On a cold but sunny day, 22 players came together for the 13th Leuven Open on Sunday, November 13, 2022, at the historical site of the Abdijmolen near the Abdij van Park, Heverlee. Following tradition, the tournament format consisted of 7 rounds of 5-point matches, players being paired according to their number of victories — the so-called Swiss system, as implemented in the free ludite software.
Toon Van Herreweghen not only administered the tournament but he also won all 7 matches, coming out on top. This is the third time he wins the Leuven Open (previous victories date from 2009 and 2014), and he is thereby the second player to do so — Michel Lamote won in 2011, 2012 and 2018. Besides the traditional coffee/tee mug made for the occasion, Toon won a free entry for the next edition of the tournament, which will take place on Sunday, November 12, 2023.
Toon was followed by a group of four players with 5 victories in 7 matches: Alain Chif, Riza Yalçin, Johan Segers and Dan Pascu. These four players were ranked according to their Resistance Points (RP): the RP of a player is defined as the sum of the scores of the players against whom he or she has played. By this criterion, Alain was ranked second and Riza was ranked third. Both won a coffee mug too, and Alain gets a 50% discount for the next Leuven Open. Congratulations to both too!
In the traditional Fonske challenge between the clubs of Brussels and Leuven, it was Leuven who won a slight majority of interclub matches: Leuven v Brussels 23-21.
Following another tradition, players dancing with a 66 against a 1-point board – the infamous Devil’s Dance – were rewarded for their bad luck with a bottle of Leffe. By the end of the day, most of the 18 bottles had found an owner.
The Leuven Backgammon club is associated to BGFed.be, the Belgian Backgammon Federation, whose financial support is gratefully acknowledged. All participants were BGFed.be member and their match results were registered in the national rating list. The complete match results can be found in that list by selecting Leuven Open as event in the menu on the right.
Thank you to everybody for a great day. The 14th Leuven Open is planned on Sunday, November 12, 2023. Mark your calendar!