Play65 at WSOB Cannes – Summary
So, what happened to the 3 Play65 qualifiers who had made it into the final of the 2007-8 World Series of Backgammon in Cannes?
As you recall, Play65 sent 3 players to the 2008 WSOB final at the Palm Beach Casino in the French Riviera. The 3 players - Andrew Plater of England, Athanasios Lagopatis of Germany and Aron Korper of the Netherlands – were the winners of the special qualifying tournaments held on Play65 throughout May, June and July. This trio got to play against the world’s top ranked backgammon players and against online and live qualifiers as themselves.
Aron Korper, who played a live backgammon game for the first time, was defeated 3-2 by Falafel Natanzon, the Israeli backgammon player who was named 2007 Giant of Backgammon, and dropped out of the competition. Athanasios Lagopatis, who was placed against Rida Hassan, number 1 on World Series of Backgammon ranking list, lost 3-0 and left the tour. Andrew Plater played against John Hurst, the winner of the UK Masters, the first stop of the 2007-8 World Series of Backgammon, won 3-2 and progressed to the quarter finals.
On the quarter finals of the WSOB finale, Andrew Plater faced French Frederick Andrieu, another super satellite qualifier, and lost 3-0. Frederick Andrieu, on the other hand, moved up to the semi finals and then to the finals, beat American Robert (Bob) Koca and won the prestigious WSOB Championship title and the grand prize - €100,000.
In addition, two members of Play65 Danish team, who previously represented our backgammon site at the 2008 WSOB Nordic Open, played the WSOB Final as part of the 8 top ranked players in the world. Jacob Simonsen made it to the quarter finals, where he lost to the 2008 WSOB finalist, Bob Koca. At the same time, Karsten Bredahl lost to Falafel, yet became the number 1 ranked player in the world with 1750.8 rating points.
Since photographing during the WSOB final was prohibited, here are some more pics from the Riviera Cup:
July 29th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
[…] July 17 at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France. The final table is due for today and the 2007-8 WSOB final table, with 16 players – 8 of them are the highest ranked players in the series and the 8 are […]
August 17th, 2008 at 4:07 am
[…] and not just a participant, a finalist! – at the World Series of Backgammon final stop the Riviera Cup, and a presenter at the WSOB final (which, as you recall, included 3 Play65 qualifiers). And […]