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CANNES: WSOB/PGT RIVIERA CUP, DAY ONE REPORT by WILL COKERELL
Posted By: Andy Bell
Date: Friday, 18 July 2008, at 2:54 p.m.
July 17th, 2008 WSOB/PGT RIVIERA CUP, Palm Beach Casino, Cannes
Day one, Thursday 17th July 2008, by Will Cockerell
WSOB Reaches its Final Stop, and it’s a Fight to the Finish
Welcome to the Palm Beach Casino, Cannes, for the final stop on the World Series of Backgammon’s 2007-2008 championship race. It’s been an intriguing first day’s play as the top 40 or so players on the WSOB rankings have fought tooth and nail – or dice and checker if you prefer – for a cherished spot at Monday’s “final table”. To remind you, of the 16 players featured there, 8 spots are up for grabs here, with the other 8 coming from direct qualifiers, and even a couple of direct €10,000 buy-ins from the likes of BG juggernauts Lars Trabolt (2008 world champion) and former world champion Mike Svobodny – the godfather of world backgammon some might say.
The draw has reached a terrific 155 – one more than the Nordic Open, and double what we saw at the Riviera Cup just two years ago. As my reports evolve of the next three days I shall grow the list of “dead certs” for ‘Super Monday’. So far, we have three. John Hurst, TassiloRzymann (London and Nordic winners), and we can officially add a third today in Egypt’s unstoppable Rida Hassan who has added another two wins to progress to the last-32, for a WSOB record of 15-3.
In second place in the race, Andreas Olsen, or ACO as he is known, can be reasonably pleased with his day’s work. He won his first-round match, but then lost to Alain Babillon. So another 15 valuable points to Andreas, surely that’ll be enough especially with the Consolation and Last Chance to come, but I can’t quite give him the nod just yet.
Jan Jacobowitz in third now has a few alarm bells going off as he lost his important first-round match. He will enter tomorrow’s consolation with his vital organs on red alert, and acknowledges he’s only 50-50 at best now.
After that, it starts to get very interesting, and there are a dozen or more players in Friday’s last 32 with every chance of sneaking into the top 8.
Falafel (in 8th) won one, and then lost one today in a huge match with Jacob Simonsen who lies in 13th. Falafel had to swallow an 8-cube when leading 8-6 to 13. The late bear-off position for Simonsen’s cube is easy to describe: Falafel had one checker on points 2 thru 5, Simonsen the same but with an extra man on the 4-point. Backgammon at its most thrilling, and Simonsen brought it home. “Huge swing,” he said afterwards, referring to the WSOB race.
Japan’s Mochy received no bye and had two on the roof against London finalist Christian Plenz with only the 5-point open, and was staring at gammon for match against him, leading 12-9 post-Crawford. Only a 55 would save him as Chris had a stack of builders ready for the kill. The 55 came on cue but a little later Mochy then required at least TWO 66s in a hopeless race. He found one, and then the other! Still Christian was in control and with a checker left on his 1 and 3 points, anything but a 21 would suffice for 12-12. Out popped the 21. Mochy won his next as well to all but bury Piergiorgiod’Ancona’s super-Monday aspirations, but then lost in the last 64 12-13, making what appeared to be a highly dubious late checker play that was severely punished.
Lars Trabolt found himself 0-7 to Maya Peycheva, but fought grimly back to 6-10. Maya cubed a tad light in the next, Lars whipped back to 4 and promptly gammoned poor Maya for match. World champions don’t lie down lightly.
Of other leading contenders Atle von der Fehr won twice before crashing in round 3. KarstenBredhal (6th) is sweating after winning then losing, and Alex Kolonias(18th) suffered a reverse in round 3 to Peer Rower who leaps up the leaderboard from his current 20th.
Ed O’Laughlin and PiaJeppesen have a huge match on Friday. They’re both through to the last 32, and are currently ranked 30 and 31. At one stage in his second round match Ed was 6-10 down and 10% in the next on a 4-cube. He was going dowwwwn. But as he has done so many times, Ed fought back “from beyond the grave.”
Of other big names, Sander Lyllof’s horror run at the WSOB continues, whilst Bob Wachtel got gammoned for match when 12-9 up. CarterMattig lost a breath-taking DMP’er to British outsider Zoe Cunningham in the last 64, whilst WSOB commentator and poker superstar Gus Hansen proved he’s still a backgammon force to be reckoned with and lurks menacingly in the last 32; as do Raj Jansari, Mike Heard, John Rockwell and GotzHildsberg.
Friday is all set to be an absolute thriller then, since not only is the Main draw littered with notable players, but the Consolation will have many of the world’s best players still chasing the ‘Super-Monday’ dream. I look forward to telling you all about it.
all Will's reports are published at www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com and syndicated at Gammonlife and BackgammonInLondon Copyright World Series of Backgammon Enterprises Limited 2008
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