The Columbus Backgammon Club

Chris Yep took the Masters Points lead in the standing with a victory in this month’s tournament, over a field of 10 players. Chris secured first place with a win against Edwin Jones, who was plying in his first main bracket final. In the consolation final, Jon Stephens took third place with a win over Mary Hickey.

Chris currently holds a lead of 30 points over Mike Rezai in second place on the Masters Points table. With only 3 tournaments left in the year, there is a lot of potential for movement. I would like to remind everyone, too, that the top 6 or 7 places can qualify to represent Columbus in the OVCC next year (which will be held here!), so there is plenty for all to compete for! The full current Masters Points standings can be found here.

Thank you again to all who came out to play today, and congratulations as well to our top 3:

1st – Chris Yep
2nd – Edwin Jones
3rd – Jon Stephens

The next monthly tournament will be held on October 9th. See you then!

Heavy rains seemed to encourage people to come inside to play this month, as we had 13 players for the tournament on Sunday. At the end of it all, Jason Marshall ended up winning the main bracket final to take first place over Trevor Dierkes, who places second for the month. Third place was won for the third month in a row by Chris Yep, who won in the consolation bracket final over Jon Stephens.

Podium finishes by Trevor and Chris this month caused the top 3 in the Masters Points standings to tighten even further. Chris moves into second place overall, lurking only 40 points behind current leader, Mike Rezai. Trevor moves to within 44 of the top spot. Less than one tournament win’s worth of points now separate the top 3, making for a very interesting race! The full current Masters Points standings can be found here.

Thank you again to all who came out to play today – your participation is really appreciated. Congratulations as well to Jason, Trevor and Chris!

The next monthly tournament will be held on September 11th. See you then!

We had another great turnout of 12 players for our tournament this month! Those still in attendance by the end saw David Steinberg earn his first win of the year over Maron Cury. This was Maron’s first main event final, and an excellent result for him as well!

In the consolation final, Chris Yep earned third place over challenger Jon Stephens.

Looking at the Master’s Points standings, Chris’ result moves him into a tie for second place with Trevor Dierkes. Both are within a single tournament win of the points total of our current points leader, Mike Rezai. It’s shaping up to potentially be a tight stretch run to the end of the year!

Congratulations again to our top three for the month: David, Maron, and Chris!

Our next monthly tournament will be held on August 14th. See you then!

For the first time this year, we held a tournament with no first-time players! In spite of this, we had a strong attendance of 12 players at this month’s tournament.

This month’s winner is Jon Stephens, who notches his first tournament win of the year with a victory over Mary Hickey in the main bracket final. The consolation final had another pair of veterans squaring off, with Chris Yep coming out on top for a third place finish over Trevor Dierkes.

The pack continues to close up, with 2nd-6th place all gaining points on the current leader, Mike Rezai. Trevor has pulled to within 70 points of Mike, a gap which can be overcome with a single tournament victory. Chris lies just 101 points back. The full Masters Points standings can be found here.

Congratulations again to our top 3 finishers today – Jon, Mary, and Chris!

The next monthly tournament will be held on July 10th! See you then!

Today’s tournament brought 11 players together, including one new participant to our ranks – Rob Brower! This month’s main bracket final saw Mike Rezai and Chris Yep square off, but the match has not been completed due to a lack of time. The current score is 8-3 in favor of Mike, and the match will be concluded at next month’s tournament.

The consolation final did complete within the allotted time, and in the end Trevor Dierkes won over Dave Rearick to take third place.

The Masters Points standings are up to date, with the exception of the 30 points due to the eventual winner of this month’s main final (10 for the match win, and 20 additional bonus points for first place). and can be found here.

Congrats to all of our top 3 finishers today – Mike, Chris, and Trevor, and welcome again to Rob!

The next monthly tournament will be held on April 10th! See you then!

We had another strong turnout for our club with 12 players coming out to play – this time including 2 newcomers: Maron Cury and Travis Weitthoff.

