PRIMETIME - USBGF

PRIMETIMEB A C K G A M M O N

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE USBGF MARCH - APRIL 2014

Us Backgammon federation

Mochyvs fogerlundFinal of the Dual-Duel at the Texas Backgammon Championships

visit us at usbgforg

gammonishvolatility

Jason Pack analyzes the World Championship Final

Video LessonPhil Simborg lectures on

breaking the anchor

longhorncLASSIC

Alfred Mamlet takes the Masters

at San Antonio

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New Modified Double-Elimination Formatnew format for the 39th world championshipMain flight fighters bracket amp last chance

With its new President Bill Riles at the

helm the US Backgammon Federation is

thriving Phil Simborgrsquos candid interview

reveals what makes Bill such an effective

leader And speaking of leaders the results

of the first web-enabled member-wide

election of seats on the USBGF Board of

Directors are in Dorn Bishop and Neil

Kazaross won seats on the Board with

Karen Davis Patrick Gibson and Richard

Munitz coming back for second terms

Therersquos much more mdash see especially the pro-

file of Jamie Rosen at age 14 the youngest

participant in the NY Metropolitan Open

event and the feature on the Directorrsquos Cup

II online tournament winner Greg Kurrell

Check out the live and online tournament

rankings and as Bill Riles says Get in the

- KAREN DAVIS

Karen Davis is Chairman of the USBGF Board of Directors and Managing Edi-tor of PrimeTime Backgammon

KAREN DAVIS

Featuring over 150 photos from major

tournaments

4 5USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine

By Karen Davis Managing Editor

We are delighted in this

content-packed issue of

PrimeTime Backgammon

to welcome two distinguished new authors

to our galaxy of member-contributors First

Ray Fogerlund three-time winner of the

American Backgammon Tour and highest

ABT annual point winner lets readers inside

his head to see how he conceived executed

and almost successfully pulled off a daring

game plan against world champion Mochy

Mochizuki in the Dual-Duel event at the

Texas Backgammon Championships Then

Jason Pack a foreign-affairs expert who has

written for (among others) the New York

Times and the Wall Street Journal describes

the game-theoretic strategy used by Slava

Pryadkin in winning the 2013 Backgam-

mon World Championship over former

champion Lars Trabolt

The excitement and buzz of first-class

tournament play is attracting a growing

field of entrants and world-wide streaming

audiences In this issue Steve Sax submits

reports on two major events the Texas Back-

gammon Championships and Decemberrsquos

California State Championships From our

foreign desk the fine Turkish player Sabri

Buumlyuumlksoy fills us in on the action in Cyprus

where several organizers have recently run

very well-attended and successful tourna-

ments and provides a stunning pictorial

album of the ISTAVDER 6th Anniversary

Festival in Turkey And I report in prose

and photos on the New York Metro Open

mdash where players from 10 countries con-

verged at the beginning of the New Year

to compete for Statue of Liberty trophies

On the organizational front Scott Butki

director of the Austin Backgammon Club

shares with us his approach to nurturing a

local club Scott as a journalist and special

education teacher has received a wealth

of on-the-job training in patience and

persistence mdash qualities that he has put to

good use in turning out his club members

in force to enter this yearrsquos Texas Backgam-

mon Championships

March - April Issue PrimeTime Backgammon

With its new President

Bill Riles at the helm

the US Backgammon

Federation is thriving

Phil Simborgrsquos candid

interview reveals what

makes Bill such an

effective leader

Questions or comments about PrimeTime

Backgammon We want to hear from you

Contact us via e-mail at infousbgforg

INTERVIEW WITH BILLBill Riles has put his stamp on USBGF engaging members and leading with energy enthusiasm and an engineers drive to solve complex problems

JASON PACKA foreign affairs analyst Jason delves into the

strategies deployed to become world champion

BACKGAMMON IN CYPRUSSabri captures the charm glamour and excitement

of backgammon in Cyprus in words and pictures

TIP OF THE TEN-GALLON HATRay Fogerlund shares his strategy wit and insight in his final Dual-Duel match with Mochy

MOCHY DOES IT ALLSteve Sax captures the bigger-than-life Texas Backgammon Championships

In This Issue

FEATURED

16 INTERVIEW WITH BILL RILESRiles brings his entrepreneurial spirit and experi-

ence to the helm of the USBGF BY PHIL SIMBORG

26 A TIP OF THE TEN-GALLON HAT Funny revealing high-drama mdash they all describe

this article by Ray Fogerlund on his match with

Mochy in the final of the Dual-Duel

BY RAY FOGERLUND

44 LIMITING GAMMONISH VOLATILITY

How to beat a world champion mdash Jason Pack ana-

lyzes Slava Pryadkins strategy at Monte Carlo

BY JASON PACK

56 BACKGAMMON IN CYPRUSGlamour class and first-rate competition are alive

and well at Cyprus tournament venues

BY SABRI BUumlYUumlKSOY

64 ISTAVDER 6TH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL

The Turkish Club ISTAVDERs 6th Anniversary event

was a model of tournament organization sponsor-

ship and celebration with 270 participants

70 BREAKING THE ANCHORUSBGF Educational Adviser Phil Simborg lectures

on when to break your anchor and run

BY PHIL SIMBORG

March-April 2014

PLAYER PROFILES

78 JAMIE ERIN ROSEN14-year old Jamie has captivated her classmates amp

world-class players with her love of backgammon

BY KAREN DAVIS

84 GREGORY KURRELLOnline backgammon helped Greg Kurrell find the

love of his life 10000 miles away

BY KAREN DAVIS

LOCAL CLUB NEWS 86 AUSTIN BACKGAMMON CLUB

Patience and persistence pay off for Scott Butki

BY KAREN DAVIS

TOURNAMENT NEWS 88 CALIFORNIA STATE

Patrick Gibson delivers another great event with

Ray Fogerlund winning the Championship division

BY STEVE SAX

91 NEW YORK METRO OPENThe NY Metro Open attracts players from all over

the world to this start-of-the-new-year tournament

BY KAREN DAVIS

96 MOCHY DOES IT ALLTexas just gets bigger and better mdash Steve Sax cap-

tures the excitement of the 2nd Texas Backgammon

Championships from San Antonio

BY STEVE SAX

March-April 2014

106 LIVE TOURNAMENT RESULTSSee all the results from ABT tournaments in New

York and San Antonio

USBGF NEWS 12 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION

Dorn Bishop and Neil Kazaross bring new energy

and expertise to the USBGF Board of Directors

BY BILL RILES

24 FOUNDING SPONSORSBecome a Founding Sponsor and show your sup-

port for the US Backgammon Federation

72 USBGF ONLINE CIRCUITThe USBGF Online Circuit has attracted 435 players

playing over 3300 matches since its launch

BY KAREN DAVIS

USBGF LIVE amp ONLINE RATINGS 109 LIVE LEADER BOARD

Check out the Open Advanced and Novice top

ten leaders in USBGF cumulative Elo ratings in live

events since 2009 and 2013 ABT Points

BY BARRY SILLIMANmdashRATINGS EDITOR

111 ONLINE LEADER BOARDSee the latest leaders based on cumulative Elo

ratings from USBGF online tournaments as well as

wins losses and tournaments won

BY TARA MENDICINO

112 UPCOMING TOURNAMENTSMark your calendar for upcoming ABT tournaments

and USBGF online events

In This Issue

ON THE COVERThanks go out to Bill Riles for this fabulous shot of Alfred Mamlet winner of the Longhorn Classic Masters Jackpot at the 2014 Texas Backgammon Championships

SUPER BOWL PARTYParty revelers were still going strong after four days of action-packed backgammon and sightseeing in San Antonio Knit hats by Carel Lindley

In This Issue

MICHAEL ROSEN TARA MENDICINO amp KERRY ROSENMichael and Kerry Rosen graciously took Tara and Pierre Mendicino out to lunch while in San Antonio to thank them and all the PrimeTime staff for featuring their daughter Jamie in the March-April issue

editorBob Wachtel

Founding EditorMatt Cohn-Geier

Managing EditorKaren Davis

Production EditorTara Mendicino

Assistant EditorMark Antranikian

Assistant Editor and Design AnalystLisa Rockwell

USBGF PhotographerSteve Sax

Rankings EditorBarry Silliman

Feature EditorAnnotated MatchesMarty Storer

Editorial Advisory BoardKaren Davis (Chair) Chuck Bower Matt Cohn-Geier Carol Joy Cole Gus Contos Mike Corbett Perry Gartner Justin Nunez Bob Wachtel Kit Woolsey

informationPrimeTime Backgammon is the official magazine of the US Backgammon Federation

contact usE-Mail infousbgforg Website usbgforg

Volume 5 Issue 2copy 2014 US Backgammon Federation

Staff ampVolunteers

PresidentExecutive DirectorWilliam Riles

Board MemberDorn Bishop

Treasurer Board Chair Co-Chair Membership and Marketing CommitteeKaren Davis

Executive Committee Chair Tournament Directors liaisonPatrick Gibson

Co-Chair Membership and Marketing CommitteeJeb Horton

Board MemberNeil Kazaross

Chair Legislative CommitteeAlfred Mamlet

SecretarySteve Mellen

Vice-Chair Membership and Marketing CommitteeTara Mendicino

Chief Technology Officer Executive Committee Chair Ratings and Stats CommitteeRichard Munitz

Director Local Club InitiativeJustin Nunez

Executive Committee Chair Education CommitteeJoseph Russell

Special Adviser to Board of Directors Carol Joy Cole

Education AdviserPhil Simborg

Accounting ManagerSheryl R Lennon

Director of Communications WebmasterTara Mendicino

USBGF Boardof Directors

from the editorOpinions expressed in these pages are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the US Backgammon Federation TAR

2014usbgf board of directors electionBy Bill Riles President and Executive Director

The US Backgammon Federation

is pleased to announce election

of five members to the Board

of Directors Dorn Bishop Karen Davis

Patrick Gibson Neil Kazaross and Richard

Munitz As prescribed by the by-laws Board

members serve three-year terms with 4-5

members of the 13-person Board up for

election each year on a staggered basis

After a highly-participatory web-enabled

election held in an open transparent inclu-

sive and democratic manner the Board

is especially pleased to welcome two new

members Dorn Bishop and Neil Kazaross

as well as congratulate current Board mem-

bers Karen Davis Patrick Gibson and

Richard Munitz on their re-election Bill

Riles President and Executive Director

of USBGF noted ldquoDorn Bishop brings

important legal and business judgment to

the Board His courtroom experience and

service as an Assistant US Attorney for

the Southern District of California will be

helpful to the Board in evaluating issues

that come before itrdquo

Riles also welcomed Neil Kazaross to the

Board of Directors thanking him for his

three years of service as a Special Adviser

to the Board Riles said ldquoNeil Kazaross the

number one all-time American Backgam-

mon Tour leader is not only an extraor-

dinarily gifted backgammon player but a

strong advocate for ethical play and fair

clear and universally accepted rules His

experience as a stock options trader training

in engineering and significant management

experience will be major assetsrdquo

Karen Davis chairman of the Board

thanked all of the candidates for board seats

for their willingness to serve the USBGF

and noted ldquoWe look forward to working

with all of the candidates to further the mis-

sion of the US Backgammon Federation

to advance the awareness participation

education and enjoyment of the skill-

based game of backgammon The USBGF

depends on the volunteer contributions of its

membership to offer benefits and activities

that grow the backgammon community

We invite all of the candidates successful

or not to contribute their skills and their

desire to further the ongoing work of the

organizationrdquo

white collar criminal defense Mr Bishop

is also a highly-respected and experienced

backgammon player who has performed

well in several major events Most notably

he won the 2011 USBGF Internet Backgam-

mon Championship captained the United

States Team to the bronze medal in the

2012 Nationrsquos Cup World Championships

and placed second in the 2010 US Open

Championship

Neil Kazaross a resident of Chicago

received his BSEE in electrical engineer-

ing from Union College (NY) in 1981

and worked for 10 years as an electrical

environmental matters From 2001-2003 he

served as an Assistant US Attorney for the

Southern District of California His work

for the United States Government included

the prosecution of criminal cases involving

fraud drug smuggling child pornography

bank robbery assault alien smuggling

and illegal reentry of convicted felons He

also argued several appeals on behalf of

the United States before the United States

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and

never had a conviction overturned For the

past ten years he has been President of his

own law firm where his practice focuses in

insurance coverage business litigation and

Dorn Bishop a resident of San Diego

graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Highest

Honors from Dartmouth College in 1986

He then attended The University of Chicago

Law School where he served as an editor

of The Law Review Following graduation

Mr Bishop served as a federal judicial

clerk in Philadelphia for the Honorable

Jay C Waldman Mr Bishop moved to San

Diego in 1990 where he spent the next

ten years working for Latham amp Watkins

one of the worldrsquos premier law firms First

as an associate and then as a partner Mr

Bishop represented clients in a wide range

of insurance coverage commercial and

DORN BISHOPDorn Bishop former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of California and winner of the 2011 USBGF Internet Backgammon Championship brings legal and business judgment to the Board

NEIL KAZAROSSNewly-elected Board member Neil Kazaross the num-ber one all-time American Backgammon Tour leader is deeply committed to fair and ethical play and univer-sally accepted tournament rules

We invite all of the

candidates successful

or not to contribute

their skills and their

desire to further the

ongoing work of the

organization

13USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine12 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine

engineer before changing careers to better

use his math and game playing abilities as

a stock options trader He was a partner in

3rd Milennium Trading for over 13 years

He is the number one ranked player on the

all-time American Backgammon Tour and

ranked number three world-wide on the

2011 Giants of Backgammon list At the

Chicago Bar Point Club he earned the title

of ldquoPlayer of the Yearrdquo five times He has

presented seminars and live commentary

at international tournaments Using his

brilliant analytical mind he and another

world class player David Rockwell co-

authored the RockwellKazaross MET

(Match Equity Table) which is widely

used today He is famous for inventing

ldquoNeilrsquos Numbersrdquo a short-hand method of

calculating match equities over the board

Mr Kazaross racked up his record of all-

time ABT leader with victories throughout

the US over the last decade and took the

prestigious British Open title in 1999 He

won the 2011 USBGF National Champion-

ship was a member of the Chicago Bears

team that won the 2011 USBGF National

Club Team Championship won the 2011

Central States Invitational placed 2nd in

the 2011 1st Golden Gate Backgammon

Open Championship and has many other

victories too numerous to cite

Davis thanked out-going Board members

Perry Gartner and Lynn Ehrlich for their

three years of service on the Board Gart-

ner as the former President and Executive

Director developed valuable ties with the

international backgammon community and

national backgammon federations and was

instrumental in creating the International

Backgammon Championship Ehrlich one

of the first appointed founding Board mem-

bers served as Vice-Chairman of the Joint

Marketing and Membership Committee

She brought valuable experience as director

of one of the leading tournaments on the

American Backgammon Tour the highly

successful New York Metropolitan Open

The newly-elected Board members join

Riles Art Benjamin Jeb Horton Alfred

Mamlet Steve Mellen Tara Mendicino

Justin Nunez and Joe Russell on the Board

of Directors together bringing extensive

experience in academia banking business

engineering law marketing nonprofit

management software design and tech-

nology

- BILL RILES

KAREN DAVISKaren Davis re-elected to a second 3-year term brings over 20 years of nonprofit management experience to the Board and a deep commitment to the USBGF

BILL RILESUSBGF President and Executive Director Bill Riles led the drive to a highly-participatory web-enabled elec-tion with 230 members voting in the election

14 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine

2014 USBGF Board of Directors Election

PrimeTime in Print Subscribe for $150 annually not including shipping

6 issues for $25 each E-mail infousbgforg for details

ADVERTISEIN PRIMETIME

Full Page $100frac12 Page $50

Bill Riles President and Executive

Director of the US Backgammon

Federation lives in Houston Texas

In this interview Bill introduces himself

and shares with us a bit of his backgammon

history experiences ideas perspectives

and vision

Q First a little historical background tell us about where you grew up and a

little about your family If you donrsquot mind tell us your age and about your education and your interests and hob-bies as a child

A I was born in Beaumont Texas and

grew up in a rural community just north of

Beaumont My dad was a mechanic and my

mother a homemaker I am 61 years old I

have an older brother and a younger sister

I earned Bachelorrsquos and Mastersrsquo degrees in

Civil (Structural) Engineering from Rice

University in Houston As a youth I was a

very good student an accomplished athlete

and an avid reader I played almost every

imaginable sport and game Baseball was

my favorite

Q Tell us your profession and any-thing you think is noteworthy or interesting

A Prior to retiring in 2004 I worked pri-

marily as a structural engineer and project

manager in the offshore oilgas industry I

designed and managed the fabrication and

installation of fixed offshore platforms

The last several years of my professional

career were spent as the co-owner of a

small boutique business in the industry

specializing as brokers in the exchange

of used fixed offshore platforms mdash with

varying agency and equity interests on a

number of properties

Q When and where did you meet your wife and tell us about children

A My wife Connie and I both grew up

in the Beaumont Texas area We met at a

swimming pool the summer after I gradu-

ated from high school mdash she was two grades

behind me and attended a different high

school We married in 1974 after I gradu-

ated from Rice mdash 40 years ago in August

Wersquove lived in Houston all those years We

have three children Our daughter Casey

31 is an elementary school principal in

Fort Worth The sons Matt and Cody 29

are identical twins Matt is an engineer

livingworking in London Cody works in

commercial real estate in Dallas

Q Were you involved in any sports games or interesting hobbies growing

Riles candidly describes his personal amp professional background his love for backgammon amp his goals for the USBGF in this interview conducted by Phil Simborg

A Man with a Mission

Interview with Bill RilesUSBGF President amp Executive DirectorBy Phil Simborg

Every member is a

stakeholder in the success

of the USBGF In some

respect every member

has a skill an idea or

some time to lend the

organization toward the

goal we all seek

RILES AT SAN ANTONIOBill Riles with his engineering train-ing and experience in offshore oilgas industry believes in aiming high work-ing hard and getting results

up and while an adult

I played a lot of baseball as a youth mdash my

Dad was a semi-professional baseball player

in Southeast Texas so I was introduced to

the sport at a young age As a young adult I

played a lot of softball and racquetball Later

I moved on to golf I am no longer active in

any physical sports An interesting hobby I

pursued for a number of years mdash though I

have not been active with it for some time

now mdash is the collection of baseball cards

I have a collection of perhaps 75000 cards

Q How did you get involved in back-gammon When and where was it

A As a young engineer in Houston in the

mid-1970s I had a number of co-workers of

Middle Eastern origin A number of them

played backgammon at lunch I picked the

game up from them and fell in love with

it This of course was right at the time

of backgammonrsquos booming popularity It

was a fun era

Q When did you start going regularly to ABT events

A Professional and parenting responsibili-

ties took me away from the game in the

early 1980s I did not play again until 2002

I discovered a club in Houston and became

active again I attended my first ABT event

in 2003 and have played actively since

Q What trophies or awards have you won in the ABT or elsewhere

A My more significant wins include the

2009 Michigan Masters the 2012 Badger

Classic and the 2005 Las Vegas Open

Limited Jackpot I also finished 20th in the

ABT rankings in 2009 by virtue of being

the Championship Consolation finalist in

Michigan and the Championship finalist

in Illinois

Q Yoursquove become a strong Open player How have you learned What books software lessons or other learn-ing tools contributed to your improve-ment What are your favorite books and web sites articles etc

Who are your heroes in backgam-monmdashthe people you look up to both as players and leaders

A There is no substitute for live play (pref-

erably against better players) for practice

play against bots (currently XG) and for sys-

tematic study to improve onersquos game There

are no shortcuts I love discussion forums

where varying perspectives of a number of

players are shared I love anything written

by Mike Corbett mdash a great playeranalyst

with tremendous writing skills Anything

Mike writes is not only instructive but easy

and entertaining to read

My personal backgammon heroes include

my fellow Texan Malcolm Davis mdash for his

great play his steady respectful demeanor

and his great charm also Mochy mdash no

better ambassador of the game and Neil

Kazaross John OrsquoHagan Petko Kostadinov

Ray Fogerlund and Victor Ashkenazi All

players Delays distractions disruptions

gamesmanship and the like have no place

in the game

Q In just two years your San Antonio tournament has become one of the premier events in the US attracting a large number of top players from all over the world Why has your event enjoyed so much success Do you have any plans for changing things in the future

