Backgammon Club Leuven

Johan (White), leading 2-0 in a 5-point match to Zsolt (Black), to play: redouble to 4 or not? If yes, then should Zsolt take?

Eleven players gathered for the August edition (August 28). We had a new player: Alain sent his son into action. Martin is not a regular player but apparently had a good teacher at home. From the top contenders for this year’s title, Eric and Guy were still on holiday but Alain, Johan and Zsolt were determined to earn some valuable championship points.

After two wins, championship leader Alain faced Johan in the third round but had to surrender. In the final, Johan played Zsolt. The match was full of interesting doubling positions and both players used their cameras eagerly to record these. Johan seriously contemplated redoubling in the attached position but, correctly, decided to hold to the cube. With the next roll (4/3) he could close his board and now, with 84% winning chances, had an excellent redouble. Zsolt passed although according to computer analysis this was a borderline take.

Zsolt managed to win the Crawford game with a well-timed double 6 in the bear-off and developed a good position in the next game but finally it was Johan who scored his second victory of the year.

In an improbable way, Alain, Johan and Zsolt all have 44 points in the 2015 championship ranking. They have an 8-point advantage ahead of Eric and Guy.

— ZT

Johan (White) tries to save the gammon against Eric (Black). How to play the double 3?

Eleven players attended the 6th round of the Club Championship, including Christiane who joined for the first time. She had a remarkably good start, surprising Alain (5:1) and Zsolt (5:0) with her creative checker play an bold cube action in the first and second rounds. She was stopped by Eric who went on to win the tournament.

Eric had skipped the May tournament but came back at the top of his form. In addition to Christiane, he defeated three top 10 players from the Belgian ranking, Ronny, Johan and Leonidas and reached his first proper tournament win in Leuven. Congratulations!

This is a position from his match against Johan. Eric, playing back, was on his way to win the match with a gammon. However, with a last-minute shot, Johan had a gleam of hope to save the gammon and stay in the match. According to computer analysis, the best move for white in this position is not the hitting (17/5*) but safetying the first blot (15/3) which gives a 37% chance to save the gammon. In case of hitting, this chance is only 33%.

With 3 wins, Alain jumped to the top of the Championship ranking. He played the most entertaining match of the evening with Henri in the third round. Henri was in extreme time pressure, playing the last two games with only 1 second of bank time. Remarkably, he did not run out of time, but still, the match was won by Alain.

At half-time, the standing is incredibly tight. Alain can feel the breath of Eric, Guy and Zsolt in his neck and Johan is also within sight. Those not going on holiday this summer may have a chance to gain some advantage. Johan was desperately looking for an organiser for the fourth Friday of July; finally Marc will step in as tournament director.

— ZT

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