4th Backgammon Masters Open International Edition Tournament Report

The promising number of 34 players turned up in the Belgian city of Antwerp for the 4th Backgammon Masters Open International Edition, a two day event with a Swiss System format (which is frequenly used in chess). Among them were former World Champion Philip Vischjager, threefold Dutch National Champions Rogier van Gemert and Jeroen Sikkema, plus four more Dutch National Champions to make up a very strong field.

Because of the level of the competition it was decided on the spot to make this tournament the official Open Championship of the Low Countries.

A total of 8 rounds were played using electronic clocks, with a time limit of 20 minutes global time plus 15 seconds free time for each move (Bronstein system). Every round consisted of a 13 or 11 point match against a player with (approximately) the same number of matches won. In this system a player who loses a match may still win first prize if he wins enough matches in the other rounds. In other words, the Consolation and Last Chance are integrated in the same tournament.

After 4 rounds only Marcel Nabarro from The Netherlands and Paul Baeyens from Belgium had won all their matches. The crucial 5th round match between the two leaders was won by Nabarro, who went on to win also in the 6th round against Jeroen Sikkema, in this way keeping his one point lead over Rogier van Gemert and Jean van Ingen, whom he had beaten already in rounds 2 and 3.

In round 7 Nabarro suffered his only loss against former World Champion Philip Vischjager, thereby allowing Van Gemert to catch up with him by beating Van Ingen.

At this stage the two leaders had only one point more than the group of 6 players in pursuit of them. The first of the leaders to finish his last round match was Nabarro who beat Luc Palmans from Belgium. Van Gemert also managed to defeat his Belgian opponent Michel Lamote in an intense double matchpoint finish, but could not prevent Nabarro from taking the title, based on the tie-break of the result between the two players. The cup went to Marcel Nabarro, but the money prizes were shared.

Vincent Dubost from France and Jean Lewicki from The Netherlands made an excellent result by finishing only one point behind the two leaders, taking home a decent money prize. Susan van der Heijden from The Netherlands took the Ladies Cup by beating Karine-laVallee from France.

Ranking + Games after 8 rounds of 4th Backgammon Masters International Open Edition 2008

Place  No. Name                     R1    R2    R3    R4    R5    R6    R7    R8   Score

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  1.   13  Marcel Nabarro          29 W   2 W   4 W  30 W  26 W   1 W   3 L  15 W      7

  2.    2  Rogier van Gemert       18 W  13 L  24 W   9 W   5 W   6 W   4 W   7 W      7

  3.   19  Vincent Dubost           3 L  34 L  18 W  28 W  27 W   5 W   6 W   4 W      6

       30  Jean Lewicki            14 W   7 W   9 W  13 L   1 L   8 W  10 W   3 W      6

  5.    1  Jeroen Sikkema          17 W  11 W  15 W  26 L  30 W  13 L   7 L  28 W      5

        3  Philip Vischjager       19 W  15 L  25 W  11 W   6 L  24 W  13 W  30 L      5

        4  Jean van Ingen          20 W  24 W  13 L  15 W   7 W  26 W   2 L  19 L      5

        6  Paulus van Rooijen      22 W  28 W  26 L  10 W   3 W   2 L  19 L  33 W      5

        7  Michel Lamote           23 W  30 L  31 W  33 W   4 L  25 W   1 W   2 L      5

       15  Luc Palmans             31 W   3 W   1 L   4 L  34 W  23 W  26 W  13 L      5

       25  Jeroen Kok               9 L  16 W   3 L  14 W  12 W   7 L  11 W  32 W      5

       26  Paul Baeyens            10 W   5 W   6 W   1 W  13 L   4 L  15 L  23 W      5

 13.   10  Rida Hassan             26 L  21 W  28 W   6 L  24 L  22 W  30 L  18 W      4

       11  Bert Van Kerckhove      27 W   1 L  32 W   3 L  33 L  34 W  25 L   8 W      4

       16  Marcel van Toor         32 L  25 L  21 W  27 L  29 W  28 L  34 W   9 W      4

       22  Nardy Pillards           6 L  12 W  33 L  29 W   8 L  10 L  27 W  17 W      4

       23  Pierre Viau              7 L  14 L  17 W  32 W   9 W  15 L  24 W  26 L      4

       24  Ruud Kallenbach          8 W   4 L   2 L  31 W  10 W   3 L  23 L  27 W      4

       28  Gerard Wildeboer Schut  12 W   6 L  10 L  19 L  14 W  16 W   8 W   1 L      4

       32  Susan van der Heijden   16 W   8 L  11 L  23 L  17 W  21 W  18 W  25 L      4

       33  Walter Meuwis           34 W   9 L  22 W   7 L  11 W  18 L   5 W   6 L      4

 22.    5  Misja Alma              21 W  26 L  29 W   8 W   2 L  19 L  33 L  withdrawn 3

        8  Hans Willem Capel       24 L  32 W  27 W   5 L  22 W  30 L  28 L  11 L      3

        9  Pim van Haastert        25 W  33 W  30 L   2 L  23 L  27 L  17 W  16 L      3

       18  Dominique Leboulenger    2 L  29 L  19 L  21 W  31 W  33 W  32 L  10 L      3

       27  Ed Baars                11 L  17 W   8 L  16 W  19 L   9 W  22 L  24 L      3

       29  Guy Van Middelem        13 L  18 W   5 L  22 L  16 L  17 L  21 W  bye       3

       34  Akbar Soltani           33 L  19 W  14 W  12 L  15 L  11 L  16 L  21 W      3

 29.   12  Paul van Dijke          28 L  22 L  20 W  34 W  25 L  withdrawn             2

       17  Paul van Koningshoven    1 L  27 L  23 L  20 W  32 L  29 W   9 L  22 L      2

 31.   14  Ronny Conaert           30 L  23 W  34 L  25 L  28 L  withdrawn             1

       21  Karine Gallot-laVallee   5 L  10 L  16 L  18 L  bye   32 L  29 L  34 L      1

       31  Marc Steyvers           15 L  20 W   7 L  24 L  18 L  withdrawn             1

 34.   20  Ilja Tardijn             4 L  31 L  12 L  17 L  withdrawn                   0