A I wonrsquot claim the San Antonio tour-

nament as mine I have a great co-host

co-director business partner and friend

in Tara Mendicino The tournament has

become a great success by the tremendous

support we receive from the backgammon

community

Tara and I had for years discussed hosting

a tournament in Texas We conceived and

designed the tournament as a lsquodestina-

tion eventrsquo providing those attending the

tournament much more than just another

backgammon tournament at an airport

hotel We chose one of the most popular

tourist cities in the US We chose a historic

downtown hotel next to the Riverwalk and

the Alamo We chose Super Bowl weekend in

a warm southern climate providing a winter

getaway for many players from northern

climes We brought many new marketing

and promotional ideas to the game Grate-

fully it all has been well received

We try to learn from experiences and to

be reactive to our playersrsquo experiences As

an example our very popular signature

side event mdash the Dual-Duel mdash will likely

be changed a bit next year to incorporate

suggestions from the elite players of the

backgammon community

Q Are there any rules of the game you would like to see changed You used Legal Moves in your San Anto-nio tournamentmdashwhy do you prefer that rule

A Irsquom a big proponent of lsquolegal movesrsquo and

lsquoclockedrsquo play In my opinion lsquolegal movesrsquo

provides a more ethical sporting game

and removes a bit of the gamesmanship

available without the rule Legal moves also

removes the burden of uncertainty associ-

ated with non-legal move player options

Clocks in addition to assisting directors in

maintaining reasonable schedules provide

much cleaner lsquomechanicsrsquo of the game mdash

no fast rolling no arguing over rolls etc

Time settings typically are fairly relaxed

The clocks are not meant to be punitive or

intrusive to the game mdash it is quite rare that

clocks become an issue in a match More

often than not when they do become an

issue in a match it is with an elite class

player who knows exactly what heshe is

doing in clock management

Q You recently took on the Presidency of the USBGF replacing Perry Gartner who stepped down for business and personal reasons What do you hope to accomplish going forward What are your major goals and personal goals for the organization

Interview With Bill Riles Interview With Bill Riles

are great friends and great players There

are many more One of the greatest things

about backgammon in comparison to many

other games and sports is the willingness

of the top players to share their knowledge

with others Tournament backgammon is

a great social community

Q What advice would you give to an intermediate player who wants to raise hisher game to a higher level

A Play a lot Try to play better players

Study the game and your own game with

a bot such as XG Develop a study program

and reference system that works for you

Study the archived games of great players

Q What are your favorite tournament formats side events or anything else you care to mention relative to going to tournaments

I just like to play Irsquom not a big fan of lsquovaria-

tionrsquo games mdash just give me the standard

game When tournament schedules permit

I like double elimination Swiss modified

Swiss and similar formats I think it is a

great move for the Monte Carlo World

Championship to go to a double elimina-

tion format this year In my opinion it will

yield a more credible champion

Q What are your pet peeves about tournaments and tournament play

A My biggest pet peeves in tournament

play are any manifestations of inconsider-

ation toward the tournament andor other

A I want the USBGF to grow the game

through increased exposure visibility and

promotion We need to increase member-

ship Wersquove done very well with tournament

players but that is such a small segment

of the overall backgammon community

We need to access the many more social

casual online and recreational players

So we are implementing more grass roots

efforts to accomplish this Additionally we

want to make the USBGF more of a truly

participatory membership organization

Every member is a stakeholder in the suc-

cess of the USBGF In some respect every

member has a skill an idea or some time

to lend the organization toward the goal we

all seek I want to make it easy for everyone

to participate and to contribute

Q Why do you think the USBGF is an important organization for the backgammon community to support

A Backgammon needs a central organiza-

tion to promote the game and to provide

resources to the members It serves as

simple a role as providing a community

to find other players It serves other roles

ultimately in standardization of rules and

tournaments with online tournaments in

ratings in master points and much more

We provide a great magazine to members

We archive matches We provide video

lessons tips quotes position analysis and

more on our Facebook page The won-

derful thing about a great participatory

membership organization is that it can be

anything we want it to be mdash the members

determine that

We have made great steps recently with

By-Laws revisions and a Board of Directors

election that fully embody our new vision

of openness transparency inclusiveness

democracy and participation The response

has been significant We are making great

strides

Q How is the USBGF working with other countries and is there a plan for an international Federation or ruling body of backgammon

A We do engage with other countries and

Federations I think it is great to jointly

promote the game We have worked with

the Danish the Japanese and the French

in hosting the IBC tournaments I think it

desirable to work toward an international

alliance of some nature to establish at a

minimum an internationally accepted rule

set and to promote play internationally mdash

not only across borders but also within

individual countries Denmark the UK

France Japan the USA and others mdash the

countries that have strong established

Federations mdash can assist other countries in

developing their own organizations Recent

developments with the UKBGF and with

a European Federation are all good steps

in the right direction

Q What are the USBGFrsquos biggest hurdles and challenges at this time

A Hurdles as always with relatively new

member organizations are attracting new

members retention of existing members

participation and volunteerism A challenge

linessuggestions of how to establish a club

or run a tournament checklists and all of

the many things necessary It is daunting

for someone to start from scratch we need

to make it much easier

Q We all know that the game would grow more and tournament atten-dance would increase if we had major corporate sponsorship adding money for prizes and promotion What is the USBGF doing to try to garner this kind of support

A Corporate sponsorship is the classic

chickenegg scenario The game would grow

more and faster with increased tournament

attendance if we had major corporate spon-

sorship however the game must grow and

have more increased tournament attendance

to attract major corporate sponsorship

Nonetheless we do seek such relationships

and will explore opportunities as they are

discovered

Q We understand that the USBGF must work closely with Bill Davis and the ABT to make major live tourna-ments a success How do you plan to work with Bill Davis and the ABT moving forward

A Bill Davis is a good friend of mine

who has done a considerable amount for

backgammon over the years We share the

common goal of the promotion of the game

though we may not always agree on the best

method(s) to accomplish those goals But

it is important to maintain the relationship

and the dialogue We must work together

to find and cultivate common ground We

must not let differences negatively impact

the game Mutual respect exists with that

we can move forward together

Q Do you like the Giants List and the way the Giants are selected If you could change it how would you change it

A The Giants of Backgammon listing

serves a good function It is not perfect

but few things are Personally Irsquod like to see

more participation worldwide mdash I know

Yamin CJC and Jake also wish to increase

participation and work hard trying to do so

Again personally Irsquod prefer two lists mdash one

based solely on skill and performance and

a second recognizing service and contribu-

tions to the game Certainly there would

likely be some overlap however I think it

would solve some of the apples and oranges

comparisons that we now are forced to

make Irsquom a traditionalist history means

something to me Even if some international

rating system is established to determine

the top players I think the Giants as voted

by their peers is an honor that should be

retained

Q Would you share with us your thoughts on who the best players in the world are currently in your opinion

A You put me on the spot because Irsquoll

doubtlessly omit some very deserving play-

ers mdash Irsquom not that familiar with many of

the foreign players It is hard to overlook

is the repair of some prior longstanding

divisiondissension With my new role

I think wersquove made considerable visible

changes in the dynamics and direction of

the organization With evolving perspectives

on the Board and with as of last year new

members joining the Board I think that

will continue There is a new enthusiasm

reflected in new membership renewals

of memberships and participation Our

recent Board election was most welcomed

by the membership and drew considerable

interest and participation We are on the

right track

Q What do you think it will take to grow backgammon significantly in the US

How can the USBGF help grow the game at the grass-roots level and at the local club level and what is being done and is planned in that area

A Exposure visibility and promotion

are key factors to growing the game We

must do a better job than wersquove done in

the past I envision a program to identify

communities needing clubstournaments

and attempting to recruit and cultivate

directors We can assist the new clubs

tournaments and directors in two basic

manners First Irsquod like to establish a men-

tor system among directors mdash make an

established club director or tournament

director accessible to a new director to

assist however needed Secondly I plan to

develop lsquokitsrsquo for these new directors mdash the

kits might include rules brackets guide-

Mochy as among the very best mdash his recent

performance in San Antonio was amazing

Neil Kazaross Michy Matt Cohn-Geier

John OrsquoHagan Petko Kostadinov Falafel

(I hope he reneges on his lsquoretirementrsquo talk)

and many more are among the best I admire

the play and demeanor of Malcolm Davis

mdash he has maintained his place among the

best for decades I think Ray Fogerlund is

one of the best lsquoplayersrsquo of the game mdash he

understands and capitalizes on all aspects

of the game What Ray may lack in the

technical game he more than offsets with

the intangible game mdash his tournament

record speaks for itself I personally like

some of the really good American players

that arenrsquot as well known as they might be

mdash like Victor Ashkenazi Alfred Mamlet

Bill Phipps and Dmitriy Obukhov Akiko

Yazawa Maya Peycheva and Mary Hickey

are not only among the best women players

in the world they are among the best play-

ers in the world I also like the newcomers

making a name for themselves mdash the splash

Saba Bejanishvili made in San Antonio was

awesome The buzz about Saba around the

globe was great for the game

Q Where do you stand on the issue of teaching backgammon to children

A I think the game really takes an unfair

bad rap in this regard It is a great game

on any number of levels It is a game with

a few very simple rules mdash so it can be

learned quickly and played easily on a

social and recreational level It is also a

game of amazing complexity subtlety and

intricacy At all levels in increasing degrees

the game involves considerable math and

an appreciation of risk analysis mdash the risks

and rewards in various circumstances

For all the skills required it is also a dice

game mdash so an element of chance is always

present For these reasons backgammon is

much like life mdash and consequently can be

quite instructive in onersquos formative years

Q What are your favorite books and movies of all time that you recommend everyone should seeread

A Off the top of my head I will include for

books Shantaram To Kill a Mockingbird

Green Mansions Ethan Frome The Magus

The Shadow of the Wind Caravans Sayo-

nara and The French Lieutenantrsquos Woman

For movies To Kill a Mockingbird Little Big

Man Before Sunrise Before Sunset Once

and Chasing Amy

Q Do you have a favorite quote or a philosophy of life you care to share with our readers

A I have one that I use in backgammon

ldquoYou canrsquot be afraid to lose and you canrsquot

be afraid to winrdquo

Q Tell us a funny or interesting story about something that has happened to you or you have seen at a backgam-mon tournament

A Obviously Phil you must mean other

than the time you paid a player thousands

of dollars to buy one of your baffle boxes

We all doubtlessly have innumerable funny

interesting stories of the game and bad beats

wersquove suffered or administered mdash this is

of course backgammon Perhaps the most

amazing Irsquove ever personally experienced

was in Florida a number of years ago I

led Lee Genud 10-0 Crawford She rallied

to 10-5 In the next game with the cube

obviously on two I was in danger of being

gammoned I had 3 checkers on her two

point (none in the air) and she had all of

her checkers in her home board but none

yet off I lost a backgammon for the match

She had to have 15 crossovers I had to

have 15 pips The game never ceases to

amaze me

Q What are your plans for the future Describe what you would like your life to look like 15 years from now

A Beyond being King of the World and

the 1 ranked backgammon player

Seriously Irsquod like to still be healthy active

and enjoying my family Hopefully Irsquoll still

be playing backgammon and reflecting that

in some small manner years ago I helped

make the game a bit better

Q It is well-known that you are politi-cally conservative and we also know that you have decided not to be too outgoing about your political views because you donrsquot want to alienate people from supporting the USBGF simply because of differences of politi-cal views Do you find it really hard now that you are President of the USBGF to tone down your political opinions

A Not at all mdash Irsquove probably been too

vocal in the past anyway Just because Irsquom

politically conservative does not detract

from the common goals we all share in

the promotion of backgammon I think

most that know me well recognize a nice

personable compassionate guy mdash at least

I hope so Politics have their place and

donrsquot belong in other places We all have to

co-exist however I remain who I am

- PHIL SIMBORG

RILES amp SIMBORGShown here with Phil Simborg (R) Billrsquos Texas-charm and open direct manner have made him a trusted friend to many

Founding Sponsors

Within each level names are presented in the order of becoming Founding Sponsors

usbgf founding sponsorsOutstanding Supporters of our Organization

The US Backgammon Federationrsquos

Founding Sponsors initiative has

attracted 95 donors who share

its vision of drawing thousands of people

throughout the country to the exciting

skill-based game of backgammon through a

rich array of activities appealing to all play-

ers young and young-at-heart alike The

support of our Founding Sponsors during

this critical period will be appreciated for

years to come and includes recognition on

our website in perpetuity and benefits not

available to any other class of Membership

The Federation salutes the individuals

and organizations who have generously

supported our organization by becoming

a Founder We hope you will join this elite

group by going to our website usbgforg or

contacting Bill Riles at billusbgforg for

more information

Become a Founding Sponsor and play in

the 2015 USBGF Tournament of Stars to

be held in connection with the Texas Back-

gammon Championships in San Antonio

January 29-February 1 2015 Founding

Sponsors select Giants of Backgammon and

other backgammon legends and experts

as partners in this doubles event based

FOUNDERS CUBES BY LAWRENCE SONNEacuteFounding Sponsors are presented with an exquisite personalized engraved doubling cube specially designed for the USBGF by Lawrence Sonneacute of Backgammon Elegance

DiamondMalcolm DavisAlan and Joan GrunwaldHugh SconyersMike Svobodny

platinumKaren DavisMorten Holm

goldAnna Covlin Myles Covlin Rod Covlin Patrick and Carla Gibson Harvey GillisPerry GartnerLarry TaylorAlfred MamletEdward B BennettRichard Munitz Joseph Russell Jeffrey Acierno Masayuki Mochizuki Falafel NatanzonJim PaskoDavid LeibowitzJason LeeMichael Louis RosenJamie Erin RosenArt BenjaminLloyd E Webber (LEW)Saba Bejanishvili

silverLynn Ehrlich

Silver cont Chiva TafazzoliAlex GerdingBruce NewbergLarry LiebsterBen FriesenJim StutzGus Contos

bronzePat McCormick Carol Joy ColeNeal and Kathy WeinerNeil Kazaross Kit WoolseyMichael WeinbergerChuck BowerPreston GuidryJake JacobsSean CearleyKristina VigPlay65 Backgammon Judy FieldRory PascarGreg Cottle Bill FinneranJames G AllenSean Williams Pat GeoffroyMark Gordon Rochelle HassonDennis CulpepperAndrew MartinezDrew Giovanis James E Roland Bill Riles

bronze contJosh RackoRussell SandsSteve SchreiberBob GlassJohn CalcottJeff BurdsallJustin and Rynell NunezSteve SaxDorn BishopScott KellandArthur SteinStepan NuniyantsPowhatan FrenchRobert E StollerJoe PottsArkadiy TsinisCarla GibsonDavid KettlerMichael FlohrMario SavanJeb HortonCloyd LaPorteSecil BaysalDavid RennieAlan PrucePhil SimborgEd SawyerTwain PigottJerry GodseyJulius HighMichelle SteinbergTariq Siddiqi

youthIstvaacuten Eacuteger

on their level of Sponsorship and order of

becoming Founding Sponsors

More information on the benefits of becom-

ing a Founding Sponsor may be found at

USBGF Founding Sponsor Benefits

27USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine

The recent Texas Backgammon

Championships provided a fas-

cinating insight into human

nature and psychology Having devised a

format intended to reward the best player

(the ldquoDual-Duelrdquo) the Texas tournament

attracted an international field studded with

Giants Yet much of the buzz surrounding

this event was about its surprising lack of

entrants Many well-known players were

on site in advance of the event but declined

to enter

There has long been a faction of the back-

gammon world that is constantly on the

lookout for who is the best player End-

less discussions in public forums arise

bi-annually on the Giants of Backgam-

mon vote The participants obsessed with

abstract notions of eligibility and worthi-

ness examine and re-examine various

playersrsquo ldquocredentialsrdquo Many of those quite

active in these deliberations both private

and public were on location in plenty of

time to enter the Dual-Duel yet didnrsquot I

suppose it is simpler for me to analyze the

efforts of those who accepted the challenge

than to speculate on the motives of those

who did not

I entered the Dual-Duel because I thought

any self-respecting pro ought to no matter

what the entry fee was I did not enter the

$500 side pools but to play at all one had

to ante up $1000 I am sure this would

deter some pros who do not work but

there were several who had the financial

ability to enter and declined Evidently

many players were resigned to the fact

that they were inferior to a couple of the

elite competitors in the draw and saw fit to

watch from the sidelines since the format

gave equal weight to winning matches and

winning performance ratings

I kind of figured that I might not have much

chance to win on the PR (Performance

Rating according to eXtremeGammon

respectively referred to as PR and XG from

here on) side of the draw but after all it was

a regular tournament on the other side

So I had my normal chances on that side

plus some very minor equity of outplaying

my opponent(s) on the other side I was

not under the illusion that I was going

to outplay all these guys but last year I

had been destroyed by Mochy in my first

round match only to find out later that I

had played below 2 PR and had won on

that side of the competition I am quite

sure it was mainly due to being blown off

the board and not having many significant

decisions that I was able to win the PR

versus Mochy back then I had had about

7 full hours of experience playing Mochy

over the last couple of years He had played

consistently at about 25 PR give or take 01

Many in attendance made him the favorite

this year along with previous yearrsquos finalist

Matt Cohn-Geier Matt had played a match

below 1 PR last year Alas he timed out in

the final against Akiko Yazawa the MFF

(Most Feared Female) on the worldwide

backgammon circuit

I didnrsquot want to sit out this dance and regret

it later so I entered

Seven other individuals paid 4 figures and

accepted the challenge They were

Petko Kostadinov Bulgarian immigrant

former oil tanker captain who recently

became a US citizen Petko has been a

success in everything he has attempted and

he has lately concentrated on backgammon

A perfect gentleman he is nonetheless

highly respected perhaps even feared

over the board One potential participant

named him as one of his principal reasons

for not entering

AKIKO YAZAWA VERSUS ED OLAUGHLINAkiko Yazawa 2013 Dual-Duel Champion returned to defend her crown Yazawa and OLaughlin advanced to the score-based side of the Dual-Duel bracket

