World Championships, Day 2: Oh Captain, My Captain! Britain’s dream day

When the boys stand on their desks to salute to recently fired Robin Williams’ character in the rousing climax of Dead Poets Society, one can’t help but wonder if we have our very own John Keating in Dan Rovira. Philosophical, dreamy, lost in a world of theory, imagination and a thousand thoughts, all happening at roughly the same time. His blog is a kaleidoscope of Kerouac, Hemingway, Camus and Hunter S. Thomson. It is no accident that backgammon has stolen his heart. The intrigue, the organized chaos, the endless poetry. It captivates his mind and sense of wonder. He is a man who always looks mildy whamboozled. His A-Level English students at Worthing College must be taken for a wonderful ride each time he brandishes his chalk.

At one stage, deep into his last 32, Dan ambled over to Ollie Squire and I and asked with some bemusement: “guys, I’ve just been backgammoned, and I’m not sure why? Was this take ok?” We looked at the horror before us [think Quint meeting his end in Jaws]. It was a huge 2, 4 backgame, but his opponent had cleared everything up to the 5 point! Even a mad back-game lover like me would be getting out the way. Ollie gave it to him straight: “He’s clearing half the time and all his wins are gammons.” [Or backgammons…] It was a hole in an otherwise tidy game that has procured our man a gala affair with an all-time great. More on that later.

At 10 past midnight I found myself right in the heart of British backgammon nirvana. Let’s face it, the UK has had a long road to this point. 20 years ago when I started attending tournaments we were treated with some disdain by the global BG community. Snickering dismissal was the norm. I recall Peter Hallberg taking out our biggest gun on the way to his world title in 2004 and he just said it was “some Brit”. No name check, no nice words about what a strong game he played… basically it was a bye to him. But how we’ve grown… with pioneers everywhere and I won’t dare to name any because there are at least 50 souls who have grown British backgammon into the powerhouse it is today. At midnight, the sight before me was Chris Rogers, John Barnes and Dan Rovira all deep into their last 32 matches at the World Championships and all in command. The scorelines may look close at around 13-9, 14-10 and 15-11, but the message was clear: “we are not going to to blitz you off the park, we are going to anaesthetize you.”

That is until this thunderclap. What a truly amazing cube this is by Chris. The audacity, the nerve, the elan. Yes, he’s 89.7% and his opponent needs 87.5, but he knows the Snowman is coming straight back as they’re 4 away, 8 away. I’m still not all convinced it’s right due to the skill differential. This would have been a truly haunting loss. Well, De Carbon took and CR rolled it home without tooooo much trouble, but I asked him after: “couldn’t you have waited just a little longer?” “I had waited long enough!” zinged the reply, and well, we all know that 15-9 is not a comfortable lead: the cube is flying in and the opponent is demob happy. The game can get seriously tense, and fast. But still – it’s a wonderful piece of cube action, and no little skill.

Jon Barnes had a really tough encounter with John Rockwell in the last 64 who bossed the early stages, before JB went into beast mode and reeled off the last 9 points in a row. Rockwell didn’t like that and took it out on Ollie Squire by white-washing him in the 2nd Chance. Ollie lost a tense match in the main to Eric Benichou, the highlight of which was Eric cubing to 4 at 11-7 with a checker on his deuce and four [with Ollie one on the ace.] What a moment and a cube well found. Ollie took of course, but out popped 55. At 9-16 Ollie found himself in this impish little backgame:

He’s rolled 66 here, but proceeded to run his clock down from 1:30 to 40 seconds to arrive at the decision to get four of those guys moving. His time-keeping remains a severe problem. Later, a 33 for Benichou meant there was an inviting gap with nine men on the 4 point still to clear. Ollie threw a good 41 which meant he could split on the 23 point with the ace to give bad twos, but he couldn’t find it. In the end, the only shot he ever saw was of the very last checker and that was far too much to do.

Dan recovered well from his triple horror to confidently proceed to the last 16. Huge congrats to him. Now, would he face Victor Ashkenazi, ranked top on Galaxy out of 140,000 players for a lot of the year, or the unheralded Marcus Rindisbacher? After 3.5 hours of slog it all came down to this. What a finish! Victor has found a sensational 55, and thanks the many Halogen bulbs who guided him to Dan.

In the 2nd Chance Messrs Dixon, Ongel and Al Daftari all had electrifying shimmies and fight on [Dicko beat Sander 11-3], as do I after taking care of Shahab Ghodsi in the ‘battle of the back-game lovers”. He tried an enormous one on me early doors, but I cracked it, and then at 7-4 up to 11, I tried a 1,2,4 backgame with him on the roof, and then slotted my ace, deuce, tres, quatre and cinq. Hey, go big or go home. I gammoned him for match soon after, and hell in a handbasket awaits me, with Tobias Hellwag my fate. Goodness some BG players have scary names, dreamt up by the lovechild of Steven King and JK Rowling. I still dread the day I play Dagfinn Snarheim. I’ll be a gibbering wreck.

 

There are two live streams throughout the tournament on Backgammon Galaxy’s Youtube channel with commentary from Phil Simborg, Bill Riles and guests. At risk of pre-empting Will’s Day 3 review, you can find the last 16, Chris Rogers v Chris Trencher (USA) here.

You can also stay up to date with results as they happen in both the World Championship and the parallel Intermediates.