Despite the sanitary situation and the occasional car problem, 22 players spent a lovely day together playing backgammon in the beautifully restored historical surroundings of the Abdijmolen, part of the larger site of the Abdij van Park (Heverlee). As it had been two years since the previous edition, we were delighted to see good friends again and resume our annual tournament series.
After 7 rounds of 5-point matches, it was our own Nader K. Rad who emerged as the only player with 6 victories. Congratulations! Nader was followed by a group of five players with 5 victories: Paulus van Rooijen, Mahir Yalçin, Toon Van Herreweghen, Paul van Dijke, and Sonja Custers. All six laureates received a price, ranging from personalized doubling cubes for the first three to custom-made score boards for those ranked four to six. Please see below for the final ranking of all 22 players.
For the traditional Fonske challenge, the 22 participants conveniently split into two groups: 11 players from the club of Leuven and 11 players from other clubs, mostly Brussels. Among the matches between a player from Leuven and a player from Brussels & Friends, 22 were won by a Leuven player and 19 by the other player. Well done, Leuven!
The tournament was administered by Toon through the software Ludite (Play! in Latin) that he has been developing last year. Previous versions were thoroughly tested in the online Brabant Ethereal tournament series, also ran by Toon. The software provides a flexible and backgammon-friendly implementation of the Swiss tournament format. Really cool is that it allows players to follow the pairings on their smartphone by scanning a QR code. Thank you, Toon!
Final ranking
In the screenshot below (taken from Ludite), the meaning of the column headings is as follows:
- Score: the number of victories (out of 7 matches)
- RP, Resistance Points: the sum of scores of a player’s opponents
- NS, Neustadtl Score: the sum of scores of a player’s defeated opponents
- TR, Tournament Rating: a player’s rating (similar to the Elo rating in chess, based on the same statistical model) calculated using the tournament matches only
The results of all 77 matches can be found on BGFed.be’s rating list as of next weekend.
Thank you all for participating and see you next year!