We had a fun afternoon of backgammon yesterday at the 2024 Women’s Championship/2024 Men’s Championship event – here’s the blow-by-blow:
In the Women’s Championship, we unfortunately had a low turnout. Julie reached out ahead of time to let me know that a last minute homeowner’s issue was going to prevent her from making it. I don’t know what happened with Paola or Nicki, but neither of them showed either. So, it was a 3-player field. In round 1, Andrea faced off against Kashic. They had a drawn-out match, over two hours long, mostly single point wins, and going down to the wire. Ultimately, Kashic came out on top, and after a short break, sat down to face Leah in the final (Leah, of course, had a first-round bye from winning two of the qualifiers…)
And it was another drawn-out match, well over two hours again, with mostly single point wins. I was able to come spectate for the last few games, as everything else had wrapped by then. Trailing 4-5 in the match to 7, Kashic offered Leah a cube in a complex mid-game position. Leah (I strongly believe correctly) took, and came damn close to turning it around. With 3 of Kashic’s checkers on Leah’s bar point, and the rest brought in, Leah broke anchor off Kashic’s 3-point with a 64, 22/18 22/16. But Kashic replied with a 65, and hit, 18/7*! Leah re-entered quickly, somehow escaping to her mid-point; then Kashic hit again with a 63, 18/9*! It looked like game over, but Leah saved the gammon with 66 and they moved on to the Crawford game.
Crawford game was Leah’s going away – she was playing very well, and had Kashic on the bar with a closed board. With just a single checker on the roof, the gammon was unlikely, but Kashic had a difficult time entering! Leah had cleared 3 points before Kashic could come in, and it was looking like Leah would get the upset gammon to win the match, when Kashic hit 66 to save it!
Now tied at 6-6, they began the DMP game to decide it all. Once again, the game looked like it was Leah’s going away. Kashic’s board was crunching with two checkers still trapped back on Leah’s 4 point, and Leah had a substantial racing lead as she brought her final checkers around. But then Kashic rolled 66 to escape the back checkers, followed by 33 and 55 on their next two rolls, while Leah was throwing small numbers. Suddenly Kashic had the advantage, with most of their checkers on the 1-4 point, a gap on the 5, and a small stack on the 6, while Leah had a nice even spread across her board. It was all up to the dice at this point, but Kashic kept rolling big and Leah kept rolling small. Nothing you can do at that point – congratulations to Kashic for winning the 2024 Women’s Championship!
In the Men’s Championship, we did also have some absentee-ism. Somewhat as predicted, Aggi did NOT fly in from Hawaii to play. The draw would have set him against Paul, so Paul ended up with the first round bye. Dave and Bodger faced off, as did Joel and Gary. Both Dave and Joel won those matches. In round 2, Dave faced off against Paul, and Joel sat down against Tim (who, of course, had a first-round bye from winning two of the qualifiers…) Dave and Paul were at the table next to me, so I was able to watch the score going up as they played, and Dave came out on top! Meanwhile, Tim squeaked out a victory over Joel, and so Tim and Dave went on to play the final! Ultimately, Dave came out on top, and so congratulations to Dave for winning the 2024 Men’s Championship AND 2024 Player of the Year!
Additionally, we did have a handful of players who had not qualified show up for the knock-out jackpots – plus Bodger joined in after his first-round loss. Congrats to Kyle, Steve H, and Bodger for winning one each of those.
First regular tournament of 2025 is coming up in just a week – see you there!
-Mark