This year’s Club Championship seems to have become the private tournament of the four leaders, Alain, Guy, Johan and Zsolt. In fact, in the October 23 tournament Henri was the only one who dared to face them. He did that in style, defeating Guy and Zsolt in the first and second rounds but was stopped by Johan in his next match.
Alain will want to forget this night as soon as possible. After a bye in the first round, he played Johan, leading 3:2, and was about to win the match with a gammon. However, Johan managed to hit and contain Alain’s very last checker and won the game. Things went from bad to worse: Alain lost the match on time and then repeated this feat in the last match with Zsolt…
Johan was close to winning his third Leuven tournament this year. However, after three wins, he lost to Guy in the last round. As a result, the standing remained tight: Guy leads by only 4 points ahead of Johan and Zsolt. Alain fell behind but is still within sight.
Henri Pollet (White) vs Guy Van Middelem (Black), 2-4 Crawford in a 5-point match. Guy to play 21. The match seems all but over, but…
This is a position from the match of Guy and Henri. Guy (playing black) rolled 21 and played 5/2. According to computer analysis, 6/3 is marginally better but the difference is really insignificant. In any case, Guy remains a big favourite after any play. This didn’t prevent Henri to win the game with the help of a well-timed 55 and then he went on to win the match.
–ZT