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12th Nordic
"Wide" Open Tournament-Report by Harald Johanni |
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The 12th Nordic Wide Open was hosted by the Scandic Hotel in the center of Copenhagen for the second time. Situated two blocks from the central station (train service to the airport available), aside a little lake, opposite to the Tycho Brahe planetarium the hotel is an ideal home for this mega tournament. Although the big attendance of the players from over the sea was missing this year, because Las Vegas also had a big backgammon tournament in the following week, the DBF´s tournament had over 400 players as usual. Like Mike Svobodny, the Dane Peter Jes Thomsen succeeded in winning both the biggest tournaments in Europe: The World Championship in Monte Carlo in 1993 and the Nordic Open in 2000. Peter doesn´t play any more that many backgammon as in former years but his big experience in competitions made him win match after match. Peter Thomsen´s opponent in the semifinals, Michael Fardan defeated Harald Johanni and Elliott Winslow very easily in the rounds before. His opponents scored only 9 points in addition. Nevertheless, in the semifinals Peter Thomsen got the much better start by taking an 18-5 lead. Afterwards Michael Fardan remembered how easy it was to score points in the rounds before. He recovered and 10 games later he trailed the 23-point match by 19-20. By leading 21-19 Peter Jes Thomsen showed his match experience by doubling a position that normally is too good to double, because the position has match winners by winning 8% undoubled gammons. Apparently he knew that Michael Fardan will take the pass, because in match equity terms double-take is better for him than wait doubling. After double-take and redouble Peter Jes Thomsen cleared his outfield points by rolling double fours and qualified for the finals. Steve Wood from Great Britain, who reached the quarter finals the year before, this year succeeded in reaching the finals by beating Andy Rubien from the United States in the semis. The final between Steve Wood and Peter Jes Thomsen was televised in the big tournament hall and was commented on by the World Champion 1991 & 1998 Michael Meyburg.
The 25-point match found its preliminary
decision in game #5 after Steve Wood´s redouble to 4. Another winner at Copenhagen was the DBF that organized the Nordic Open perfectly as usual. Hope to see you all again 2001 in Copenhagen! |
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