Nordic Open & Danish Backgammon Federation in cooperation with Gammonevents invites you to:

Nordic Open Warm Up

Wednesday 31 March kl. 18:30 at High Q - Sønder Boulevard 52 - Copenhagen V.

Registration from at. 18.00-18.50 (Public drawing)

Entry: DKK 375 / € 50

Registration: 0

Matchlength: Cup 9 Points

Consolation: 5 points

Clock Option

Prizes for finalists in main and winner of consolation.50% - 25% - 25%

Number of participants max. 32

There is no smoking during the tournament.

Danes must be members of DbgF.

Registration on this site:
www.dbgf.dk/Debat/showflat.php=

Tournament Director: Henrik Bang

1. Frederik Bentler (Denmark) - live qualifier in Denmark
2. Inge Christoffersen (Denmark) - www.casinorip.com
3. Ilja Tardijn (Holland) - www.casinorip.com
4. Sami Sallak (Germany) - www.casinorip.com
5. Claus Elken (Denmark) - www.casinorip.com
6. Mads Peter Andarsen (Denmark) - www.casinorip.com
7. Sean Williams (UK) - www.casinorip.com
8. Rainer Witt (Germany) at www.casinorip.com
9. Pia Jeppensen (Denmark) at www.casinorip.com

London -> Copenhagen 52 € (EasyJet)

Stokholm -> Copenhagen 98€ (Nowegian)

Oslo -> Copenhagen  109€ (Nowegian)

Helsinki -> Copenhagen 148€ (Air Baltic)

Berlin -> Copenhagen  25€ (EasyJet)

Munich -> Copenhagen 150€ (SAS)

Paris -> Copenhagen  114€ (Nowegian)

Athen -> Copenhagen  253€ (SAS)

Tokyo -> Copenhagen  783€ (SWISS / Austrian Airlines)

New York -> Copenhagen 409€ (Finnair)

Chicago -> Copenhagen 576€ (SAS)

Istanbul -> Copenhagen 148€ (Melev Hungarian)

Wien -> Copenhagen  121€ (Niki)

Hope to see you all in Copenhagen.

Best Regards,
Steen Grønbech

Tassilo Rzymann (“shee-mann”, Austria [Hereafter known as TR] versus Hans Christien Mathiesen, Denmark [Hereafter known as HCM]

Here we go then with the final showdown of a tournament which has attracted so many of the best players in the world. HCM is seen to be the ‘purer’ player, and TR the ‘amateur’ who relies on his wits, and a fine, natural read on the game. It’s too close to call this one, although obviously a majority of the support is with the Dane, who feels as though he’s in his living room at home, and has invited 400 friends and family. The prize at stake is 32,000euros for the win, 10,000euros for the Cannes WSOB seat in July, and 7,000euros for the beautiful ‘GOLD CUBE’ on display at the table. This, you might say, is a match worth winning.

TR draws first blood for 1-0, but then cubes too early in the next (a quarter point blunder), and we’re quickly into a 100-all race. Contact is broken and we come down to a bear-off position which is an almost pure 4-roll position. HCM (on roll) has two on his 4-point, and five on the ace. TR has one on the ace, three on the deuce, and then one, one, one. HCM also has that super anti-joker of 32. He correctly fires in the cube, and TR disgustingly passes. Honestly, the 4 roll bear-off position is something we all learnt in ‘Backgammon 101’. 2-1 HCM.

Blows are traded in the next two games to give us 3-3. In Game 5 another early cube from TR is eagerly accepted. HCM swings the game and then erroneously cashes it when too good. 5-3 HCM.

TR fires in a fine cube in Game 6 at 65-35%, and it’s double whopper time (with a liberal sprinkling of bacon and gherkins), when HCM passes. 5-4.

Here’s an amazing game, check it out: TR cubes a bit light and HCM takes. TR builds a 5-prime in front of HCM’s anchor on the 3-point. It becomes a 6-prime, and then a 7-prime, to equal the world record. Bouquets all round. TR happily reels his fish in; only 63 will leave a shot now. Out it comes! And HCM finds the hitting 3. However, his board is badly crunched but he has big racing equity now. He misses TR when he comes into the outfield, and now anything but a 21 31 11 for TR and he’ll have a gin race. Out pops 21! And there’s the hitting deuce for HCM! That’s the old 17x3x7x3 parlay folks, a real truckload of manure dumped on poor TR’s head, and instead of being 6-5 up, he’s 7-4 down. Nasty.