Mike Rezai notched his second Columbus tournament win in a row with a main bracket final win over David Rearick, who placed second for the month. The consolation final consisted of Jon Stephens and Maron Cury, resulting in a win for Jon who takes third place.

Updated Masters Points standings can be found on the website here.

Congratulations to Mike, David, and Jon on their finishes, and welcome to our newcomers: Maron and Travis!

The next monthly tournament will be held on March 13th. See you then!

I’ve recently acquired a couple of books for the club library:

• Another copy of “Backgammon for Winners” by Bill Robertie
• “Backgammon – The Action Game” by Prince Alexis Obolensky and Ted James

These are available now to borrow for club members!

We rang in the new year with a strong turnout for the month – in spite of the inclement weather – with a total of 12 players, including 3 newcomers: Gary and Caitlin Kleinpaste, and Chris Gegas.

Mike Rezai, current Cincinnati Player of the Year, won the first tournament of the year with a win in the main bracket final over Trevor Dierkes, who took second place for the month. In the consolation final, it was a battle of the Chrises in which Chris Yep defeated Chris Gegas for third place.

In what is probably a first for the club, Chris Yep actually notched 2 third place wins on Sunday, as the December consolation final was played as well. In that match, Chris defeated Edwin Jones and earned 27 Masters Points for 2015. This finalizes the Masters Points totals for 2015, and puts Chris exactly 100 points behind 2015 Player of the Year Jeff Boester and in second place for the year.

Updated Masters Points standings for both 2015 and 2016 can be found here.

Congratulations to Mike, Trevor, and Chris Yep on their finishes, and welcome to our newcomers: Gary, Caitlin, and Chris Gegas!

Thank you to all who came out to play today. I am very pleased with the continued strong participation! The next monthly tournament will be held on February 21st – moved out by one week due to the conflict with Valentine’s Day. See you then!

With the turning of the new year, I would like to take this opportunity to announce the creation of a Code of Conduct for the Columbus Backgammon Club that will take effect with the first tournament of the year. Our club exists not only as a place for the existing members to play, but also as an agent for the growth of the game. This means that we should take active steps to ensure that our club is as welcoming and as enjoyable a place to play as we can make it. If you recall, the switch to Legal Moves at the beginning of 2014 was made to help foster that kind of atmosphere.

To this end, I have taken the liberty to formalize this set of guidelines so that we have something in writing that we can commonly reference for any situations that arise as our club grows in size and matures within the backgammon community.  I believe that everything in the code is common sense, and should really not be a surprise to anyone.

Players attending Columbus Backgammon Club events will be expected to comply with the code, with the club director being the final authority on interpretation and any penalties for violations. Printed copies of the code will be available at any of our events, and it is also available on our website here.

All that being said, I would like to encourage dialog about this code, and I am always open to suggestions/changes/rewordings! The club belongs to everyone – I’m just the guy at the steering wheel at the moment!

Thanks, and I hope to see everyone at the tournament tomorrow to start the year off strong!

Jason

2015 was a very strong year for the Columbus Backgammon Club, due entirely to all the members who come out to support our events of all types. Our monthly tournaments and chouettes saw increases in attendance.

Here are some comparisons to last year, which illustrate this very well:

• Our average monthly tournament attendance increased this year to 10.25 – an astounding gain of 2.25 people over last year!
• The highest monthly tournament attendance this year was 14 – up 3 from last year
• We had only 19 unique participants this year at our monthly tournaments this year (down 4 from last year), but coupling with the fact that we had a significantly higher average attendance leads me to the conclusion that our core membership is attending more regularly.
• Our attendance is chouettes went up this year to an average of 4.5 for each event, which was up from 4 last year.
• Our average attendance at the 9 social/open play events was 4.2, which is down from 5 per event last year. We only had 4 of these events in 2014, so this year’s number is more significant.

Our club also had a notable win this year by taking the trophy at the Ohio Valley Club Challenge – a feat that I hope that we can repeat in 2016 and defend the title!

I’m very proud to be a part of this club and its growth, and I hope that we can continue to set records in 2016!