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BGonline.org Forums
Most 'Coveted' Tournament
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Most 'Coveted' Tournament (Christian Munk-Christensen)
Date: Monday, 19 January 2015, at 1:58 a.m.
Bill Robertie and KG ran a Biannual World Cup, most years in Dallas, from the late eighties through 1998. The event cost $3500 + $400 registration, and drew what amounted to the top fifty players in the world. A few were weaker, and a few top players missed, but not many in either category. Each round lasted a full day, with Best of 5, 11-point matches. Matches were clocked. Each player had a name plate, and small set of national flags at his assigned seat. The tournament equipment - certainly the dice, but maybe the boards as well - was provided.
Play began on Monday and ran three days. Thursday was a day for lectures, with a Calcutta dinner, a nice one, in the evening. The auction was for the Final 8, and was a horse race auction. You could see the pairings and brackets, and bids advanced until things finally died out. The last auction in 1998 raised $49,500, which averaged over six thousand per player.
On Friday when play resumed all of the players not still in the WC or WC Consolation were automatically entered into the US Open. Joining them (for $450) were players coming in for the weekend. The year I won, 1996, there were 76 players in that event, and between the losers from the WC, and the other players drawn, it would have been the second strongest field of the year, by a wide margin over any claimant for third.
Sunday morning there was another lecture or two. Then the finals went up on closed-circuit with an expert panel commentating. That last year Howard Ring beat Johannes Levermann, while in the US Open Jerry Grandell beat Neil Kazaross.
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