11th Leuven Backgammon Open 2019: Sun, Beer, and Lots of Chocolate

On a crisp sunny Autumn day, 24 people choose not to spend their day outdoors but to play some backgammon instead. On Sunday, November 10, they were to play a tight schedule of 7 rounds of 5-point matches, competing for the exquisite cube trophies that were designed especially for the occasion by Flemish 3D printing artist Waldo. The beautiful surroundings of the Brasserie Abdijmolen at Heverlee’s Park Abbey provided the splendid background of the 11th edition of Leuven’s yearly tournament.

In 84 matches, the notorious devil’s dance — 66 from the bar against a one-point board — occurred no less than 15 times. The unlucky dancers were rewarded for their misfortune with a bottle of Leffe.

Three teams joined the Fonske challenge: Brugge (4 players), Brussels (9 players) and Leuven (11 players). The players from Brugge won 16 out of 24 matches against players of other teams, thereby scoring the highest winning percentage, earning them a box of chocolates. Leuven won the highest number of inter-team matches, 22 out of 48; another box of chocolates.

The ladies’ prize went to Odette Vanhorenbeek, with 4 victories in 7 matches. Still more chocolate.

In the main tournament, three players tied for the first place with 6 victories in 7 matches: Michel Lamote (winner in 2011, 2012, and 2018), Toon Van Herreweghen (winner in 2009 and 2014), and Johan Segers. As announced at the start of the tournament, the first rule to break the tie at the top was to be the mutual result. As Michel had defeated Johan, who had defeated Toon, who had defeated Michel, this rule was unhelpful. The second tie-break rule, fixed in advance as well, was to be the Buchholz rule, defined as the sum of the opponent’s scores. Here, Johan came out on top, before Michel and Toon.

Ranking after round 7 of 11th Leuven Backgammon Open 2019
No.    Name                       Score WP  SB    
------------------------------------------------
  1.   Johan Segers                6    33  27 
       Michel Lamote               6    32  26 
       Toon Van Herreweghen        6    31  25 
  4.   Alain Chif                  5    28  18 
  5.   Guy Van Middelem            4    32  14 
       Sassan Kachanian            4    28  12 
       Luc Palmans                 4    28  12 
       Itzhak Solsky               4    28  11 
       Robin Bilderbeek            4    27  12 
       Paulus van Rooijen          4    26  12 
       Odette Vanhorenbeek         4    26  12 
       Nader K. Rad                4    23  10 
       Henri Pollet                4    22   8 
 14.   Kristoffer De Weert         3    25   9 
       Riza Yalçin                 3    22   6 
       Lisbeth Elias               3    20   6 
       Jean-Charles Gibouin        3    19   5 
 18.   Rudy Bertels                2    21   3 
       Johan Brisaert              2    20   5 
       Mahir Yalçin                2    20   4 
       Nadia Falise                2    20   4 
       Sonja Custers               2    20   3 
       Liliane Baptista            2    19   4 
 24.   Albert De Weert             1    18   2 
 
 WP = Weerstandspunten = Sum of opponent's scores
 SB = Sonneborn-Berger = Sum of scores of defeated opponents

Hereby, Johan joins the list of winners of the Leuven Open:

2009 – Toon Van Herreweghen
2010 – Patrick De Wilde
2011 – Michel Lamote
2012 – Michel Lamote
2013 – Patrick De Wilde
2014 – Toon Van Herreweghen
2015 – Johan Brisaert
2016 – Hadi Ghayoumi
2017 – Serge Alard
2018 – Michel Lamote
2019 – Johan Segers