2008 Nordic Open

Welcome back to the WSOB road show, and the quest for one man or woman to be crowned World Series of Backgammon champion 2008. You've gotta be in it to win it, and after the stunning success of the UK Masters last November where 125 hopefuls had a shake at it, we are now situated in icy, windswept Helsingor, where we have a magnificent draw of 154. This is an amazing, pioneering wave the world's backgammon community is currently surfing, and it's a privilege to be along for the ride.

The end of first day has been a magnificent day with some spine-tingling drama. Let me paint you a quick picture. At seven minutes to one in the morning, with three last 16 matches to be completed, their scores were 16-15, 15-15, 14-15. Chairs being used strictly for standing on as 40-50 were crowding round tables creating mini little amphitheatres popping with electricity. Hans Christian Mathieson of Denmark had a big problem though, he was the one who was 14-15 down and was only 3% to win the next. His 66 drew some oooh's and aaah's from the crowd and it came down to a last roll scenario, when Hans needed an all but compulsory double. He found 33! And the roar from the crowd was raucous and unabashed. Hans celebrated winning the game as though it were the match, and duly put a shell-shocked Yousef Azari away thereafter.

The big German gun Jan Jacobowitz was the winner in the 15-15 match.

Saturday was another day of big backgammon names falling like trees. Ray Fogerland couldn't keep his excellent form from the night before together, while poor 'Falafel' lost his round two match at about 4am Saturday morning, and then promptly pull an all-nighter with Gus Hansen over the checkers.

So, the quarter final line-up line is thus: Parchami versus Arildo Idsoe [a highly successful Norwegian Oil businessman]. Denmark's confident and so far untroubled Claus Cato versus Rzymann. Another Norwegian, Hans Lily versus Christiansen (known as 'coach Kedde' due to his thematic approach to the game and willingness to share his knowledge with others); and finally the tasty match-up of
Germany's Riotz Hildsberg (vanquisher of Gus Hansen and the above mentioned Olsen) against Jacobowitz.

The quarter-finals saw two real classics. Home favourite Dane Hans Christian Mathiesen, known as "Kedde", surged into a 10-3 lead against Hans Liby before some extremely nasty swings saw him go 11-15 down, Quite extraordinary. However, when the fourth 5 duly arrived, Liby had been forced to slot. He got hit by Kedde's lethal dice and nearly gammoned. 15-13 became 15-15, and we were at DMP. Kedde had another sensational win to go with his Houdini escape in the last-16 the day before.

The all-German affair of Jan Jacobowitz and Gotz Hildsberg never quite hit the heights, as after Hildsberg early lead, he was simply ground into the earth by the relentless Jacobowitz, who is the biggest name left in the draw.

In the Claus Cato-Tassilo Rzymann match, Cato was clearly the favourite as he has performed formidably in many big tournaments the world over. The match turned out to be all about two erroneous 4 cubes shipped by Rzymann.

Then the semi-final matches were like this:
Manouchehr Parshami, Sweden, versus Hans Christian Mathiesen, Denmark
Tassilo Rzymann, Austria versus Jan Jacobowitz, Germany

• 
• 
• Email to a friend
• Print