2008 Midwest Championships

	Glaeser & Fogerlund are Top Guns in the Midwest By Tournament Director Bill Davis • Chicago Tribune report HERE.

	2008 Midwest Championships winner Ray Glaeser with Daughter Daisy and son Greg.
	Ray Glaeser, an expert player from Brunswick, Ohio has captured the 2008 Midwest Backgammon Championships. The annual American Backgammon Tour charity tournament was held Feb. 29-Mar. 2 at the Wyndham Lisle Hotel in Lisle, Illinois. “Sheriff” Bill Davis directed the cowboy-themed 25th anniversary event with great assistance from his posse: Peter Kalba (IN), Carol Joy Cole (MI), Dru Heggen (IL), Amy Trudeau (IL), and Mark King (IL). $5,100 was raised for Anti-Cruelty Society animals.

	MBC "posse" from left: Amy "Hellcat" Trudeau, "Hopalong" Peter Kalba, Sheriff "Wild Bill" Davis, Carol "Kittentail" Cole, "Mustang" Mark King, and "Piggyback Dru Heggen. {Photo by J. A. Miller]
	Glaeser, whose last big win was at the 2005 Indiana Open Jackpot tournament, defeated Maurice Barie (MI), Dave Cramer (IL), Neil Kazaross (IL), Bob Zavoral (IL), and Larry Liebster (NJ) to reach the finals. His opponent was the red hot Greg Merriman from Ann Arbor, Michigan. When the match was played at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, Greg was in the semifinals of the Open Doubles and the finals of the Taki Six-Shooter tourney. After five games in the 15-point finals, Glaeser found himself ahead 3-2. The match was still a tossup after 13 games with Ray leading 9-9. Then in game 14, guns were blazing. With Ray holding a 4-cube, the following critical checker play arose:
	15 point Midwest Champs final match. Ray Glaeser (Black) leads Greg Merriman (White), 9 to 8. BLACK TO PLAY 5-4.

	Should Glaeser (Black) come out to Merriman’s bar-point and play the 4 on his side of the table; or is it better to run all the way 23/14? Ray thought for minute and decided on 23/18, 8/4. A 720 3-ply, precise Snowie rollout shows this play superior to 23/18, 6/2 by .031. But is it better than running all the way? Moving to the bar point leaves 11 aces and 10 more combos of 7 and 8 to hit for a total of 21 shots. By running to the 14-point, Black will be hit with all 3s and 4s plus 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2; that’s 24 shots. Although there are cube considerations after both plays when Black is not hit, the extra three shots swing the decision in favor of Glaeser’s move. A few rolls later, the match was on the line when Greg accepted an 8-cube:
	15 point Midwest Champs final match. Ray Glaeser (Black) leads Greg Merriman (White), 9 to 8. BLACK ON ROLL. CUBE ACTION(S)?

	Ray Glaeser’s racing lead is 56 to 70. He does have a big gap on the 5-point which diminishes some of his advantage; however a 14 pip lead in such a short race is huge. Kit Woolsey’s match equity table gives Merriman 15% winning chances if he passes to make the score 13-8. But Kit admits that his 15% figure is probably low. Snowie says White can win 16.8% but some experts consider that a shade high. The Snowie database can handle this position and says White wins exactly 13.9% of the time. It may not be the .108 blunder that Snowie suggests, but Greg’s acceptance of the 8-cube in this position is a clear error. Glaeser won the bearoff, nearly $5000 prize money, the beautiful $300 Remington bronze trophy “Coming Through The Rye,” and enough ABT points to take over third place in the 2008 race. GRAND CRYSTAL BEAVER The master’s event at the Midwest Championships is called the “Grand Crystal Beaver.” With 16 players at the $800 entry fee level, competition was fierce. Many of the participants were world class including Steve Brown (MN), Steve Sax (CA), Howard Markowitz (NV), Fred Kalantari (MN), Dana Nazarian (CA), Bob Glass (CA), Petko Kostadinov (SC), and 2007 ABT Player of the Year Ray Fogerlund (Bakersfield, California).

	Grand Crystal Beaver Champ Ray Fogerlund at the board he won in Taki Six Shooter.
	Ray had tough DMP victories over Nora Luna Righter (MA) in the round-of-8 and Danny Zamost (IL) in the semifinals to reach the finals. His opponent was nemesis player Stepan Nuniyants of Renton, Washington. For good luck, Stepan wore the same shirt he had on when he defeated Ray in the 2006 Pacific Northwest Championship. The 11-point final immediately turned Stepan’s way when he won a doubled gammon to jump ahead 4-0. But Fogerlund stormed back with a gammon of his own knotting the score at 4-all. A pivotal game in the match occurred with the score tied 7-7:
	11 point Grand Crystal Beaver finals. Ray Fogerlund (Black) and Stepan Nuniyants (White) are tied 7-7. BLACK ON ROLL. CUBE ACTION(S)?

