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IN
ASSOCIATION WITH  NEWS FUNCOM BACKGAMMON LIVE IN LONDON 9th - 11th November 2001  REPORT AND RESULTS As more and more people play backgammon on the internet so they will wish to actually meet those players they play with. The era of pen pal has metamorphosed into the era of net pals. Set up a Meet and bring them all together. That was the plan that Liz Barker (a.k.a. Cassie) Editor of funcompress and myself MikeMadMonk Owner of Backpacker Backgammon Boards came up with.  The set up at Funcom (where we play) is geared towards social play. There are Tourneys and Ladder play, but without the ability to save games, Funcom is not considered as one of the serious backgammoners sites. But the Lobby Chat area is bigger than most and runs quicker than any other online site I know. Quite a few of the players coming were online only players - Live Tourno play was to be a new experience - they came prepared for a learning curve. We starting planning this weekend a few months ago before we went to another Funcom Players Meet in Oslo in June that was organised by Danish players Bedstefer & co. It was a party to remember - we played some backgammon too. We had various ideas penciled down and published what we had on our websites : funcompress and Backpacker Backgammon Boards. Over the weeks we added more info as we had it. The British Isles Backgammon Association agreed to donate 2 prizes of membership & associate membership (this on Liz's suggestion that she would again wear a low cut top at the next BIBA event in December.) A week or two before the event, Oasya very kindly donated a Snowie 3 C.D. After weeks of trying to get a response from Funcom, they finally replied to us and sent us some of their t shirts. 3 months ago we had cheekily asked Paul Lamford (author of the recently published Starting Out In Backgammon and British Champion 1993) if he would like to do one of his seminars over our planned weekend. He said he would love to as long as it didn't clash with a BIBA weekend. I'm not sure how, but we managed to choose a weekend that did clash. Ooops we thought later.  But on the Monday before our weekend Paul asked Liz if he could come to our event. He was, before the end of the year, already the British Champion 2001 and had no need to go to BIBA. He explained that he'd welcome the chance to go so what sounded like a very different fun filled weekend. He'd do a seminar too ! The party officially started on Friday 9th Nov - but some of players arrived the day before and started the ball rolling. Zoe flew in from Greece, changing her route en route but was still picked up at Heathrow by Barry, one of the many drivers we would use over the weekend that were provided free of charge by Greater London Hire, a leading London Cab Company. The Lost Property Game started straight away as Zoe left a bottle of wine in Barry's Previa. Bedstefar, recently arrived from Denmark, was staying not far away with his daughter so he took Zoe out for a late lunch. Scouseicky was also there a day early and I gather they checked out the Spice Island Pub across the road from our venue - the Y.H.A. in Rotherhithe.  On Friday Whiteman, Diane, David and Alison flew down from Scotland and arrived at Luton to be met by Barry and bottle. Stanolli arrived by car, Nina was dropped off by a friend, Grant arrived by tube, Netmusen and Mazda were bought in by thegeneral who had picked them up the day before from Stansted, Gamotto arrived from Austria and Liz and myself crossed the River Thames with a ton of clobber we would need over the weekend. By 6.00 p.m. there were 16 of us and we headed across the road to the Spice Island Pub and took over the largest table they had. The party had begun.  Backgammon boards were not in evidence. This evening was for socialising. £5 in a pint pot got us 2 rounds to get us started. It is great to be able to sit down with people you have known online for sometime. Matches were remembered, other "funcom faces" were spoken of, promised kisses passed on, moans about the server were aired and I found myself trying to have 3 conversations at once. And on Paul Lamford joined us having checking into the YHA. He said with glee that he was pleased to see table football in the YHA bar. The questions he would ask in his seminar were handed out for players to work upon. We had dinner and for some reason Paul asked for and saved other peoples butter wrappers. We partied on and had far too many drinks I'm sure.  