The competition is held every year. There is a contender tournament, where any player who can prove the ability by averaging below 4.5 can enter the tournament. Throughout the tournament, you get points for the match win and the PR (Outplaying your opponent). It is a skill-based tournament; the winner of this tournament gets to play the previous year’s champion. The current champion is the number 1 player in the world – Mochy! Many people consider this an event about who the best player in the world is. This year, the UBC was held in Istanbul, Turkey. This year had the strongest field to compete; there were 28 players from all around the world. It was a lovely week full of backgammon. The first three days were about the preliminary part. In other words – all players played 14 matches, after playing 14 matches, the best 6 players who got the most points + 2 best players among the rest with the best PR qualified for the knockout Quarterfinals!
Quarterfinals:
1. Michihito Kageyama vs. Umur Aras
2. Ali Cetin Belene vs. Tim Cross
3. Sander Lylloff vs. Sebastian Wilkinson
4. Zdenek Zizka vs. Dirk Schiemann
On day 4 – quarterfinals and semifinals were played. In the quarterfinals, the players who performed better in the preliminary rounds prevailed, except for a big surprise Umur defeated Michy with a fantastic performance.
Semifinals:
1. Ali Cetin Belene vs. Sander Lylloff
2. Zdenek Zizka vs. Umur Aras
An incredibly entertaining show was streamed on the Backgammon Galaxy channel with the commentary from great Nick Blasier. Backgammon Galaxy, currently having 15K subscribers, is doing an excellent job for the backgammon community. The stream reached over 400 live viewers in the finals, where Sander Lylloff and Zdenek Zizka met.
Sander Lylloff prevailed over Zdenek Zizka in one of the most entertaining finals one could ask for, as Nick Blasier stated on the stream. Sander will challenge the current champion Mochy later this year. The date is to be announced. We know another contender tournament will be held next year in the exact location – WoW hotel in Istanbul – it will be connected to the biggest backgammon tournament ever played in the world with 1000 players (expected). STAY tuned for more 🙂
Image: BMAB results
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