	To reach this setup, Ray rolled an opening 6-5 followed by 2-1, 5-5, and then 4-1 for Stepan. Needing four points to win the tournament, Fogerlund pushed a pressure cube towards his lesser experienced opponent. As Ray had hoped, Stepan dropped and set up for another game. Although a Snowie rollout shows the position to be gammonish (White loses 22.5% Gs), a 720 3-ply, precise rollout makes dropping the position a huge .540 error. In fact, Ray erred .025 by doubling! Fogerlund capitalized off his one point advantage by springboarding to victory 11-7. After the match, Ray later explained the logic behind his mathematically incorrect double: “I think this type of cube is a big reason why I won the ABT last year. Technically strong players don’t double this position, thus failing to take full advantage of those who might pass. I know my opponents well (because I play a lot). I send over psychologically tough doubles that because of score considerations and potential gammon threats, are difficult to take. I try to capitalize on fear if I can. This allows me to steal points from certain competitors oftentimes giving me better results than the rigidly technical bots.” OTHER MAIN EVENTS Congrats to the other main event and first time ABT winners, Barry Miller (IL) in the Advanced, Bob Pietras (IL) in the Limited, and Alan Gold (WI) in the $125 Open.

	$125 Open winner Alan Gold, Advanced champ Barry Miller, Limited winner Bob Pietras.
	The Children’s Tourney (8th grade & under) fielded 15 participants. A $10 entry allowed the kids to play for Remington bronze trophies, iPod products, and precious metals. Congratulations to Philip Ring of Northbrook, Illinois (the late Howard Ring’s son) over Gordon Miller (IL) in the Main division, and Lyle Rubin (IL) over Jonathan Munitz (NY) in the Consolation bracket.

	Philip Ring (the late Howard Ring's son) rolls to victory in the Children's Tourney as mother Linda and sister Lizzy look on.
	SIDE TOURNAMENTS The Battle of the Sexes is always a popular event. This year 32 men (aged 50 and over) battled amongst themselves to see who would challenge the winner of 11 women (of any age) in the final match for 2008 bragging rights. The male victor Stepan Nuniyants (WA) faced female rep Roz Ferris (IL), co-director of this year’s Chicago Open. When the smoke cleared, Roz was victorious.

	Battle of the Sexes winner Roz Ferris with Nevada State Director Howard Markowitz.
	2008 is a leap year, so what better way was there to celebrate on February 29 with a Leapgammon tournament! The rules were simple: best 3-out-of-5 games with no gammons and no doubling cube. Play the game regularly except if you leap your opponent’s contiguous 4- or 5-prime, you win instantly. Ed Bennett (NM) mastered the strategy besting the 32-player field. Arizona director Dan Pelton won the 128-player Quickie event, and the Cheyenne Blitz champion winner was Peoria director Ed Zell. Doubles winners were Open: Rory Pascar (IL) & Stick Rice (OH), and Intermediate: Kieth Hvamstad (MN) & Harold Roberson (MN). The Taki Six-Shooter tourney was used to raise money for our tournament beneficiary, the Anti-Cruelty Society. First prize was a Taki Western Bakelite backgammon board valued at $1200. The game was diabolical -- a one game match with backgammon as usual and the following exceptions. Players used two different colored dice. One die was designated the six-shooter die. When the designated die landed on 6, the opponent had to remove one of the player’s pieces before the player made his move. In the end, Ray Fogerlund prevailed over Greg Merriman. FUN SIDE EVENTS Congratulations to Sean Garber (IN), winner of Rodeo Bagatelle. The Chips game was captured by Jerry Godsey (GA), and Vinton Knarr (IL) joined an elite group of two-time Pig-Rolling champions.

	Pinball Winner Sean Garber (L). Dru Heggen with Pig Rolling Champ Vinton Knarr (R).
	CALCUTTA AUCTION There is always fun action at the auction and this year was no exception. Auctioneer Peter raised over $20,000 in Auction bids with 10% going to the ACS. Did you find the hidden puzzle inside this year’s Midwest Champs invitation? Here is this year’s puzzler:

	Put it together and you get: HORSE + Diana Ross in the WIZ + boot with SPUR + ER = “Horse Whisperer.” The director of that movie was Robert Redford and incredibly, six of our entrants brought a picture of Redford to the Auction and won $20 each for their efforts. Join us next year as we “Make Primes, Not War” in a 1960s-themed event March 20-22, 2009. Complete Midwest Championships RESULTS HERE.