BGFed

Tag: Ghent Open

  • Gent Open XVII, Feb 11, 2024: Asian stew, live stream, and trophies

    Because it looked like we were going to have to move to another location for our backgammon exploits, we decided to have the Gent Open Backgammon tournament earlier in 2024 on February 11, announced as the last one in the current location.  In the meantime however, we heard good news: we can stay for at least another three years!

    23 players showed up to compete in 3 categories. 6 masters, 10 intermediates, 6 beginners and 1 ‘hors catégorie’.

    During the registration, players could enjoy ‘koffiekoeken’ to ensure enough energy for the first three rounds.

    Tournament director Bert Van Kerckhove had the lucky bye in the first round, so he had time to help out Robin Bilderbeek to fix the YouTube live streaming.

    Robin Bilderbeek doing a YouTube livestream

    After 3 rounds, 3 players without a loss were Johan Brisaert, Lorenzo Pacini and Firat Tekil, followed by a pack of players with 2 points.  Winner of the last 2 editions, Michel Lamote scored only 1 victory.  Johan Segers, winner of the beginners last year and Alf Martin were the unlucky ones with 0 points.

    Before round 4 took off, we had lunch break.  A very tasty Asian stew was provided by Alf and fresh soup by Liva. 

    Excellent food.

    After round 5 the ranking looked as follows:

    Firat Tekil with 5 points, Csaba Daday, Lorenzo, Vincent Hubert and Bert with 4.

    At this moment, both Johan Segers and Hubert Vertsraeten decided to leave the tournament early with a score of 1 point.

    With still two more rounds to play, nothing is certain…

    In round 6, Firat scored another victory, strengthening his lead.  Vincent Hubert also won a clash between intermediates and is now on 5 points.  Bert scored a win over Toon Van Herreweghen for a total of 5 points.  In the beginners category, Johan Brisaert won from Line Vandamme, arriving at 4 points, while his closest competitor, Riza Yalçin, remained at 3 points after losing from Ronny Conaert.

    The final round then:

    Bert Van Kerckhove playing Firat Tekil, live streamed on YouTube by Robin Bilderbeek.

    As is often the case, the final round decides everything.

    Firat’s dice were too strong for Bert as he scored his 7th victory of the day, ensuring a comfortable win of the intermediates category and leaving Bert stuck with 5 points. In the masters, Guy Van Middelem could still tie with 5 points if he could win from Johan Brisaert.  In that case he would win the trophy as Bert did not collect enough resistance points because of his ‘lucky’  bye in the first round.  Johan, who incidentally also beat Bert in round 2, took the point and secured winning the beginners category and kept Guy from winning the masters.

    Guy Van Middelem playing Johan Brisaert

    Bert, the highest ranked player in the masters category with 5 points, took the masters trophy.  Guy, Otto and Michel shared 2nd place with 4 points.

    Firat, undefeated with 7 points took home the intermediates trophy. Csaba, Vincent and Lorenzo shared 2nd place with 5 points.

    Johan Brisaert won the beginners category, trophy and backgammon book with 5 points.

    A big thank you to all the players who participated.  A very big thank you to Robin Bilderbeek for the transcriptions and professional live streaming on YouTube, to Alf Martijn for the excellent catering, to Nick De Ruyck for general assistance, to Toon Van Herreweghen for the excellent ludite tournament software and to BGFed.be for the financial support.

    Also a special thank you to Roos, Bob and Liva for tending the bar.

    See you all next time!

    Bert

    Final ranking here: https://www.ludite.be/?andtourney_key=Nzo4MDBjMjU5Yi0zNGEwLTQ1NjktYTJjZi0wMGRiZTE2Mjk5ZWM%3D

    YouTube live stream here:

  • Ghent Backgammon Open XVII: video

    The Ghent Backgammon Open XVII on Sunday, February 11, 2024, was streamed live by Rain. The videos can be watched on Rain’s YouTube Channel:

  • Gent Open Backgammon XVI: April 22, 2023

    Dear Backgammon friend,

    I’d like to invite you to participate in the 16th edition of the Gent Open Backgammon tournament which will take place on Saturday April 22, 2023, from 10:00 to 23:00, in the K.A. Club Union Sandeman, Kantienberg 5, 9000 Gent, Belgium. Swiss tournament format, 7 rounds, 7 point matches with clock (Bronstein, 14 minutes per match + 12 seconds per move). Please register in advance. Registration and catering: 25 euro. All information is to be found in the flyer.

    Kind regards,

    — Bert Van Kerckhove

  • Ghent Open XIV – Results

    • Saturday, May 4, 2019
    • Koninklijke Academie Union Sandeman, Ghent
    • Format: Swiss, 7 rounds, 7-point matches, with clock (Bronstein, 14 minutes + 12 seconds increment)
    • Tournament director: Bert Van Kerckhove
    RESULTS

  1 Paulus van Rooijen     6/7   
  2 Paul van Dijke         5/7   
  3 Geert Van der Stricht  5/7    
  4 Johan Huyck            5/7    
  5 Luc Palmans            4/7    
  6 Marc Van Damme         4/7    
  7 Alain Chif             4/7    
  8 Johan Segers           4/7    
  9 Bert Van Kerckhove     4/7    
 10 Michel Lamote          3/7 
 11 Nick De Ruyck          3/7 
 12 Robin Bilderbeek       3/7 
 13 Ronny Conaert          3/7 
 14 Toon Van Herreweghen   2/7 
 15 Alf Martijn            1/7
    Ghent Open XIV – Luc Palmans (winner “Beginners”), Paulus van Rooijen (winner “Advanced”), Alain Chif (winner “Intermediate”)

  • Bert wins 12th Gent Open.