TR’s 1,5 defence in the next yields some real equity but not enough to take the cube when it comes. 4-8 now, and TR asks for his second, and last comfort break of the match. If his bladder fills again during the next couple of hours he’ll be relying on the kindness of strangers to be allowed to empty it. (And he’s still drinking like a parched ultra-marathoner by the way…a mixture of beer and ‘Ocean Spray’.)

TR verbally explains to HCM in the next that the reason he’s not cubing is because “I’m too afraid!” All information gratefully received. Falafel in the commentary box notes: “Rzymann has been snake-bitten one too many times with his early cubes, and now he’s gun shy.” Finally it comes, HCM takes, squirms like an eel and it boils down to a race not for the faint of heart. TR’s dice just have the greater firepower, and HCM on his last roll, needs 55 or 66 to nick it. He implores his fans to whistle. Out pops 21. Insufficient. 8-6 HCM.

Game 10 is ebb and flow before it swings big time to Austria. But where is that cube? TR is now being positively timid. And then he cashes when MILES too good. He’s not going to win it like this – no way man. 8-7 HCM.

In Game 11 TR takes a big pass! Whoever said BG was easy? But then HCM fans with 66 on a 1-point board and it’s all up for grabs again. Eventually the game materializes into an absorbing 1-2 back-game for TR which he almost times, and is very, very unlucky to get just a single shot, which he misses (not that I’m a back-game lover or anything…) Gammon. 12-7 HCM.

Game 12. A simple cash for HCM. Hmmm, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Could we be getting a damp squib final?

Game 13. It gets gammonish for TR, he simply MUST get radical with that cube when so far behind. Instead he cashes, and one can’t help feeling that he could have had an extra three points there with a little more bravery. TR ain’t half-way yet, and they’ve been out there 2 hours 15 mins. 13-8 HCM.

Game 14, and yet another late cube and pass for TR. Limpy limpy. 13-9 HCM.

Game 15. OOOOOOHHHH, HCM takes when nailed back on TR’s deuce point behind TR’s gorgeous 4 prime. Absolutely no need to take that. A real lemon. But then the computer flashes up 69.9%, with 26.6 gammons, take. Well done HCM, looked like he had a touch of the “Jan Jacobowitz’s” about him; instead all credit due.
Still, it doesn’t stop HCM later owning TR’s 5 point but with one on the roof of a 5 point board, and a near certain gammon for TR who starts his bear-off. But an oh so timely 55 gives HCM a chance to wriggle off the gammon. He has one final checker left to bear-in on the 11 point. Any 5 or 6 will do PROVIDED it doesn’t come with an ace. He finds 52 for the ab fab gammon save. 13-11 HCM.

Game 16. TR, bladder screaming in protest, gently asks HCM if he’d care to take one of his comfort breaks. “No, but thank you for your interest,” HCM politely replies. TR gets stuck on HCM’s 3 point behind a growing prime. But then a super duper 44 joker snakes a way through, and it’s followed up with 55 to nail the game down! It’s 13-12 now, and HCM’s campaign has stalled BIG time. Perhaps he really should take a break for his own good, and not worry about the sharky tactic of waiting for TR to wet himself.

Game 17. TR cubes late YET again before finally risking it when 16 pips up. 13-13, and we have a 4 point match.

Game 18. Can you believe it. 18 whole games, and we could have a ways to go yet. A near instant pass by TR, and HCM has finally stopped the rot. 14-13 HCM.

Game 19. Gus Hansen in the commentary booth, suggests about TR’s growing pains due to nature’s call: “What ‘Kedde’ should do is summon a waiter, order two beers, and offer them both to Rzymann.” In the game HCM ‘comes under the gun’ like a pure novice and is marmalized with a 22. He still may just be able to squeeze out a take but instead TR MISSES the cube action. Terrible! He could have been playing for the match right there. Instead he cashes next roll for 14-14.

