Overview

What is the BMAB Players Cup?

BMAB Aachen is a 6-round Swiss tournament, open to any entrant regardless of BMAB rank, capped at 48 players. It's the second leg of the European Players Cup — a run of BMAB Players Cup events across a few cities, with points carrying toward a season final in Budapest, following on from the opening leg in Brighton.

Aachen is hosted by the Hirnakrobat team at the Erholungs-Gesellschaft Aachen 1837, a historic city palace with magnificent rooms. On offer: race, blitz, prime, and contact backgammon at its best. Play follows World Backgammon Federation (WBF) rules; the tournament is registered with BMAB, the international governing body. See Tournaments for the wider series as other legs are announced.

Eligibility

Who can enter?

  • Open to all — no BMAB rank or PR average requirement
  • Capped at 48 participants — registration is binding once the participation fee is received
  • Participation fee €150 per player, due by 1 October 2026 — see Prizes & Fees, below, for what it covers and how to pay
  • Registration and payment go through the host organiser, Jürgen Schettler (Hirnakrobat) — email juergen.schettler@gmx.net to enter
  • Rules questions go to the tournament director — email hello@backgammondata.com
Prizes & Fees

What it costs, what it pays

Two separate charges apply. The €100 entry fee funds the prize pool. The €150 participation fee covers video recording of every match, transcription, XG analysis, transmission to BMAB, tournament registration, and a share of room costs.

Overall Prize Pool Top 4 by Points
The four players with the most points share the entry fees collected: 40% / 30% / 20% / 10% for 1st through 4th. Ties are split evenly between the tied players. Entry fees are paid out in full.
Side Pools €100 Each
Two additional €100 side pools: one to the player with the most points, one to the player with the best performance rating (PR). Side pool winnings are paid out in full, alongside the main prize pool.

"Points" here means match-win points — the same measure that decides the Aachen champion; see Format, below, and the rules page for how that differs from Cup points.

Format

How the tournament works

Six Rounds — Swiss, No Knockout 7-Point Matches
Aachen is played as a single 6-round Swiss event — there is no bracket and no knockout stage. Every round is a single 7-point match, and pairings are drawn based on standings as the event progresses. The exact pre-drawn / live-draw split for pairing will be set once the schedule (number of playing days) is confirmed, and published here and on the rules page.
Aachen Champion — Match Wins Only Local Result
Unlike Brighton, the Aachen leg's own champion is decided solely by match wins — whoever wins the most of their 6 matches tops the table. PR performance is not part of this event's own placing. See the rules page for the tiebreak if two players finish level on match wins.
European Players Cup Points — Skill and Win Season Standings
Even though Aachen's own trophy goes by match wins alone, every match still awards 1 Cup point for the win and 1 Cup point for the lower PR — the same skill-and-win system used at Brighton. Those points carry through to each player's European Players Cup season total on the way to the Budapest final, regardless of who's crowned Aachen champion. See Cup points in the full rules.
Schedule

Day-by-day programme

Round-by-round times to be announced
BMAB Aachen runs Tuesday 20 – Wednesday 21 October 2026 at the Erholungs-Gesellschaft Aachen 1837. The round-by-round timings within those two days haven't been published yet — once the organiser confirms them, the full day-by-day programme will go here, the same way Brighton's was. The champion is still whoever tops the standings on match wins after Round 6 — see Format, above.

Individual start times will be set at the tournament director's discretion once confirmed — see the tournament rules.