Bristol Open 2008 Report on
Play (Full
report here)
"Mr. Buzz came to
Bristol"
by Roland Herrera, Updated Sept. 3rd / Article complete / still adding content... please send in any interesting positions you may have taken down !
This popular Annual International competition in the South
West attracted 36 players to the Championship flight, 16 players to the
Intermediate flight,
and a bunch of additional players who took part in Stock Pots (Stop Pots), Warm-Ups, and other side events. More than £10,000 in Prize
money was dealt out:
The First prize was 40% of £6,120 (= £2450), and an
optional side pool of £2000 was split 70/30 as was a group auction pool of £570.
The event attracted many of the Top-UK players, and a small field of high class
International players; there was certainly a "buzz" in the air, or as I like to
put it;
"Mr. Buzz" came to Bristol yet again on Sat. 29th August 2008 ! Due to
the nature of the event, the level of play was certainly several notches higher
than usual but Bristol players
(especially the Ladies) did very well against Mr.
Buzz and I took down a nice collection of positions throughout the tournament !
A PC and large magnetic board were made available to players to check and
discuss positions after their matches:
Here is a selection of positions, (and
please send in any exciting or unusual position you may have recorded yourself
!)
Note : Position Files are in SWE (Snowie Position File Format)
1. Above : Loose Canon backfires !
Download Snowie Position File / Early in the
Tournament, Mark Dixon (white on roll) redoubled Peter Edwards to 4 who took:
Peter then rolled double 5 (!) on his first roll and re cubed Mark out.
This
late bear off position turns out to be a borderline initial double / no double
for Money. At this score it gets worse, and as a redouble to 4 at this score
(Mark = 6 / Peter = 3 to 15), it lost Mark 0.032 in equity (13824 rollouts)
This redouble shows Mark is thinking about the cube, aware that a
decision must be made at this stage, and possibly keen to double Peter in before
it gets too good...
pity it backfired so suddenly ! Although Peter got lucky
here, he did, a few matches down the line suffer a devastating blow by Shino
Kazuhiro who deprived Peter of a place in the Semi-Final
by throwing a double 6
(!) to bear off 4 checkers from the 6 point in a late bear off situation.
2 Above : Loose Canon scores fatal blow ! Download
Snowie Position File / Gaz Owen
playing as white redoubles Lawrence Powell to 4. Lawrence has just played a 64
(24/18, 16/12) duplicating 3s.
Now for money play this is a correct Redouble /
Pass, but at this leading score of 10-6 to 15, Gaz commits a double blunder
(-.27) by
giving the cube away on 4.
Gaz may have been speculating on whether he could
scare Lawrence into a drop, but Lawrence did not drop (which would be a
blunder).. Lawrence correctly takes with 25% but gets hit by a double 1.
Gaz
soon wins this match, and obviously plays well to win the following two matches only to narrowly miss out on
a place in the Semi-Final by throwing a 65 on his bear off at DMP against Julian
Fetterlein.
Julian picks up both checkers and Gaz, once a clear favourite then
loses the match. Lawrence on the other hand went on to win the consolation.
2b Below Gaz as light blue Doubles Julian in that same match at 12 all to
15.
Gaz is down 10 pips ; he did an adjusted pip count... then doubles after a
couple of minutes, hoping Julian would drop. However, Julian has 30% and easily
takes. Dropping would lose 0.201 and no double from Gaz would cost 5.5%.
Gaz throws 44, his best, and goes 14/12 up. Gaz has 13 bad numbers ; 55, 54, 65,
62, 53, 63 and 21. Surprisingly 66 is rather good even though it leaves a shot !
3. Above, Get in there ! Saturday Consolation :
Download
Snowie Position File / Miles Farren playing as white doubles Andreas Vrhovsek. Miles has a borderline
cube here;
certainly he has done well to cube at the earliest opportunity at
this even score. However, it does go wrong, before it goes right ; his opponent
correctly takes, turns the position around,
doubles to 4 (See position 4. Below) (perhaps the re cube is a tiny bit
early, though not by much -0.003), but
Miles pulls through to win the match.
5. Above : Download
Snowie Position File. Trigger happy Mr. Steve Morris
playing as white came to me with this position in the Intermediate Flight match
against Derek Clew.
At a guess I quickly and correctly declared
a good redouble / take for Money but alas, not a redouble at this score.
Steve has 77% wins but commits a .053 loss (5%) in equity by his recube to 4.
Steve rolls 4 2 and takes 2 off,
but then Derek actually misses his recube to 8
(despite only having 22.3% wins) before rolling a joker (44 I think) to win 4
points and equalise the score).