Game 20. HCM eyes the cube after a great 11 for the 4-prime with TR’s one man back on the ace. A huge cheer from the crowd as the cube sails over, even though it’s a touch early. TR MUST hit on his own ace point to take away HCM’s tempo and stop him growing his prime. He declines and dodges the 50% 5-prime bullet. The next go, TR has the same conundrum. It is HUGELY right to hit on the ace and this time he investigates it all thoroughly but AGAIN declines. And HCM makes the all but killer 5-prime. But the game has some life in it after TR scrambles furiously to counter-prime the HCM checker on the ace. HCM finds a 6 to leap TR’s 5-prime, and in reply TR finds an incredible 16 in reply. This EITHER creeps the primed checker from the back, and leaps into the outfield, but leaves 15 shots, two blots and a stack of gammons. OR he can hit HCM’s escaped checker with the ace and worry about the primed checker later. He has a 5-point board after all, so should have a few rolls at the ace then the six. But he chooses to escape the checker, blundering hugely. HCM needs an ace or a 7. He finds 16! Whaaaaaah, that looks like the match folks. Gammons 33% and rising. TR playing a phantom ace-point game now, with two on the roof. Can HCM close him out with any of several numbers? He has three men on his 5-point and two on his 6 point, and an empty ace point. AND HE ROLLS 65!!! The ghoulish only shot leaving number! He bears off two men. Can TR find a 6? YES!! What a swing. Over comes the cube at 26%. Thus a slime take, since, if HCM passes he goes to 25% in the match, but he passes, preferring to try his luck from 14-16. And it’s more good news for TR as a break is finally called, and he scuttles off to the Gents like a Mexican who’s been stung by a scorpion.

Game 21, Crawford. HCM off to a tangy start. But then it’s punch and counter-punch and a real blot-hitting fest. TR gets into minor time trouble at 2:27. Finally it comes down to this: a rather sorry deuce point game for TR. “We’ve all won lots of deuce point games in our time,” warns Falafel ominously. In the bear off HCM has 3 on his ace, TR has a lone desperate sentry on the deuce, HCM has three on the 3-point and two on the four point. AND HE ROLLS 62 to peel and hit!! It’s a deuce shot from the bar for TR who is even looking at some backgammons for match against him now. HE FINDS THE DEUCE, and covers his own two-point with the 3, to make a 5-point board. Can HCM enter on the 5? No! Can TR cover? YES!! It’s a 50-50 game now.

TR start ripping his men, with HCM shut out on the roof. TR forgets to stop his clock in between shakes, and it shimmies down from 1:51 to 1:18. FINALLY he remembers. “That could just be his best play of the entire match,” cracks Gus Hansen. When daylight appears HCM finds a great 65, and then swings his baby round the corners with a fine 64. He’s going to be ok I think. It comes down to this. HCM has two on his ace-point, one on his 3. TR five on his ace, on roll. 44 for TR!! Ohhhh nooooo. Only five numbers will save HCM now. He was in this exact position in his last 16 match, and found 33. He gets up, and takes a stroll around the stage. Takes a run up and hurls his dice. One lands on the board, and another about 25 feet away under the wheels of a TV camera. Was it a double? We’ll never know. HCM takes another run-up. An even longer one. The dice fly out of the cup, and bounce wildly. But this time they land ON the board, IN the correct half, without cocking or anything. It’s a legal throw! Wow. Hans Christian Mathiesen has turned into an all-singing, all-dancing dice-throwing acrobat before our very eyes.

The dice read 52.

It is a heart-warming win for the gutsy and colourful Rzymann who I ‘talent-spotted’ in the second-round and immediately found WSOB producer Andy Bell and said, “I’ve just seen someone who’d be great to have in the final.” He has a chiselled, weather-beaten face, similar to that of the late Roy Scheider, vanquisher of Jaws. Well, Rzymann has slayed a few monsters of his own these past four days.

I have made many friends here in Helsingor and will have endless memories of four wonderful days. London’s UK Masters was fantastic, but this has equalled it in many ways. Provided I get permission from my rather scary wife, I can’t wait to do it all over again in Cannes in July. She says she’ll leave me if I keep gallivanting off to these madcap Backgammon tournaments. Shame – I’ll miss her.