A Tip of the Ten-Gallon Hat to Mochy By Ray Fogerlund

DUAL-DUEL FINALArguably the worlds best back-gammon player meets the best

player of backgammonB

peeled off the Benjamins and entered and

some of them might have formerly been

yours Akiko likes to dress in the latest style

with the high heels and everything She is a

very classy lady but she is one nasty feline

OTB She seems to be the latest greatest

example of what I call the winning zone It

just seems like those who play with a PR in

the 4 to 6 range win more than their share

She may well do better than this routinely

I have seen her and Mochy play lightning

fast and silent backgammon I havenrsquot seen

anyone else play with him enough said

Saba B I would not try to pronounce his

last name much less try to spell it so if it

appears in this article then someone else

did it Here was the surprise of the tourna-

ment mdash that a little-known player would

step up to the plate and demonstrate an

astonishing command of the game Saba

told me that he started playing less than

a year ago first reading books and then

practicing with XG I guess that shows what

an intelligent person with some intensity

can accomplish in this game in a short

time Wow Saba is a doctor of some kind

so he apparently has a mind like a steel trap

and one of those unshakable constitutions

With 30 times his experience I was easily

twice as nervous

Akiko Yazawa Last yearrsquos Champion Akiko

benefitted when MCG timed out last year

but I think she was winning when that

happened Other opponents who did NOT

time out against her in the finals during the

last couple of years have similarly finished

second Along with me Akiko might have

been an underdog in terms of PR But she

MCG The giggling garrote He will choke

you out beware Number 5 Giant Finalist

last year attention deficit disorder when it

comes to clocks

Kit Woolsey Forty-year backgammon pro

and ambassador for the game Also a bridge

expert Kit is always willing to discuss strat-

egy with anyone Quite an engaging fellow

Ed OrsquoLaughlin Eccentric ex-millionaire

turned backgammon junkie Ed plays 8

hours a day and it shows He has never

eaten meat never had a cold and is in

great physical condition His favorite game

show is Lets Make a Deal Ed always hedges

Backgammon is his livelihood

Mochy Mochizuki The man Voted 2 by

his peers in the 2011 Giants and consensus

favorite to be numero uno in the recently

completed 2013 vote Mochy conducted a

seminar based on the backgammon profi-

ciency exam he created He won the ABT

event at the Texas Backgammon Cham-

pionships and was a semi-finalist in the

Masters losing to eventual winner Alfred

Mamlet Like most Japanese players a

perfect gentleman who politely eviscerates

you OTB Donrsquot worry Samurai swords are

very sharp and the pain is minimal

All righty the stage was now set and play

commenced Petko and Saba had delayed

flights so only two matches could begin

Fortunately there were two stations set up

for streaming video Two Americans drew

one another and so did two Japanese It was

Kit versus Ed and Mochy versus Akiko

Ed won a miraculous gammon to beat Kit

in the match-score portion With two men

on the bar versus Kitrsquos best 5-point board

Ed produced 11 to enter both 66 to escape

both and then improbably won a gammon

for the match with the cube on 2 (trailing 4

away 2 away) This game might have been

the saltiest of the weekend At least it would

get my vote and Kitrsquos Of some consolation

for Kit was that he won the PR side of the

battle so he moved left on the sheet while

Ed headed right

Mochy played Akiko and he ldquooutplayedrdquo

her but Akiko continued her nasty habit

of winning matches They went opposite

ways on the bracket sheet mdash Mochy going

left and Akiko right

Saba and Petko showed up about the time

the other two Dual-Duel matches finished

up mdash perfect timing for the streaming

videos provided by Justin Nunez and his

wife Rynell Saba would play MCG and I

was paired against Petko

Saba was the only player to win both the

match and the PR battle by virtue of win-

ning a game with an 8-cube Saba edged

Matt on the PR even though Matt made

little more than one mistake I think it

was an ill-advised redouble decision but

memory fails me I think those PRs were

on the order of 27 for MCG and 24 for

Saba This victory by Saba established him

as a force to be reckoned with in this event

He has the perfect demeanor OTB and he

obviously has a keen intellect for analysis

under pressure That he has only been

A Tip of the Ten-Gallon Hat to Mochy A Tip of the Ten-Gallon Hat to Mochy

LEGENDS IN THE OPENING ROUNDKit Woolsey (L) faced Ed OLaughlin in the opening round of the Dual-Duel Woolsey advanced to the PR-based side of the bracket while OLaughlin won the match and advanced to the score-based side

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

when I looked at the

other side of the draw

Now I know how

Custer must have felt

or a guy walking across

the Brooklyn Bridge

as Godzilla surfaced

nearby

playing seriously for 1 year added to the

mystique he created by entering and then

succeeding in this difficult format

Petko flat outplayed me in the other opening

match I was a little too free-wheeling miss-

ing several defensive plays by hitting loose

or doing something else rather flagrantly

careless A good reminder that at its highest

levels backgammon is a defensive game

Fortunately for me Petkorsquos luck was not up

to par and I won the match He won the PR

side handily 34 to 50 or some such thing

I noted that I usually erred by playing too

wide open though it would hardly matter

for the rest of this event unless I made the

final I filed it away for future reference in

the ABT event coming up From now on

I must try to win each match mdash a familiar

situation

There were second-round matches on both

sides of this unique drawsheet now mdash still 4

matches to be played Saba would compete

in two of them and he cleverly chose to play

the PR side versus Petko first reasoning

that he did not want to be tired when he

was playing for lowest PR I would have

to wait for them to finish before we could

play on the winnersrsquo bracket side

Ed faced Akiko on the winnersrsquo side and

he managed to stop her winning streak

there She had won that side of the sheet

last year and won the final so her streak

ended at +5 No telling who won the PR

though it might be available at BgOnline or

the streaming website if you are interested

Kit drew the unenviable task of playing

Mochy on the PR side mdash during the week

where Mochy was never outplayed to my

knowledge Kit won the match but Mochy

cruised in PR playing close to 2 versus Kitrsquos

4 Poor Kit had lousy luck in two matches

in a row losing on a bad beat and having an

unfortunate draw See you next year Kit

Petko and Saba settled in for a grim battle

Petko is a seasoned competitor and he can

grind out his 2s and 3s in PR Saba was

the talk of the tournament for people

could walk by and look at the aggregate

PRs of the two players as MCG graciously

entered the moves into XG live I wonder

how many players would be in a mood

to do this having been blown out of the

tournament an hour before What people

saw was that Petko was playing around 3

while Saba was playing below 1 PR for at

least the first three games of the match

They began whispering Who is this guy

() In the end the match was close but not

as close as the eventual PRs Saba won by

a nose something less than one tenth of a

point mdash like 275 versus 268 or some such

thing A rollout may well have flip-flopped

that result but the format doesnrsquot allow

for that and Saba moved further left into

Mochyrsquos backyard

Having won 3 ways now Saba had only to

pound me into submission in the winnersrsquo

bracket Surely his easiest assignment of

the day but it went south along with his

dice Perhaps it is more accurate to say that

my dice were considerably north of aver-

age producing consecutive perfect sets of

doubles on numerous occasions Saba could

console himself in the realization that the

dice had given him no chance as they will

do about 11 of the time He had acquitted

himself brilliantly for his first experience

in this event

The respective finals were now set Winnersrsquo

bracket would pit Ed O versus Ray F and

the PR side would be Mochy versus Saba

Saba beat Mochy convincingly in their

11-point match but as often happens the

leader had tougher decisions Saba still

played world class at about 40 but Mochy

would advance to the Dual-Duel final His

PR had been 152 Look out Ed or Ray

I got lucky last against Ed thank God He

beat me several times in various semi-finals

last year on his way to second place in the

ABT points race behind Neil Kazaross I

finished a distant fifth but maybe this year

will be different I had made the final of

the Dual-Duel Yay

My enthusiasm was tempered somewhat

when I looked at the other side of the draw

Now I know how Custer must have felt or

a guy walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

as Godzilla surfaced nearby

Mochy had lost only 4 matches over the

weekend by now Thatrsquos pretty good He

advanced on the drawsheet three of those

four times because three of the losses came

in the Dual-Duel when he had outplayed his

opponent I wonder if he outplayed Alfred

Mamlet who beat him in the semi-finals

of the Masters on his way to winning that

title over Malcolm Davis in the final Alfred

was playing quite well mdash he took fifth in

the ABT event too I should know mdash he

kicked my butt in the first round

Anyway Mochy may well have outplayed

everyone every time over the entire week-

end When the time came for me to play

the Dual-Duel final with him it was get-

ting late They put up the streaming video

camera before we started

You had to have a ring-side seat to enjoy

this one and a meandering crowd of about

30 people did in addition to the 10 or so

seated fixtures The USBGF final between

Phil Simborg and Jonah Seewald was tak-

ing place behind our table and over one

It too enjoyed a crowd of onlookers That

many of these onlookers had partaken of

alcohol while attending one or both of the

Super Bowl parties added to the festivity

of the scene Neither final would enjoy a

somber atmosphere Carter was louder than

TEXAS BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIPS DUAL-DUEL DRAWSHEETThe high stakes Dual-Duel format devised by Bill Riles advances PR-based winners and score-based winners to separate sides of the bracket Players who initially win on both PR and score advance to both sides of the bracket

normal mdash I am sure you get the picture

The primary reason for this article is to

feature one extraordinary game that was

played in the final of the Dual-Duel It is

not intended to trivialize Mochyrsquos other

accomplishments at this tournament He

won the ABT event he cashed in the Mas-

ters and won the Dual-Duel too His wallet

burst at the seams I think But then it was

probably made in Japan

Meanwhile he was up early and late com-

posing editing correcting and giving a

seminar on his Backgammon Proficiency

Quiz He also attended and was featured in

Phil Simborgrsquos popular seminar on Sunday

morning and he won the competition

amongst the Giants in attendance too If

there was any doubt about Mochyrsquos prodi-

gious talent before this tournament there

was not any left at the end of it He seemed

a bit weary by the time we got started but

he is in the prime of his life and at the peak

of his abilities I will be 58 by the time you

read this and that is not an advantage

Our match had an inauspicious start mdash we

both passed takes in games 1 and 2 so the

score became 1-111 After his initial cube

mistake Mochy served notice by perform-

ing flawlessly in game 2 Zero period

exclamation point That was his PR Are

you ready Mr Fogerlund

Indeed I was not well prepared to deal with

the problems that Mr Mochizuki poses

However I had some time to mull over

the possibilities before we played Neil

Kazaross walked by and I flagged him

down Neil has been the belle of more

backgammon balls than anyone else Surely

he would have a take on this situation We

chatted for a bit and I asked if I ought to

just run with opening 64s to simplify the

games He stated that it might be okay to

give away tiny amounts of equity like this

but how would I play a 42 next Well I

would make the 4 point I said Anyway

I discarded this strategy I would want to

seek strong positions and running would

take 3 turns to accomplish that mdash assum-

ing that Mochy missed his initial shots

Neil said maybe playing backgames where

decisions are tougher That branch of our

chat didnrsquot provide me with much solace

for I had taken another of Mochyrsquos quiz-

zes some time ago The title Back Game

Quiz Sigh

So hey I was up against it this time Every-

body knew it including me and it was not

an enviable position to be in Looking on

the bright side it could be worse mdash Ed

OrsquoLaughlin might be playing instead of

me in the final I like to play but this was

probably not going to be my day I cer-

tainly did not expect to win the PR battle

in a long match so I hoped to somehow

win the first match Then the subsequent

match(es) would be shorter I can play well

for a couple games in a row but there was

little chance I could outplay Mochy over 8

to 10 games I had a plan sort of

Game 3 started It would take a while

Over 80 moves for each side including 4

cube turns Yes the cube ended up on 16

Just the sort of ldquomatchrdquo I wanted to play

Probably not Mochyrsquos top choice given the

circumstances Here is how it went

Okay Mochy is on roll here Given that he

has an advanced anchor and if he wins the

impending fight for his bar point he will

have a 5-prime on four of my checkers and

he has a double In fact it is a blunder not to

double Now then Mochy did not outplay

fileC|UsersuserDesktopPositionhtm[392014 60525 PM]

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

is MochyXGID=-ab--BBaCB--dC---b-eAB----001001101110

on roll cube action

Analyzed in XG Roller++ No double DoubleTakePlayer Winning Chances 6871 (G2392 B145) 6884 (G2417 B151)Opponent Winning Chances 3129 (G590 B019) 3116 (G585 B021)Cubeless Equities +0580 +1207

Cubeful EquitiesNo double +0844 (-0109)DoubleTake +0953DoublePass +1000 (+0047)

Best Cube action Double TakeeXtreme Gammon Version 210 MET Kazaross XG2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Pip 186 Ray Fogerlund 10-Away

10-Away Mochy Mochizuki Pip 165

Position 1

Game 3 Move 5 Black (Mochy) on roll Cube action

everyone at this tournament by missing this

type of cube so what is going on here I

donrsquot think he missed this double due to

nerves either so it must be something else

Evidently Mochy has changed his game

gears according to his opponent Not a lot

of fear in this character sitting across from

him I canrsquot know for sure but the book on

me has to be that I am a taker so Mochy

correctly figured he might get a take later

after he makes the bar-point Remember

Mochy also had 7 hours of experience

against me in the last couple of years Ya

think he might have been paying attention

Mochy lost about 0100 points mdash a blunder

by missing this double Will he be able to

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

is MochyXGID=aab--BBABB--dB---b-eAC----001001101110

on roll cube action

Cubeful EquitiesNo double +0977 (-0023)DoubleTake +1251 (+0251)DoublePass +1000

Best Cube action Double PasseXtreme Gammon Version 210 MET Kazaross XG2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

Game 3 Move 7 Black (Mochy) doubles Take or pass

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

is Ray FogerlundXGID=-dcCBCBBA--A------bbbAa-a-1-1-1411101110

to play 41

1 XG Roller++ 2423 73 eq -1135PlayerOpponent

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2 XG Roller++ 2423 62 eq -1161 (-0026)PlayerOpponent

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

7 XG Roller++ 72 eq -1218 (-0083)PlayerOpponent

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

eXtreme Gammon Version 210 MET Kazaross XG2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Pip 205 Ray Fogerlund 10-Away

Position 3

Game 3 Move 23 White (Fogerlund) to play 41Two rolls later he has his answer After hit-

ting me loose on the bar-point being hit

back and then hitting me off the bar once

again I have picked a wonderful time to

fan Now the position has become a close

double instead of a clear double Why

Because it is almost too-good-to-double

This position is worth 0977 according to

my particular version of XG Remember the

tenth of a point Mochy ldquoinvestedrdquo a couple

of turns before this It has made him more

than 100 return because I still took this

cube a 0251 blunder In laymanrsquos terms

this is a double whopper con cheese Did

I mention that I am a taker

For the record I was not seeking out a

complicated backgame (as Neil K had sug-

gested) I was just doing the best I could

and got stuck with this position A poker

player has to play the cards he is dealt or toss

them into the muck I am not particularly

afraid of complex positions or backgames

What self-respecting giant of backgammon

would be This just happens to be the type

of error I commonly make

I know that it is not as bad as XG says it is

because my opponents donrsquot play perfectly

and canrsquot achieve the stated numbers I

am trying to rid myself of this habit in

order to improve my results but this was

a special situation I had to win the PR and

the match to get anything more out of this

event because Mochy did not propose a

hedge lol I was perfectly comfortable in

the knowledge that I was probably not

going to outplay Mochy in a long drawn

out 11-point match How best to shorten

it Take some cubes then give some bigger

cubes Many a theorist might take exception

to this notion but none of them were in the

tournament much less my seat at the final

table I was and I chose to take When it is

your turn to play Mochy in the final of the

Dual-Duel you can do whatever you want

I like to send a message to my opponent

early in my matches I will not be pushed

around Technically this is a blunder but

practically it works out I have found that if

you take a brave cube early then you may

not have to face a tough one later It may

not be right but that is how it is Trust me

Opponents think you are crazy and they

slow down a bit

By the way when you take a bad cube in

a match it doesnrsquot really hurt There is no

pain associated with taking though there

might well be some pain in the aftermath

Anyway if you will pardon the pun mdash the die

had been cast We proceeded to Position 3

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

All right I had been trying and failing

consistently to spring a back-man from

Mochyrsquos 5-prime I was getting a little frus-

trated mdash the way I feel when I play matches

against XG XG just plays backgames better

than people do and I figure it is two levels

better In other words it is on a totally dif-

ferent plane I can never time a backgame

against XG and it has little trouble timing

one against me Not that it chooses to play

too many backgames mdash there are too many

gammons to make them profitable That is

the feeling I get from my studies anyway

All of this is fine and good but I had no

choice but to play this backgame against

Mochy and I know he has studied them

Humans tend to lose faith when things donrsquot

go their way and I was beginning to wonder

if these dice had any 6s on them Rather

than trust them to provide me with what

I needed desperation became the mother

of my invention With 20 people watching

intently not too many players would make

The dice have a sick sense of humor

sometimes and Mochy rolled (11)

ROARRRRRRRRR went the crowd

RoaRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

they repeated vociferously as my dice

responded (22) Fully into my six-free

depression I thought this was a lousy roll

But what the hell do I know I am but a

lowly human XG considers it a joker

Now we have arrived at Position 5

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

is MochyXGID=-dcCBCBBA--A------baaaaaaA1-11111101110

to play 11

1 XG Roller++ Bar24 2423 2322 2221 eq +1857PlayerOpponent

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

2 XG Roller++ Bar24 2423 2322 1110 eq +1651 (-0206)PlayerOpponent

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

Game 3 Move 23 Black (Mochy) to play 11

the Dildonian Defense play mdash leaving

blots on all of my inner board points while

hitting Mochy loose I am sort of a perverse

contrarian however Perhaps I was more

afraid that people would not see me make

this play So I did it Yes I knew it was a

blunder too Ok

You have to remember the calling card of

the underdog I have nothing to lose I can

try to play this just right and watch Mochy

toss a (3X) in which case my board will

go South anyway Or I can take a proactive

approach and try to manufacture some

timing artificially by forcing him to hit

me I chose the latter for better or worse

The problem with such plays is that your

opponent gets to pick what checker(s) to

hit when he enters and he will invariably

pick the ones highest in your board thereby

thwarting your plan to some extent After

my play we reached Position 4

THE VICTOR AND THE VANQUISHEDMochy Mochizuki (L) and Ray Fogerlund display their trophies after an entertaining and classic Dual-Duel Final

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

is MochyXGID=-dgCBCBBA--A------baaA----1-11411101110

to play 41

1 XG Roller++ 2120 84 eq +1597PlayerOpponent

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

2 XG Roller++ 2120 117 eq +1594 (-0003)PlayerOpponent

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

5 XG Roller++ 2116 eq +1390 (-0207)PlayerOpponent

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

Mochy thought for a while about this play

Not wanting to improve my timing he chose

to step into the outfield without hitting XG

rewarded him with a double-whopper

totalling -207 It is better to hit it says

Backgames are hard to play okay Had I

managed to roll a 6 in the next couple of

rolls (Mochy never made the 8 point) this

story might have a happier ending for me

I didnrsquot and the four checkers on my side of

the board made their way to my ace point

In Monopoly terms I now owned Mediter-

ranean Ave with two houses on it Sigh

Well of course we have only reached the

halfway point of this game by now and

much of the rest of it is rather routine mdash

me trying to get out and build something

on my side of the board while waiting for

a shot etc So letrsquos fast forward a bit to the

point where I chose to redouble Mochy to

four at Position 6

ROFL I am on the bar shooting at a 3

Failing that I can hit another checker in

Mochyrsquos outfield with an ace or deuce and

if all else fails I can hit loose inside my

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

is Ray FogerlundXGID=aD-A-----aaA----b--bbbA-d-1-1-1001101110

on roll cube action

Analyzed in XG Roller++ No redouble RedoubleTakePlayer Winning Chances 6638 (G000 B000) 6656 (G000 B000)Opponent Winning Chances 3362 (G563 B032) 3344 (G580 B033)Cubeless Equities +0265 +0561

Cubeful EquitiesNo redouble +0555RedoubleTake +0338 (-0217)RedoublePass +1000 (+0445)

Best Cube action No redouble TakePercentage of wrong pass needed to make the double decision right 247

