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BMS (UK) Ranking Tournament #2: Report
Posted By: Rick Janowski
Date: Wednesday, 1 April 2015, at 1:09 a.m.
TOURNAMENT REPORT (PART 1): BMS (UK) RANKING TOURNAMENT #2 - CASTLE DONINGTON, 28-29 MARCH 2015
16 players participated in the second BMS (UK) Ranking Tournament, which was held at the East Midlands Airport Holiday Inn Hotel over the weekend of 28-29 March 2015. Mochy and Michy, the first two players to obtain BMAB Grandmaster Class 1 titles, and #1 and #2 on the Giants List led an exceptionally strong field including very strong players from Greece, Iran, USA and UK, all keen to accept the demanding challenge of playing six eleven point matches over two days, under strict clock-controls and where each match is videoed, transcribed, analysed and then reported to the greater backgammon public with complete transparency. Despite the intensity of the challenge, all players engaged positively with the process, enjoyed and respected each other’s company and, win or lose, enjoyed themselves.
Mochy and Michy both arrived at the Hotel on Thursday 26 March evening, after a gruelling journey from Tokyo and Osaka respectively. In the late morning of Friday they travelled to Christ the King Voluntary Academy in nearby Nottingham, to meet the thriving School Backgammon Club. Mochy and Michy both endorsed certificates of achievement for the members ranging in age from 11 to 17, played a few games with the children, who were all wearing their personalised club tee shirts and membership/ competency badges in honour of the occasion. In return both Mochy and Michy were made honorary club members together with their very own personalised tee-shirts and badges. A splendid time was had by all!
Most players arrived on the early evening Friday 27 March, and after a group dinner at the Hotel were rewarded by an excellent and thought-provoking lecture by Mochy, involving active participation of the very appreciative audience.
On early Saturday afternoon, the tournament commenced, with the halfway stage reached at close to 20.00 in the evening when most players had another group dinner at the hotel. After dinner most players repaired to their rooms to relax and prepare for the early start of 10.30 on Sunday after breakfast (effective 9.30 because of the overnight change from BST to UTC). After 5 rounds were completed Michy had won all his matches and three British players had four wins (Julian Fetterlein, the winner of the first BMS (UK) ranking tournament in February, Peter Bennet and Chris Rogers). Both Peter and Chris won their matches in the final round. Michy and Julian had been paired up to meet in the final round in the random draw for the truncated round robin, creating the intriguing prospect of a four player playoff for first and second places, should Julian win. Those looked like being the case for most of the match, including at Double Match Point. However, Michy managed to prevail; becoming outright winner of the tournament and two additional winner take’s all sidepools. A great reward for a great player! Peter and Chris fought it out, in a 1-point match, for the Runner-Up award, with Peter prevailing and gaining the trophy.
All 48 matches of the tournament were recorded and are currently being transcribed, with detailed analysis and checking to follow. It is anticipated that the full results will be available within the next 10 days and possibly much sooner. At that stage the PR side-pool prize will be awarded. At that stage too, high quality hand-crafted certificates will be prepared for the Winner, Runner-Up and Lowest PR Prize. The results will be inputted into the BMAB database to populate the PR tables and to provide the necessary data for the award or re-grading of mastership titles and proficiency levels.
A photo album for the tournament is included on the facebook page: (https://www.facebook.com/groups/BMSGroup66/1564576560486777/?notif_t=like)
I would like to thank all the players for making this tournament such a success. In particular I would like to thank the UKBGF for being consistently and reliably supportive of BMS(UK). Mark Adkins was a superb Assistant Director enabling the tournament to be organised almost without any snags. Most of all of course, I wish to thank Mochy and Michy for their tremendous support throughout. They will next play at the Nordic Open together with other participants from this tournament. Best wishes for your success.
The third BMS (UK) Ranking Tournament is scheduled for 06-07 June 2015, at the same East Midlands venue.
Rick Janowski BMS (UK) Tournament Director
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