Upon closing time we returned to the Y.H.A. and occupied the bar. Paul's butter wrappers came out and we played table football. He's a fair man and buttered all eight rods. It was soon obvious that Paul and Gamotto were the best table footballers around and they played a singles 7 baller.  Zoe, Scouseicky and Stanolli went online and logged into Funcom and said Hi to all there. A backgammon board came out and a chouette was played. My experience in this form of backgammon did me no good whatsoever as I left the party £14 down and Grant, in his first ever chouette, found it profitable pastime. I went off to bed to get some much needed sleep before the morrow.  I had fully intended to put up posts on the Funcom Bulletin Board letting all those who could not be with us what was going on. I sat down at the computer early on Sat morning but I was coffeeless and my fingers would not work ! The Paul Lamford Seminar  6 doubling cube actions to work out. Everybody having filled in their sheets, these were handed round to others to mark. Paul took us carefully and very informatively though each situation.  Players found themselves looking at backgammon situations in a new light and I'm sure their play will improve because of it. We didn't score too badly and players minds were now focused on what they were about to do. David won a signed copy of Paul's 100 Backgammon Puzzles. Click here to do the Paul Lamford Quiz. Main Swiss Format Tournament Report  Fresh from Paul Lamford's seminar with thoughts of doubling strategy running through their heads the players lined up at the thegeneral's Tournament Directors desk to check in for the main tournament and sign up for the £5 or £10 prize fund. By the end of registration we had 21 players for the 5 pointers 4 rounds Swiss Tournament. It was Liz that got the bye, but a late arrival took us to a nice even 22 for the first round. We were predominantly regular Funcom players plus a few from The Fox Reformed. Reflecting well the international make up of the Funcom community with in total 7 countries represented, stretching from the roof of Europe down to the Aegean Sea. We had hired the Conference Room (as the YHA call it) for the weekend. It is in fact the far end of the dining area with a shutter wall pulled over it. Round 1 ran smoothly. It never ceases to amaze me how many backgammon players smoke. The smoke alarm had been disabled with a plastic bag and rubber band and make shift ashtrays appeared on nearly every table. Then somebody from the YHA appeared with our trays of sandwiches and we got told off. Meanwhile our 11 undefeated players were: Palal, Grant101, John B, MikeMadMonk, Frodostar, Gamotto, Bedstefar, Dod D, Paul L, Mazdaen and Daryll. So Round 2 matches were played in both the YHA bar or the Conference Room - but not the pub across the road please! Upon completion thegeneral told us we had 5 undefeated players: John B, Frodostar, Dod D, Mazdaen and Daryll. Just before we had round 3 we turned our attention to fireworks. The Lord Mayors Show had happened just across the River Thames in The City of London and (I'm claiming) he'd had graciously decided to lay on a fireworks display in honour of our event. It was agreed that if players had finished their next round within the next hour, players could pile into the various modes of transport parked outside and go just up river from where we were. Unfortunately the players with transport finished first and missed others without transport. We were now down to 3 undefeated players: Frodostar, Dod D and Mazdaen. Round 4 saw Frodostar lose to Dod D. but Mazdaen also won (against Zoe) so we needed a 5th Round Final playoff. Dod used to play on Funcom but moved on when 8 of his last 9 matches there went unfinished due to server crashes. He has since given up his day job and is currently the British no 3. Mazdaen won the Funcom Gotenburg 2000 Tournament, won the Consolation Round in the Funcom Oslo 2001 Tournament and is currently the Funcom/Cases Ladder no 1.  Mazdaen soon emerged as our Champion beating Dod 5.1 Click here to view the Main Swiss Tournament Results Mazdaen (who is Danish) was presented with the trophy and the Snowie 3 C.D. Already a strong offline and online player I'm sure this will further improve his backgammon.  