ended with a 6-2 score. With his better OPR (= Overall PR), Marc would only need two points out of the last three matches to reach Level O (= the Final).

The week after, on Tuesday 21 February, both players met again at the Sandeman (Ghent) to play their duel to a finish. Marc delivered the coup de grâce by winning M5 with another SGM PR of 1,77 so that Michel’s PR of 3,00 was of no consequence: 8-2. Although the duel was thereby decided, M6 was played as a gentleman’s gesture: 10-2.

In short, Marc mercilessly steamrollered Michel into insignificance with a first-rate OPR of 3,43 and progresses to Level 0 where he awaits the winner of the Level 1 duel between Belgium’s numbers 2 and 3, Geert Van der Stricht and Johan Huyck.

Meanwhile, in the lower regions of the RBL, Maurits Pino staged a remarkable comeback in his Level 5 barrage duel against Alain Chif. After the opening session (three matches), Alain was 4-2 up, but saw his advantage evaporate as Maurits won both M4 and M5 with better PRs: 4-6. Maurits thereby secures his spot in the 2023-2024 RBL Playing Grid whereas Alain will play the runner-up of RBLQ (= the qualifiers) in a last-ditch effort to stay in the RBL.

In the RBLQ, Nick De Ruyck won a nervy duel against Sonja Custers (3-3/Nick wins narrowly on OPR) and stays in contention for promotion to the RBL. Nick will meet the favourite, Itzhak Solsky, on Wednesday 1 March in the Sandeman.

Please find the updated Results and Leaderboards by clicking on the RBL tab.

— Michel Lamote

On Tuesday 20 December 2022, Robin Bilderbeek and I (Michel Lamote) met at the Sandeman to play the opening three matches of our Level 2 duel (TR: Geert Van der Stricht). I started off well by narrowly winning M1 (7-6), but Robin took the PR point by a tiny margin (PR 4,44 v PR 4,59): 1-1. Robin went on to win M2 with a PR of 2,8 (!) which would have been enough for a 3-1 lead, had it not been for my better PR of 2,14: 2-2. Finally, Match 3 also went to Robin, albeit with an outlier PR of 8,57: 3-3.

Then, five weeks later, on Tuesday 31 January 2023, this Level 2 duel was played to a finish. In the monastic quiet of the Sandeman I won Match 4, but some inexplicable checker play blunders (“oversights”, “lapses of concentration” – think up your own euphemism) resulted in a disturbing PR of 8,00. This not only gave Robin the PR point, but also narrowed the gap in overall PR to 0,5: 4-4. All to play for…

For Robin, a major upset is in the making. He started the RBL season in Level 5, but excellent performances against Maurits Pino, Bert Van Kerckhove and Johan Segers catapulted him to Level 2. If he can somehow win M5 with a better PR, he would move up to Level 1 and achieve the unthinkable.

Fast forward to the climax of this match. It is DMP and we are in the bear-off. Robin is a huge favourite with 95% winning chances. Moreover, albeit unbeknownst to either Robin or myself, Robin is also leading on PR (!). In other words, in 19 out of 20 cases, Robin will win M5 and take the PR point for an astounding 6-4 victory and a Level 1 encounter with Belgium’s best player, Marc Vandamme.

However, after a blood-curdling sequence of dice rolls, M5 slipped away from Robin’s grasp. This brought the final score to 5-5. Now, the overall PR was going to break the tie. Here again Robin was tantalizingly close, but to the open-mouthed bewilderment of all present, a fractional difference of 0,18 meant that Robin’s ascent had come to an end.

Still, Robin’s RBL odyssey continues. He now has a barrage duel to play against Paul van Dijke (five matches). Dipping below the 5PR mark would certainly give his amazing run even more polish. For Paul, this duel presents an ultimate opportunity to make his RBL season a success: a win would secure a spot in Level 2 for next year and send RBL’s potential Player of the Year back to Level 3.

— Michel

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 der Stricht 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.

— Michel Lamote