The Rules

Each 7-point match awards two separate points, tracked throughout the event:

• 1 point for the match win — awarded to the player who reaches 7 points first.
• 1 point for the PR win — awarded to the player with the lower performance rating (PR) in that match, as evaluated by eXtreme Gammon 2.

A player can therefore earn 0, 1, or 2 points from a single match. Both are recorded for every match — the difference from Brighton is what each one is used for, not whether it's tracked. See the callout below and the Cup Points section.

The European Players Cup runs across several BMAB Players Cup legs — Brighton, then Aachen, with further cities to be confirmed — culminating in a season final in Budapest.

• Every match at Aachen awards Cup points on the same basis as every other leg: 1 Cup point for the match win, 1 Cup point for the PR win — up to 2 points per match.
• These Cup points accumulate to each player's running European Players Cup season total, carrying toward qualification for the Budapest final.
• Cup points are entirely separate from the Aachen leg's own standings and champion (Section 03). A player can lead the Cup points table for this leg without being the Aachen champion, and vice versa.

BMAB Aachen is played as a single 6-round Swiss event — there is no separate knockout stage.

• Pairings are drawn based on standings by match-win points only at the time of each draw — the same convention used at Brighton, since PR analysis takes longer than the gap between rounds.
• Players are paired within their current score group wherever possible, and a repeat pairing is avoided unless the score groups leave no alternative.
• If there's an odd number of players in a score group, one player floats to the adjacent group for that round.

There is no bracket. After Round 6, the Aachen champion is whoever has the most match-win points across all six rounds. PR win points are not counted toward this placing — see the callout in Scoring, above.

• If players are tied on match-win points after Round 6, the first tiebreaker is average PR across all rounds played — lower PR average is ranked higher.
• If PR average is also tied, the head-to-head result between the tied players decides, if they played each other during the event.
• If neither resolves it, the tie stands and is recorded as a shared placing.

Note that PR is used here only to break a tie on match wins — it remains a tiebreaker, not part of the primary result. The separate European Players Cup season points (Section 02) are unaffected by this tiebreak and are calculated independently from the full match-win + PR-win totals.

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

• Field is capped at 48 participants.
• The top 4 players by points share the entry fees collected: 40% / 30% / 20% / 10% for 1st–4th. Ties are split evenly among the tied players.
• Two additional €100 side pools: one to the player with the most points, one to the player with the best PR. Entry-fee prizes and side-pool winnings are paid out in full.
• "Points" for prize purposes is the same match-win measure used to decide the Aachen champion (see Scoring and Final Standings, above) — separate from the win + PR European Players Cup points in Section 02.
• Registration is binding upon receipt of the €150 participation fee, by 1 October 2026, via PayPal to juergen.schettler@gmx.net or bank transfer to Jürgen Schettler, IBAN DE17 3002 0900 0401 5611 45, BIC CMCIDEDDXXX.

• All matches are played on live boards, provided by the organiser — boards by Hector Saxe, clocks by ZMF.
• Match length: 7 points, throughout the tournament.
• Clock: 14 minutes per player and match, plus 12 seconds per move / double-up.
• Play follows the rules of the World Backgammon Federation (WBF); the tournament is registered with BMAB, the international governing body, as a leg of the European Players Cup.
• Matches must be live, clocked, and pre-designated — pairings are published before each round is played, consistent with BMAB's rules for a qualifying tournament.
• Dice on checker is valid — the roll counts as shown; no reroll is required.
• Every match is recorded and transcribed by the Backgammon Data team; streaming coverage will be confirmed alongside the schedule.
• Start times and individual adjustments. Round start times will be fixed per the published schedule once confirmed, and may be varied by the tournament director. Any decision of the director on timing is final.

All matches are recorded and transcribed by the Backgammon Data team, then submitted to BMAB for analysis. (Note: BMAB's general rules default to splitting transcription between the tournament director and participants — Aachen's team handles all of it instead, so players have nothing to transcribe.)

• Analysis uses eXtreme Gammon's "World Class Analysis" preset with the "Gigantic" search interval, a 15×8 bear-off database, and counts resignation errors toward PR.
• Each match is analysed once.
• Results are published as each match's analysis is completed — pairing doesn't wait on it (see the callout in Swiss Pairing, above). PR is still evaluated for every match, even though it isn't used to decide the Aachen champion — see Scoring.

Full detail on BMAB's process: bgmastersab.com/about.