Dod was awarded a smaller trophy and the 1 years membership of BIBA. However, having won 10 tournament 11 pointers in a row, Dod is already a lifetime member of BIBA, so in keeping of the spirit of this event, said he would like to offer his prize to any player that who would care to put their names into a hat for a draw. And on this was won by Grant. Mazdaen had to stand up again to receive his £80 prize pool and David and Daryll shared the £50 pool. Doubles Knockout Tournament Report The Swiss Tournament completed and prizes awarded we moved directly into the doubles tournament on Saturday evening. We were looking to inject some "fun" into this evening, following the more serious play of the day so, upon a player vote, we de-camped to the YHA bar, cracked open the beer, found a wall for our scorechart and outlined the prizes. Much hilarity followed. The format of the tournament was to be a 3pt knockout. We were 19 players. The YHA barman (Spiridon from Romania) had already indicated to me that he could play b-g. So it wasn't difficult for him to desert his bar, become a player and hand the running of the bar over to Alison who didn't really want to play anyway and is a barmaid to boot. We were up and running. With ten pairs registered, we had plenty of room for re-entries, much to the relief of Paul Lamford and Liz Barker (Fun and Games) who re-entered twice and still failed to make it past the first round. However, Liz took the opportunity to throw as many cocked dice as possible and won the big white fluffy pair. The best team name went to MadFatMonkFish, a combination of Dod Davies (otherwise known as fatpiranha) and MikeMadMonk. They made it to the semi-final, where they were beaten, re-entered, and lost again in the other semi-final! Mike seemed pleased with his choice of dominant partner and took the opportunity to sit back and relax. Zoe (an outgoing Greek) and Scouseicky (a jovial Liverpudlian, otherwise known as Alan) amusingly called themselves the Spice Girls. Zoe had spent the best part of the day grovelling on the floor trying to find her dropped dice and the evening was no exception. In her defence - she adapted wonderfully to the new experience of using dice cups. A set of juggling balls were awarded for her efforts. Romnor (Spiridon and Frodostar from Norway) re-entered only to be beaten twice in the second round by MadFatMonkFish but I'm sure Spiridon enjoyed his evenings "work." Danish Dynamite (Bedstefar and Mazda) also re-entered but were beaten by Marbles in the second round. The BlueMoganners (which apparently means something Scottish) picked up a prize for something or other but for the life of me, I can't remember what! Possibly the silliest rolling action. Other things were going on - I'm not sure what, but they say a picture paints a thousand words.  Wolfgang (Gamotto) came all the way from Salzburg to pair up with Mike (Stanolli), all the way from Gloucestershire, to form the Chaps. They steamed through to the final (with no re-entries), to beat the Marbles (Nina and Grant) and then re-named themselves the Champs.  They took away a trophy each, Wolfgang was awarded a copy of Starting Out In Backgammon and Mike was awarded Associate membership to BIBA. But their triumphs were not over - they also won the prize for the most boring banter and gave the Marbles the prize for winning the fastest match (just 20 seconds I'm told.) The majority of players were unaccustomed to live play, so the aim of the weekend was to introduce these players to different types of tournament formats. We also hoped that by playing as consulting pairs and hearing their opposition consulting that they would learn something new about the game. Ultimately, we wanted to have fun, and this tournament was, without a doubt, the most laughter filled evening of weekend. Click here to view the Doubles Tourney Standings Tric Trac Tourno Report  So what are Tric Trac Tournos? A simple, fun backgammon tournament is the short answer. A couple of years ago a friend of mine wanted to run a backgammon tournament in a pub and asked me to help set it up. At that stage in my life I knew very little about official b-g tourney formats. Also the pub players were, I was told, casual backgammoners. Therefore we decided to run a league – all players play all players in a 1 point match. No doubling cube backgammon. Straight win = 1 point, gammon = 2 points, backgammon = 3 points. The evening was great fun. Later I wrote an Internet version (maximum 12 players) of the format. To keep players that lost, say, their first five matches from just clicking off and leaving the tourno because they were doing badly, a ½ point for losing a match was introduced. This has been described as “very socialist” but if one remembers that the idea is to have fun, it works. It does make the scores much closer, which increases both the fun and sociability of the event. It also means that players must, in order to win, play for gammons and backgammons. Because players are doing that blots are a regular sight on the boards, which makes for interesting games. I’ve now run 19 of these Tric Trac Tournos on Funcom and they have proved