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CANNES: DAY THREE REPORT "WHO CAN STOP KING KOCA?"
Posted By: Andy Bell
Date: Sunday, 20 July 2008, at 9:18 a.m.
World Series Of Backgammon WSOB/PGT RIVIERA CUP, Palm Beach Casino, Cannes
Day three, Saturday 19th July 2008, by Will Cockerell
Who Can Stop King Koca?
It has been another day of splendid drama at the WSOB that has seen four stellar quarter-finals, and the first semi.
Let’s take the quarters first. Starting with the hugely anticipated Pia Jeppesen-Gus Hansen match, the scoreline would suggest a damp squib, but it was anything but. There were three moments of magnificent cube action drama, any of which could have spun the match on its head. They’re all late bear-off positions and easy to describe. In the first, Gus, leading 6-3 to 13 had four checkers on his ace, three on his deuce and one on the three. Pia had one on her three, two on four, two on five and one on the six. Gus has a 2 cube and after ponderent at length with his inimitable, incessant chatter, cubes to 4. Pia TAKES which is .188 double blunder. Gus immediately pings boxes.
A game later with the score at 10-3 Pia had a formidable position with Gus having four man stuck behind her 5-prime. However, a 55, 66 from Gus and the race boiled down to another nerve-shredder. Gus, with the 2-cube again, had two on the deuce and three on the ace. Pia two on the 3, and four on the deuce. Although Gus is 88.4% here, it is excellent play not to cube. Gus rips a couple off, and Pia throws a fighting 63 to be left with just four on her deuce. NOW what’s the cube?! Gus has all working doubles, on roll, and Pia the five Gin numbers.
Bizarrely Gus is still 88.4 but since Pia may never get the chance to ship to 8 it is less of a blunder to cube, but still incorrect. But here’s the kicker, although Hansen correctly DOESN’T cube, the cube STILL gets turned. How can this be?!
After pondering for nearly five minutes, Gus turned to me and asked: “Is it ok if I ask my opponent what to do?” A moment of comedic farce in such a serious situation. Of course, in poker it is fairly common for players to invite their opponents to choose for them whether to raise or check, since you may garner useful information, but in backgammon your cards are on the table.
Anyway, this is exactly what Gus did: inviting Pia to make his cube action for him. Pia needed no second invitation and grabbed Gus’s cube and cubed herself to 4; effectively taking a sawed-off shotgun and sticking it in her own mouth. Gus MISSED his out shot and Pia whipped to 8. Any of five doubles now and it’d have been the most dramatic piece of drama of the whole tourney, and Gus would have been made to look the class clown. Pia rolled 54, and thus had pulled the trigger that killed her. But all credit to Pia: she understood the position better than Gus, and to snatch the cube like that was an immensely strong – and brave – play.
In the other quarters, Bob Koca won a fairly straight-forward match against Sven Noren (much more about Bob later), but the other quarters were anything but simple. It looked all done and dusted for Robert Lindbom as he roared into a 12-4 against Marc Santo-Roman, but then things started to go south. Santo-Roman won Crawford, got the free drop in the next for 12-6, but then FORGOT to cube the next which he won, to go 12-7 instead of 12-8. This entitled Lindbom to another free drop when things got a little hairy in the next, to make it 12-8. Thus the scoreline should have been 12-9, and when Santo-Roman scampered to a gammon in the next, that should have been enough to win it. Instead the score was 12-12, and after an emergency SOS text message to his girlfriend for support, who had chosen to sunbathe this match out on the beach, Lindom rolled the decider home. The final quarter-final had the crowd absolutely spell-bound as Kenny Nissen, chairman of the Danish Backgammon federation, and Britain’s under-rated Nicky Check did grueling battle for over 3 hours. Nissen went into a comfortable 8-3 lead, only for Check to slowly but surely peg him back and then go 11-10 in front, which became 11-11. Nissen went big favourite for the undoubled gammon in the next but Check wriggled off it, punching the air in relief. In Crawford, Check correctly played his moves for ‘gammon-go’, but soon found himself in trouble. However, a rocking 22 off the roof entered, hit twice and made a point in board and suddenly Nissen was screaming for mercy. Could Check close him out?! Yes! Gammons a formality unless he got hit in the bear-off. An awkward 51 left him odd at the back and then 54 left the shot. Nissen missed. One last good roll for Nicky and he was there, but he rolled his third lemon in a row, 65. A 4 for Nissen and he was back in business. Out popped 54, Check only four men off. Nissen only had points 6 thru 4 made but was amassing an army to deal with that particular problem. Nissen kept slotting the three and Check kept hitting back. On occasion he’d leap into the outfield only to get sent back by a phalanx of angry snipers. Nissen still had his bar point open and Check hovered menacingly on the ace-point. There was a number…. AND THERE IT WAS!! A marvelous 66 to send his man on a merry trip round the world and Nissen still had five men scattered in the outfield.
Then, though, one final stunning twist. Check, down to 55 seconds on his clock, FORGOT to press it, when bearing off his final few men. It wouldn’t have mattered because Nissen was making his moves fairly automatically, but it just so happened that Nissen thought for a while about how best to manoevre his men for a 51. While Nissen thought, the clock ticked down to under half-a-minute. Had Nissen thought for another 29 seconds he would have won – Check timed out. ALSO, had Nissen noticed that Check had forgotten to press his clock he could have PRETENDED to be thinking and let it wind down. He’d have been within his rights and it’d have been a horrific way for Check to die. But all was well, and Nissen never found the 66 he needed to get off the gammon for match. Check’s delight was contrasted by Nissen’s grief: “three hours of pure pain!” he humorously surmised.
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Chicago’s Bob Koca, 42, is enjoying his first ever trip to Europe more than he could have imagined. He was persuaded by his chum Ed O’Laughlin to come over here and sample the European backgammon scene with the promise of good equity and added value. He would be hard-pressed to disagree. Bob recently won his first ABT event at Charlotte, NC in a dozen years, so traveled with some new found confidence. He won a €10,000 jackpot in Monte Carlo and his record at the World Championships was a robust 6-4. But his record here at Palm Beach is something else. Played 17, won 16, lost 1. Bob has won both the Jackpots he’s entered, performed well in the Nations Cup, and is now in the final of this prestigious event. He is a mathematics professor by trade, and with it being college vacation time, he has been studying non-stop for a month, especially Wolsey’s ‘Encyclopaedia’ and Ballard and Weaver’s ‘Opening Moves’.
Bob’s semi-final win over Robert Lindbom was as swift as a surgeon’s knife, all over in under 90 minutes for a 13-4 scoreline. He will take some stopping in the final. Can the great Dane or the British boy stop him? We shall see, but at the moment it appears they’d be taking a knife to a gun fight.
The leading contenders in the WSOB race have all won a little here and there today, but none has cemented his claim for super-Monday. Falafel lost a huge match against Jacob Simonsen, and Karsten Bredhal, Von der Fehr and Mochy are all still looking like the hottest tickets to make the cut. But that’s five names for four spots right there, and another half a dozen contenders are still in with a shout, not least Olsen and Jacobowitz. The Last Chance on Sunday has now taken on a grave importance – it’s gonna be a great day.
Copyright World Series of Backgammon Enterprises Limited/ Will Cockerell 2008
www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com
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