For 2020 we are reprising our online tournament for our Members, and this year there will be two separate events. Beginning on 1st April, they will feature plenty of play at a reasonable leisurely pace, so you can fit games in to your schedule. It’s free to enter and up for grabs is a unique trophy and the kudos of the title of Online Champion…

Tournament director: Julia Hayward

Current Standings

The tournament standings can be found via the following links:

Masters – on WBIF

Intermediate – on Challonge

You do not need a Challonge account to play or check the results, but having one does enable some nice features in the Challonge site.

Registration : Masters

Registration is open to anyone who is a UKBGF member at the close of registration, which will be midnight on 31st March 2020. In the Masters, we will be using the WBIF platform for running the tournament; draws will be handled by the WBIF tournament sent out by email including contact details for other players, and the draw will also be available to view on Challonge. To register, go to the WBIF website, create an account for free, and sign up for the tournament.

Side Pools: Masters

There are two optional side pools for the Masters tournament, of £50 and £20. These will be split 70{abc34b451427cab195a45b5089e4b340f2f9f65c5c385218058b2ce44334f033}/30{abc34b451427cab195a45b5089e4b340f2f9f65c5c385218058b2ce44334f033} to the players who progress furthest in the tournament. Please contact julia@ukbgf.com if you want to take part.

Registration : Intermediates

Registration is open to anyone who is a UKBGF member at the close of registration, and also is rated under 1625 on Gridgammon. (Players who have less than 400 experience and a rating over 1625 may play at the TD’s discretion, as the rating may not be accurate) Draws will be sent out by email including contact details for other players, and the draw will also be available to view on Challonge. To register, send an email to julia@ukbgf.com with your name, and your Gridgammon login.

Side Pools: Intermediates

This year we will also be running two optional side pools for the Intermediates tournament, of £20 and £10. These will also be split 70{abc34b451427cab195a45b5089e4b340f2f9f65c5c385218058b2ce44334f033}/30{abc34b451427cab195a45b5089e4b340f2f9f65c5c385218058b2ce44334f033} to the players who progress furthest in the tournament. Please contact julia@ukbgf.com if you want to take part.

Format and Schedule : Masters

The Masters follows the WBIF 5-times-knockout format. The first five opponents are drawn at random, and you play one 13-point match against each. After that, in each subsequent round any player who has lost five times is eliminated, and all surviving players are paired up in a Swiss-style draw. This continues roughly weekly until only one player remains;

Format and Schedule : Intermediates

The Intermediates follows our popular “world cup” format. In the first phase, we expect that players will take part in round-robins of roughly 7-8 players depending on the number of competitors, playing 11 point matches. You’ll have until the end of June to play these matches. The top three from each round-robin progress to the championship division of the second phase, which is a simple knockout with first round byes for the group winners, the deadlines for each round being at two-week intervals. The final will be announced here and spectators will be welcome! Everyone who doesn’t qualify for the championship division, and first round losers from the championship division, will go into a consolation knockout which will be seeded according to your position in your group, so every match is worth something!

The precise details of the format may be adjusted depending on numbers taking part – any changes will be notified to participants before the start.

Additional rules

Games will be played at GridGammon. We do understand that accounts may take a while to set up so if you don’t already have a GridGammon account, please apply as soon as possible. You are expected to be reasonably understanding should disconnections occur mid-game.

Tournament matches will be ratings-optional – that is, you are free to play rated (and we expect most will) but a player who wishes to play unrated takes precedence. To my knowledge, only GridGammon supports this option.

Online matches do not count towards the UKBGF Rankings. 

Tie-breaks: In the Intermediate group stage, where players finish the group with equal numbers of wins, tie-breaks will be applied in order as follows:

• Head-to-head results within the tied players,
• Total scores of the other players who each individual has defeated
• Fewest forfeits received
• A 1-point tie-break match.

Finalists will be required to inform the Director of the agreed date, time and location of the final game in good time so that prospective spectators can be informed. The final game must allow spectators to watch. We will be happy to announce other games in the knockout phase should players wish.

Forfeits will only be awarded as a last resort, at the TD’s sole discretion and generally only if evidence of one of the following can be provided:

• lack of response to emails,
• failure to appear on two separate occasions,
• deliberate in-game disconnection or other inappropriate behaviour

Hall of Fame

The current Online Champion is Sebastian Wilkinson.

• 2016 (first event, 72 entries): Winner Jacek Wojciechowski, Finalist Leo Waters
• 2017 (90 entries): Winner Neil Webb, Finalist Nick Baker; Consolation Winner Leo Waters, Consolation Finalist David Dennis
• 2018 (89 entries): Winner Paul Whitter, Finalist Cat Bucur; Consolation winner Charles Hill, Consolation Finalist Jonathan O’Grady
• 2019: Winner Sebastian Wilkinson, 2nd Radu Ciortan, equal 3rd Gaz Owen and Alastair Woods