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

Game 3 Move 54 White (Fogerlund) on roll Cube action

board with a 6 (like if I rolled a 46 from

the bar or something) Anyway I redoubled

without much hesitation It pays to do such

things with confidence Meanwhile in the

back of my mind I knew that this redouble

was probably premature Often I would

consider my opponent and decide to wait

if he is fearless or in this case as flawless as

humanly possible So I knew this was not

right but it canrsquot be as big a blunder as XG

says it is which is over 0200 The reason

it is NOT a double whopper is that maybe

only 20 of all Open players would take

it especially in the FINAL Seeing all the

blots they would surmise that discretion is

the better part of valor and just pass So

not giving the Open division players this

cube would be like a 10 blunder on the

RAY-character scale Kinda like the Richter

scale for earthquakes You MUST put the

question to your opponents

Unfortunately I was playing a Samurai

and they are not endowed with fear I

knew this so why did I double anyway

This was the situation I had been waiting

for Strike while the iron is hot I did not

want to toss 31 or 32 and lose my market I

want to do my shopping before it closes In

addition curiously this is my best chance

at beating Mochy in the PR He thought for

5 minutes mdash his clock literally went from

over 20 minutes to 15 or so mdash to make his

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

decision He must surely have considered

passing this redouble even though he knew

it was a take Anyway if my redouble is

a blunder of 2 then I can tell you from

experience that his PR penalty from passing

would be at least twice that much Here it

would have been 0445

Secondly and paradoxically this was also

my best chance to win Letrsquos remember that

winning in my opinion is more important

than playing well They give you money and

trophies for winning while playing well

earns you respect Of course you can win

while playing well and the purists seem to

insist that you canrsquot have one without the

other but my shelves are sagging under

the weight of trophies while I seldom get

much respect

My point here is simply this mdash I had made

a pact with the dice because I needed an ally

to defeat my stronger opponent Without

reinforcement from them I was going to

lose Plain and simple They need to perform

for me or I am on my way to the funeral

parlor A backgammon player hates to have

to trust his dice but that was required for

me to win here I sent over this cube in

anticipation of the same thing those that

would PASS it fear mdash that I will pick up

multiple blots and cruise to a 4 point win

Mochy dutifully took as he knew he had to

Those of you who were inclined to pass this

redouble need to figure out why otherwise

you will be at risk not only when you play

Mochy but also when you play me I am

convinced that I get better results than I

probably should because I give this kind

of double Sensing the moment of maxi-

mum discomfort for my opponent I give

his imagination a chance to defeat him It

didnrsquot work here but it often does Math-

ematically my redouble is right on believe

it or not because of the sheer number of

players incapable of taking it for whatever

reason I donrsquot have enough experience

to state that Akiko would have liked this

redouble but I would bet on it Irsquoll wager

that she has used male fear to her advantage

better than anyone else

After the match our recorder proclaimed

that NOBODY would have taken my redou-

ble even though it was a 217 blunder I

guess he has some fear in him what do you

think But my blot-collecting mission hadnrsquot

gone so well when we reached Position 7

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

is MochyXGID=-D---A--A---a-----bbbbbAd-211001101110

on roll cube action

Cubeful EquitiesNo redouble +0567 (-0066)RedoubleTake +0633RedoublePass +1000 (+0367)

Best Cube action Redouble TakeeXtreme Gammon Version 210 MET Kazaross XG2

Mochy chose this moment to redouble me

to 8 According to XG he was correct to do

so by 066 According to my interpretation

of this format it was a blunder Mochy is

winning the PR battle hands down so he

should want to reduce the volatility He

canrsquot possibly dream that I will pass this

redouble can he All it will do is tend to

make sure that the winner of this game

will also be the winner of this match He

should be willing to risk a bit of PR to limit

the influence of luck on the outcome of the

entire match Letrsquos give credit where credit

is due however Mine is a theoretical plat-

form that is quite arguable Mochy had no

idea what the actual PRs were at this point

and so he resolved to simply do the right

thing just as XG always does

You see XG assumes perfect opposition

In real life there is no such thing so the

optimal strategy simply has to be an area

where your vision is obscured like driv-

ing in the fog He gave this cube a couple

minutes of thought before sending it over

I took it and asked Bill Riles a rhetorical

question ldquoHas there ever been a 16-cube

in the Dual-Duel Bill

Mochy failed to exit with a 6 and a few

rolls later we reached Position 8

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

I made a slight error redoubling to 16 here

by 016 (what a coincidence) Everybody

was laughing when I sent this cube and

said something clever mdash except Mochy

who had a look of horror on his face He

took it in an instant He didnrsquot need to

think anymore but he was the only one

not laughing or smiling At least I had him

worried I thought

My redouble is harmless in the big picture

as I must be optimistic that the dice will let

me win this game The dice have minds of

their own and they produced 55

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

is Ray FogerlundXGID=-D-A--a---a--Aa---abbb-adA3 -1-1001101110

on roll cube action

A Tip of the Ten-Gallon Hat to Mochy

To do this article justice it must be reported

that I made just a horrible play here a play

that likely cost me the match and boosted

my PR further into the stratosphere Until

now I had managed quite a few things fairly

well but I sort of fell apart here Having a

huge cushion on the time clock and this

being the last game I should have taken

enough time to find the right play here I

have found it useful over the last 30 years

of playing this game to get to know my

own personal weaknesses and do some

situational analysis in order to be better

able to avoid mistakes and blunders under

pressure

Unfortunately I reacted emotionally in

making this play The right play is actually

rather obvious and it is 199 116 72 This

makes a five point board and positions the

checkers to give me a direct 3 at Mochy in

the outfield should he fan here Way back

in Backgammon 101 you are taught to

play to the most likely scenario He will

fan 70 of the time so finding this play is

not particularly hard to figure out for that

is the most likely scenario

I made my last blunder of this match by

playing relatively fast out of frustration

You just have to slow down when you have

a double to play it is pretty simple There

are a myriad of ways to play this roll and

fully 7 of them were better than my play

of 155 116 72 I got covering right

and played that first For some reason I

felt the need to make this play and get it

over with resigned to my fate The lesson

here is Never resign yourself to your fate

in backgammon

You may have rolled badly now and you

might roll badly again but you need to

give yourself a chance to roll well Then if

you donrsquot you can blame the dice At least

make the right play For whatever reason I

mentally checked out when I saw the 55 I

guess The last thought that went through

my mind as I made my fateful play was I

didnrsquot want Mochy to enter with 34 35 or

36 and go past me so I had no chance at his

second checker That thought was fleeting

and incomplete as had been my analysis

The idea is to make plays that are compat-

ible with your game plan I had made a pact

with the dice so I have to trust in them

While my play preserved at least a fly-shot

at him under any circumstances it did not

provide me with a vital direct shot on most

of his rolls Had I exhibited the patience and

stamina and mental toughness to persevere

for one more roll in this game I probably

would have won it Mochy fanned and I

rolled 33 () () Finally the dice would

have rewarded me but alas my bad play

had caused me to miss Having managed the

time clock and direction of the game fairly

well and having victory within my grasp I

played too fast I am very disappointed in

myself however

It would have been a travesty had I won this

match and defeated such a great and deserv-

ing Champion Everyone in attendance

deserved a break and they got one when

Mochy won this game the match and the

PR by a mile Otherwise they would have

had to stick around and watch me botch

up some more games in my inimitable way

and STILL seen me lose The Dildonian

Defense may be entertaining to a certain

extent but it is losing backgammon All

the histrionics aside I had no business

winning this game or match

Mochy was the best I had avoided the trap

of trying to beat a man at his own game

and forced him to play mine Even so he

had outplayed me mdash though our respective

PRs were rather atrocious He played 6 and

I played 12 lol

The sun had already set in San Antonio

long before it set on my dreams of winning

the Dual-Duel final against the best player

in the world The next final I get into my

task will be easier In this one the format

had done its job and the Champion was

deserving I would have preferred that he

didnrsquot deserve it and I had won against all

odds But in Texas you are better off on a

bucking bronco or riding a bull Bucking

the odds is another story Letrsquos tip our

ten-gallon hats to Mochy til we ride again

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

fileC|UsersuserDesktopPositionhtm[3132014 103533 AM]

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

is Ray FogerlundXGID=-D-A--a---a--Aa---abbb-adA41-1551101110

to play 55

1 XG Roller++ 199 116 72 eq +0294PlayerOpponent

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

3 XG Roller++ 155 116 72 eq +0128 (-0166)PlayerOpponent

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

Game 3 Move 74 White (Fogerlund) to play 55

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

lars trabolt vs slava Pryadkinworld championship finalPart 1 Limiting Gammonish Volatility By Jason Pack

In the pre-bot era the only tried and

true way to become a top-notch back-

gammon player was by watching or

playing against world class players In the

1980s and early 90s Kit Woolsey and Bill

Robertie published a series of books decon-

structing the key decisions in some of the

best World Championship finals matches

Now in the 21st century mdash the age of

the advanced bots ndash students of the game

seem unfortunately to have lost interest

in these high-level contests Instead of

immersing ourselves in the play of two

human experts mdash analyzed by a skilled

bot-aided commentator ndash we examine

various themes mdash bear offs blitzes and

priming games ndash in isolation This trend is a

shame because in its essence backgammon

will always remain a psychological contest

between two human opponents The more

technically skilled the opponents are and

the more divergent their styles the more

clearly the psychological dimension will

appear In other words the decisions and

ldquoerrorsrdquo of the worldrsquos best usually reveal

some sort of tendency deliberate strategy

desire to promote or avoid volatility emo-

tional strength or weakness or attempt to

confuse or pressure onersquos opponent

The semi-finals and finals of the 2013 World

Championships in Monte Carlo turned out

to be a perfect vehicle for studying the inten-

tionality and psychology of backgammonrsquos

greatest experts At GammonVillagecom

in October 2013 I examined the 23-point

semi-final between Petko Kostadinov (USA)

and Lars Trabolt (DEN) This is avail-

able at httpwwwgammonvillagecom

backgammonmagazinearticle_display

cfmresourceid=6524

In this four-part article based on extensive

interviews with the players I will analyze

the 25-point final between Lars Trabolt

(DEN) and Vyachslav Pryadkin (UKR)

Trabolt was in his third WC final in the

last six years having also won the first

consolation in 2012 Pryadkin a master

gambler is famous for making a fortune

playing cash games against the worldrsquos best

players His most successful tactic was to

offer a consortium of experts the option of

consulting with Snowie on all their plays if

they spotted him a point and a half every ten

games This was a recipe to make a killing

Both Lars and Slava are masters of the

psychologicalstrategic aspect of the game

Like most top Danes Lars is known for

great technical skill deep understanding

of match-score dynamics and staying

cool under pressure If he ever deviates

from technical play it may be in his very

slight tendency to limit volatility against

weaker or lesser-known opponents Cru-

cially Slava was largely unknown to Lars

as the two had never played a long match

before Lars told me after the match that

he had only played Slava once before after

a previous yearrsquos gala dinner in a series of

dmp matches for 500 euros a pop In the

WC final Larsrsquo checker play was superior

to Slavarsquos Lars made many bold yet correct

plays as well as some which showed great

finesse Slavarsquos checker play was mostly

fine At times it was overly aggressive or

old-school but it was not erratic Slavarsquos

errors tended to arise from pre-bot- style

tactics He is known as a top-notch money

player who is not too concerned with the

precise doubling window or take point at

uneven match scores Due presumably to

his vast experience in high-stakes money

action he has developed his own theories

about how the cube should be handled In

their finals match both men played at a very

high level XG++ rates Larsrsquo performance

at 49PR and Slavarsquos as 59PR Most of Larsrsquo

lost equity came from cautious cube play

whereas Slavarsquos lost equity came mostly

from checker-play mistakes

VYACHSLAV SLAVA PRYADKINSlava Pryadkin followed through on his match strategy to steer the World Champi-onship final towards big cubes and high volatility

Yet there was much more to the play-

ersrsquo decisions than an attempt to ape the

programs Their advanced technique and

unique understanding of match dynam-

ics meant that there was a great degree

of psychology involved in the decisions

made in this match Pryadkin knew he

was the underdog and said as much to

interested spectators To compensate for

this he relied upon his mental toughness

and daring match strategy He sought to

increase volatility and to redouble when-

ever he had the opportunity to win 4 8

or even 12 points at a time This strategy

countered Larsrsquo desire to give scope to his

greater technical skill and knowledge of

match-score dynamics by prolonging the

match The way events unfolded the dice

allowed Slava to decisively steer the match

in the direction he wanted and to take Lars

out of his game plan and comfort zone All

players in the 4-7 PR range should study

Pryadkinrsquos performance it provides insight

into the kind of match strategies that may

be successfully employed against the worldrsquos

best (if the dice cooperate)

In this series of four articles I will focus

upon the key decisions that revealed the

playersrsquo tendencies and psychology We shall

see in this first article that on a number

of occasions Lars overcompensated for the

skill difference between him and Slava by

trying to reduce the match volatility

In studying the match I confirmed my

opinion that cube play constitutes the

clearest window into a playerrsquos soul mdash yet

opening checker plays decisions on when

to volunteer shots hit aggressively or play

purely also provide insight into a playerrsquos

psychology and tendencies This may be

the case because in the early game it is

impossible to do precise calculations and

one must rely upon instinct Similarly the

issue of volunteering shots or avoiding

many blots frequently demonstrates how

comfortable the player is with short term

tactical risk for potential strategic gain

Before we proceed with our analysis it is

worth reiterating that both Slava and Lars

are amazingly talented backgammon players

mdash and although I will be focusing on their

errors and criticizing their play they both

played a remarkably high-quality match

Given the pressure of the circumstances

they showed daring resolve cunning

and innovation I hope they can accept my

criticism my praise and my attempts to

diagnosis their psychologies in the objec-

tive manner in which they are intended

In the first game both men came out of

the gate slowly making some fairly simple

checker-play errors In the middle game

Pryadkin missed a good opportunity to

cube After the game became a race he

ended up losing a single point by dropping

a small but clear take In interviewing Lars

months after the match he remembers

that as Slava dropped the cube he told

Lars that he knew it was a take but that he

would pass it anyway This bizarre tactic

may have been a form of psychological

warfare mdash either baiting Lars to cube even

earlier in the future or conversely using

reverse psychology to make Lars cube later

Slava clearly was making a non-bot play

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

is Lars TraboltXGID=-ba---E-D--AdC---c-da---B-00-1430102510

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Pip 176 Lars Trabolt 24-Away

25-Away Slava Pryadkin Pip 160

Position 1

Game 2 Move 3 White (Trabolt) to play 43

He knew he was only giving up minimal

equity with the upside of getting under his

opponentrsquos skin When I interviewed him

months after the match he justified his

action with a piece of life philosophy ldquoI

actually thought of the position as a small

take but I often do what is more comfort-

able for me in close situations regardless

of the opinion of computer [or an outside

objectiverational observer] In real life

by the way this [approach] helps a lot So

I passed what was possibly a small takerdquo

Wisdom from the World Champion

Both players settled down in the second

game Larsrsquo otherwise sound play was

marred by a defensive style which resulted

in some small yet noticeable ldquosuboptimal

decisionsrdquo In the opening if given a choice

between making the offensive five point

or the defensive twenty point it is usually

correct to make the offensive five Here

on the third move of the game Lars had

a 43 to play

Part 1 Limiting Gammonish Volatility Part 1 Limiting Gammonish Volatility

In studying the match

I confirmed my

opinion that cube play

constitutes the clearest

window into a playerrsquos

soul mdash yet opening

checker plays decisions

on when to volunteer

shots hit aggressively

or play purely also

provide insight into a

playerrsquos psychology and

tendencies

Larsrsquo choice of the 20 point (by playing

2420 2320) instead of the five point (2420

85) opens a window into his priorities

With the 20 point established he is far less

likely to be gammoned Asked about the

play after the match Lars said he didnrsquot

know what the technically best play was

but wanted to make the play that would

get gammoned the least and steer the game

towards less volatility depriving Slava the

chance for any fireworks Whether Larsrsquo

overall strategy was wise or not in this

situation the Magriel criteria call for an

aggressive play Lars has more men back

trails in the race and the board strengths

are equal

We could also deduce that 2420 85 must

be the right play by thinking about how best

to prevent our opponent from achieving his

goals mdash hitting the slot on our five point

or making his own five point It is easier

for him to hit a blot that we leave on our

five point (15 shots) than for him to make

his five point on the head of our checker

spilt to the 20-point (only 9 shots) Lastly

in a position like this where it seems quite

likely that there will be an exchange of hits

strengthening our board first (85) allows

us to seek favorable contact by splitting

whereas making the anchor deprives us

of this tactic

Lars exhibited a similar cautiousdefensive

tendency a few moves later when he rolled

a set of double threes that allowed him to

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

is Lars TraboltXGID=-b---bEADB--cC---b-daa----00-1330102510

to play 33

1 XG Roller++ 2418 1815 85 eq -0183PlayerOpponent

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

2 XG Roller++ 2418 1310 85 eq -0224 (-0040)PlayerOpponent

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

3 XG Roller++ 2418 85(2) eq -0236 (-0053)PlayerOpponent

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Pip 126 Lars Trabolt 23-Away

Position 3

Game 3 Move 6 Black (Pryadkin) on roll Cube action

After playing the first three 3s 2418 85

Lars was faced with the rather challeng-

ing problem of how to play his last 3 He

chose to move 85 a second time so as to

clean up his position and play with three

blots instead of four or five But this is the

wrong time to play cautiously Lars is way

behind in the race has a better board than

Slava and owns the best anchor Here the

Magriel criteria strongly indicate a bolder

play (amazingly even the very loose five-

blot play 1310 is slightly better than Larsrsquo

cautious play) Lars should play purely put-

ting his men where he wants them poised

to make the four point and to remake the

8 point Playing 2418 85(2) leaves 25

ways to make the four point if the slot is

missed while the correct 2418 1815 85

leaves 28 ways and many additional ways

to remake the 8 and begin to control the

outfield That being said it is very easy to

understand Larsrsquo rationale for tidying up

If after playing 2418 1815 85 he is hit

back from the roof he will be scrambling

to clean up the extra blots However he is

already behind in the race and must with

his better board seek contact

In both of the small ldquomistakesrdquo we have just

looked at Lars chose the play that got him

gammoned the least As a top player he may

have even been aware that his was not the

XG play When asked about this later he

told me that he has been consciously trying

to play less ldquolooserdquo and knew that Falafel

would criticize him in his commentary for

moves like this one

Observed through the prism of match

psychology this tendency is perfectly under-

standable and potentially even ldquocorrectrdquo for

Lars inasmuch as mdash against a less accom-

plished partially familiar opponent mdash he

wants to avoid losing a big game should

the dice turn against him Ironically fate

would not allow Lars to successfully lower

the volatility in this match

The rest of game 2 was fairly uneventful

Lars cashed the game after Slava needlessly

volunteered an extra blot ndash apparently in an

unsuccessful attempt to make Lars play on

In game 3 Slava ldquomissedrdquo another marginal

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

is Slava PryadkinXGID=--a--BDBB---dD-A-bac--bb--001000202510

on roll cube action

Slavarsquos decision to not cube here may be

evidence that his strategy was only to cube

early in positions that were very scary

and gammonish or likely to provoke an

error from his opponent This is not such

a position Lars would scoop this cube as

he is ahead in the race by five pips and

despite being trapped behind a four prime

has the better board should an exchange

of hits occur Slavarsquos wise decision not to

double paid off as he reached this position

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

is Slava PryadkinXGID=--a--BDCB-A-cC---baca-bb--001D0202510

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

Game 3 Move 7 Black (Pryadkin) doubles Take or pass

Slava had improved his forward structure

threats and has gained three pips but got

Lars to take anyway This is something that

I feel XG should reward players for doing

by lowering their PRs via giving them

some kind of psychological bonus points

[Hint hint Xavier] Slavarsquos decision process

here teaches a good psychological lesson

Rather than cubing at the bottom of the

doubling window as the computer does

it is frequently a good idea in non-volatile

positions not to give a marginal cube that

is unlikely to elicit a mistake and instead

wait for a more difficult cube which can

pressure your opponent into a mistake

This is a tactic which all top money players

utilize In the backgammon literature it is

sometimes called the reverse Woolsey Law

or the Simborg Corollary

Position 4 is a clear candidate for the appli-

cation of both of these principles That is

to say it is quite difficult to evaluate if this

position is a take or a pass It is a very good

double White has 12 numbers that extend

his four prime he can attack with 6 other

numbers and on those variations benefit

from the blot in Blackrsquos board if Lars steps

up to the edge of the prime he is likely to

be pointed on Larsrsquo forward position has

big gaps and blots so he must avoid most

contact All in all this spells a small pass

on board strength and the race alone it

appears to be a take but Lars is unlikely to

be able to escape without throwing a joker

Yet Larsrsquo take given his tendencies was

almost to be expected for this is a fairly

gammon-free and low-volatility position

To say that he blundered in taking would

only be telling half the story Slavarsquos facili-

tated and ldquoforcedrdquo the error After the take

the game played out uneventfully mdash Lars

became stuck behind a six prime and was

then closed out

The score now 2-all Lars played perfectly in

game 4 and Slava made some connectivity

errors These mistakes would recur through-

out the match evidence that Slava was

wedded to an older style of backgammon

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL STREAMED LIVEWatch the Pryadkin-Trabolt match and enjoy the engaging commentary by the 1 Giant of Backgammon Falafel Natanzon

