November 16th, 2007
A Line-Up That's Laden With Venom
Report of Day two of WSOB UK Masters, Empire Casino, London
It was another dramatic and memorable day at the WSOB UK Masters, in which you had to add back-to-back victories to your day one triumph to remain standing. 22 Brits attempted this feat. Just 4 managed it - but what a four they are. All four are regulars at my local chouette in Battersea, south London, which is no place for the faint-hearted. (When one of the members – with a faint-heart - arrived for the session a few years ago, saying his doctor had just told him he was 60-40 to live till Christmas, a player shot back: "that's a no-double, take then.")
One backgammon giant I didn't mention in yesterday's dispatch was Francois Tardieu who cruised to the last 32 before being shot down in flames by Maria Krancheva 13-3. Wow. Krancheva is in spell-binding form, defeating John Broomfield 13-0 in round two. She meets Peter Bennet from Ealing, Middlesex in the last 16 (2005 Las Vegas Over-50s winner). Peter is tremendously experienced and has every chance of giving Krancheva a tough match. A clearly delighted Krancheva told me that she accepts that Tardieu followed by Bennet is a tough draw: "to win this tournament I will have to beat the greatest players. Today was my luckiest day ever – it was amazing."
The rest of the draw may not quite contain the 'marquee' names one might have expected, but it is still laden with venom. It contains two 'freaks', a term used to describe that select band of players who have won 14 – yes that's FOURTEEN – major tournament matches in a row – that's the old 16,000-1 parlay. Atle Von Der Fehr of Norway has done it, by dint of winning the Swedish Open in 2004 and 2006 (he skipped 2005), and then getting to the semis in 2007. And that was a disappointment to him, "I was 14-6 up in that semi-final to 19, and I was so angry to lose!" Now that's just getting greedy.
Battersea's John Hurst's 14 on the spin was acquired by winning the Brighton Open for the last 2 years which always boasts a mega field. John knows nothing of pressure, and is certainly a good bet now.
As I was leaving the casino I collided with a rather drunk and dishevelled man who looked out of place in the smart surroundings. But he was wearing a WSOB cap at a cocked angle and it proved to be none other than supreme match player Mike Heard of Britain. Mike was the 2005 Monte Carlo quarter-finalist, from where he almost advanced to the semis. He defends his inebriation: "I won the Rotterdam Open under the influence – I can do the same here! John Hurst is giving it some in the bar as well. Don't worry Will, we'll be alright!"
Mike goes on to note, "I haven't had a close match yet: 13-7, 13-7, 13-8!"
Perhaps Italian Piergiorgio D'Ancona can give him a close match. Piergiorgio of the pretty name defeated Spillum of the pretty face in the last 32, who in turn defeated me of the pretty calf muscles in the last 64. My match with Katja was a very exciting battle and at 7-9 down I was in a last roll position, on a 4-cube with two checkers on my deuce point to go into an 11-9 lead. Out popped the dreaded 31, and out I went.
Two rolls earlier I had a very technical checker play in the bear-off which the crowd criticised me greatly at the end for making a huge blunder. It is easy to describe here. You have five checkers left: one on the ace, two on the deuce, one on the 5 and one on the 6, and you roll 41. I played 1/off, 6/2. Everyone preferred 5/off. My error was actually only 0.0142 a loss of equity: 36.3% wins, as opposed to 36.4% with the crowd's play. As it turned out, the minute error did cost me the match, as my following rolls were 62, 31. 0.1% is often the margin between success and failure in this game.
The final British flag in the draw is Kazuhiro Shino, who reached the semi-finals of Monte Carlo last year. I congratulated him on reaching the last 16 here, but he waved me off: "this is nothing, I haven't got anywhere yet. My trophy cabinet is very full – I expect to progress further than this." Kazuhiro defeated British front-runner John Clark en route, who can now concentrate on his TV commentaries.
Two other big names still standing are former French Open winner Jean Philippe Rohr, and Henrik Veje, a quarter-finallist at the Bahamas Backgammon Million.
The stage is set then – can a British player make it to Sunday's semis? Will Krancheva boost the television viewing figures by a few hundred thousand by being there? Will one of the seven unheralded players who I haven't spoken of here also survive till Sunday? Most probably – I look forward to telling you all about them tomorrow.
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