Backgammon Fever in Sochi

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Russian Sport Backgammon Federation (RSBF) has recently organized an international backgammon tournament in Sochi where 2014 Winter Olympics was held. In this lovely touristic city with its magnificent scenic mountains and long beaches, 74 players from 8 countries had a lot fun in the tournament with a very promising organizational quality. The tournament showed that a big backgammon base might emanate from Russia and surrounding countries if RSBF goes on organizing international tournaments in other cities of Russia and attract strong players of the world. The head of the federation Kirill Ignatyev, the tournament director Eldar Gyul and whole organizing team showed great enthusiasm to keep backgammon in Russia spread with the aid of international competitiveness. Rising modern face of Russia with fading cultural remnants of socialist life style produces nice colors for unprejudiced eyes. Playing backgammon in Sochi brought an opportunity where friendship and competition exist together. Hopefully international backgammon tournaments in Russia will continue and help backgammon grow.

The tournament showed a bouquet of nice features. Mandatory use of baffle boxes, scoreboards and clocks showed that backgammon can be more fun if some standardization of equipment is achieved. Russia with its cultural heritage of attention to detail and sports attitude provided a good example for all backgammon world in how to proceed for wider acceptance of this game. A very strong 11-point triple elimination format with computerized execution, effective use of the tournament web page for publicizing and sharing results were very comfortable for both players and followers. Streaming 6 matches at a time was also incredible. Big added prize money was the main factor attracting international professional players. Rest of the world against Russian team was very fun and evoking friendship. Mochy’s seminar was very interesting to include human factor successfully in the backgammon. Detailed results and some photos are as follows:

SOCHI INTERNATIONAL BACKGAMMON CUP
May 6-10, 2015; Sochi, Russia

OPEN (46): 1-Jürgen Orlowski (Germany), 2-Jan Jacobowitz (Germany), 3/7-Alexander Khandin (Russia) / Garik Lagvilava (Abkhazia) / Atsamaz Arsagov (Russia) / Yaroslav Gusev (Russia) / Nail Arzuhanov (Russia); 1LC-Michael Larsen (Denmark), 2LC-Arda Findikoglu (Turkey), 3LC/4LC-Sergey Chertkov (Russia) / Bagrat Rapava (Russia).

INTERMEDIATE (20): 1-Joni Khvichiya (Georgia), 2-Roman Lazarashvili (Russia); 1LC-Andrey Malikov (Ukraine), 2LC-Nikita Ljashenko (Russia).

SUPER JACKPOT (8): 1-Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan), 2-Michihito Kageyama (Japan).

DOUBLES (16 teams): 1-Jürgen Orlowski (Germany) & Maik Stiebler (Germany), 2-Aleksei Askurava (Russia) & Sergey Alenin (Russia).

WARM-UP (64): 1-Timur Bulekbaev (Russia), 2-Sergey Alenin (Russia).

LADIES TOURNAMENT (10): 1-Olga Komarova (Russia), 2-Julia Gromenkova (Russia).

ONE-POINT TOURNAMENT (64): 1-Adail Dinmammadov (Azerbaijan), 2-Arda Findikoglu (Turkey).

REST OF THE WORLD CHALLENGE VS TEAM RUSSIA: Rest of the World Team: Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) / Avetis Rostomyan (Armenia) / Arda Findikoglu (Turkey) / Razi Bobrov (Israel) / Sabri Büyüksoy (Turkey) / Michihito Kageyama (Japan) / Ashot Vardapetyan (Armenia) / Michael Larsen (Denmark) / Thomas Fuglheim (Denmark) / Adail Dinmamedov (Azerbaijan) / Maik Stiebler (Germany) / Götz Hildsberg (Germany). The World Team won 9-3.

Thanks to Arda Fındıkoğu for some of the photos above.