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

is Vyacheslav PryadkinXGID=---a--E-DA--eBa--b-db-C---001442202510

to play 44

1 XG Roller++ 2218(2) 2214 eq -0076PlayerOpponent

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

3 XG Roller++ 2218(2) 139(2) eq -0098 (-0023)PlayerOpponent

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4 XG Roller++ 2218(3) 139 eq -0101 (-0025)PlayerOpponent

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

6 XG Roller++ 2214(2) eq -0149 (-0074)PlayerOpponent

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

Game 4 Move 5 Black (Pryadkin) to play 44

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

is Lars TraboltXGID=-B---bC-C-A-dE-Aab-c--b-a-00-1542302510

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

3 XG Roller+ 139 61 eq -0093 (-0307)PlayerOpponent

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

Rolling an excellent set of double fours

Slava was faced with many choices with

only a small equity difference between

them He chose to hit and make a partial

outside prime 2214 139(2) rather than

to hit and partially escape 2214 2218(2)

or hit and build his board 2214 84(2)

Slavarsquos move is not a big error but the correct

move 2214 2218(2) keeps the back men

connected to the rest of Slavarsquos army He

is no longer behind in the race and hence

he doesnrsquot want to stay back to wait for a

shot he should prepare to move forward

while keeping his soldiers all marching

in formation in an attempt to control the

outfield where the real struggles in this

game are likely to unfold However Slavarsquos

play is certainly the most instinctive The

bot play is decidedly counterintuitive even

though the theme of the position is racing

and simplifying the position the bot play

leaves two blots while his play leaves only

one and makes an extra blocking point

After falling further behind in the game

Lars would throw a double 4 joker of his

own which allowed him to cash on the

next move to take the lead in the match

3-2 In game 5 Lars made a very minor

error shown below as position 5 I am

only choosing to point out such a minor

ldquonon-botrdquo play because it appears to jibe

with the psychological tendencies I am

attempting to diagnose

That Lars must hit 2015 should be quite

clear before the roll he trails in the race

and Slava is threatening to fully escape his

back men That Lars has a blot on the ace

which he cannot cover if he elects to hit

must not distract him from hitting After

Lars hits 2015 if he plays 1511 he trip-

licates Slavarsquos ones (ie ones hit on the 24

point the 14 point and the 5 point) while

if he plays 139 he triplicates his own good

fives (ie fives to make the 15 point to hit

Slavarsquos blot on the 10 if it is not moved

and to cover the blot on the ace) In short

the correct move 1511 diversifies his own

good numbers while triplicating Slavarsquos

ones These short term tactical factors are

more important than battening down the

hatches and making the nine point This

move is a case where tactics trump securing

long-term assets and the risk of leaving an

extra blot is actually minimal As many

players would instinctively play 1511

Larsrsquo choice almost certainly demonstrates

his penchant for avoiding plays that leave

too many blots In fact when asked about

the play Lars told me he ldquoinstinctivelyrdquo

played 139 without giving 1511 serious

consideration The correct play 1511 leaves

four blots while Larsrsquo play leaves only three

and makes an asset so he didnrsquot look more

deeply into the position This situation and

Larsrsquo instincts parallel position 2

Later in the game Lars missed or deliber-

ately withheld a few very borderline cubes

A few rolls later he reached position 6

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

is Lars TraboltXGID=-B-a--C-C---cEa-bc-c-AbA--00-1D2302510

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

Game 5 Move 8 White (Trabolt) doubles Take or pass

Lars was justified in holding his cube so

that he could give Slava a difficult decision

in a position like this In choosing to pass

Slava exhibited what he classified as ldquohis

conservatism in takingrdquo in gammonish

positions He told me later his strategy for

the match was essentially to get the cube up

to four or eight but only by taking in posi-

tions that didnrsquot frighten him Apparently

this one didnrsquot qualify as Slava confessed

to me that he tends to be afraid when he

lacks an anchor

Yes this is a scary position Slava trails in

the race by 15 pips and Lars has 12 numbers

which make a point on his head (66 55 44

22 64 54 52 and 42 mdash with double aces

Lars should make the 5 point rather than

switching points and hitting loose while

with double threes it is correct to make

the five point rather than pointing on the

deuce) Despite this powerful attack on

the remaining 24 numbers Slava will have

the chance to attack Larsrsquo back man or to

counter attack after a loose hit If Slavarsquos

blot on the 21 point were on the 20 point

where he would be under the gun of four

builders instead of three the position would

be a clear drop Similarly if we were to take

away Larsrsquo race lead without much improv-

ing Slavarsquos position structurally mdash say by

moving two builders from Slavarsquos midpoint

to the eight point and six point (giving

Slava 12 fewer pips) then Lars wouldnrsquot

even have a cube This shows us that this

cube is a combination of racing attacking

and positional chances and Slava can take

because none of the threats is particularly

overwhelming in itself Many players may

want to instinctively pass here because

blackrsquos ace point looks structurally very

weak but the bots have taught humans that

the ace point is not as much of a liability

as was once thought

With Slavarsquos drop Lars pulled ahead 4-2 all

four of his points having come from Slavarsquos

drops Slava on the other hand established

his trend of cubing Lars in We will explore

all of these themes and their implications

for match strategy in my next installment

Until then I bid you adieu from England

Stay Calm and Roll Double Sixes (when

not on the bar)

My thanks go to Raymond Kershaw and

Bob Wachtel for helping proofread the

article They gave excellent advice about

issues of both style and content I am also

grateful to Lars and Slava who talked with

me about their decisions both immediately

after the match and then many months later

over email

- JASON PACK

JASON PACKJason Pack is a Researcher of Middle Eastern History at Cambridge University president of Libya-Analysiscom and editor of The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future (Palgrave Macmillan 2013) He is also an opinion writer for The New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Guardian Foreign Policy The Huffington Post and other publications

In this article I will share with my

readers my observations about two

recent Cyprus tournaments the 1st

Merit Open and the 6th Cyprus Open

Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea

very close to Turkey Syria Israel Lebanon

Egypt and Greece Due to its location and

climate it is a great tourist destination and

since all of the countries near Cyprus are

also backgammon centers it is also a great

location for tournaments

Five years ago there were no international

backgammon tournaments in Cyprus The

World Cup Challenge VI held in Istanbul

in 2000 may have been the last significant

tournament in that region It was eight

years later that Fuat Erdağ of ISTAVDER

(a Turkish backgammon club established in

2008) in partnership with Chiva Tafazzolirsquos

WBA (World Backgammon Association)

started organizing tournaments in Cyprus

Demonstrating great vision and initiative

Fuat and Chiva developed a culture of

backgammon on the island by running

two tournaments every year the Cyprus

Open and the European Pro Championship

Although WBA and ISTAVDER parted

ways just recently it looks as if these two

tournaments so popular with Turkish

players will be continued

This year Cyprus hosted an even bigger

and a more promising tournament the

Merit Open During the hibernation period

of tournament backgammon in Turkey

another Turkish club WBF TURKEY

had popularized ldquoWesternrdquo backgammon

(played with the doubling cube) by estab-

lishing leagues among some Turkish cities

Meanwhile the WBF preserved the tradi-

tional cubeless version of backgammon

mdash called tavla same as Greek portes mdash

holding very big local tavla tournaments

Arda Fındıkoğlu mdash head of WBF TURKEY

and a fine organizer mdash directed these local

tournaments with great success Finally in

2013 Ardarsquos business acumen was recog-

nized he received an offer from the Merit

Park Hotel to organize an international

tournament Arda invited Marco Fornasir

of WBF to partner with him on this project

The tournament held towards the end of

October in Kyrenia a nice seaside town in

Northern Cyprus drew a very strong field

The weather cooperated the Mediterranean

was still warm enough to swim in The hotel

accommodated the players as well mdash with

added money free transfers very cheap

room rates broadcasts from the tourna-

mentrsquos Facebook site and opening and clos-

ing ceremonies and parties These were as

far as I know the best conditions that have

ever been offered for a tournament it was

like a dream for us backgammon players

The hotel had nice backgammon boards

and dice sets Unfortunately there were no

clocks I believe that the WBF will finally

admit that clocks are necessary in todayrsquos

backgammon world to give the experts a

little more edge just as in chess computer

technology in backgammon has decreased

the performance gaps between players

The tournament had a classical ladder

elimination format with three categories

main consolation and last chance I believe

this was the second most limiting feature

of the tournament In todayrsquos backgam-

mon world when even Monte Carlo has

announced that it will change its elimination

format the WBF should modernize Today

there are quasi-Swiss systems which allow

two or more losses and double elimination

systems with a fighterrsquos bracket With as

many as one hundred players (as we had)

it may also be necessary to add more days

to the tournament Apart from these defi-

ciencies the hotel and WBF executed the

tournament almost perfectly I personally

asked the hotel to organize this tournament

twice a year

In mid-December I was in Cyprus again

This time it was for 6th Cyprus Open The

tournament was at the Pasha Casino of

the Golden Tulip Hotel in Nicosia the

capital of Northern Cyprus Since I have

participated in a lot of tournaments there

(ISTAVDER and WBA had held eight

tournaments at this location usually with

many strong players in attendance) I felt

like I was at home The hotel was always

friendly and the casino provided added

money for these tournaments Despite the

Backgammon in cyprus1st Merit Open amp 6th

Cyprus Open By Sabri Buumlyuumlksoy

A historic bazaar with a courtyard in Nicosia The definition of serenity

TRADITIONAL BAZAAR IN NICOSIAContinued on page 59

The gorgeous view from my room at Merit Park Hotel The Mediterranean is Cyprus main attraction

Cyprus is steeped in history The 1st Merit Open was held 3 miles away from the historic downtown

MEDITERRANEAN SEA HISTORIC STREET IN KYRENIA

Merits three merits Mesut Guumlrdal Daria Malykina amp Didem Yılmaz They are at the heart of the success of the event

GUumlRDAL MALYKINA amp YILMAZ Doubles winners from Greece Konstantinos Mitrelis and Haris Christidis

DOUBLES WINNERS

decline of backgammon in the world these

tournaments have enjoyed ever-increasing

attendance even with minimum publicity

The 6th Cyprus Open also enjoyed a very

good attendance Even Falafel after tak-

ing a break from competition visited and

played doubles

There were however some bumps in the

road Somehow the hotel lost all the clocks

so on the first day we had to play the doubles

without them The main tournament used

a more Swiss type of system called FTB-

GSYSTEM backed up with a web based

Continued from page 57

Opening cocktail and party by the pool of Merit Park Hotel Winner of 1st Merit Open Sergey Erokhin Michy was the finalist

COCKTAILS BY THE POOL SERGEY EROKHIN

Continued on page 61

Backgammon in Cyprus Backgammon in Cyprus

Draws are part of FTBGSYSTEM in every round They could be followed from screens all over the tournament room

In the first round of the main tournament Michy and Mochy had an unlucky draw to play against each other

MONITORS DISPLAYING THE DRAW MICHY VERSUS MOCHY

management system It provided a multiple

loss feature without much bother or cost

I think tournament directors should con-

sider using this system It can also provide

a database of matches for a web-based

worldwide ranking system An innova-

tive break time management policy was

also used in this tournament Break times

were added to the clock settings of both

players and during the break the clock kept

running This gave players more flexibility

in managing their breaks and directors

more control in managing delays There

was some controversy in the handling of

byes and non-systematic broadcasting of

live matches during the tournament but

the traditional closing ceremony and party

were as cheerful as it has always been

The number and quality of tournaments in

Cyprus are higher than most places in the

world and they are still expected to increase

If the competition between two Turkish

clubs ISTAVDER and WBF TURKEY can

be reduced to a healthy level we will see

even better tournaments and attendance

Especially for Turkish players it is very

distracting to have doubts about whether

they will be welcome at a tournament

or not After a period of tension we are

expecting to see some positive effects of

the competition

I would like to express my gratitude to

Annick Hasdenteufel Kutlu Kaya and

the Merit Hotel for providing some of the

pictures Here are the results of 1st Merit

Open and 6th Cyprus Open

My idols of backgammon Cemalettin Yuumlksel and Akiko Yazawa A beautiful moment captured together with Doug Mayfield

IDOLS OF BACKGAMMONContinued from page 59

Backgammon in Cyprus

Super-Jackpot (8) 1-Abdullah Sorguumlven

(Turkey) 2-Konstantinos Mitrelis (Greece)

Ladies Tournament (11) 1-Pelin Yazan

(Turkey) 2-Meltem Sahtiyanci (Turkey)

Warm-Up (51+38) 1-Cemalettin Yuumlksel

(Turkey) 2-Giorgos Kleitsas (Greece)

869Bg Trophy (43+22) 1-Shimon Kagan

(Israel) 2-Eyuumlp Durmus (Turkey)

One-Point Match (128) 1-Haluk Oral

(Turkey) 2-Zorik Manukyan (Armenia

Ukraine)

Doubles Championship (31 teams) 1-Haris

Christidis (Greece) amp Konstantinos Mitrelis

(Greece) 2-Goumlkhan Kazandag (Turkey) amp

Doug Mayfield (USA)

E B G T V I I - 6 t h C y p r u s O p e n

Dec 12-15 2013 Lefkosa North Cyprus

Elite (75) 1-Maya Peycheva (Bulgaria)

2-Zafer Tas (Turkey) 3-Caner Kalafatoglu

(Turkey) 4-Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan)

5-Giannis Pasialis (Greece)

Leisure Group (29) 1-Kemal Akdamar (Tur-

key) 2-Cemal Oumlztemiz (Turkey) 3-Cengiz

Dindar (Cyprus) 4-Ugur Taskan (Turkey)

Doubles (32 teams) 1-Alaattin Oumlzaltun

(Turkey) amp Zafer Tas (Turkey) 2-Ilker

Goumlccedilhan (Turkey) amp Mehmet Kutlu

Kuumlccediluumlkyoumlruumlk (Turkey)

Super-Jackpot (8) 1-Metin Ccedilubuk (Turkey)

2-Dursun Ccediletin (Turkey)

Dmp-Challenge (64) 1-Funda Kapikiran

(Turkey)

Special Player Awards Murat Kapikiran

(Turkey) Alireza Sarabi (Iran) Line Van

Damme (Belgium)

- SABRI BUumlYUumlKSOY

The finalist Zafer Taş and the winner Maya Peycheva

MAYA WINS THE 6TH CYPRUS OPEN

A young Turkish player Caner Kalafatoğlu playing against a giant Caner had a very successful tournament

MOCHY amp CANER KALAFATOĞLU

1st Merit Backgammon Open - WBF

Oct 30-Nov 3 2013 Kyrenia-Girne North

Cyprus

Masters (92) 1-Sergey Erokhin (Russia)

2-Michihito Kageyama (Japan) 34-Martin

Barkwill (England) Tabet Tabet (Lebanon)

1C-Igor Romashov (Russia) 2C-Soinguli

Amirov (Georgia) 3C4C-Mustafa Biber

(Cyprus) Nodar Gagua (GeorgiaRussia)

1LC-Erkan Varli (Turkey) 2LC-Sergey

Drmoyan (Armenia) Ladies Prize - Akiko

Yazawa (Japan)

Intermediate (33) 1-Andranik Harutyunyan

(Armenia) 2-Yusuf Mehmetoglu (Turkey)

34-Eyuumlp Durmus (Turkey) Mykjailo Yuzh-

nyi (Ukraine) 1C-Gioni Adrian Munteanu

(Romania) 2C-Peter Neumann (Germany)

3C4C-Annick Hasdenteufel (Belgium)

Cengiz Oumlzdil (Turkey) 1LC-Mesut Celebi

(Turkey) 2LC-Yilmaz Oumlzdogan (Turkey)

Ladies Prize - Ayse Oumlzkin Goumlkccedileer (Turkey)

RED SHOESOUR MISSIONMy wife Şebnem and I had fun dancing Her beautiful red shoes are the reason we have Haluk Levent singing for us

ISTAVDER has joined forces with other backgammon clubs to form a national Federation

BIG BOARDMy colleagues Deniz Aldıkaccediltı and Onur Guumlltekin having fun with a giant backgammon board

The Turkish club ISTAVDER is a

visionary in the backgammon

world For the clubrsquos sixth anni-

versary it raised the bar of excellence to a

level that backgammon as one of the worldrsquos

oldest games has deserved for centuries to

attain In the Mediterranean region where

I was born backgammon is more than just

backgammon Here in Turkey for example

it is played by people of all ages for a mul-

titude of reasons But it is mostly a social

game mdash where as in a perfect world you

talk about life but still try to win all the

time It is very hard to persuade people in

this region to approach backgammon as a

game of skill that is to think analytically

and to use the cube Nevertheless in the

last six years ISTAVDER achieved great

success in promoting modern backgammon

cultivating a small group of players who are

now highly competitive on the international

stage The clubrsquos 6th ISTAVDER Anniversary

Festival was far more than a tournament I

will give a quick and mostly visual capture

of this marvelous backgammon celebration

attended by 270 players

ISTAVDER 6thAnniversary festivalBy Sabri Buumlyuumlksoy ISTAVDER has joined

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

clubs to form a national

Federation The most

striking feature of the

anniversary event was

that it was sponsored

Since Turkish law does

not allow players to

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

will be able to improve

the level of Turkish

backgammon by

attracting professional

players to our

tournaments

VIDEO PROMOCheck out the highlights of the ISTAVDER event in this great promotional video

THE FINALThe final was played in a special room with only a few spectators allowed to watch Murat Cengiz

(L) lost to Burhan Yılmazer

EXCEPTIONAL EVENTCenk Ccedilorbacıoğlu Ali Ccediletin Belene and Ebru Oumlzatan worked very hard to keep

the tournament running smoothly

HALAY LINE DANCEISTAVDER tournaments always end

with halay a lovely Turkish line dance

Results mdash Championship (270) 1-Burhan

Yilmazer (Turkey) 2-Murat Cengiz (Tur-

key) 3-Fuat Erdag (Turkey) 4-Mustafa

Babal (Turkey) 5-Mustafa Altuntas (Tur-

key) 6-Aykut Uzel (Turkey) 7-Ibrahim

Karaca (Turkey) 8-Hamza Nar (Turkey)

1C-Shahab Ghodsi (IranNorway) 2C-Ilker

Gochan (Turkey) 3C4C-Kamil Zafer

Akbiyik (Turkey) Ahmet Kamil Bayka-

logullari (Turkey)

6th Turkish Consultation Doubles 1 (64)

1-Roman Guehetadze (Georgia) amp Gocha

Tchockhoneli (Georgia) 2-Mustafa Altuntas

(Turkey) amp Ibrahim Karaca (Turkey)

1-Metin Cubuk (Turkey) amp Kamil Karaali

(Turkey) 2-Selahattin Hacioglu (Turkey)

amp Salih Yener (Turkey)

Speedgammon (64) 1-Hakan Kahyaoglu

(Turkey)

Team Challenge (16 Teams) 1-Team

Tigers Cuneyt Argun Genc (Turkey)

Rod Covlin (USA) Umit Tanoglu (Turkey)

One Point 1 1-Canan Kirikkaya (Turkey)

One Point 2 1- Kemal Aksu (Turkey)

Super Jackpot 1 (16) Dursun Ccediletin (Turkey)

Super Jackpot 2 (16) Abdullah Ser (Turkey)

Super Jackpot 3 (16) Ufuk Aksak (Turkey)

Super Jackpot 4 (16) Mustafa Babal

(Turkey)

Special Player Awards Can Biyiklioglu

(Germany) Sean Williams (England) Sevgi

Basaran (Turkey) Erkan Varli (Turkey)

Nodar Gagua (GeorgiaRussia)

Sponsor Awards WOW Istanbul Hotel

amp Convention Center Kentplus Kadikoy

Mislicom Pasha Backgammon Mys My

Company FMgammon

BURHAN YILMAZERWinner Burhan Yılmazer is trailing 1-4 at round 1 The format allows players to continue until their third loss Complete tournament results amp progression may be viewed here

Fuat Erdağ the head of ISTAVDER and the biggest sponsor of the Festival celebrated the success of the tournament with

a giant cake together with the champion Burhan Yılmazer In Turkey backgammon is like a cake everybody gets a piece

