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Report #3 from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Posted By: Paul Weaver
Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2011, at 1:38 a.m.

The tournament had a field of sixteen players (including Chiva, but not including Matt, Michy, Toby and Wells) at it began today about 2 PM.

All matches were 15pts. Format was single elimination (no consolation, no losers' bracket, no fighters' bracket).

In the first round Falafel beat Ian McFarlane from Brazil, Konrad Froschel (Sweden) beat Phil Nagy (Costa Rica), Wachtel (LA) beat Michy (Japan), Bob Malkin beat Mike Vaton, Kathrin Langjord (Norway) beat me (Alabama), Chiva (Germany) beat X-22 (Vegas), George Chonopolis (Dominican Republic) beat Jose Duante and Anthony Albanese (Costa Rica) beat Serge Lorengin (Costa Rica).

In the second round Falafel beat Wachtel, Konrad beat Malkin, Kathryn beat Chiva and George beat Anthony.

George beat Kathryn in the semis. George Chonopolis is 60 and played some backgammon in the late 70s and 80s at the legendary 777 Jones St. club in San Francisco. Known as "Skip," he has a Dominican wife and has lived here for 22 years.

The other semifinal match is starting now and the finals will probably be played tonight so that Falafel can travel to Vegas tomorrow.

Thanks to Michy for recording the Falafel-Wachtel match after his tough first-round loss to Bob. In my next post, I many show some positions from this match.

I have intentionally avoided mention of controversial issues in this post. I will leave that to others.