very popular with the players. I ran an online Tric Trac Tourno a week or so before Funcom Backgammon Live In London just for those coming to the weekend, so all the regular Funcom players knew what they were playing for. Indeed we had 3 (thegeneral, Scouseicky and Bedstefar) previous TTT winners present at Funcom Backgammon Live In London. We also had Paul Lamford (GandP) and John Broomfield (John B) playing. I was very interested to see how these (World Class) usually 11 point players would fare in these 1 pointers. Obviously luck can play an even higher part in such a short match. But could they use their undoubted skill to win over players who know from experience what they need to do? We had 15 players - more that I would usually accept in an online TTT because this means 105 games in total. (66 games in a 12 player TTT.) Procedure and rules explained I wished all players res sucundae (good luck) and play commenced. To create an atmosphere of fast frantic fun players play whoever is the next available player. Game 3 produced our first gammon for Bedstefar against John B. By game 21 we had another 5 gammons, Cassie (v John B), Zoe, GandP, thegeneral and John B. By game 42 we had another 4 gammons reported - Bedstefar and Cassie now had 2 and GandP was up to 3. At the other end of the table Netmusen, Mazda and Scouseicky were not doing so well. In game 43 GandP won a backgammon (3 points) and had not yet lost a game. By game 63 John B was on 1 gammon and 1 backgammon, Mazda woke up and now had a gammon (but 6 losses) Stanolli had 1 gammon no losses, Grant had 1 gammon, 1 loss, 3 straight wins and GandP had now lost 1. Meanwhile I was seeing too much of Scouseicky, Alison and Whiteman (it's the loser that reports.) We were playing in a non-smoking room so for the smokers (the majority) there was an added incentive to win so they could go the bar for a ciggie. By the 4/5th way through (84 games) GandP had yet another 2 gammons, Grant picked up another 3, thegeneral was now on 2 gammons and David and Whiteman got their first gammons. Zoe and Nina were cruising along, Cassie looked like winning a backgammon but Bedstefar her hit last remaining checker on her 1 point and pulled it back to a straight loss. GandP was the first player to finish, which gave him time to assess the standing as they were happening. In the match Zoe versus Alison I gather Zoe was telling Alison what to do and Alison came away with a gammon to her name! Grant, Stanolli and thegeneral were all a game or so behind others and GandP quickly worked out that he could be beaten if they scored well. By game 94 Stanolli lost 1 but picked up a gammon, Grant did the same and thegeneral won 1. If Grant (now on 5 gammons, 4 straight wins and 3 losses) could win his 2 last games by a gammon and backgammon he could win the tourno. But it wasn't to be and with a crowd looking on Grant lost to both Stanolli and Bedstefar.  So GandP won and won handsomely by 3 ½ points. At one stage I was convinced that he was going to win it all without a single loss - something that has never been done in a TTT. However it was very interesting to see that a player can use his backgammoning skills to win despite it only being 1 point matches. Click here to view the TTT Scoresheet So is there a future for such a Tourno format? Within the higher echelons of the game, I'm sure not. But to Joe Public, who has no idea or wish to play doubling cube backgammon (the vast majority of those who say they can play this game) but wants an evening of competitive social backgammon I think it does. GandP view on TTTs: I'll now run more offline and online TTT, so if you're anywhere near London or Funcom and you would like to give one a go, gimme a shout. The Group  Scouseicky, Grant, Nina, Whiteman, GandP, MMM, Stanolli, Cassie, Zoe, thegeneral, Netmusen, Bedstefar, Mazda, Alison, David. The Fox Reformed 
The weekend was over. Or was it ? Nope, Here in London we play b-g at The Fox Reformed in Stoke Newington Church St on Monday evenings so Zoe and Stanolli joined us there too. Le Patron, Robbie, announced recent results, explained the format (16 player knockout with consolation round 5 pointers) and off we set.  Of the five Funcomers Paul, Liz, Zoe and Stanolli all won their first round, Stanolli and Paul lost their second and Liz and Zoe went on to the Semi-finals, but both lost there. Zoe carried on losing her dice and Stanolli learnt even more about live b-g. I was so shattered after the weekend that I forgot to settle my bar bill, but did phone Robbie as soon as I got home and fell exhausted into bed.
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