Tassilo Rzymann, Austria [Hereafter known as TR] versus Jan Jacobowitz, Germany [Hereafter known as JJ]

Here we go then with this 17-point match, semi-final number two, of this year’s tremendously successful Nordic Open.  154 hopeful Gammoners are down to just three.  Denmark’s Hans Christian Mathiesen awaits the winner of this match.

Austria’s Rzymann goes in as something of an underdog when compared to the juggernaut that is Jacobowitz but starts early on with a tangy gammon for 5-1, quickly pulled back to 5-5 by JJ.

We pick up the action in the scintillating 8th game of the match with JJ leading 7-6.  It starts with a blitzy cube from JJ, and TR is briefly squealing with two in the air and a 4-point board.  But a gorgeous 22 enters both men and lashes out on his 5-point.  TR suddenly looking hot here.  Soon he has a cash with three JJ checkers in the air, but he misses it!  Then his position deteriorates and he cubes at just 60-40!  Wow.  Then TR fans on a three-point board several times in a row, and with JJ marshalling his troops we could be looking at a snowman (8-cube).  Soon it evolves from a blot-hitting fest into a holding game with TR on JJ’s 4-point, and JJ owning the golden anchor.  But hey, there’s another twist here, JJ’s time in this game has gone from 15 minutes to under 8.  Finally, JJ’s superior position gives him the 8-cube, and it’s a slim take.  However, perhaps with one eye on JJ’s time (7:16), TR passes for 6-11; but this is an even match folks because of the tick-tock-tick-tock effect.

Game 9:  TR ships in a blitzy cube, easy take though.  The game swings violently from side to side before, bang, a superb 54 fly-shot gives TR some gammon chances with JJ holding the 5-point, and a lot of freight to shift in the outfield.   He keeps fanning as TR scuttles his men in and starts his bear-off.  He clears his 6-point and gammons up over 90%.  But then JJ in four rolls goes 44 55 44, and suddenly he can save the ‘g’ if TR finds an ace; but he rolls 32, and it’s a breath-taking gammon.  11-9 to JJ.  Has JJ’s error rate started to rise with his time problems?  Oh, you betcha’.

Ghoulish fanning by TR in the next brings us to 12-10, and in Game 11 it’s Burger King for the whole family, as TR’s dismal pass is a triple whopper with cheese and a sprinkling of onions, as Magriel might say.  13-10.  Could the match be slowly slipping away for the Austrian now?  He gets miserably trapped on JJ’s 3-point in the next; at least the 4-point is open.  TR gets a shot!  But misses.  Then he gets another one!  But misses that one too.  That gap on the 4-point has meant TR is playing a phantom 3-4 back game.  Then, wow, a third apple falls from the tree, last chance this.  TR HITS, and then inexplicably misses his market with the 4-cube next roll (slim pass), and comes to his senses the roll after.  13-12 to JJ who is starting to play looser and looser as he addresses his time problems which are not so serious now at 4:24.

The next swings quickly to TR, 13-13, and so does the next, but then, whoaaaa, a super-duper JJ joker off the roof, enters, hits in the outfield, and turns a 2-point board, into a 4-point board.  Some roll that, and TR winces at the miscarriage of justice.  14-13 to JJ.

Into Game 15 now and JJ has one man back stranded behind TR’s growing 4-prime.  He ain’t gonna be taking any paperweights that come his way that’s for sure… over flies the cube right on cue, and JJ TAKES!!  What on earth was that??  Easily the dodgiest piece of cube action I’ve even seen in top flight backgammon.  TR is 65.4% but with 26.6% gammons.  JJ knows he is the stronger player than TR; how can he give him such a carte blanche chance to take the match?  The computer comes up with a skull and cross bones, and screams that it’s a triple blunder.  The blitz from TR is swift and severe.  However… this isn’t quite over.  TR finds an awkward 66 when stuck on JJ’s bar point, and has to make the ace and leave the 2-point open for JJ to enter.  JJ finds the deuce, but has to leave TR 6s and 4s to hit back.  TR finds an ugly 53, which opens up two blots, and JJ is able to pick them both up.  However, he has a blot in board and TR finds the hit from the bar and a devastating ‘hoover manoeuvre’ entails.  JJ is closed out with 4 on the roof, and it’s a sensational end to a fabulous match.  Was that the worst take of JJ’s career, given the moment, given the match?  It certainly has a case.  The stats tell us Jacobowitz went into the match at 66.9-33.1% favourite.  Error rates 5.4 Jacobowitz, 8.2 Rzymann

