In the first round, the match between Sassan and Marc was truly amazing; it was an important match to define the final winner of the tournament. Indeed Marc, after a sequence of unlucky dice, was confronted quickly with a score of 4-0 to Sassan. During this Crawford game, which could easily have been the last one for Marc, the bad luck did not leave Marc’s side until the very, very last throw. Sassan has still 2 checkers on the 1-point and Marc 3 checkers: one on the 2-point and 2 on the 1-point. It was Marc’s turn and he threw a unexpected double 3 which won him the game – at last he could breath normally again. On this throw, Sassan exploded and jumped in the air saying “Wouah, that is why Backgammon is so exciting, but it is still 4-1 for me” J. Indeed there was still a long way to go if Marc was to win the match. The next game was a post-crawford one and Marc doubled after the first throw and, by some miracle, the bad luck had also gone and he finally won the game. The score was 4-3 when Sassan opened the next game with a 6-5 and played 23/13. Just like in the previous game, Marc doubled and, after a long period of reflexion, Sassan accepted. According to the Gnubg computer program, it was a good decision to double, and it was also a take decision to accept the double. Nevertheless Marc won the game with 2 points and he also won the match 4-5.
Marc continued to win against three other participants and, at the end, he was the only player with four victories.
Alain, the current leader of the tournament, could not take advantage of the summer break of some close pursuers to increase his lead. Therefore the standing is still tight.
— MvH