Venice Report

Slatts, my brother John and myself arrived in Venice early Thursday morning. We were the only Brits there on Thursday. Slatts and John had been up all night playing Backgammon and had no sleep, consequently Slatts was nodding off at every opportunity. Fortunately the hotel (which was in the back of beyond) allowed us to have our rooms early and we all crashed out. The hotel turned out to be miles away from the playing room at Venice Casino and the first taxi ride cost us 45 euros (£30) which we found out later should only have been around £20! We weren’t too impressed! There was nothing exciting to report about the opening night except for Slatts winning his quarter-entry, 11-2, 11-2 (2nd attempt though!)

On Friday, we all (yes Slatts got up early!) went into Venice to sight see. The weather was glorious and we walked around the narrow lanes and across the little bridges heading for St Marks Square we never actually made it there as we ran out of time!

Simonetta and Roland arrived Friday evening making the number of Brits up to five. Slatts was one of only 8 players in the championship division that didn’t get a bye. He won his first match quite convincingly but then fell to one of the BG Giants Bob Glass (USA).

I was doing okay in the Intermediates first round until I found myself in this position at 8-9 down to 11 points, playing as black:
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11 Point match
Black 8  White 9

According to Snowie I was 70% favourite not to get gammoned. The dice gods decided differently. The rolls were 4-4/ 3-1/ 2-2. Goodnight! Simonetta, Roland and John all qualified for the Consolation Amateurs.

On Saturday Slatts started off very well by beating Shahab Ghodsi, 11-10 after being behind 3-7 at one point. He then beat Tobias Hellwag 11-0. In one of the games Toby had Slatts on the bar whilst holding his 2 point to 7 point. Slatts managed to came in on the 1 point. Toby decided he wanted to pick up a loose checker in Slatts home board so hit him on the 1 from his 7 point. Slatts came in with 1-6 to the delight of the crowd!

In the Quarter Finals the opponent was Hans Koch ( One of the best players going back 25yrs!) At 8-9 the position looked like this when Slatts (black) offered the cube:
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11 Point match
Black 8  White 9
Black cube action?

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Hans thought about it for a long time but decided to drop, score now 9-9. In the next game Hans got into a position where Slatts had no choice but to drop, score now 9-10. The bear off in the Crawford game was exciting and the position got to:
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11 point match
Black 9   White 10
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Yes, you guessed it, Hans rolled the double to win!

Both John and Roland reached the semi-finals of the Amateur Consolation. Sadly, John lost his. Roland’s game was deferred until Sunday.

It was good news for the 3 Danes. Lars Trabolt and Mogens Knudsen who are best friends met each other in the Championship Final. Lars Bonding was in the final of the Super Jackpot.

Lars B is holding, what looks to have all the makings of an excellent tournament in Scandinavia, October 14-17th 2004. The event is held in Munkebjerg with 14000 euros added. There is also going to be Poker each night in the casino. Room rate includes breakfast and 3 course dinner and at 145 euros for 2 people sharing and 125 euros for single, seems very good value. Lars has included a Gala Dinner on the Sunday Evening. Simonetta is doing a star turn, playing her Cello and Roland will accompany her on the keyboard or hopefully play a duet on the violin. It would be fun to have Brits there to cheer them on so if you are interested go to www.scandinavianchallenge.com for more information.

Back to Sunday! For those of us that qualified for the last chance, it was the last chance for us Brits! Roland got off to a scary 0-6 start in his Consolation final but prevailed and won! John G was also pleased to win his first trophy at his first International, for being a Consolation Semi-finalist.

In the Championship Final, Lars was 8-0 down when Mogens (black) offered a 4 cube in this position.
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19 Point match
Black 8 White 0
Black cube Action?
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After taking a long time to consider the cube he eventually dropped to go 10-0 down. Time for a break! Things didn’t get much better and he went 12-0 down. Then the excitement started. Game by game Lars pulled back the points. The crowd waited with bated breath when at 16-17 to 19 Mogens offered the cube. Lars took and re-cubed. What had looked like a sure winning position for Mogens turned into a tense even game. Lars rolled well and with 3 pieces left to Mogens 2, the crowd waited in anticipation for Lars last roll. Unfortunately for him, but to the delight of Mogens (who won in Venice two years ago) the double eluded him.

At the prize giving Dario apologised for the venue and hotel arrangements and promised that next year the tournament will be back nearer the centre of Venice.

For us it will probably depend on when BIBA is!

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Venice Results

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