The action as we await the final is stimulating.  After the iconic Mochy cruises through his semi-final and final to win the Consolation (you can’t keep a good man down, huh?); there’s a delightful exhibition match under the lights, for 10,000 USD between Gus Hansen and Sander Lyllof.  5 pointer, 3 minutes in the time bank.  Sander romped into a 3-0 lead but burnt a lot time in so doing.  Then Gus roared back and rather outwitted an unusually tense Sander to take the match 5-3.  Great entertainment, and a fine illustration about what top-level, high stakes BG is all about.

NORDIC OPEN - DAY FOUR: SEMI-FINAL

The grand plan for Easter Sunday at the 2008 Nordic Open was a simple one: turn the 32 hopefuls in the Consolation tournament into a punch drunk, delighted quartet, and make the 8 stars still alive in the Main, just 3. Three? I hear you say; yes, we’ve already had one memorably bizarre semi.

The quarter-finals saw two real classics. Home favourite Dane Hans Christian Mathiesen, known as “Kedde”, surged into a 10-3 lead against Hans Liby before some extremely nasty swings saw him go 11-15 down, surely his fine run in the tournament had to end now, expecially as in the next, he had a man on the roof, against a five-point board, just the five point open. Finding the five was compulsory, finally he found it, but Liby had a builder on his 6 point, so needed an ace to hit back. He found 11 to pick and pass. HCM doggedly found another 5, but by then Liby had found another builder for the 6 point, and he called up the 11 again! For a third time HCM found the 5, and for a third time Liby had the builder in place, and this time picked and passed with 21. Quite extraordinary. However, when the fourth 5 duly arrived, Liby had been forced to slot. He got hit by Kedde’s lethal dice and nearly gammoned. 15-13 became 15-15, and we were at DMP.

Kedde found himself in awful trouble in the decider as he had a stranded checker behind Lidy’s 5-prime. But whilst the 5-prime refused to become a six-prime, hope remained. Liby kept slotting at the front of it, kedde kept hitting back and finally leaped as well when Liby convalesced on the bar! Wow, Kedde had a touch of the ‘John Hurst’s’ about him… [The UK Masters winner, who never knows when he’s beaten]. It then came down to Liby playing a desperate 5 point holding game; could Kedde bear in safely? Soon it came down to him needing anything but the bogeymen of 41 51 or 61. He rolled 11, oooooh. Then he rolled 31, aaaaahhhh. Then he rolled 21. The suspense was intoxicating, when finally a 53 arrived, Kedde had another sensational win to go with his Houdini escape in the last-16 the day before.

Kedde would face the winner of the table next to him, which was also a DMP’er after Manouchehr Parshami edged into a 9-6 lead before being pegged back to 14-14, which inevitably reached 16-16. In a tense final game Arildo Idsoe played a desperate 2 point holding game, waiting for the shot which never came. The all-German affair of Jan Jacobowitz and Gotz Hildsberg never quite hit the heights, as after Hildsberg early lead, he was simply ground into the earth by the relentless Jacobowitz, who is the biggest name left in the draw.

In the Claus Cato-Tassilo Rzymann match, Cato was clearly the favourite as he has performed formidably in many big tournaments the world over. The match turned out to be all about two erroneous 4 cubes shipped by Rzymann. The first at 7-5 up when he cubed a little light but won the game, and then in the next, with the score at 11-5 cubed in the extremely unusual position of “too good/take”! Cato had a take point of 14.8%, and Rzymann cubed at 18.2% wins for Cato. The gammon threat was there though, and that’s what happened.

First Semi-final report

Manouchehr Parshami, Sweden [Hereafter known as MP], and Hans Christian Mathiesen, Denmark (Hereafter known as HCM).

