Irish Open 20/21 October, 2008
Report by Brendan Burgess - Tournament Director

Pictures courtesy of Jackie Murphy

It has been some years since we had an Irish winner of the Irish Open and we were desperate to remedy that. We did everything in our power to achieve it this year. We scheduled the event to clash with the WSOB event in London and with Paul Gilbertson’s wedding.  Although this reduced the overseas contingent very considerably, we still had to make a last-minute designation of Felix O’ McVink as an Irish citizen to achieve our objective.

Felix Vink receives his trophy from Director, Brendan Burgess

The final was really thrilling with the lead switching back and forwards between Felix and Adrian Jones until it reached double match point and a mad bear-off scramble where Felix out-rolled Adrian. Most tournament winners smile politely and acknowledge the applause. Not so Felix, who let out a triumphant roar. Joe Dooley said all the Dutch behave like that, but he was told to shut up, that Felix was Irish.  Cracker had watched the entire final and felt it incumbent upon him to point out all of Felix’s mistakes after the match. With Felix’s boot applied firmly to Cracker’s rear, the roar from Cracker was just as loud.

Main: Brendan and Runner-up, Adrian Jones

The Friday night €200 jackpot was won by Rachel Rhodes who beat Sean Casey in the final adding €1100 to her considerable winnings this year.   Rachel Rhodes

		Sean Casey beat Phil Tutchins in the final of the Consolation to add a further €350 to the runner-up prize of €400 from the Friday night Jackpot.   Phil Tutchins Sean Casey

Frank Conway beat Liz Perry in the final of the Last Chance.   Brendan Burgess Frank Conway

The Cracker	Brendan Gasparro

Winners and Entrants	Liz Perry

So despite the international attendance from Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta, Germany, England and Scotland, the Irish won all three events.

As tournament director I had one very difficult decision. The consolation was scheduled to continue at 10.30 am on the Sunday. Brendan Gasparro’s opponent, Tom Duignan did not show up on time. I asked his friends where he was and apparently, I had told him that his match was not due to start until 11.30. The rule is very clear. His opponent gets a penalty point for every 5 minutes later after the first 5 minutes and the latecomer forfeits the match after half the points have been scored. That gave Tom 25 minutes to arrive. Tom was not answering his mobile. But Tom would have a fairly valid argument that the Tournament Director told him 11.30. However, I would have ruled that the drawsheet took precedence but then advised him to appeal to the appeals committee. 

As it happens Brendan Gasparro saved me the embarrassment by declining any penalty points and agreeing to play the match. For which he was later awarded the €100 spot prize for sportsmanship.

Other  spot prizes this year – Kevin Jones for being the first person to be knocked out of the main and Claudia for being the best placed newcomer to the Irish Open.

The only other ruling I was asked for, which was very clear cut, was when Claudia discovered in the middle of a game that she only had 14 checkers. Her opponent, Joe had not noticed this either. The rule is simple

4.7 Error In Set-Up

An incorrect starting position must be corrected prior to the fifth roll of the game. The set-up thereafter becomes official. Players starting with less than fifteen checkers can still be gammoned or backgammoned.

It reminds me of a ruling some years ago when most players had the same SAC boards. Joe was involved again, but he was playing Cracker that time. When Joe built an 8 point prime, Cracker suspected that something was amiss. I gave the same ruling, which Cracker appealed. He argued that while having 14 checkers instead of 15, was a disadvantage, having 16  gave  Joe a huge advantage. Cracker argued that it would be “virtually impossible” to jump an 8 point prime compared to a 7 point prime. The appeals committee backed up my ruling.

Accommodating late arrivals for a knock-out format

At many overseas tournaments I have attended, there is usually someone who arrives just after the draw is done and they can’t be let in “because the draw is done”.  In some cases, the draw is held up because someone has phoned to say that they will be late. Obviously, people who arrive long after the tournament starts can’t be accommodated. But we catered for those who arrived up to 30 minutes late as follows.

We had 46 players. This meant we had 14 first round matches and 18 byes. The 14 first round matches were drawn first and they started immediately. The 18 byes were then entered onto the drawsheet in the round of 64. As late comers arrived, they were assigned to the byes in order. So Adrian Jones was the first bye to be drawn. The first late arrival played him in the first round and so Adrian lost his bye.

Can we make backgammon more interesting to spectators?

The final this year between Felix and Adrian was a pleasure to watch. Two players playing at a reasonable pace.  They rolled. They moved. They rolled they moved. They stopped to think only when there was something to think about which is what the specatators want. If you took a break from the match, you might miss something.

Compare that to some matches you have watched in recent years. Even in races, they think about their moves. Moving checkers and then putting them back. Occasionally polishing each checker with their finger and then pointing out different points on the board. You could go off to the loo, get a pint, come back and you will have missed nothing. Clocks facilitate this with the generous time allowance. While clocks stop matches going a lot over time, they probably extend the average time for each match.

Could we make the game more enjoyable for the spectators by reducing the time available? Backgammon is not chess. It is not blitz chess either, but it is somewhere in between. Critical decisions need some time, but not every decision. Could we change the time available to 12 seconds per move on average. If you make a lot of moves in under 12 seconds, you would store up time for those moves where you do need time to think.

MC: Biba already allows 12 seconds per move.