Derek only lost .021 by not recubing,
(it's a recube 5b. Below because if Derek loses he will be 10-2 down to 11..
so he needs
very little excuse to turn the cube to 8, thereby going 10-6 up to 11 which will happen 22.3%
of the time. Download
Snowie Position File
5b. Above Derek should redouble to 8. 5c.Below,
Derek's match equity would jump up to 84.3% had he redoubled to 8.
He would not have risked much (compare the size of the middle red rectangle to
the left red rectangle) Derek's low EL cost ratio = 0.11
6. Above : Brave Take :
Download
Snowie Position File / Ray Kershaw playing as
white bravely takes this cube against Michael Sørensen on Sunday in the Last
chance (Which Michael goes on to win).
However, Ray was not to know Michael
would win the last chance, and so Ray correctly takes. A drop would lose Ray 2%.
Michael has 73.5% wins and 12.4% gammons. Good stuff here...
7. Above : Download
Snowie Position File / In a match between Cecilia Sparke and Dave
Moon, John Clark takes on a bet about the best move with 44 in a DMP. Cecilia's
move comes out top in a rollout,
followed by a Snowie non hitting alternative,
followed by John Clark's suggested move ! Truth is there are at least two decent
moves to consider... here they are in the table below....
Cecilia played
a great move, and though not helpful at DMP it would be a good "Gammon Go" move
in other situations.
8. Above : Download
Snowie Position File / Someone (I'm not sure who) put in a Chouette position. The query is how should black play 22.
The second best move is make the 7 point and play 13/11 with the last 2.
That move is -.080, and all other moves such as hitting on the 3 point and
leaving a blot there are even worse.
The only good move is switch 5/3(2) and play 4/2(2).
9. Above Download
Snowie Position File / Ann Pocknell needs to roll a 7 or a 9, then
she still has a little work to do to contain the hypothetically hit checker.
Everyone is expecting her to hit even though her chances of hitting, containing
and winning are only 26%.
However, no such luck comes her way, and she is knocked out of the Semis at DMP
by Simonetta Herrera.
10. Above Download
Snowie Position File : Most Excellent Cube! Cecilia Sparke,
trailing in the match knows something must be done... she correctly doubles Dave
Moon, who does not hesitate to correctly take.
Cecilia has only 58.5% Single game wins, but a healthy 22.8% gammons. The high
amount of gammons is not too hard to spot, especially considering white's 3 men
on the 24 point...
usually a drop.... but here Cecilia is on the bar and to drop would mean double
blunder. Not to cube would also be a blunder.
She rolls 26 but I am not sure if she came out to the 17 point or if she slotted
her 4 point (preferable since it wins more gammons though less single games).
11. Above : Download
Snowie Position File / We've reached the Finals, between
Simonetta Herrera and Julian Fetterlein. Julian (yellow) is trailing heavily in
the match and correctly cubes with 60.5% winning chances and 18.7% gammons.
Simonetta correctly takes; to drop would be to triple blunder. If Julian were
not to cube he would lose .027, hardly an error, but Julian knows he must do
something ! This game soon builds up to an exciting 8 cube,
as we shall see ! 12. Below Simonetta works through her problems aided by
a pair of double 6s. She now has 89.5% wins, and Julian has 10.5% wins. She
correctly redoubles to 4, and Julian takes, as he has more than 10%.
It would cost Julian .058 to drop, and it would only cost Simonetta 0.029 not to
redouble. She is correct to redouble, though in a few rolls she will wish she
hadn't as we shall see !
12. Above. Download
Snowie Position File / Simonetta's redouble to 4 is accepted, and
she rolls 54 to clear her 7 point. Julian rolls 44 and plays 20/4. Simo rolls 42
to bear off a checker on the 2 point.
Julian rolls 41 and plays 8/3. Simo rolls one of her 6 bad 1s... it's a 41...
and she has now left Julian a shot (11 rolls). Julian doubles to 8 (!) Download
Snowie Position File / Simo has
to take (or else commit a 10 fold blunder).
Simo prepares for the worst as Julian hits, and wins 8 points. At 10-11 down,
Julian, in the next game comes to his bear off stage, gives a cube where Simo is
trailing 7 pips and Julian has 2 checkers off.
Somehow Simo takes, loses and goes 12-11 down to 15. She equalises the score to
12-12 and a break is called. Another break is called at 14-14 to 15,
double match point (DMP)... and with great mental composure
Simonetta, completely forgetting about her recent 8 point loss, brings the DMP
home to victory against current Backgammon Giant #48, and top UK player, Julian
Fetterlein.