First Cyprus Backgammon Tournament
The event
The first official Cyprus backgammon tournament organized by the Cyprus backgammon federation was held at UCLan in Pyla on the 4th and 5th of June 2022. The winner and runner up would be part of the team to represent Cyprus at the World Team Backgammon Championship. The tournament was a double elimination tournament with 9 point matches 12 min + 12 sec and there were 36 contestants.
The tournament was joined by Bernhard Mayr, President of the World Backgammon Federation and Michail Proukakis, Board Member of the World Backgammon Federation.
The tournament ended in 9 rounds.
My performance
I ended up winning the tournament with a loss on my second game. I have to admit I had imposter syndrome after finishing the tournament. I did get the analysis of the final and found that I played below 7 which for me is good for a 9 point match.
Tournament Result
The tournament results can be found here
Other
It was really nice getting to know Bernhard Mayr and meeting Michail Proukakis again after the World Team Backgammon Championship in Venice 2022.
During my Bye I had a talk with Bernhard Mayr regarding the game and got a lot of hints. He suggested some good books I should read, he explained to me how colorless counting works, we talked a bit regarding early game cubes and some interesting positions.
Highlight
The highlight of the event was my wife-to-be (at the time of writing) Pinelopi Constantinou, who won Thomas Tenland during the World Team Backgammon Championship in Venice 2022. Someone must have informed the contestants about her win against the Grand Master 1 and people wanted to know if it was her and even asked her about some positions.
Photos