    Seven victories in a row guaranteed success for Bert Van Kerckhove at this year’s Gent Open. This is quite a feat since Bert organised the event and had to take care of all kinds of practicalities in between and during matches :

    Bert (l) stoically shuffling checkers. Wife and son in full admiration. Maurits Pino (r) undergoing the onslaught.

    As always, the event was held at the Sandeman Club in Gent. Amid the medieval brickwork, 25 players signed up to play seven 7-point matches with only 12 minutes on the clock :

    The playing area at the Sandeman Club.

     

    Kristoffer De Weert in deep thought

    When the dust settled, Bert was the last man standing with 7/7.  Closest on his heels was Johan Huyck (6/7).  Marc Van Damme, Paulus Van Rooijen and Ronny Conaert scored 5/7 :

    Johan Huyck (l) congratulating Bert (r)

    This edition of the Gent Open was a success. Sandwiches kept coming all day through and quite a lot of players stayed on till long after the prize giving ceremony discussing the future of Belgian backgammon, the bad luck they suffered, the merits of Leffe blond, and plenty of other banalities.

    In short, it was a fine backgammon tournament.

     

     

  • 9th Gent Open: Results

    Hi all,

    The 9th Gent Open took place on Saturday, April 5, 2014.

    Congratulations to the winners Luc (masters), Pierre (intermediate) and Sofie (beginners).

    See you all at the 10th edition next year!

    Kind regards,

    Bert

    Ranking after round 7 of Gent Open 2014
No.  PNo.  Name                       Score
───────────────────────────────────────────
  1.   10  Luc Palmans                 6.0
  2.    3  Pierre Viau                 5.0
       12  Paulus van Rooijen          5.0
       13  Guy Van Middelem            5.0
       20  Rogier van Gemert           5.0
       23  Johan Segers                5.0
  7.    1  Dirk Laureyssens            4.0
        4  Rinus Feldman               4.0
        7  Bert Van Kerckhove          4.0
       14  Marius Hentea               4.0
       15  Toon Van Herreweghen        4.0
       17  Johan Vervust               4.0
 13.    8  Geert Van der Stricht       3.0
       16  Line Vandamme               3.0
       19  Marc Steyvers               3.0
       21  Louis Jeannin               3.0
       22  Kristoffer De Weert         3.0
       24  Johan Brisaert              3.0
 19.    2  Paul van Dijke              2.0
        5  Fakri Salasi                2.0
        6  Nardy Pillards              2.0
       11  Akbar Soltani               2.0
       18  Peter Allemeersch           2.0
 24.    9  Sofie Brisaert              1.0

Tournament Results Table after round 7 of Gent Open 2014
 nr Name                       R1   R2   R3   R4   R5   R6   R7
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 1 Dirk Laureyssens           +13  +17  +10  +3   -12  -4   -20
 2 Paul van Dijke             -14  -16  -11  +18  +9   -17  -22
 3 Pierre Viau                +15  +21  +14  -1   +13  -10  +4
 4 Rinus Feldman              +16  -14  -17  +9   +19  +1   -3
 5 Fakri Salasi               -17  -13  -15  +22  +18  -8   -16
 6 Nardy Pillards             +18  -20  -19  +16  -21  -24  -
 7 Bert Van Kerckhove         +19  +23  +20  -10  +14  -12  -13
 8 Geert Van der Stricht      -20  -18  +22  -24  +11  +5   -23
 9 Sofie Brisaert             -21  +15  -23  -4   -2   -19  -11
10 Luc Palmans                +22  +24  -1   +7   +23  +3   +12
11 Akbar Soltani              -23  -19  +2   -15  -8   -22  +9
12 Paulus van Rooijen         -24  +22  +18  +19  +1   +7   -10
13 Guy Van Middelem           -1   +5   +24  +20  -3   +21  +7
14 Marius Hentea              +2   +4   -3   +21  -7   -20  +19
15 Toon Van Herreweghen       -3   -9   +5   +11  +24  -23  +21
16 Line Vandamme              -4   +2   -21  -6   -22  +18  +5
17 Johan Vervust              +5   -1   +4   -23  -20  +2   +24
18 Peter Allemeersch          -6   +8   -12  -2   -5   -16  +
19 Marc Steyvers              -7   +11  +6   -12  -4   +9   -14
20 Rogier van Gemert          +8   +6   -7   -13  +17  +14  +1
21 Louis Jeannin              +9   -3   +16  -14  +6   -13  -15
22 Kristoffer De Weert        -10  -12  -8   -5   +16  +11  +2
23 Johan Segers               +11  -7   +9   +17  -10  +15  +8
24 Johan Brisaert             +12  -10  -13  +8   -15  +6   -17

  • Gent Open 2013 Results

    ahcgjcadHi All,

    Thank you all for participating in the 8th Gent Open (March 22, 2013). Congratulations to the 5 winners and to Sassan in particular for snatching the trophy.

    The match results are all added to Bigelo. Complete results of the tournament below.

    See you all again next year!

    Bert (more…)

  • Michel Lamote wins 7th Ghent Backgammon Open 2012

    Report by tournament director Bert Van Kerckhove.

    Michel Lamote, Bert Van Kerckhove
    Michel Lamote (L) and Bert Van Kerckhove (R)

    In total 17 players showed up for the 7th edition of the Gent Open Backgammon tournament. The tournament format was 7 rounds Swiss, matches to 7 points, with clock (Bronstein, 12 minutes per match plus 12 seconds per move). (more…)