CELEBRATION WITH CAKE

ISTAVDER 6th Anniversary Festival ISTAVDER 6th Anniversary Festival

Like us on Facebookfacebookcomusbgf

The Nevada Backgammon Association Presents the

Backgammon ChampionshipsApril 23-27 2014

Featuringbull The first US Open held in fabulous Las Vegasbull Super and Limited Jackpots - round of 32 starting

Wednesdaybull Doubles and Mini-matchesbull Continuous Entry Seniors Tournament bull Blitz tournament - Held every daybull The main event is played at a relaxed pace which allows

entry into side events or time to enjoy the Flamingo and Las Vegas

bull Visit the casinorsquos 24-hour poker room with daily tournaments and non-stop cash games

bull Make your hotel reservations by April 5th for the guaranteed rate

For More InformationHoward Markowitz

1001 Dumont Blvd 115Las Vegas NV 89169

(702) 218-8238howardmarkowitzyahoocom

The Flamingo HotelVisit wwwnvbgcom

Breaking the anchorExclusive USBGF Teaching VideoBy Phil Simborg USBGF Teaching Pro

Video Lesson USBGF resident Teaching Pro

Phil Simborg has been creat-

ing videos covering just about

every aspect of the game you can imagine

He does anywhere from 1 to 3 a week and

is often joined by guest lecturers to offer

their insights into these checker and cube

decisions

Phil has created over

100 videos thus far

and all can be viewed

by going to usbgforgcategorybg-prob-

lemsvideo Most of Philrsquos videos are from

10 to 25 minutes long but here is a short

3 minute sample of the kind of wonderful

insights you can gain from these videos

Phil is a full-time professional backgammon

teacher and lecturer and has given private

lessons to over 300 students all over the

world via the Internet In addition Phil

is an adviser to our Education Commit-

tee and has started backgammon clubs

at elementary high schools and colleges

throughout the country and he donates free

lessons and seminars to students on behalf

of the USBGF Phil encourages members

to become sponsors of clubs and mentors

of children locally and he will help you

get started provide backgammon boards

on consignment and help with teaching

materials For more information contact

Phil at pjsimborggmailcom

- PHIL SIMBORG

To be able to view this video you must have Adobe Acrobat installed and set as the default PDF viewer in your browser Internet Explorer does this by default however Chrome and Firefox users should see Adobe Acrobat Help for complete Adobe Acrobat plug-in configuration instructions

PHIL SIMBORGPhil Simborg was honored at the 2013 London Open for being the No 1 contributor to the game world-wide He is the USBGF Teaching Pro and Manager of the USBGF Facebook page as well as being a highly-ranked tournament player and the leading lecturer on the US Tour

USBGF ONLINE cIRCUITOur Competitive Online Backgammon CommunityBy Karen Davis

In October 2012 the US Backgammon

Federation (USBGF) launched the

Online Tournament System USBGF

Director of Communications Tara Mendi-

cino designed developed and implemented

this innovative structure a tour de force

much appreciated by the backgammon

community participants have frequently

observed with satisfaction how easy it is

to schedule matches and report results

The Online Tournament System fulfills

one of our major objectives to expand

membersrsquo opportunities and options mak-

ing it convenient for them to play matches

against top-level players from around the

world This capability is complemented by

the USBGF online ratings system which

helps players establish and work toward

personal goals and track their progress

toward meeting those goals It also provides

a mechanism for USBGF to recognize player

achievements

Over the last year we have offered a num-

ber of individual and team tournaments

They include Monthly Circuit Directorrsquos

Cup Team Championship Club Team

Championship Collegiate Championship

Collegiate and Youth Invitational National

Internet Championship and International

Backgammon Championship Tournaments

are announced to all members by e-mail

and listed on the website Entry is usually

free We recognize winners by e-mailed

certificates by names and photos posted

on the USBGF Hall of Fame and by articles

featuring online winners published in

PrimeTime Backgammon magazine

Players register in the Online Tournament

System indicating their current Elo rating

(subject to director verification) or express

their desire to start with fresh statistics All

matches are played on the GridGammon

server The USBGF has a special application

form on its website to facilitate getting free

GridGammon accounts with the sponsor-

ship of the USBGF Players are notified by

e-mail when the tournament starts and can

arrange a convenient time to play with their

opponent using the Schedule Match feature

Typically players have 10 days to 2 weeks

to schedule and complete their match (or

series of matches) Each tournament has

its own structure but some large events

such as the National Internet Champion-

ship have a ldquorollingrdquo entry ndash players play in

brackets of eight with the winners feeding

into a single elimination playoff Some

tournaments permit two or more entries

Winners report results through the Report

Win feature Members can see lists of players

registered for each event and follow their

progress on drawsheets online A Leader

Board with playersrsquo Elo rating Win-Loss

ratio Wins Tourney events won and high-

est Elo rating is automatically updated with

each reported match result A Find Player

feature lets players see an overview of their

online ratings and their last 20 matches

Tournament ResultsSince the Online Tournament System was

launched in October 2012 over 25 separate

tournaments and 135 qualifying brackets

tournamentstournament playoffs have been

offered To date over 435 USBGF members

have participated in one or more tourna-

ments playing more than 3300 matches

Monthly Circuit tournaments typically

have 128 entrants as does the semi-annual

Directorrsquos Cup Winners are shown in the

following table

Winner Tournament

Geza Toumlrouml USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash October 2012Karen Davis USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash October 2012Tilman Soumlhnchen USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash November 2012John Klein USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash December 2012Alfred Mamlet USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash January 2013Bruce Farquhar USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash February 2013Mario Savan USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash March 2013Charles Raichle USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash April 2013Benjamin Friesen USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash May 2013Eva Zizkova USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash June 2013Alfred Mamlet USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash July 2013Gerard Jendras USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash August 2013Bruce Newberg USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash September 2013Harvey Gillis USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash October 2013Maya Peycheva USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash November 2013Ted Chee USBGF Circuit Monthly mdash December 2013 Jim Stutz USBGF Directors Cup 1Greg Kurrell USBGF Directors Cup 2Kat Denison NIC mdash IntermediateScott Kelland NIC mdash Advanced DivisionAdam Versaw NIC mdash Open DivisionBenjamin Friesen Collegiate amp Youth Invitational 1Ryan McKinnon Collegiate amp Youth Invitational 2Benjamin Friesen US Collegiate Championship 1stMichael Zakrajsek US Collegiate Championship 2ndMichaela Close US Collegiate Championship 3rd4thDavid Presser US Collegiate Championship 3rd4thNorthwestern Team 1 US Collegiate Team ChampionshipUSC Team 2 US Collegiate Team Championship 2ndAgamir Gevorkyan International Collegiate Championship 1stJunichi Kieda International Collegiate Championship 2ndMert Kavsut International Collegiate Championship 3rd4thSergei Semyaninov International Collegiate Championship 3rd4thBob Koca Club Team Championship 1st mdash Franklee UnflappableFrank Raposa Club Team Championship 1st mdash Franklee UnflappableJason Lee Club Team Championship 1st mdash Franklee Unflappable

Winner Tournament

Ken Bame Team Championship 1st mdash Scared HitlessJosh Racko Team Championship 1st mdash Scared HitlessCheryl Andersen Team Championship 1st mdash Scared HitlessDavid Rennie Team Championship 1st mdash Scared HitlessMark Antranikian Team Championship 1st mdash Scared HitlessPetko Kostadinov 2nd International Backgammon Championship

The National Internet Championship (NIC)

is the largest USBGF online tournament

The 2012-2013 NIC had 336 entries and

the 2013-2014 NIC which will close about

April 1 2014 had 242 entries as of the

end of February Players can enter twice

The NIC is one of the few online events

with separate divisions now based on Elo

rating (1500 and under play in the Inter-

mediate division 1501-1649 play in the

Advanced division and 1650 and above

play in the Championship division) In the

2012-2013 NIC Kat Denison (Seattle) won

the Intermediate division Scotty Kelland

(Connecticut) won the Advanced division

and Adam Versaw (Pittsburgh) who has

the USBGF online all-time high Elo rating

won the Championship division

For the third year the USBGF sponsored

a Collegiate Championship tournament

open to Youth members who are full- or

part-time undergraduate or graduate stu-

dents Two ldquowarm-uprdquo Collegiate and Youth

Invitational events were held in advance

of the USBGF Collegiate Championship

Both a US division and an international

division in the Collegiate Championship

were hosted and college students com-

peted both as individuals and as part of

college teams Ben Friesen from the Uni-

versity of Michigan-Flint won the US

Collegiate Michael Zakrajsek a graduate

of Rice University and graduate student

at University of Texas-Austin finished

second Agamir Gevorkyan (Russia) won

the International Collegiate Led by David

Presser the Northwestern University team

won the team event with second place

going to the University of South Carolina

led by Michaela Close USBGF volunteers

coached the college teams Larry Goldstein

with help from David Presser and Phil

Simborg assisted the Northwestern team

and Michael Edge coached the University

of South Carolina team

Team events are also popular with mem-

bers The spring of 2013 was marked by

the introduction of an exciting new event

in the USBGFrsquos already impressive online

calendar the USBGF Team Championship

The competition drew 23 teams (composed

of any five USBGF members) including

a total of 106 unique players The Scared

Hitless team (Cheryl Andersen (captain)

Josh Racko Ken Bame David Rennie and

Mark Antranikian all from California)

won Second place went to Pair-O-Dice

(Ira Siegler (captain) Chris Trencher Bill

Phipps David Liebowitz and Alan Steffen

from New York City)

Sixteen local backgammon clubs fielded

27 three-person teams in the 2013 USBGF

National Club Team Championship includ-

ing -- for the first time -- a team from

Russia The Franklee Unflappable team

(Frank Raposa Jason Lee and Bob Koca)

from DCrsquos Beltway Backgammon Club won

defeating the Jersey Boys (Jeff Acierno Alan

Grunwald and Arthur Sutton) from the

Mid-Jersey Backgammon Club in the finals

The 2012-2013 winners in USBGF online

tournaments including the Monthly Circuit

Directorrsquos Cup National Internet Champi-

onship Invitational Collegiate and Youth

US and International Collegiate and

winning team in the Team Championships

and National Club Team Champions will

play in the Tournament of Champions

scheduled to start in March 2014 To learn

more about these players and how these

winners work on their game see profiles

published in PrimeTime Backgammon with

links indicated at selected player names

The International Backgammon Champion-

ship is co-sponsored by the US Backgam-

mon Federation Japanese Backgammon

League and French Backgammon Federa-

tion and directed by Tara Mendicino using

a similar online tournament system that

Tara has developed Petko Kostadinov won

the 2nd IBC Rights to the Nations Cup a

traditional team event have been acquired

by the US Backgammon Federation and

in the future it will also employ the Online

Tournament System

Online Leader BoardBackgammon competition is often focused

on improving onersquos own performance

regardless of tournament results The Online

Leader Board provides an easy way for play-

ers to set their own goals Starting Elo ratings

are typically based on performance playing

on GridGammon or other backgammon

servers New players start at 1500 Giants of

Backgammon start at 1900 The frequency

of tournament offerings makes it possible

for players to see significant changes in

their standings over time

The USBGF online ratings system instantly

updates information as each match is

reported The Leader Board can be dis-

played to show rankings by Elo rating by

number of wins by win-loss percentage by

tourneys won by highest rating achieved

Currently Adam Versaw winner of the

NIC Championship division leads on the

basis of Elo rating at 1965 He is followed

by Jim Stutz winner of the Directorrsquos Cup

I at 1947

On the basis of matches won Mario Savan

Name GG ID Rating Win - Loss Win Trnys Won High Rating

1 Adam Versaw adamV 196532 15 ndash 3 83 3 1965322 Jim Stutz NaturalDog 194695 14 ndash 2 88 1 1958733 Petko Kostadinov bulgari 194213 14 ndash 3 82 1 1953244 Dorn Bishop dorn 193511 8 ndash 2 80 2 1935115 Chris Yep cyep 192161 7 ndash 2 78 1 1932886 Bill Phipps bjp 191949 5 ndash 0 100 1 1919497 Alfred Mamlet amamlet 191510 41 ndash19 68 4 1959648 Dmitriy Obukhov Lyurix 191302 29 ndash 14 67 2 1921659 Jeffrey Acierno Execshark 191037 11 ndash 5 69 1 192872

10 Neil Kazaross neilkaz 190892 7 ndash 2 78 0 192799

Top Ranked Online Circuit Players by Elo Rating as of 3172014

David Presser who recently received a Masters of Finance from Northwestern University led the Northwestern team to first place in the US Collegiate Team Championship

DAVID PRESSER

USBGF Online Circuit USBGF Online Circuit

leads with 58 wins followed by Ted Chee

with 47 Mario has played a total of 84

matches making him one of the most

indefatigable players

Alfred Mamlet Benjamin Friesen David

Rennie Jason Lee and Mario Savan have

won four tourneys each including qualify-

ing brackets of larger events

Alfred Mamlet a member of the USBGF

Board of Directors has fared well on all

three counts ndash tied for 1st in tourneys won

4th on matches won and 5th on highest

Elo rating The new USBGF Master Point

System which will be implemented in 2014

is based on both matches won and tourna-

ments results It credits both participation

and the streaks necessary to win an event

So join in the fun ndash whether your motiva-

tion is fame and glory the satisfaction that

comes from improving and mastering the

game or just the sheer enjoyment of playing

serious top-level players

- KAREN DAVIS

1 Mario Savan dorado11 180444 58 ndash 27 68 4 1822362 Ted Chee tedc 188613 48 ndash 18 73 3 1900583 Peter Toftsoe Toftsoe 181487 48 ndash 26 65 1 1829974 Alfred Mamlet amamlet 191510 41 ndash 19 68 4 1959645 Karen Davis karendavis 176643 41 ndash 29 59 2 1827826 Eva Zizkova elza 175413 39 ndash 24 62 2 1754137 David Presser Gasman 186250 38 ndash 21 64 2 1862508 David Rennie SayLavee 174127 38 ndash 27 58 4 1753509 Joseph Russell ez2bcubed 185319 35 ndash 23 60 2 190908

10 Jason Lee JLee 175005 35 ndash 29 55 4 182539

Top Ranked Online Circuit Players by Matches Won as of 3172014

1 Alfred Mamlet amamlet 191510 41 ndash 19 68 4 1959642 Benjamin Friesen melanion90 172213 28 ndash 14 67 4 1755603 David Rennie SayLavee 174127 38 ndash 27 58 4 1753504 Jason Lee JLee 175005 35 ndash 29 55 4 1825395 Mario Savan dorado11 180444 58 ndash 27 68 4 1822366 Adam Versaw adamV 196532 15 ndash 3 83 3 1965327 Doug Amenda thephoenix2 186128 24 ndash 17 59 3 1933138 John Klein 66fromthebar 181087 33 ndash 26 56 3 1818839 Kat Denison verandazilla 162985 23 ndash 21 52 3 164740

10 Ted Chee tedc 188613 48 ndash 18 73 3 190058

Top Ranked Online Circuit Players by Tourneys Won as of 3172014

EVA ZIZKOVAEva Zizkova a Czech player and one of a growing number of international USBGF members won the June 2013 Monthly Circuit and repeated by winning the January 2014 Monthly Circuit

MARIO amp PETKOMario Savan (L) leads with the most wins (58) in USBGF on-line tournament matches and has played more matches (84) than any of 435 USBGF online players Petko Kostadinov (R) won the 2nd International Backgammon Championship

ALFRED MAMLETAlfred Mamlet has worked on his game through systematic analysis of his er-rors greater than 10 in GridGammon matches Itrsquos helped him achieve the 5th highest USBGF Elo rating 4th high-est matches won and tied for first in USBGF online tourneys won

LESSONS WITH LIEBSTERLarry Liebster gave Jamie lessons on his home computer using eXtreme-Gammon at an early age

AUTOGRAPHED COPYWorld Champion Mochy autographed Jamiersquos copy of the September-October 2013 issue of PrimeTime Backgammon

At the age of 14 Jamie Erin Rosen

one of the youngest players in

ABT (American Backgammon

Tour) events is already making her mark

She was a finalist in the 2012 New York

Metro Peter Kasturas Juniors Tournament

losing to Stephen Collins in the finals Shersquos

gotten lessons from some of the worldrsquos

top players and shersquos shared her love and

knowledge of backgammon with her class-

mates at school

Jamie learned both chess and backgammon

(at age 8) from her dad Michael Louis Rosen

a professional Air Hockey player Growing

up in Forest Hills NY and living 6 weeks

a year in Las Vegas her at-home tutor was

the ldquoever-patientrdquo Larry Liebster a retired

pediatric dentist Drew Giovannis who

ran a game clinic at Las Vegas Backgam-

mon Club tournaments would also play

with Jamie and discuss moves Jason Lee

a math professor also gave her lessons at

local tournaments at Jacksonrsquos Bar amp Grill

Getting practice with a more age-equivalent

opponent there she matched up with the

famous Paul Magrielrsquos son Louis Jamie

took an early 5-0 lead but Louis caught

her in the end Still she holds the honor of

being the youngest person (at age 9) to win a

match at the Las Vegas Backgammon Club

Jamie plays XG at home but she is still get-

ting tips from the experts including Matt

Cohn-Geier and Frank Raposa Richard

Munitz and Falafel ran a game clinic at the

2013 New York Metro that she attended

Rachel Rhodes and Carol Joy Cole two of

the worldrsquos best women players convinced

her that she doesnrsquot need to be intimidated

by anyone And Mochy who can be intimi-

dating indeed autographed her copy of the

September-October 2013 issue of PrimeTime

Backgammon

Jamie is an honors student mdash 1 in her class

with her most recent report card show-

Jamie Erin RosenTouring the World amp the Backgammon CircuitBy Karen Davis

Jamie with 5 youngest Giant Matt Cohn-Geier

Richard Munitz always willing to provide a free lesson to beginners at tournaments gives Jamie some pointers

Jamie is a Gold Founding Spon-sor of the USBGF and proudly displays her specially designed doubling cube when she plays

Jason Lee gives Jamie tips as she plays against Peter Kasturas (L) sponsor of the NY Metro Peter Kasturas Junior Tournament

Jamiersquos trophy includes an image of the nearby Statue of Liberty

Jamie is a star student routinely making 100s in Regents courses in Integrated Algebra Living Environment Science amp Lab and Spanish

Jamie particularly likes to meet strong accomplished women players shown here with Rachel Rhodes finalist in the 2011 NY Metro Open

Jamie was a Finalist in the 2012 Peter Kasturas Junior Tournament shown here with winner Stephen Collins

Jamie Erin Rosen Jamie Erin Rosen

ing a full string of 100s including tough

Regents courses in Integrated Algebra

Living Environment Science amp Lab and

Spanish Between matches at the 2014 NY

Metro she was doing math homework with

a number of players stopping by to check

on her progress

Shersquos introduced her classmates at Stephen

A Halsey Junior High School 157 Queens in

New York City to backgammon In seventh

grade she prepared a PowerPoint presenta-

tion covering math concepts in backgam-

mon mdash including probability counting

pips and counting shots She structured

the presentation into a Warm Up section

Quick Check questions to make sure her

classmates grasped the major concepts

and a Quiz The two highest scorers on the

Quiz played a game against each other with

Jamie coaching and the class observing

Shersquos still exploring many interests mdash she

has auditioned as a vocalist into select

talent programs in NY city and state has

earned over 15 Junior Ranger badges in

US amp Canadian National Parks where she

loves hiking amp rock climbing and stars at

demonstration and design oriented crafts

such as origami Grand Lux Cafeacute wiki-sticks

creations and Fashion Angels design

including designing her own formal dress

and making her own wallets

And shersquos a world traveler mdash accompanying

her father on the Air Hockey tour and her

parents who sell music boxes at jewelry

shows to exotic locations such as Barcelona

the Bahamas St Petersburg and Venice

She has spent a total of six months at sea

and has been to 42 countries and many

states mdash including Alaska

The US Backgammon Federation is pleased

to have Jamie and her father as Gold Found-

JAMIE amp FALAFELJamie has learned at a young age not to be intimidated by top elite players even 1 Giant of Backgammon Falafel

ing Sponsors Her commitment to mastering

backgammon at such an early age promises

a bright future Keep a lookout for her

- KAREN DAVIS

JAMIE VS LOUIS MAGRIELOne of her biggest thrills was playing Louis Magriel son of world-famous Paul Magriel

