UKBGF

The UK Backgammon Federation

Home » Archives for Jon Barnes

Formatting Error

By

I have been around the UK backgammon circuit many times, and have seen several changes.

Two’s company and three’s a crowd. But how best to get 64 players satisfaction?

Go back 20+ years and all tournaments, then under the auspices of BIBA, were straight knockouts. Leaving half the field cursing their luck within a couple of hours play after being dumped out of the main. I remember I had a deal with my wife that I would come back home after being knocked out, so on several occasions I would be back on the M1 by mid-afternoon on Saturday, eschewing the consolation and last chance.

The menu of warm up on the Friday evening, main starting on Saturday morning, consolation and the last chance on the Sunday was the standard fare, and still is.

Then as the UKBGF took over, we saw the increase in popularity of the Swiss format on the Saturday. Guaranteeing a certain number of matches so people thought they were getting more bang for their buck. Also, along the same lines, double elimination events are now on the tour.

The purpose of this article is to spark some minor debate. I am only writing with regard to the standard UK tournament spanning a weekend Friday to Sunday and not offering any opinion of international tournaments that invariably are longer. Heaven knows there has been plenty written about the World Championships, for instance, so I will leave that be.

[Read more…]

The full Monte

By

Just a little entrée from me and I will leave the plat du jour to Will C. Back again in Monte Carlo for the annual pilgrimage to the God of Lost Causes. Waist measurement and PR both going in the wrong direction compared to last year but still full of hope that a Brit will win this thing and I will be here to witness it.

My last “letter from Monte” is here:  From The Man Who Choked And Tanked At Monte Carlo – UKBGF and it might be worth a read before this. Welcome improvements since then are the boards that Marc Olsen and his consortium provide and a generally more professional (i.e. efficient) organisation. More anon.

There has been much ado about tournament formats recently and for those that aren’t aware, this one has the leisurely sloth-like schedule of two matches a day, starting at 2pm and 10pm which can mean a struggle to know what best to do in the hours gap between. Of course a stroll around the neighbourhood is always interesting. A couple of things I observed.

[Read more…]

St Albans Open: Six of the Best…

By

The end of April saw the second St Albans Open. 64 players with the format of Round-Robin on Saturday, knockout on Sunday. St Albans used a seeding system again based on the UKBGF ratings and three 11 pointers on Saturday split the players into a Main and a Consolation. Nicky Check was the winner and the final against Tariq Siddiqi was videoed and analysed. What follows is not a full write up of the match (which can be viewed here) but a small selection of positions is given below.

It was nice to see a final where there was an insignificant luck element (according to XG). Neither player played as well as they would have liked, but in their defence it followed a hard two days of backgammon with little respite.

[Read more…]

Baffle Boxes – the great debate

By

Baffle Box

A device through which dice are dropped to randomize a roll. The dice are deflected and jostled about as they fall through the box. (from the glossary at Backgammon Galore)

I am not sure when Baffle Boxes first appeared on the scene. They certainly weren’t around when I was on the international circuit in the 90s and I don’t recall seeing them at any UK tournaments in the noughties. I think the now-retired Tom Duggan might have been the first person I met to bring one over from the States perhaps 3 or 4 years ago.

It is safe to say that they haven’t caught on as much as they might. Take a trip to the Nordic or Monte Carlo and you might see half a dozen. Clocks and video equipment are far more prevalent.

I have a Baffle Box, one of Phil Simborg’s models that I procured from Colin Owen from St Albans and it is a recent email from Colin that has prompted me to write this article.

[Read more…]

Rick Janowski – Backgammon Giant

By

Rick Janowski

50 + D*85/(T+6)

To anyone who takes the game seriously and is of a certain age (like me) this formula will be etched in their memory. For the uninitiated, the “Janowski formula” enables one to calculate to a good approximation the probability of winning a match from any given score.  This formula helps one to recreate a match equity table (MET) which can then be used to work out doubling and take points. I came across it for the first time in Kit Woolsey’s How to play Tournament Backgammon. I must have applied this formula OTB (over the board) more times than I have had hot dinners during my formative BG years living in Hong Kong, but I never knew who Rick Janowski was.

[Read more…]

Follow Us

Meta

Recent Posts

Recent Comments