Hi Backgammon Lover!

This year, 2 tournaments will be held in Malta which will take place on the 30th October – 3rd of November 2024. The event will take place in the days leading up to the huge annual Merit Open 2024 tournament in Cyprus. Cyprus can easily be reached with direct flights from Malta to Larnaca (with Emirates Airlines) on Monday the 4th of November – So if you’re already planning to attend Merit Open 2024, this is a great opportunity to warm up and extend the “backgammon holiday” with a quick trip to the mediterranean sunshine island of Malta.

Some info about the tournaments:

WBIF Tour Final Event (30th October – 3rd November 2024)

A final event which is held every year. Last year, the event took place in beautiful Athens, and back in 2022 it was in Malta where a total of €7,200 was awarded to the prize pool from the online qualifying events (see more info below).

To be able to participate in WBIF Tour final, you must participate in one or more of the three online tournaments that take place on wbif.net and end up on the Top 40 Leaderboard which can be found hereThe more matches you win in all the qualifiers, the better your chance is to qualify.

Each online tournament is a triple elimination format with matches to 13 points and must be played on Backgammonstudios Heroes serverIf you choose to participate in all three online tournaments, you’ll have a total of 9 lives, which gives you a really good chance to end up on the Top 40 leaderboard – and thus qualify for the final event in Malta.

Here is an overview of the three online tournaments:

Link to the 1st Qualifier starting on 15.01.2024

Link to the 2nd Qualifier starting on 15.02.2024

Link to the 3rd Qualifier starting on 15.03.2024

It costs €40 to participate in one online qualifier and €10 for WBIF annual membership (if you have not already paid for it). – It is up to each participant to choose whether they want to participate in all three qualifiers. You can start with just participating in the first one and see what happens. Maybe you are skilled (or have Lady Luck on your side) and win a lot of matches in the first qualifier… who knows?! (NOTE the first qualifier already starts on the 15th of January).

The prize distributions are as follows:
The winners of each online tournament will receive €100.
The winner of the Leaderboard will receive €200 + a free entry to the final event. (value €150)Thomas Myhr won the 2021 Leaderboard, great job Thomas!
Number 2 on the Leaderboard gets €100 + a free entry to the final event. (value €150)
Number 3 on the Leaderboard gets a free entry to the final event (value €150)
10% of deposit will be registration fee to WBIF.
The remaining entry fees from qualifiers will entirely go to the Final Event prize pool, which in previous years has been over  7000€!

The participants who end up in the top 40 when all of the online qualifiers have been played will have secured their seat at the finals. (For same day registration in Malta, an additional €150 (10% reg) will be charged to participate in the final. This amount will be added to the prize pool from the above qualifiers)

– Read more here: https://www.maltabackgammon.com

Malta Open Intermediate & Championship Division (1st -3rd November 2024)

Malta Open is a completely separate tournament from the WBIF Live Event. To participate in Malta Open, you don’t need to qualify in any online tournament first. Everyone can participate! 

Malta Open will have two divisions.  Intermediate and Championship and both will be double elimination tournaments, where 11/13 points will be played in the Main bracket and 7/9 points in the Fighters bracket. The top 4 from Main and Fighters will qualify for the quarterfinals where they will play again for 11 or 13 points.

Participation in Malta Open Intermediate costs €100 (€75 + €25 Registration fee)
Participation in Malta Open Championship costs €300 (€250 + €50 Registration fee) – and if you’d like to raise the stake, there’s an optional side pool for an additional €200.

The event will also offer side events such as Consultation Doubles  tournament starting on Thursday evening, Super Jackpot Friday evening, and Saturday Swing, which is our own take on the popular Mochy Millions on Saturday evening, and lastly SpeedGammon Sunday at noon for those hungry for a quick win.

Most of the information can be found at wbif.net or maltabackgammon.com. If you have any questions, you are also welcome to contact Bernhard Mayr, Emma Axling  Claus Elken, Inga Vigh Pedersen or Hans Kristian Kedde Mathiesen, who will be part of the tournament management in Malta.

Good luck! – We hope to see you in Malta!

A couple of useful links:

2024 Flyer : https://usercontent.one/wp/www.maltabackgammon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Malta-Open-2023-and-WBIF-Tour.pdf?media=1662635105

Tournament info: https://www.maltabackgammon.com/reg-info/
Full Schedule : https://www.maltabackgammon.com/schedule-2/
Hotel Accommodation: https://www.maltabackgammon.com/accommodation/
Announce your arrival : https://www.maltabackgammon.com/registration/

Memories from

Malta Open 2019