The Columbus Backgammon Club

Good weather outside cut down the attendance this month for the monthly tournament, with only 6 participants competing this time around. This month, Bob Hickey was able to take home the win, adding to his Masters Points lead for the year. Chris Yep won the consolation final over David Rearick to keep pace with Bob. We are now halfway through the year and the points race is very competitive, leaving room for anyone to be there at the end.

Congratulations, Bob! Thanks to all for coming out and participating. The next monthly tournament will be held on Sunday, July 14th.

The current Masters Points standings can be found here.

Holidays in May are causing some changes to the schedule for the coming month! Mother’s Day falls on the same day that the May Monthly Tournament would normally fall, so this has been rescheduled for May 19th. Additionally, the Open/Social Play event for May has been cancelled due to a conflict with Memorial Day.

See the right-hand sidebar for a full list of updated dates and times.

Thanks to the generosity of Mike Rezai, we have a few more issues from the Backgammon with the Champions series added to the library of books that are available to borrow. All available materials can be found on the Library page of the website.

Please let me know if there are items that you would like me to bring to you at the next event.

Thanks, Mike!

February brought 7 players out for our monthly tournament this time around. Bob Hickey won the main flight final over Chris Yep to get his second win of the year. Chris was able to defeat David Steinberg in the consolation bracket to take second place. The current Masters Points standings can be found here.

The next monthly tournament will be held on March 10th, 2013.  See you there!

2 rule changes are being implemented for the upcoming year that directly affect the monthly tournaments and the Masters Points system. First, matches that are won by forfeit for any reason will not contribute any points towards the winning player’s Masters Points total. The second change is that we will be implementing the Legal Plays rule. For comparison, the current rule is:

ILLEGAL PLAYS: A player may condone his opponent’s illegal play by rolling his dice or turning the cube. Otherwise, he must require the opponent to replay the entire roll legally.

The new rule being implemented is:

LEGAL PLAYS: A player MUST point out his opponent’s or his own illegal play if he notices it, and correct such play before the game continues.

We have already been using the Legal Plays rule during chouettes, but not during the monthly tournaments in order to more closely emulate the conditions that one would find at a major tournament. However, I feel that this change is important for fostering a better atmosphere for newer and less experienced players.

I’ll be reminding players of these changes at the upcoming January Monthly Tournament.

The next monthly tournament for the Columbus Backgammon Club will be at 1:00PM on October 7th, 2012 in the upstairs bar of KDB (Kitchen Den Bar) at the Easton Town Center on the northeast side of Columbus.

Registration starts at 12:30PM, and you are encouraged to come out early to have lunch and support the restaurant. More information about the tournament format can be found at our website, http://www.columbusbg.org.

If possible, please RSVP to jason@columbusbg.org if you intend to be there. This is not a pre-registration, but rather a way to get a rough count of the expected number of people as a courtesy to our host.

For those of you who are relatively (or completely!) new to the game of backgammon and want to learn more, there is a monthly event just for you! The second of these is at 1:00pm on Sunday, October 21, 2012 at our normal meeting place in the upstairs bar of KDB (Kitchen Den Bar) at the Easton Town Center. The focus of these sessions will be a combination of no-pressure social play and some informal lessons learn some basic strategy. Bring your board (if you have one), and come play!

Please e-mail me at jason@columbusbg.org if you intend to be there. I just need to get a rough count of how many people to expect.

The June monthly tournament of the Columbus Backgammon Club will be held in just 3 days at 1:00PM on Sunday,  June 3rd, 2012 at the Max & Erma’s restaurant in Reynoldsburg. The address is:

8050 East Broad Street
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-8024
(614) 367-0370

Registration starts at 12:30PM, and you are encouraged to come out early to have lunch and support the restaurant. More information about the tournament format can be found at our website, http://www.columbusbg.org.

If possible, please RSVP to jason@columbusbg.org if you intend to be there. This is not a pre-registration, but rather a way to get a rough count of the expected number of people as a courtesy to our host.

It’s a fairly full month for the Columbus Backgammon Club, with a number of tournaments and other events happening!

 
Columbus Backgammon Club to compete in the Ohio Valley Club Challenge

The final lineup has been determined for the team representing the Columbus Backgammon Club in the Ohio Valley Club Challenge in Cincinnati on April 29th:

David Rearick
Harold Shirey
Bob Hickey
Mary Hickey
Mike Rezai
Jason Marshall

Good luck to everyone, and here’s hoping we can bring home the trophy!

Columbus Backgammon Club advances in the USBGF National Club Team Championship

While no official communication has been released, it appears that our club team, Ready for Prime Time, has advanced to the knockout round of the tournament. Wish team members Stick Rice, Chris Yep, Mary Hickey, and Jason Marshall luck when you see them next; the competition only gets stiffer from here.

You can follow the bracket here:

http://usbgf.org/usbgf-events/2012-usbgf-national-club-team-championship/club-champ-drawsheet/

and more updates will be sent out via this newsletter!

May Monthly Tournament

Our May monthly tournament for the Columbus Backgammon Club in 2012 will be held in 2 weeks at 1:00PM on May 6th, 2012 at the Max & Erma’s restaurant in Reynoldsburg. The address is:

8050 East Broad Street
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-8024
(614) 367-0370

Registration starts at 12:30PM, and you are encouraged to come out early to have lunch and support the restaurant. More information about the tournament format can be found at our website, http://www.columbusbg.org.

If possible, please RSVP to jason@columbusbg.org if you intend to be there. This is not a pre-registration, but rather a way to get a rough count of the expected number of people as a courtesy to our host.

Chouettes anyone?

We held a casual chouette on April 15th at KDB at Easton, with 7 people showing up for a casual afternoon of play. The more experienced players helped to teach the newer members the ropes, and it was a pretty good success. The next chouette that I can help host will be on May 20th at the same location, with more information coming soon.

If anyone else wants to announce any meetups, please feel free to e-mail me at jason@columbusbg.org, and I can get the word out!