Announcing the FIBS 2008 Spring Backgammon Tournament

OBJECTIVE: To have fun in a large-draw, non-commercial, low entry fee tournament among some of the nicest people on the net, including some of the best backgammon players on the Internet. This will be the Fifteenth Annual Spring Tournament on FIBS, and the Directors welcome any player that is courteous, fair, respects others and loves the game, to join in the tournament, to have fun and to sharpen their tournament skills.

DIVISIONS:  One open division with no restriction to the number of entrants.  Individual players may enter at most two times. Players entering twice will be randomly placed in opposite brackets. There will be no reentries once the ladders are posted and play has begun.

Any valid FIBS players other than bots (computer programs) who have a minimum of 50 experience points can register to play in the Spring Tournament; however, the Directors reserve the right to refuse entry to any player, as well as reserving the right to waive the 50-point experience minimum.

ENTRY FEES: All entry fees shall be payable in U.S. Dollars to:

One of the easiest means of payment (especially for international players where available) is by transfer via Paypal. See http://www.paypal.com/ for more information, and use david@escoffery.com for an email address.

Entry fees are USD 40.00 per entry; 90 percent return. 

No player will be included in the draw unless their entry entry is received (either in email or post) by March 29, 2008, and their entry fees received by April 12, 2008. Players living outside the United States are encouraged to send in their entries early, transfer their entry fees via Paypal, or make arrangements with other players in their country who have funds "on account" with the tournament Directors.

Confirmation will be sent via electronic mail when entry forms and entry fees are received. Players with funds already "on account" may obviously apply those funds for entry in the tournament.

Players whose entry fees have not arrived by March 29th, but whose entry forms have been received, will be included in the draw; however, their names will be replaced by "PENDING" in the ladders when posted. This way their opponent will know he or she has a match pending, but the match cannot start until the entry fees are received. If a PENDING player's entry fees are not received by April 12th, the opponent will be awarded a BYE. There will be no exceptions.

REGISTRATION: To register, complete the attached entry form and include with your entry fees. Players with sufficient "on account" funds need only send email confirming their intention to enter. In order to play in the FIBS 2008 Spring Tournament, all players must have a valid internet address where they can send and receive electronic mail, and be capable of using their email system.

FORMAT: The format will consist of a Main and a Consolation ladder. Non-prize-winning losers in the the Main ladder are automatically entered into a Consolation Tournament at predetermined positions. The randomly generated draw will take into account spouses such that they will be placed in different brackets. Please indicate on your entry form if you have a spouse or significant other also entering.

The draw will be be held on March 30, 2008 among those players with entry forms received. BYEs will be appropriately allocated to fill out the ladders. Note that PENDING players are not eligible to receive BYEs, so it is important to make sure your entry fees arrive by the date of the draw. There will be no reentries once the ladders have been posted.

Ladders will be posted by the Tournament Directors at the start of play, and will be clearly marked as to where winners and losers of each match advance.

PRIZE DISTRIBUTION: 90 percent of all the collected entry fees will be returned to the winners of the tournaments. If there are more than 64 entrants, eight places in the Main Tournament, and four places in the Consolation, will be paid according to the following distribution:

MATCH LENGTHS: All match lengths in the Main Tournament will be 9 points, except the semifinal matches which will be 11 points, and the finals which will be 13 points. All match lengths in the Consolation Tournament will 7 points, except the finals which will be 9 points.

START: The tournament is scheduled to begin on March 30, 2008.

VENUE: All matches are to be played on FIBS, between opponents with established FIBS logins. If both players also have accounts on some other backgammon server, and would prefer to play their match on that server instead of FIBS, they may do so; but, if either player insists on playing the match on FIBS, then the match must be played on FIBS.

TIME: Two weeks is the projected time to complete one round, but nobody will be forfeited for failing to do that. The Tournament Directors may declare a forfeit if one player has not contacted either their opponent or one of the Tournament Directors by email in what will be interpreted as an inordinate amount of time. The decisions of the Tournament Directors will be final. Since it is anticipated that the Main Tournament will take AT LEAST two months, and the Consolation three (possibly four) months, to complete, players are not encouraged to enter if they know they will not be available for an extended period of time during this period.

SLOW PLAY: Players are expected to make their best efforts to complete matches in a reasonably timely manner. Any player which believes their opponent is not making such an effort, has the right to complain to the Tournament Directors.

TOGGLE PIP: Both players must have Toggle Pip set to on.

CRAWFORD RULE: In effect in all matches.

OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE: Players are prohibited from using or obtaining any assistance from computers, books, equity tables or individuals (including kibitzers) during the course of a match. Any violation will be viewed as cause for disqualification from the tournament.

ANOMALIES: Players need to confirm with each other as to correct length of their match. If a match has begun at the wrong level and the players notice the mistake "immediately", then the players may agree to restart and play to the correct score, provided that they are in the first game with neither side has a substantial advantage. If either player objects to restarting, then they must play to the match score which was inadvertently set in the invite.

Players are also encouraged to periodically save matches while in progress (many user interfaces like JavaFIBS allow this, or one can toggle move "on" and print out the moves after the completion of each game). If a saved match gets deleted somehow from FIBS, players will need to start a new match and resign the number of games that are necessary to bring the match score back in sync. If an incomplete game gets lost because of a similar problem with the server, that game will be restarted from the start regardless of the position at the time of the crash. There are also rare occasions where a single roll of the dice which has already been displayed (and possibly played) may be lost due to a system error. Here again, it will be viewed as if the roll never happened, and the dice must be rerolled after resumption of the game. In extreme cases where such a lost roll might have had a significant effect on the outcome of the match, the players may ask the Directors for a ruling. It is important to note that in nine years there has never been a server crash during a match that has resulted in a loss of a move or a game in progress.

RESIGNING: Errors cannot be made in resignations. If a player elects to Resign a position, once the opponent Accepts the resignation, the score stands; unless both players agree to the mistake, and restart the match, resigning the appropriate number of games to reach the correct score.

KIBITZERS: There shall be no kibitzing during matches. Others are encouraged to watch any tournament matches in progress, but shall restrict all comments during play to use via the Whisper command. Any player has the right, of course, to "blind" any kibitzer from watching their match; however, this is not encouraged without good reason.

DIRECTORS: The Directors for the FIBS 2008 Spring Backgammon Tournament are David Escoffery (david@escoffery.com) and Kit Woolsey.

DISPUTES: In the event of a dispute, the decision of the Directors will be final.

DROPPING OUT OF TOURNAMENT: If a player elects to drop out of the tournament or is disqualified by the Tournament Directors, their entry fee will not be refunded.

REPORTING RESULTS: All match results should be reported via email to David Escoffery (david@escoffery.com). Every Monday, revised ladders will be mailed to all tournament players. Once play is underway, the current ladders can be found on the tournament webpage which will be located at http://www.escoffery.com/spring.html. An erroneous result may still be corrected, but not after either of the players has begun a succeeding match.