Geert (Black) on roll versus Zsolt (White). Cube action?
Fifteen players gathered in the May tournament, including new player Mahmoud. His compatriot, Mr Soltani was at hand to explain him how to handle the cube.
Two local players, Geert and Johan reached the final. Geert, who showed up only the second time this year, intended to revenge the defeat suffered in the final of the 1st Brugge Backgammon Day back in February but Johan again proved to be too hard to crack.
Geert played agressively, making some bold cube decisions during the evening. For example, playing black, he doubled in the following situation in his second round match against Zsolt. Although he leads in the race and has some threats, according to computer analysis this is not a double. Nevertheless, he won this game and when Zsolt doubled at 3:3 he accepted without much hesitation although he had 2 checkers on the bar facing a 5-point board (while Zsolt needed some big numbers to escape with his laggards without destroying his board). A short time later he entered with a well-timed 5/5 and managed to triumph.
Championship leaders Alain and Zsolt had a bad evening, collecting only one win each in the first three rounds. In the last match they tried to seek solace against each other. Alain was in firm control but, after an unlikely turnaround, Zsolt secured a second win and saved the day. However, this was not enough to keep the lead in the championship which was grabbed by Guy.
— ZT