Day 1 (2007-04-05)
Nordic Open 2007 is the only "offline" tournament I play nearly every year. In the past ten years I participated 8 times with changing success. But it has been an entertaining event every time. So, easter was approaching, and I had to convince my government "Steffi" about the necessity to go to Denmark again.
This year I decided to follow a common trend. I'm writing kind of a blog for every day now. Please apologize the layout of these pages, but I have no time to finetune it.
After a cozy 7 hour trip by car I finally arrived at Helsingor. The Swedish coast is only 20 km away and the town is famous for a very old castle I want to visit again this year. You may have seen the movie "Hamlet", most of it was made here.
One of the best places to rest when going to Sjaelland: the bridge from Falster to Sjaelland.
The way to Helsingor. Note the dash "/" inside of the "o".
The hotel Marienlyst is located close to the west coast of the Oresund. My Norwegian room mate Oystein and me took a room with sea view. Nothing can be beat by getting awake in the morning listening to the waves! Playing a tough tournament like the Nordic Open needs a lot of these kind of relaxing features.
The hotel Marienlyst .
Hans Christian Matthiesen aka "Kedde", my team mate of Kolding during a beginners seminar.
My room mate Oystein Johansen.
The dbgf changed a lot this year regarding the tournament. They switched from a classical knock out system with a proressive consolation to a double knock out. So, even when you lose a match in the main tournament you're still able to become Nordic Open champion! More information at www.nordicopen.dk .
Thursday is the traditional warm up day with plenty of action. You can play jackpots, stoppots, satellites for qualifiying at the main tournament and also a qualifier for the Japan Open.
In the afternoon I registered for the first satellite (16 players) and faced Karsten Bredahl. Karsten is a very nice guy with only one drawback: we played each other very often in the past few years and I can't remember me wininng a single match against him! Karsten has won the Nordic Open twice and he also is the current no 1 ranked player in Denmark. We both agreed on using a clock to practice the new Bronstein rule. The Bronstein rule gives you a 15 seconds delay on each move, your global time limit is 3 minutes times the number of match points. It was a quick match and I found myself down 0-1 (match to 7p) in the following position after only a few minutes.
The score is: Karsten 1, ace 0 (match to 7 points)
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Pip counts: Karsten Bredahl 129, ace 129
Position ID: 27EBwEhsZqYVAA Match ID: AQHgABAAAAAA
• Karsten Bredahl doubles
In the position above Karsten thought for a minute and redoubled to four and I took. Waiting for a very efficient recube to 8 when getting a shot I eventually lost a gammon and the match within 20 minutes.
In the second satellite I made it into the semi final against Shahab from Norway. Again at a score of 0-3 (to 7) a 4 cube arose:
The score is: Shahab 3, ace 0 (match to 7 points)
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Pip counts: Shahab 145, ace 130
Position ID: 2TYDgGGanWYAGA Match ID: UQngADAAAAAA
• ace doubles
Shahab took, won game and match. Bye Bye cheap entry into the championship.
It went much better at the Japan Open qualifier. 32 players registered for winning a free flight, hotel and entry fee. 4 wins in a row, the last match played at 2 am, and at 2:45 I found myself in the final. Now I'm waiting for the second finalist.
In the Nations cup (3 players a team, 1000 Euro entry fee!) only 4 teams registered. The final is played between a danish team (Toni Hauboff, Henrik Lober and my elite team mate "Kedde") and Japan (Mochy, Michi and a third one I can't remember). I apologize for not spelling their names correctly ;-).
More news tomorrow when the real tournament will start.
| Day 2 |
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