Australian Backgammon Federation
Website to promote Backgammon in Australia
Announcing the 2019 Queensland Open Backgammon Championship
including Masters, Beginners and the inaugural
Australian Speedgammon Championship
Date: 9-11 August 2019
Place: Surfers Paradise Surf Club, Gold Coast, Queensland
Click on the Events Page for all the details.
Another of the not-to-be-missed events on the Australian backgammon calendar.
The tournament was run on the 7th of April 2019 at the Canada Bay Club.
The amended double Swiss format ensured that everyone played 6 x seven point matches on the day, and a loss in the three round qualifying flight did not preclude any player from winning the tournament.The day was a resounding success with glowing reports from the participants.
Main Flight :
1st Paul Barnett – $600 and crystal doubling cube award,
2nd Arthur Ramer $300.
Consolation prize of $60 to the one-match winner with the highest score to David Reitzin.
3rd prize went to the Second Flight winner, Pat Halpin, who received $180.
Eva Bitel pocketing the $60 2nd flight consolation.
From Member Clubs
ACT Backgammon Club
2018 was a typical year at the ACT Backgammon Club – we have had 26 tournaments over that period, involving 19 separate players – as of early December 2018, 6 of the tournies are still to be completed (this is typical for our small Club). League leader was Tom Chrysostomou, Ratings leader was David Berry and Greg Ash entered the most tournaments.
Of course, being the BG Club of the Capital, our league is based on financial years… in 2017/18 there were 11 players with 25 or more tournaments, 14 with 5 or more and only 1 that played 2 or fewer – league points are based on 1 point per entry and two points per win, and you needed 80 points to make it into the top 8. Six players accumulated 100 in terms of combined match lengths.
At Christmas we usually have a bit of fun with a novelty tournament – last year it was roll three dice and play your best two (which wasn’t as disruptive as you would think) and this year it will be that you can deliberately misplay one roll per game… but not off the bar or bearing off.
We have a small back committed band of players – on any given night 6 to 8 of the “hard core” are there, and then some of the semi-regulars will come maybe once a month and others every 6 months or so – the result is that sometimes we have 6 players and sometimes 12 or more… but we always play great backgammon and revel in other’s misfortune…
Pay is at King O’Malleys in the City Bus Interchange every Monday night at 7pm or so, going till the pub kicks us out and usually finishing with a $2 chouette to mop up the tail…
Happy rolling into 2019 – Greg
gregash@netspeed.com.au
Castle Hill RSL Backgammon Club 2018
The normal play at Castle Hill RSL on Monday nights is without doubling cubes so the games are unsuitable for the ratings system, but we do play three doubling cube tournaments throughout the year, and in 2018 these are again hotly contested.
The first one was the Easter Tournament, played over 4 weeks from April 9th, and was won by Vahid Hazrati, no stranger to the place getters’ circle.
The last two doubling cube tournaments were played in July and October, and were both won by Abbas Naderi, someone who is even more of a regular in the place getters’ circle.
The hardest trophy to snag is the Les McEwen trophy, won by the player accumulating the most points throughout the whole year, and this year, showing amazing consistency all year was Roshanak Mojtehedi. A great result.
It was very pleasing to see Castle Hill RSL backgammon players entering mainstream tournaments like the NSW Open, the Newcastle Open, the Australian Open, and even the New Zealand Open.
Even more pleasing are the results being achieved, with several players reaching the rounds of 8, and in the Australian Open Jan Spillekom reaching the semi finals, knocked out by the eventual winner of the tournament.
Bring on 2019.
John Symon
johnsymon2191@gmail.com
Sydney Backgammoners
The Sydney Backgammoners are a group that started playing in their current format and location in January 2018 when we moved to the North Ryde Rsl.
After initially playing in a multi round robin format which worked, but was a bit cumbersome, Tournament Director Gary Stavrou engaged a computer programmer, and after much effort, a custom program was created for backgammon which used the “Stavrou Scoring System”
which not only pitted winners against winners, but top scorers against second-top scorers etc.
This program, which the developer is planning to commercially release, has been used by Sydney Backgammoners from June 2018, from which time match results have been forwarded to the ABF for rating.
Also during 2018 Sydney Backgammoners developed their website sydneybackgammoners.blogspot.com
The first major tournament under Gary’s stewardship was the very successful NSW open which held at North Ryde Rsl in July 2018 . This was run using the new software and it ran very smoothly.
Entries close on January 25 for our new, twice yearly, external (off-site) Swiss-style tournament which will give players the opportunity to play longer matches without time constraints
The group is also planning a new tournament, The Sydney Open Backgammon Tournament later in the year.
The group meets in the North Ryde Rsl at 6.30 every Wednesday and there are normally a few of us who meet at 5.30 in the bistro for an early dinner – please come and join us !!
Carol Wakelin
msmoth@internode.on.net
The Persian Rose Restaurant was host to the ABF endorsed Australian Open and Masters Backgammon Championships on the 3 and 4 November.
The Open had 36 players fighting for first place, with players coming from the Gold Coast, New Zealand, South Australia, Victoria and Canberra.
The format was Round Robins, with the winner from each group progressing through to the top 8 knockout.
The semi-finals saw Ian Dunstan take out Jan Spillekom while Gerhardt Macor disposed of Newcastle club mate, Mick Dyett.
Jan and Mick.
History was repeating as both Ian and Gerhardt played in last year’s final, a testament to the consistency and determination of both these fine players.
Ian was triumphant to take out the Open for a fourth time.
Congratulations to both Gerhardt and Ian for putting on such an exciting and well played match.
The Masters was played on Sunday and became a field of 18 players, with 14 first round Byes. The semi-finals saw Simon Woodhead beat fellow Queenslander Steve Roberts, while Peter Brown defeated Habib Shalala.
Steve and Habib.
The finals were a state of origin match with Queensland Simon taking on New South Welshman, Peter Brown. Both these players have a lot of experience and their match reflected this.
Peter Brown came up trumps and took first place. Congratulations to both for a fine performance.
There were 4 jackpot tournaments, with the winners of those being Terry Christodoulou, Simon Ustick, Adrian Marisescu and David Reitzen.
Chouettes were also played throughout the day.
All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time playing the greatest game of all.
Thanks, must go to Taeed, who organised the venue and a big thank you to both Sharne Dyett and Dr Greg Ash who played a major role on the front desk, making sure everything ran smoothly.
A big thank you to Zvi Bendavid who donated all trophies this year. Zvi has done this for many years. His very kind generosity allows 100% of all money to be returned in prize money.
And last but not least, I thank all players who participated for supporting the game we all love and making this event the success that it was.
Cheers
Mick
Tournament Director
Join us at the Arcadia Hotel (corner Toorak Rd and Punt Rd, South Yarra) every Thursday evening, to play backgammon with people who love the game as much as you do! Beginners, intermediate and expert players of all ages welcome. Coaching available. $10 per player, optional side pools. All monies returned as prizes on the night.
Round robin play using the Swiss scoring format, guarantees at least 4 matches per player per night against players of similar skill levels, with minimal waiting between games. Our customised computerised scoring system on a big screen makes it easy to track your scores, games and opponents. Have a bite at 6:30pm, play starts at 7:15pm and nishes around 10:30pm.
www.melbourne backgammonclub .com