KAREN JAMIE amp BILLKaren Davis chairman of the USBGF

Board of Directors and Bill Riles USBGF President and Executive Director

JAMIES QUIZ PLAYOFFThe two classmates scoring high-est on Jamies Backgammon Quiz played a game against each other

CAPTIVATED CLASSMATESJamie gave a PowerPoint presentation on the math undergirding backgammon to a

captivated audience of classmates

He compliments Bill

Riles on his leadership

of the USBGF Hersquod like

to see more support for

local club tournaments

ndash for example by

offering a free USBGF

membership to the local

club player of the year

Gregory KurrellWinner of USBGF Directorrsquos Cup IIBy Karen DavisGregory Kurrell found

the love of his life at the

age of 40 while playing

online backgammon

He met Kathey a native

of Australia on Grid-

Gammon

Much to his surprise Gregory

Kurrell found the love of his

life at the age of 40 while play-

ing online backgammon He met Kathey

a native of Australia on GridGammon

They played a number of years before they

even began chatting and after a year Greg

decided to visit Australia and meet his ldquobest

online friendrdquo in person Attracted by her

kind and friendly personality they married

three years later with confidence that they

could find a way to bridge the 10000 mile

distance After almost two years of com-

muting Kathey joined Greg in Colorado

but after retirement they plan to move to

Australia to continue enjoying their three

adult children and three grandchildren

Until meeting Kathey backgammon was

what Greg did with his free time Taught

by his father as a child he began playing

in earnest when he was 20 and remained

an enthusiast over the years He moved to

Colorado from California to make his way

Matchmaker Matchmaker Make Me a Match

in the world working for the Air Force in

their Accounting Finance Center for five

years while studying college accounting at

night He found his ultimate niche with the

US Post Office where he has worked for

the last 25 years Greg uses ldquoMisterPost-

manrdquo as his nickname on GridGammon

Greg studied the game by playing with

friends and reading books Barclay Cookersquos

Championship Backgammon Bill Robertiersquos

Advanced Backgammon Kit Woolseyrsquos

How to Play Tournament Backgammon and

Walter Tricersquos Backgammon Boot Camp He

has used JellyFish then Snowie and now

eXtremeGammon to analyze his matches

He also enjoys watching top players in action

in Las Vegas and streamed matches such

as the 2013 Backgammon World Champi-

onship in Monte Carlo with commentary

by Falafel Hersquos intrigued that unlike bots

stronger players sometimes vary their game

depending on their opponents Under-

standing onersquos opponent Greg says is an

important part of the game

His major live tournament wins include

the Colorado State Championship in 1992

(before the launch of the ABT) and second

place in the Open division in Las Vegas in

2004 (a 128-entry field) where he lost in

the finals to Walter Trice In 2007 he won

the Colorado State Doubles Championship

with Jonah Seewald as well as capturing

Last Chance in the Open Hersquos gone to Vegas

tournaments ldquomaybe 15 timesrdquo and over

the years has occasionally participated in

tournaments in Indianapolis Dallas and

Florida

His win in the USBGF Directorrsquos Cup II (128

entries) is his best online achievement He

was happy to have hung in against some

tough competitors He didnrsquot get discour-

aged and played well even when he got bad

dice At one point Greg was in a tight match

when a neighbor came knocking on his

door needing some help causing his dogs

to bark furiously Greg arranged to help as

soon as his match was finished kept his

focus and won Even so he believes that

it is more important to be a good neighbor

and person than to win at backgammon

He loves playing online especially because

he can get a game at any time He plays

nearly every day But like most he prefers

live play He loves meeting people and

making friends at tournaments

Greg appreciates what the US Backgam-

mon Federation has done to sponsor online

tournaments The Online Tournament Sys-

tem makes it very easy to notify opponents

and schedule a match Tara Mendicino he

says does a great professional job running

tournaments He loves being able to play

strong competitors for free

He compliments Bill Riles on his leadership

of the USBGF Hersquod like to see more support

for local club tournaments ndash for example by

offering a free USBGF membership to the

local club player of the year He participated

in the USBGF Club Team Championship

losing a close match to Richard Munitz

Hersquos motivated by seeing his rating on

GridGammon and thinks that development

of a USBGF Master Point System would be

attractive to players like him

Much as Greg likes backgammon he

wouldnrsquot want to be a Bobby Fischer excel-

ling at the game but lacking balance He

enjoys life in the Rockies with Kathey --

who has a heart for animals and is heavily

involved in animal welfare They provide

foster care for dogs Family events like the

weddings of sons Ray and Phillip have been

important occasions to travel to Australia

along with the exciting births of their much-

loved three grandchildren

Hersquos grateful that backgammon has helped

him achieve a rich and happy life and is

always working at improving his game

- KAREN DAVIS

local club profileAustin Backgammon ClubBy Karen Davis

SCOTT BUTKI

CAPITOL BUILDING AKIKO VS DAVE KETTLER

A former journalist Scott Butki has boosted attendance at Austin Back-gammon Club tournaments by getting the word out using both social media and traditional methods

Austin is the capital of Texas and one of the most beautiful cities in the state It is home to the thriving Austin Back-gammon Club directed by Scott Butki

David Kettler a top Austin player found a tough competitor in Akiko as he did as one of four winning places to repre-sent Team USA in the 1st International Backgammon Championship

The Austin Backgammon Club

qualified as a US Backgammon

Federation (USBGF) Prime Club

for the first time in 2013 Prime Clubs are

clubs with 10 or more USBGF members

The USBGF makes a contribution to Prime

Clubs of 10 percent of annual membership

dues to use at the local club directorrsquos discre-

tion to grow the backgammon community

in their local area

The Austin Club has been in existence for

about 40 years It meets on Monday evenings

at 730 pm at the DoubleTree Hotel Lounge

6505 IH-35 North with about 8-12 people

participating A larger tournament is held

every two months on a Sunday attracting

16-20 players There is also a lively chouette

often joined by top players like Ira Hessler

David Kettler and Bob Urquhart

The clubrsquos director is Scott Butki who

only recently took over when the former

director moved away Scottrsquos background

is in newspaper reporting ndash covering beats

in California Fayetteville Arkansas and

Hagerstown Maryland He now works in

special education at a middle school where

patience is a virtue mdash the same attitude that

he brings to running a backgammon club

He started playing backgammon as a kid

and became a serious online player about

10 years ago He plays online nearly every

day but enjoys playing in person more ndash

one reason that local clubs are here to stay

Though new to the job Scott has already

used a variety of social media and traditional

methods to increase the clubrsquos attendance

The Austin Club has a Facebook site and

also uses the MeetUpcom service to reach

out to a broader community The Austin

Chronicle lists it on its website Austin

Backgammon Club mdash as of course does

the US Backgammon Federation Affiliate

Clubs listing and the ChicagoPoint website

USA Clubs Scott lists his e-mail sbutki

gmailcom and phone number (240) 675-

7142 and encourages everyone interested

to contact him for more information He

also posts flyers around town particularly

at game stores and establishments selling

backgammon sets

The Austin Club emphasizes player recogni-

tion Following the lead of Carol Joy Cole

director of one of the oldest backgammon

clubs the Flint (MI) Area Backgammon

Club Scott employs a point system desig-

nating a player of the month and a player

of the year He sends out regular e-mails

with points updates There are about 100

players on his e-mail list The club also goes

out of its way to make newcomers welcome

It has a ldquofirst week freerdquo policy and always

has someone available to teach beginners

Scott particularly appreciated USBGF

President Bill Rilesrsquo acknowledgment of

the club at the opening of the Texas Back-

gammon Championships Scott had urged

members to attend the San Antonio event

and several Austin players joined the USBGF

in anticipation mdash demonstrating that local

clubs ABT events and the USBGF have a KA

symbiotic relationship mutually benefitting

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

In the ten years since Patrick Gibson

began running the California State

Backgammon Championship there

have been no two-time winners That streak

remained intact this year as Ray Fogerlund

captured his first state title defeating Justin

Nunez in a final that would feature some

dramatic turnarounds for both players

Rayrsquos race to the title which began on

December 7th would see him defeating

player to make his way through the second

chance to face him in the finals

And in that second chance Ray would

defeat Art Grater and Mike Ungerleider

(big Gammon Associates winners in 2003)

That was the year before Patrick changed

the names of his bi-annual tournaments

from ldquoGA Open(s)rdquo to ldquoLA Openrdquo and

ldquoCalifornia Staterdquo

2012 Michigan champion Phil Simborg in

the first round and then 2012rsquos Vegas Super

Jackpot finalist Drew Giovanis in the 2nd

In the third round he would defeat Japanrsquos

Jazz Mishima in the fourth the 2008 Pitts-

burgh champion Jon Vietor

After beating E Rosenblum in the fifth

round he would just have to get past 2010

LA Open finalist Justin Nunez to reach

In the finals match played on Sunday

December 8th Ray vaulted to a 10-3 Craw-

ford lead to 11 before Justin powered back

with a couple of unlikely wins to close the

gap to 10-6

It seemed again that Justin would win his

next game and tighten the quest for the

title but Ray managed to thwart Justinrsquos

comeback He clinched the California State

title over a respectable field of 56 players

3rd place finisher Mike Ungerleider told

me later that while he was disappointed he

didnrsquot advance to the finals he was satisfied

with his performance as he had not played

very much in recent years

Art Grater and Michiganrsquos Paul Berg were

tied at 4th5th while Dr Bijan Pourat came

in 1st place in the consolation finals over

Eliot Bean The two consolation semi-

the championship match

However Justin defeated Ray -- which

meant that Ray would have to win two more

matches to play for the state title

On his way to the finals Justin defeated

Roy Gandy Marv Porten Eliot Bean Bijan

Pourat Paul Berg and eventually Ray Justin

was then in the enviable spot I found myself

last year he could relax and wait for one

finalists were Jonah Seewald and Frank Ley

In the Advanced division (40 players) first

time GA player Anayat Raminfar topped

the field with a finals win over John Skratu-

lia Tom Horton won the consolation over

Sean Taghani with Jerry Slomkowski and

Mark Weiner taking consolation semi-

finals honors

The four-player limited division made it

an even 100 players attending the state

championship Ted Laufer defeated Tom

McGraw in the final

In the Super-32 jackpot tournament Las

Vegas Openrsquos recent winner Dana Nazarian

continued his victorious ways as he defeated

Doug Mayfield in the finals Japanrsquos Akiko

Yazawa who has been practically unstop-

pable in jackpot tournaments over the

last two years couldnrsquot overcome Danarsquos

BISS amp KAZAROSSDOUG MAYFIELDAbby Biss from New Zealand and Neil Kazaross teamed up to take the second doubles event defeating Gary Bauer and Harvey Gillis in the finals

Doug Mayfield finished second in the Super-32 a very nice win following his second place finish in the 1st Merit Backgammon Open doubles event

Patrick Gibson and his

staff of Carla Gibson

Cecilia Pedroza and

Caitlin Cole ran a trou-

ble free event

By Steve Sax

2013 California state championship Fogerlund Takes the Title

FOGERLUND WINSRay Fogerlund returned to Los Ange-les and earned his seventh ABT title as he laid claim to the 2013 California State Backgammon Championship

DANA NAZARIANNazarian came out of backgammon retirement like a rocket ndash winning the Super-32 Jackpot at the 2013 California State Championship

MATT REKLAITIS WINSMatt Reklaitis (Boston) won the first ABT event of the year shown here with tournament staffer Julia Sommer

momentum and placed 3rd4th along with

Stepan Nuniyants

In the Paul Dingwell Amateur Jackpot

Mario Savan defeated Di Di in the finals

while Novemberrsquos Las Vegasrsquos Championship

divisionrsquos last chance winner Cheryl Ander-

sen was a co-semifinalist with Nash Jost

Side events Rod Covlin won the Blitz

(88 players) defeating runner-up Greg

Merriman Harvey Gillis (AZ) and Julius

High (KS) split top honors in the Seniorsrsquo

tournament In the two-point quickie event

Minnesotarsquos Glen de Guzman bested 31

other competitors

Finally in the two eight-team doubles

tournaments Michiganrsquos Paul Berg and

Jim Slomkowski won the first tournament

over Mario Savan and Sean Taghani In the

other 2013 ABT champion Neil Kazaross

and Abby Biss (NZ) defeated Harvey Gillis

and Gary Bauer

Patrick Gibson and his staff of Carla Gib-

son Cecilia Pedroza and Caitlin Cole ran

a trouble-free event and Rynell Nunez

did a great job live streaming matches to

interested spectators around the country

and the world

Even though the competition has just ended

I canrsquot wait until next December to see if

Ray or any of the other nine past California

State champions (Jona Alexander Stepan

Nuniyants Ken Fischer Adrian Costa Hugh

Sconyers Joe Russell Malcolm Davis Todd

Crosner or yours truly) will win a second

time or if wersquoll once again have a new king

on the California BG block

- STEVE SAX

FOGERLUND-NUNEZ FINAL STREAMED LIVEWatch the exciting Fogerlund-Nunez match streamed by Rynell Nunez at the 2013 California State Championship

2013 California State Championship

New York Metropolitan OpenA Great Start to the New YearBy Karen Davis

New Yearrsquos resolutions were still

fresh in mind at the New York

Metropolitan Backgammon

Open as 130 players gathered January 9-12

to start the year off right It was a world-

class field with contestants from Canada

Germany Greece Hong Kong Israel Japan

Poland Turkey and the UK drawn to the

bright lights of New York City and resolved

to make their mark

Bostonrsquos Matt Reklaitis walked away with

the Open Championship giving him the

title of 2014 American Backgammon Tour

leader glorious if fleeting fame Michiganrsquos

Frank Talbot was smart enough to buy

Reklaitis (if not himself) in the Calcutta

and went home a winner in second place

Malcolm Robertson (Hong Kong) and Sasha

Bennett (New York) placed thirdfourth

while New Yorkers Bill Phipps and Victor

Ashkenazi took first and second place in the

consolation Masayuki ldquoMochyrdquo Mochizuki

(Japan) and Vadim Musaelyan (NC) took

thirdfourth while Carter Mattig (IL) won

the Last Chance over Gary Bauer (NJ)

The coveted Liberty Cup Masters with its

marvelous Statue of Liberty trophy went

to Sasha Bennett proteacutegeacute of Bill Robertie

who prevailed over Gary Bauer Mochy

and Bill Phipps shared thirdfourth place

The Limited Jackpot was also fiercely con-

tested with David Presser (IL) defeating

Artie Sutton (NJ) and Steven Keats (NY)

and Mike Murton (England) taking third

fourth place

SASHA BENNETTREKLAITIS amp TALBOTRelatively unknown Sasha Bennett a proteacutegeacute of Bill Robertie won the Liberty Cup Masters event

Frank Talbot (R) congratulates Matt Reklaitis (L) on winning the finals of the NY Metro Open Championship

ANNA MIELECHPolandrsquos Anna Mielech third in the Intermediate division receives her trophy from tournament director Lynn Ehrlich

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

David Presser (L) a rising star from Israel living in Chicago

defeated Artie Sutton (R) in the finals of the Limited Jackpot

Sam Wang won the Intermediate division defeating Scotty Kelland in the finals

In the Intermediate main event Samuel

Wang (NY) beat out Scotty Kelland (CT)

while John Barnett (NY) and Anna Mielech

(Poland) took thirdfourth Canan Atkas

(Turkey) won the Intermediate Consola-

tion over Leon Marini (NJ) Tom Rebelo

(Canada) won the Intermediate Last Chance

The Beginner flight attracted 27 players Sha-

ron Torres who organizes the Westchester

(NY) Meet-Up backgammon group won

it Chuck Young (NJ) came in second and

Lisa Pelaez (NY) and Michael Rosen (NY)

took thirdfourth Robert Domaine (NY)

excited about attending his first ABT event

scooped up the Last Chance trophy and

returned on Sunday just to watch the Open

division leaders Tournament Director Lynn

Ehrlich provided free USBGF Premium

memberships to beginners Pavel Garanin

Andrew Lin and Lisa Pelaez

A joyous doubles team from the Greek

Backgammon Federation Konstantinos

Mitrelis and Natassa Savvido celebrated

And everyone extends

their appreciation to

Lynn Ehrlich and her

terrific staff for kicking

off the year in grand

New York Metropolitan Open New York Metropolitan Open

RAY CJC amp FRANKRay Fogerlund (L) won the Carol Joy Cole Jackpot and celebrates with Open winner Frank Talbot (R)

their win over Matt Cohn-Geier and Bill

Phipps

Jason Lee helped stream loads of matches

so those who couldnrsquot make the event could

watch the leaders play first-class backgam-

mon The streamed matches were analyzed

on eXtremeGammon to help all students of

the game including those seeking to qualify

in the Under 4 Club mdash an elite group of

players averaging a Performance Rating of

less than 40 in 10 pre-announced recorded

live matches

Lots of side events provided lots of oppor-

tunities to win Greg Merriman (Michigan)

won the Seniors event edging out Frank

DiMaggio from New Jersey Doug Huch

(NJ) captured the $50 Blitz while Majid

Jahanbani (VA) took the $20 Blitz Auction-

eer and perennial winner Ray Fogerlund

won both the $50 Julius Jackpot and the

$50 Carol Joy Cole Jackpot Julius High

(KS) took the $50 Kallos Jackpot while

David Shadi (fittingly) captured the $50

Shadi Jackpot The New York Warm-Up

went to Nicholas Misch (NY)

The USBGF extends congratulations to all

the winners And everyone extends their

appreciation to Lynn Ehrlich and her ter-

rific staff for kicking off the year in grand

style and getting everyone off to a great

start on their resolution to play more and

better backgammon in 2014

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

Jason Lee helped stream matches an increasingly popular feature at ABT events

Gary Bauer defended his New Jersey home turf by capturing second

place in the Liberty Cup Masters

SAVVIDO amp MITRELIS

GREG WINS SENIORS

The doubles team of Natassa Savvido and Konstantinos Mitrelis (Greece) celebrated their finals victory over Matt Cohn-Geier and Bill Phipps

Greg Merriman won the Seniors event with Frank DiMaggio finishing second

CANAN ATKASTurkeys Canan Atkas (L) won the Intermediate Consolation over Leon Martini shown with tournament director Lynn Ehrlich K

New York Metropolitan Open

At the 2nd annual Texas Backgam-

mon Championships Japanese

backgammon superstar ldquoMochyrdquo

nearly swept all the events he entered

He won the Championship Division the

Dual-Duel and was a semi-finalist in the

Longhorn Classic Masters Jackpot

Mochyrsquos quest began on Thursday January

30th at high noon when eight backgammon

gunslingers faced off in the Dual-Duel In

Cup Masters champion Bill Phipps in the

second round

Mochy won his third round match as well

against Dion Hogan making it to the semi-

final His run ended there as he lost to 2011

California State finalist Alfred Mamlet

this event players advance if they either

defeat their opponents or outplay them

according to the performance rating (PR)

as scored by eXtreme Gammon

In the first round Mochy drew Akiko

Yazawa the Japanese star who was the

Dual-Duelrsquos defending champion Akiko

won their match but Mochy stayed alive

by carving out a lower PR

Meanwhile in the other semifinal Malcolm

Davis took out Ray Fogerlund Alfred

claimed the Longhorn Classic title by besting

Malcolm in the final match Later Alfred

took fifth place in the Championship Divi-

sion to round out a great weekend

That result sent Mochy to the PR side of

the bracket He continued to dominate

scoring lower PRrsquos against Kit Woolsey and

Saba Bejanishvili In the Dual-Duel final he

was pitted against the score-based victor

Ray Fogerlund

In their eleven-point final match mdash which

lasted only three games mdash Mochy won a 16

cube He also scored a lower PR earning

him the Dual-Duel title

On Friday he entered the Longhorn Classic

His first-round match was a battle of world

champions Mochy the 2009 World Cham-

pion defeated 1989 World Champion Joe

Russell at DMP He then beat 2012 Liberty

Then there was the marquee event the

2014 Texas Backgammon Championships

It drew 72 entrants Mochy began his run

with a first-round victory over 2006 Midwest

champion Gregg Cattanach He knocked off

2001 Nevada State champion Bob Wachtel

SABA BEJANISHVILISaba Georgia (the state and the country) made quite an intro-duction to the global backgam-mon community with his stellar performances in the Dual-Duel

