It’s Brighton, but not as we know it

“Soooo many grandmasters…  every round, another grandmaster…” Thus spake a somewhat soulful Roni Sofroniou after a successful tournament, but losing a gut-wrenching thriller to Fernando Braconi in a later round.

Brighton has always had pep and sass, but a fine marketing campaign by TD Tim Parfitt attracted some of the world’s finest to the Royal Leonardo which was a step up in glamour from the dear Old Ship, and her dozy old boilers.

With many players warming up for the WBGF World Team and Individuals in the upcoming week, this was the perfect excuse for dry runs, experimentation and to get five losses out of your system in seven attempts.  [Or so I should personally hope].

Sometimes super dynamic and brave is not the way to go

This is a key moment for me vs Kenneth Olesen of Denmark at 3-3, how do you play 64?

I fell in love with the colourful and dynamic 18/8 for the duplication, the zest and the “up and at ’em” approach vs the stronger player.  But it’s a classic example of being too skittish and forcing the issue.  One must just hold firm and clear the bar, abandoning those rear gunners.  My play even attracted a 62% cube due to the 18 hits and 16% gammons.  Ken fired it in and won the gammon.  No swing then!

Jo’s mission impossible against Fraya the Slaya

You will be hard-pressed to find a more remarkable backgammon loss this year at 8-8 to 9 no less.  How on earth?  Admittedly Fraya Dravern has found quite a ‘special’ 22, but all the same.  99.83% before the roll hasn’t declined by much.  Anyway, Jo Foster then somehow rolled it home from here.  Quite incredible.

Supersonic semi on speed

In the Michael Nielsen-Michael Weile semi this horror take by Weile [yellow], behind 4-7 [11] decided the match for Nielsen.  Whoopsy-daisy – happens to the best of us:

The other semi-final was an instant classic between Paul Moulton, in white-hot form, who fought back from 0-6 to double match point vs the outstanding veteran Hans Liby, with both players running into emergency time trouble.

At one stage, an anxious throw of the dice from Paul saw it career off the table, but to where?  For minutes they searched to no avail.  But Hercule Poirot [author] was summoned.  Where would you hide if you were a dice who was dizzy, exhausted and hungry?  Inside Paul’s beard?  Inside a discarded plastic bag, munching on a half-eaten bag of nuts?  Positive.

Their decider was astonishingly tense and the chaos kicked off after a somewhat colourful 41 from Paul that blitzed instead of primed.  He then rolled this screamer of a 52.  What say you?  And can you guess Paul’s play?

Paul fired bullets with 7/2* 4/2, but it’s anti-thematic to the job at hand.  I like two down from the 13 point, but the correct play is to naturally make the 3.  Presently, he did complete the 6 prime, but at a cost of not getting his back man moving.  It enabled Hans to hurl in a 11 off the roof to play bar/24 and 8/7 [2], 6/5.  The horror… Paul let out an audible sigh:

A gripping encounter followed of Hans desperately trying to contain Paul who started crunching.

And so it came to this.  Hans played it super big by scampering twice from the 24 point with 64.  Not necessary to ‘give it so large’, despite the rather awkward roll.  Paul then rolled 41, what is your play?  [You’re excused from the 4]:

I am never hitting here, far too scared of the second blot, but the hit is a work of art from Paul.  Correct by .012 and one of the plays of the tournament.  Kudos.  He got missed, and did escape his checker a couple of times, but always sent back to porridge for a gutting loss after a superb comeback.

Herewith the stats – what a performance from the Norwegian – and not bad from PM!:

Outstanding final

The final was another thriller, with both players again super low on time.  At 5-10 [13] Michael Nielsen had this ticklish 43, can you find the play?

A back-game lover like me can instantly see it, but Michael thought for ages, before begrudgingly opting for 7/3* 4/1.  Nothing else!

It didn’t come off but the gammon was saved by a pip and he fought grimly back from 5-12 Crawford to 8-12, and then went very gammonish in the next, before Hans found this coup de grace from the roof, and rolled it home from here:

Michael should hold his head high by winning the PR battle:

It had all been a super ‘aperitif’ before the main event and our American and European visitors brought great colour and flair to the long weekend.  Bouquets all round to Tim, Marguerite and a moonlighting Chris Jones, for running it all so smoothly.

The Inters was won by Stephen Dabby with a fine win over a still ‘over the moon’ Chris G Rogers.

And now for the big dance, and the grandest festival of backgammon these shores have ever seen.  See you in Earl’s Court!

Results:

Champion:  Hans Liby [Norway] Runner Up:  Michael Nielsen

Consolation:  Tristan Remille
Runner Up:  Tom Thorpe

Inters Champion:  Stephen Dabby
Runner Up:  Chris G Rogers

Inters Consolation:  Dominik Kiss
Runner Up:  Andrew Hawken

Doubles
Champion:  Christian Richter/Andrea Sauseng
Runner up:  Andrew Hawken/Kathryn Addy