Liverpool Open Backgammon Tournament 2009
One week after Monte-Carlo - Backgammon World Championship - it is
Liverpool Open. This year during the weekend of July 25th-26th.
25 British Pounds make it a low threshold tournament, negligible
compared to +500 Euro tournaments.
Three holiday makers/vacationers started in Amsterdam - Schiphol and took it "easy" towards John Lennon International. They were curious about Liverpool before take off... and surprised afterwards!
Liverpool Open is a annual event of Liverpool Backgammon, organized by an enthusiastic trio: Simon Jones, Peter Chan en John Wright. This fourteenth edition was the first we visited. So did over 50 other backgammon players, men and women, younger and elder, English and non-English.
How much does Liverpool Open cost, without turning around
every penny?
Registration is 25 Pound or 30 Euro. In return you can play 5 matches on
Saturday and another 3 on Sunday. "Even when I lose?" Yes, even when you lose.
There is an optional side bet - 5 Pound or 20 Pound - to enlarge your price
money, if you're confident enough.
The format on Saturday is Swiss: everyone plays 5 matches of 9 points. Top 16
play the Main tournament on Sunday (11 pts) and the others start the Consolation
(7 pts). Losing on Sunday puts you in the Last Chance.
And a 1-point knock-outer during the week-end, 1 Pound extra for that one.
Included in the registration fee is food and drink (coffee and tea) for both days. A 4-table-wide buffet varying from breakfast to lunch via tea-time or coffee-time to dinner... included. An extra event on Saturday night : a friendly poker game.
Most remarkable of
this tournament is not the format, not the buffet nor the complementary coffee
(!!), not the place of venue - a private English house, home of
Liverpool's Bridge Club, with garden - and not the sunny weekend. Most
remarkable are the ambiance, the courtesy, the friendship,… *enjoying*.
The backgammon matches are real, harsh and cruel like the game can be -
"Backgammon is War" - but we will especially remember the friendly and sociable
atmosphere. As if we were at home.
We flew Friday to Liverpool and returned Monday evening. Peter
Chan picked us up on Friday and gave us a ride back on Monday. Thank you Peter!
As if that was not enough, he also offered us a guided tour throughout
Liverpool.
The Old Liverpool isn't anymore. In 1986 it still was : "But as they left Liverpool's silent streets far behind to march east, the city smog began to clear enough for a pale dawn to shine through.". But the ever-lasting smog, which also characterized London and the other "Black Cities", that smog vanished. The city glows with green parks, green alleys and nowhere a black cabbage white butterfly to spot, the species "created" by the industrial area. A sunny day really is a sunny day.
The City is
big enough to visit without getting lost and it is worth
visiting with its friendly ever-showing layer.
The Beatles, two of the biggest cathedrals, Albert Dock, the bus-boat, two football (soccer) stadiums,
two universities, Europe's oldest China
Town... your pick.
And... Liverpool Open Backgammon Tournament!
Thank you Peter Chan, Jon Wright en Simon Jones. "You made our weekend"
We will be back!