The first semi-final, between Parshami and Mathiesen which ended at the reasonable hour of a little past midnight was a strange and puzzling affair, due to the completely differing playing styles of the two men: the purity of Denmark, and the flamboyant, bamboozling, skull and crossbones style of Parshami’s Middle Eastern play. MP won a freak gammon in game 2, which set the match up beautifully, and nullified the edge that HCM started the match with. 4-1 to MP, which became 6-4 to MP a few games later. The cream was taking a while to rise to the top, and HCM was passing cubes which were ‘takes’ as the early gammon had clearly unsettled him, and he wasn’t going to let that happen again in a hurry.

In Game 7 HCM accepted a fine take, and swung the game before recubing to 4 at just 58.8% with 30% gammons. It was a huge blunder of MP to pass, but pass he did, perhaps understandably afraid of the 8-points he could have lost. HCM took the next cube as well but then blundered hugely when recubing to 4 when he was so far too good by an enormous margin.

A quick, correct cube and pass in Game 10, saw the cream now bubbling nicely at the top as HCM had a robust 10-6 lead. They shared the next two before the game that broke MP’s heart. After he shipped in a massive no double-take he soon had only a 65 or a double available to him to safely clear off the 14 point, and flukily found 65. Surely game over with just the 8 point to clear, against HCM’s lone sentry on the bar point. Only 51 61 would leave a shot. Out came 51!! MP threw his head back in anguish. From 96% wins, he was down to 70% and an instant cash if HCM found the ace. Out it came! But then, almost unbelievably, with a 5-point board, three builders, and MP on the roof HCM didn’t cash the game! He gave MP a shot at 16 enter and leap. He rolled 15… Then HCM had to hit loose on the ace point. MP hit back, and suddenly had a shot at the escaping 6 to get right back in the end. It wasn’t there, and HCM finally cubed. But why the delay of three rolls earlier is simply anyone’s guess. 13-7 to HCM.

In game 14 MP shipped in a ghastly cube at about 51%, and was obviously on tilt in a big way. In almost no time he had no fewer than 8 men sent back, and managed to conjure up a 1, 2, 5 back game. It became a 2, 5 back game and his winning chances rose to 40-60. The shot came, he hit, and only a 64 was any good for HCM to enter and land on the anchor on 15. Out it popped! What a shot. Poor MP simply can’t do a thing right. HCM then cubed at 96% with 15% gammons – a little too good yet again.

They traded points in the next two to arrive at Crawford 8-16. MP needed a miracle and it started with a fine gammon for 10-16. However in the next he had two on the roof facing a board with the 6, 4 and 3 points made, and with PM lining up a stack of builders to make the 5 and 2 points in the next couple of rolls. Only 55 was going to keep HCM in the tournament now, to enter both men and hit HCM out on the ten point. And it came!! A huge cheer from MP and his supporters, as he threw his hands in the air celebrating his stay of execution. Gammon chances even followed but MP had to settle for 12-16.

Suddenly we had a fantastic match on our hands, and HCM’s insistance on playing his opponent and not the checkers and cube was not looking so brilliant; indeed his facial features, normally smiley, looked positively grim.

MP blitzed for all he was worth in the next but it didn’t come off and soon he had an awkward, rather hopeful 2,7 holding game. HCM unnecessarily volunteered a shot bearing in and was missed. Then he volunteered another, perhaps thinking that now was the time to get hit with MP only owning a 4-point board and a slotted deuce. But he got hit, fanned twice and MP covered the deuce! A terrible decision for HCM to volunteer the shot, it’s looking like 16-14! All MP needed to escape his checkers on HCM’s 5-point was a 2, 5 or 6, but he found a gut wrenching 44 which horribly crunched him and opened up his own 5-point. A relieved HCM duly entered, and swung his man round safely, to finally lock up the match.

I tell you something though, it was getting very hairy for the hot favourite there, and an initial computer analysis states that it was Parshami and NOT Mathieson who went into the match a 56.1-43.9% favourite. Still, HCM is thoroughly delighted to be in the final, where I’m sure he’ll play a different type of game, and address some really quite acute problems with his cube action.

I’m sad to say I’m not one of the consolation semi-finalists, as I lost a horrendous ‘sicko’ in the last 16. But Greece’s Alexandros is there, as are Rida Hassan (an almost unbelievable sequence of results for him at London and now here – around a 16-2 record!), Karsten Bredahl, and the great Mochy Mochizuki of Japan who embarked on his quarter-final with his inscrutable countrywoman, the divine Akiko Abe. It was a torrid affair which started at midnight and didn’t end for getting on for 3am. Akiko threw simply everything she had at Mochy and at 9-8 ahead to 11 it boiled down to a stomach-churning non-contact race. One nice double for Akiko now and the match was hers! But it never came, and Mochy won by a few pips and then Crawford as well to complete the Consolation semi-final line-up.

