The 2023 NSW Open Backgammon Tournament was held on Saturday and Sunday July 15-16 at the North Ryde RSL with Gary Stavrou as Tournament Director. The tournament consisted of a triple elimination (Swiss style) Main Flight and, on the Sunday, a knockout Second Flight for those eliminated on Saturday.
30 players entered the main flight and after eight rounds just six remained, each having lost two matches. As the 2nd and 3rd scorers (Steve Clarry and Martin Pikler) had identical scores, they played a one-point sudden death match to determine who would play the top scorer, Michel Gerges, in a decider round. This final round was between Michel Gerges and Steve Clarry. Michel won and was declared the 2023 NSW Champion.
The Main Flight placings were:
1st Michel Gerges
2nd Steve Clarry
3rd Martin Pikler
4th Ben Phillips
By the end of the first day, 5 rounds of the Main Flight had been played and 15 players had been eliminated. Although they were all eligible to free entry to the Second Flight on Sunday, only 10 chose to enter. By the end of the second round the numbers were whittled down to 3, leading to a final match between the top two scorers.
The Second Flight placings were:
1st John Symon
2nd Hossein Haydari
Sydney Backgammoners thanks all entrants for their participation and congratulates the winners.
— Gary
