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BGonline.org Forums
Update: Rory Pascar ran a great tournament in Chicago
Posted By: Bob Glass
Date: Tuesday, 31 May 2011, at 10:00 a.m.
There are only a few coveted 3 day weekends per year available for backgammon tournaments and Rory proved he deserved one of those weekends. Besides running a fantastic tournament with originality and panache, some of the other things he did deserve mention also. I was not originally planning on attending the tournament until Rory called me on my cellphone, told me he can get me discounted airfare, and offered to make both my plane reservation and hotel reservation for me. How could I turn him down?
At the tournament itself, the hospitality budget seemed to stretch very far with bagels, lox, donuts, fruit, and yogurt every morning, pizza or subs every afternoon, and rotisserie chicken or Chinese food for dinner. One evening there was a scheduled dinner break not covered by the hospitality fee. Rory took it upon himself to invite over 50 participants to the Rams restaurant and treated everyone. What a mensch!
There were two lectures by Giants as well as a quiz. There was a USBGF tie-in in which the top two Americans in the open who were willing to pay a $20 fee earned the right to try out for the US international team. Yours truly was fortunate to earn one of those spots. The concept of a Giants event was a stroke of genius and I was ecstatic to see my good friend Steve Sax come from behind to become a Giant among Giants. The expense of providing all those cameras in order to record all the matches for a future book must not have been cheap and I'm sorry that there were problems with the cameras, but it was a terrific concept as was putting the Giants final match on streaming video. I was also pleased that Falafel offered me six carrot sticks for the price of five.
It was encouraging to watch the junior and novice(ending with two junior finalists) events take place clearly demonstrating that there is hope for the future of backgammon. It was amusing to see two of the little tykes mulling over a difficult position then suddenly pulling out position cards.
And last but not least, I was stoked to make it to the finals of such a tough open event. I loved the Swiss format because you knew exactly what time each of your matches was scheduled. Too many tournaments are nothing more than four walls with a drawsheet. With enough imagination and determination, backgammon events can be rich and rewarding. KUDOS to Mr. Pascar.
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