It’s been another magnificent day with some spine-tingling drama. Let me paint you a quick picture. At seven minutes to one in the morning, with three last 16 matches to be completed, their scores were 16-15, 15-15, 14-15. Chairs being used strictly for standing on as 40-50 were crowding round tables creating mini little amphitheatres popping with electricity. Hans Christian Mathieson of Denmark had a big problem though, he was the one who was 14-15 down and was only 3% to win the next. His 66 drew some oooh’s and aaah’s from the crowd and it came down to a last roll scenario, when Hans needed an all but compulsory double. He found 33! And the roar from the crowd was raucous and unabashed. Hans celebrated winning the game as though it were the match, and duly put a shell-shocked Yousef Azari away thereafter.

The big German gun that is Jan Jacobowitz was in the 15-15 match. It too came down to a thrilling bear-off race and a 66 for Soren Andersen meant Jan HAD to find another double of his own at once. The 44 came on cue and Jacobowitz is through. The Austrian Tassilo Rzymann romped into a 14-6 lead against before getting gammoned, then gammoned again to arrive at 16-15 versus Alexandros Deliakis. Finally a hugely relieved Rzymann stumbled over the line. Tassilo has been playing in tournaments now for just a year, and has already ‘cashed’ in several. He is as calm over the board as he is excitable off it.

It was another day of big backgammon names falling like trees. Ray Fogerland couldn’t keep his excellent form from the night before together, while poor ‘Falafel’ lost his round two match at about 4am Saturday morning, and then promptly pull an all-nighter with Gus Hansen over the checkers. (Gus STILL hasn’t been to bet yet at 2.30am the following day). Several times in his last-16 match the former World number one Ed O’Laughlin looked to be home and dry, before finally arriving at yet another 15-15 scoreline against Iran’s Manouchehr Parchami, [now a naturalised Swede]. O’Laughlin had the match very nearly locked up before leaving a 63 65 fly shot, and Parchami FOUND the 63. O’Laughlin then had three more chances to hit Parchami, but he missed them all and got gammoned for match. A real heart-breaker that one. 2006 World Champion Philip Vischjager was slammed by the suave Danish champion Andreas Olsen, but Vischjager died wondering so to speak, when he bizarrely passed a 4 cube when 4-14 down when Olsen was 96%. 4-16 is not generally a position someone would choose to be in, and Vischjager’s clock was down to 1:45. Curious stuff to choose a .75% scenario over a 3-4% one.

So, the quarter final line-up line is thus: Parchami versus Arildo Idsoe [a highly successful Norwegian Oil businessman]. Denmark’s confident and so far untroubled Claus Cato versus Rzymann. Another Norwegian, Hans Lily versus Christiansen (known as ‘coach Kedde’ due to his thematic approach to the game and willingness to share his knowledge with others); and finally the tasty match-up of
Germany’s Riotz Hildsberg (vanquisher of Gus Hansen and the above mentioned Olsen) against Jacobowitz.

As for you humble correspondent, after my thorough going over at the hands of Falafel yesterday, I scrapped through two noted Danes in the Consolation today and the small matter of Nodar Gagua. Against Gagua I shipped an 8 cube when 6-0 up to 11, which the crowd were slightly startled by, but, well, Nodar passed so he fancied taking me out real savage from 0-10. Perhaps he’s seen me play before… Nodar also had a secret weapon in the form of his beautiful 2-year old daughter Elena, who would on occasion place checkers from another table on to ours. I looked away for a moment and when I looked back I suddenly had 3 on the roof, and 18 men to care for. Nodar graciously asked if Elena’s alterations were acceptable, but generously agreed to remove them when I got down on both knees and begged. And the 11-1 victory was mine. Tomorrow I meet, you guessed it, yet another top-20 Dane. They keep coming at me, like menacing angry mosquitos, but so far my insect repellent is doing the job.