MAMLET WINS MASTERSAlfred Mamlet Maryland won the Longhorn Classic Masters Jackpot championship

MALCOLM VS MOCHYMalcolm Davis Dallas 2013 Champion-ship Division champion and Mochy 2014 Championship Division cham-pion square off in the main semifinals

mochy does it allTales of a Texas TriumphBy Steve Sax

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

Ernie McCombs Dallas returned to tournament backgammon

Bobby Mohammadi Dallas was a semifinalist in the Advanced Division

Brian Flanagan New York (left) defeated John Shakory Houston in the Advanced Division Consolation

Julius High Kansas won the Monte Carlo World Championship Satellite

The father-son duo of Stepan and Vadim Nuniyants Washington and Wisconsin respectively joined forces in the Doubles

Joe Freedman New Mexico won the Seniors championship

01 1004 1307 16

Bob Wachtel California a Giant of Backgammon made a rare American tournament appearance

Mick Zakrajsek Indiana won the Advanced Division championship

Jonah Seewald Colorado was the Championship Division Finalist and won the USBGF National Champion-ship West

Gus Contos California won the Alamo Classic Limited Jackpot cham-pionship

Randy Vacek Houston won the Limited Division Consolation

Jonah Seewald Colorado receives his USBGF National Champi-onship West championship trophy

02 1105 1408 17

Chicago Open Director Rory Pascar (left) congratulates Mochy upon his Championship Division victory

Sharon Torres travelled from New York to enjoy the tournament and the mild South Texas winter weather

Kathy Quentan Dallas was the Limited Division Finalist

Phil Simborg Illinois was the USBGF National Championship West finalist and lecturer extraordinaire

Robert Urquhart Austin enjoys the tournament Greg Cattanach Geor-gia is to the left

Stewart Pemberton New Jersey was the Advanced Division champion-ship finalist

03 1206 1509 18

Mochy Does It All Tales of a Texas Triumph Mochy Does It All Tales of a Texas Triumph

in the second round His next victim was

Chicago Open director Rory Pascar and in

round 4 the quarter-final he got his revenge

on Akiko That win set up a semi-final

against the defending champion Malcolm

Davis Mochy won at DMP mdash which pitted

him in the final 11-point match against

Jonah Seewald mdash who had just defeated

2012 New York Metro champion Victor

Ashkenazi

Mochy led 9-5 Jonah doubled him Mochy

took and Jonah attacked Things went well

indeed for him Going for the three-point

(six-point) shot at the buzzer ndash a backgam-

mon which would have won the match

and the title mdash Jonah was about to close

out four of Mochyrsquos checkers But Mochy

stayed alive He eventually anchored and

turned the game around winning the

match and the 2014 Texas Backgammon

Championship

With two wins and a semi-final you might

think Mochyrsquos weekend would be full but

he somehow still found time to adminis-

ter his backgammon proficiency quiz on

Friday Then he woke up bright and early

Saturday morning to go over the answers

to all 50 quiz questions with an apprecia-

tive audience

The highest score on the quiz was 41 out

of 50 for John Klein of Maryland with

Bob Koca (also from Maryland) getting 39

correct Kit Woolsey Mary Hickey and I

werenrsquot far behind The best all time scores

on the quiz belong to Matt Cohn-Geier and

Falafel with 44 and 43 respectively

And as icing on the cake Mochy won the

quiz contest at Phil Simborgrsquos Sunday semi-

nar over three other backgammon giants

There were other players who had a good

weekend too New Yorkrsquos Antoinette-Marie

Williams captured the Championship Divi-

sion Consolation over backgammon legend

Paul Magriel

The USBGFrsquos own Karen Davis took first

place in the Last Chance Chicagorsquos Carter

Mattig was the runner up

And speaking of Chicago quite a few of us

went to see the Chicago Bulls take on the

San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night

before the tournament got underway Chi-

cagoans Neil Kazaross Carter Mattig Phil

Simborg and Herb Roman were pleased to

see the Bulls defeat the hometown Spurs

96-86 in a roller coaster game in which

the lead changed hands no less than eight

times Thanks go to Bill Riles for arrang-

ing for more than a dozen of us to see two

great teams go at it in the ATampT center in

San Antonio

And there were other things to do San

Antoniorsquos scenic Riverwalk a collection

of restaurants bars and shops festooning

San Antonio River was just a five-minute

walk from the tournament site the historic

Menger Hotel Many of the restaurants fea-

Mochys Proficiency Quiz was very popular with 30 players taking the proctored exam Friday afternoon Saturday morning Mochy conducted a seminar to review the results All test takers received a printed certificate after scores were tallied

PAUL MAGRIEL MOCHY FOCUSES PETKO KOSTADINOVBackgammon legend Paul Magriel Las Vegas was the Championship Division Consolation finalist

Mochy The ultimate in focus concen-tration and performance

Petko Kostadinov South Carolina paired with Saba Bejanishvili to win the USBGF Tournament of Stars Doubles

RACHEL RHODES AKIKO YAZAWA ED OLAUGHLINRachel Rhodes UK was one of sev-eral British players experiencing San Antonio

Akiko Yazawa Japan 2013 Dual-Duel Champion returned to San Antonio to defend her title

Ed OLaughlin Virginia a Giant of Back-gammon ponders a position

MOCHYS PROFICIENCY QUIZ amp SEMINAR

tured the local Tex-Mex cuisine popular in

this region and after your meal you could

stroll along the paths on each side of the

river in search of a late-evening cappuccino

During the dinner break on Saturday Mary

Hickey Jon Vietor and I took a riverboat

cruise that slowly wound its way up and

down the river while its captain mdash complete

with wide-brimmed hat and South-Texas

drawl mdash regaled us with a history of the city

And many of us ldquoRemember(ed to see) the

Alamordquo which was right across the street

from the Menger The Alamo for those

of you who may have forgotten your high

school history lessons was the name of the

mission building where the outnumbered

ldquoTexianrdquo forces ndash led by William Barrett

Travis Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett ndash

fought to the death against General Santa

Annarsquos Mexican army

Speaking of battles there were still more

taking place at the Menger The 52-player

Advanced division was won by Indianarsquos

Mick Zakrajsek over Stewart Pemberton

(New Jersey) Semifinalists were Bobby

Mohammadi (Texas) and Vadim Nuniyants

(Wisconsin)

New Yorkrsquos Brian Flanagan defeated Texan

John Shakory in the finals of the consola-

tion New Zealandrsquos Abby Biss won the last

chance finals over Coloradorsquos Lynn Lusk

Josh Avery won the 21-player Limited divi-

sion And it was an all-Texas affair as Kathy

Quentan finished second Randy Vacek won

the consolation and Matt Rogers captured

the last chance

In the Limited Jackpot Californiarsquos Gus

Contos defeated Connecticutrsquos Scotty Kel-

land in the finals Brian Flanagan scored

ANTOINETTE WILLIAMSKAREN DAVIS WINS

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

BOB MCG amp MISHYPOOAntoinette-Marie Williams New York won the Championship Divi-sion Consolation championship

(l-r) Co-Directors Tara Mendicino and Bill Riles congratulate Karen Davis winner of the Champion-ship Division Last Chance

Akiko Yazawa and Malcolm Davis ver-sus David Rockwell and Bob Wachtel in the USBGF Tournament of Stars Doubles

Robert Stoller Alaska Giant of Back-gammon Matt Cohn-Geier Las Vegas and Michelle Steinberg New Jersey

CLARINEClarine Los Angeles models some stylish Texas fashions in San Antonio

Mochy Does It All Tales of a Texas Triumph

again sharing a semi-final berth with

Virginiarsquos Bill Finneran

In other side events Joe Freedman defeated

Michael Edge in the 128-player senior

tournament Bill Finneran and Lynn Lusk

split the 64-player DMP surprise freeroll

Julius High (Kansas) defeated Mexicorsquos

Rafael Lopez De Lara in the finals of the

Monte Carlo World Championship Satellite

The Ultimate Backgammon Package was

won by Texan Mustafa Durgut over fellow

Texan Faith Safiturk Semi-finalists were

PEKTO amp SABA WIN(l-r) Justin Nunez Mario Savan Petko Kostadinov amp Saba Bejanishvili Petko and Saba teamed to win the USBGF Tournament of Stars doubles final over Justin and Mario

MARTY amp TREENA WINMarty Brown Texas and Treena Bouque San Diego won the Doubles championship GRAND BALLROOM

The Grand Ballroom at the historic Menger Hotel provides an incompara-ble playing venue

MUSTAFA amp FATIHMustafa Durgut bested his good

friend Fatih Safiturk in the final of the Ultimate Backgammon Package event

Claudia Brown and Jeff Misrahi

In the doubles finals Treena Bouque (CA)

and Marty Brown (TX) defeated Debra

Campbell (NC) and Rod Covlin (NY)

Finally there were two USBGF events the

USBGF National Championship West and

the USBGF Tournament of Stars (TOS)

The National Championship West was won

by Championship Division finalist Jonah

Seewald over Phil Simborg The event

featured 128 competitors Jonah will go

on to play for the Grand Championship

against the eastern champion after that

tournament is concluded

The Tournament of Stars featured 18 teams

each consisting of a USBGF founding spon-

sor and his or her chosen partner among

the available ldquostarsrdquo No two giants were

allowed to partner up but some very strong

teams were formed nonetheless

The eventual winners were Saba Bejanish-

vili from Georgia (on the Russian border)

and Georgia (USA) and Petko Kostadinov

from South Carolina (by way of Bulgaria)

Californiarsquos Justin Nunez and Mario Savan

were runners up

Many thanks go to Rynell Nunez for

live streaming a slew of matches and to

tournament directors Bill Riles and Tara

Mendicino who went out of their way to

make sure we had a great tournament and

cultural experience in the historic city of

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

live abt tournament resultsFrom January 9 - February 2Complete tournament results may be found at chicagopointcom

January - February 2014

ABT - 7th NEW YORK METROPOLITAN BACKGAMMON OPENJanuary 9-12 2014 Jersey City New Jersey

CHAMPIONSHIP (51+13 rebuys) 1-Matt Reklaitis (MA) 2-Frank Talbot (MI) 34-Malcolm Robertson (HK) Sasha Bennett (NY) 1C-Bill Phipps (NY) 2C-Victor Ashkenazi (NY) 3C4C-Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) Vadim Musaelyan (NC) lLC-Carter Mattig (IL) 2LC-Gary Bauer (NJ) INTERMEDIATE (52+16 rebuys) 1-Samuel Wang (NY) 2-Scotty Kelland (CT) 34-John Barnett (NY) Anna Mielech (Poland) 1C-Canan Atkas (Turkey) 2C-Leon Marini (NJ) 3C4C-Oleg Raygorodsky (IL) Gary Zelmanovics (NJ) 1LC-Tom Rebelo (Canada) 2LC-Debra Campbell (NC)

BEGINNER (27) 1-Sharon Torres (NY) 2-Chuck Young (NJ) 34-Lisa Pelaez (NY) Michael Rosen (NY) 1C-Robert Domaine (NY)

LIBERTY CUP MASTERS (32) 1-Sasha Bennett (NY) 2-Gary Bauer (NJ) 34-Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) Bill Phipps (NY)

LIMITED JACKPOT (32) 1-David Presser (IL) 2-Artie Sutton (NJ) 34-Steven Keats (NY) Mike Murton (England)

$50 BLITZ (32) 1-Doug Huch (NJ) 2-Boris Dekhtyar (NJ)

$20 BLITZ (64) 1-Majid Jahanbani (VA) 2-Christina Fabijanczuk (PA)

SENIORS TOURNAMENT (64) 1-Greg Merriman (MI) 2-Frank Dimaggio (NJ)

NEW YORK DOUBLES (32 teams) 1-Konstantinos Mitrelis (Greece) amp Natassa Savvidou (Greece) 2-Matt Cohn-Geier (NV) amp Bill Phipps (NY)

NEW YORK WARM-UP (64) 1-Nicholas Misch (NY) 2-Dan Lewis (NY)

$40 JULIUS JACKPOT (8) 12-Ray Fogerlund (NV) Antoinette-Marie Williams (NY)

$50 KALLOS JACKPOT (8) 1-Julius High (KS)

$50 CJC JACKPOT (8) 1-Ray Fogerlund (NV)

$50 SHADI JACKPOT (8) 1-David Shadi (NJ)

ABT - 2nd TEXAS BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIPSJanuary 30-February 2 2014 San Antonio Texas

CHAMPIONSHIP (72) 1-Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) 2-Jonah Seewald (CO) 34-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ) Malcolm Davis (TX) 5-Alfred Mamlet (MD) 1C-Antoinette Williams (NY) 2C-Paul Magriel (NV) 1LC-Karen Davis (DC) 2LC-Carter Mattig (IL)

ADVANCED (52) 1-Mick Zakrajsek (IN) 2-Stewart Pemberton (NJ) 34-Bobby Mohammadi (TX) Vadim Nuniyants (WI) 1C-Brian Flanagan (NY) 2C-John Shakory (TX) 1LC-Abby Biss (New Zealand) 2LC-Lynn Lusk (CO)

LIMITED (21) 1-Josh Avery (TX) 2-Kathy Quentan (TX) 1C-Randy Vacek (TX) 1LC-Matt Rogers (TX)

LONGHORN CLASSIC MASTERS JACKPOT (32) 1-Alfred Mamlet (MD) 2-Malcolm Davis (TX) 34-Ray Fogerlund (NV) Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan)

ALAMO CLASSIC LIMITED JACKPOT (32) 1-Gus Contos (CA) 2-Scotty Kelland (CT) 34-Brian Flanagan (NY) Bill Finneran (VA)

DUAL-DUEL (8) 1-(PR winner) Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) 2-(Score winner) Ray Fogerlund (NV)

USBGF TOURNAMENT OF STARS DOUBLES (18 teams) 1-Saba Bejanishvili (GA) amp Petko Kostadinov (SC) 2-Justin Nunez (CA) amp Mario Savan (CA)

USBGF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP-WEST (128) 1-Jonah Seewald (CO) 2-Phil Simborg (IL)

DMP SURPRISE FREEROLL (64) 12-Bill Finneran (VA) Lynn Lusk (CO)

SENIORS (128) 1-Joe Freedman (NM) 2-Michael Edge (SC)

DOUBLES (8 teams) 1-Treena Bouque (CA) amp Marty Brown (TX) 2-Debra Campbell (NC) amp Rod Covlin (NY)

ULTIMATE BACKGAMMON PACKAGE (19) 1-Mustafa Durgut (TX) 2-Fatih Safiturk (TX) 34-Claudia Brown (TX) Jeff Misrahi (NY)

MONTE CARLO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SATELLITE JACKPOT (8) 1-Julius High (KS) 2-Rafael Lopez de Lara (Mexico)

MOCHYS PROFICIENCY TEST (31) 1-John Klein (MD) 2-Bob Koca (MD)

SIMBORG QUIZ CHALLENGE (4) 1-Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan)

Live ABT Tournament Results

RAFAEL LOPEZ DE LARA LOOKS GREAT AT SAN ANTONIORafael journeyed from nearby Mexico to play in the tournament and to enjoy the history and MexicanSpanish cultural influences of San Antonio

Name Points

1 Masayuki Mochizuki 24042 Matt Reklaitis 15113 Antoinette Williams 11084 Jonah Seewald 11085 Victor Ashkenazi 9326 Bill Phipps 7567 Frank Talbot 7568 Carter Mattig 6559 Karen Davis 554

10 Malcolm Davis 55411 Paul Magriel 554

Name Rating

1 Mochy Mochizuki 1728442 Arkadiy Tsinis 1716343 Jonah Seewald 1714954 Fernando Neumark 1702765 Stuart Thomson 1687746 Bill Phipps 1684777 Victor Ashkenazi 1672488 Rachel Rhodes 1669699 Falafel Natanzon 166827

10 Alfred Mamlet 166579

Top-Ranked PlayersIn USBGF Rated Events

Top-Ranked Players InAmerican Backgammon Tour Events

Name Points

1 Mick Zakrajsek 8322 Samuel Wang 7703 Stewart Pemberton 4164 Brian Flanagan 4165 Scotty Kelland 3856 Canan Atkas 3857 Bobby Mohammadi 2088 Vadim Nuniyants 2089 John Shakory 208

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

1 Chen-Fu Yu 1766092 Artie Sutton 1710303 Michael Edge 1700614 Bob Howayeck 1693835 John Manning 1684756 Richard Weaver 1683587 Marv Porten 1675548 Mick Zakrajsek 1673909 Gus Contos 167121

10 Josh Racko 166843

usbgf live leaderboard By Barry Silliman - Rankings Editor

Intermediate Advanced

Open Championship Updated 3032014

Name Points

1 Sharon Torres 2702 Josh Avery 2333 Chuck Young 1354 Robert Domaine 1355 Kathy Quentan 1176 Randy Vacek 1177 Lisa Pelaez 0688 Michael Rosen 0689 Matt Rogers 058

Name Rating

1 Joan Grunwald 1676892 Rochelle Hasson 1641873 Max Gruby 1633144 Dominic Johnson 1631635 Timothy Turner 1630006 Nick Dawe 1621327 Mike Clapsadle 1619978 Josh Avery 1619469 Vlad Eydelman 161907

10 Lili Iravani 161315

usbgf live leaderboard

Novice Beginners

Qualifications for inclusion in USBGF Rated Events

The numbers following the player names show their Elo ratings cumulative since 2009 Open and Advanced

player listings are restricted to USBGF members To be listed a player must have played in the listed division

of a live USBGF-rated tournament in the past thirteen months

Qualifications for inclusion in American Backgammon Tour Events

The numbers following the player names show the total ABT Points earned in 2014 competing in the specified

division

usbgf online leaderboard By Tara Mendicino Updated 3172014

Online Circuit Top 10 Name GG ID Rating Win - Loss Win Trnys Won High Rating

Up-to-date ratings may be found at usbgforgtrnyleaderboard

Qualifications for inclusion in USBGF Online Circuit Events

The numbers following the player names show their Elo ratings cumulative since September 2012 in the USBGF

Online Tournament Circuit To be listed a player must be a current or past member of the USBGF

Upcoming Online CircuitTournamentsCircuit Monthly for AprilStart Date April 1 2014Registration Link httpusbgforgtrnyregistrationtrny=140

Be sure to mark your calendar and attend these exciting ABT tournaments amp USBGF events For complete tournament listings see chicagopointcom

ABT MICHIGAN SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS

Dates July 3 - 6 2014Place Sheraton Novi MI Details Website Phone 810232-9731

upcoming tournamentsUpcoming ABT Tournaments and USBGF Sponsored Live amp Online Events

ABT ATLANTA SPRING CLASSIC

Dates April 4 - 6 2014Place Sheraton Atlanta Airport Details Website Phone 404403-1957

ABT LOS ANGELES OPEN

Dates June 20 - 22 2014Place Hilton LAX Los Angeles CA Details Email Phone 818901-0464

ABT 34th CHICAGO OPEN

Dates May 22 - 26 2014Place Holiday Inn Rosemont IL Details Email Phone 702218-8238

ABT US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Dates April 23 - 27 2014Place Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas NV Details EmailPhone 702218-8238

ABT CENTRAL STATES INVITATIONALABT AWARDS

Dates March 14 - 16 2014Place Holiday Inn Oakbrook Terrace IL Details Website Phone 773583-6464

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

Dates March 28 - 30 2014Place Airport Marriott Cleveland OH Details Website Phone 330268-4610

Upcoming Tournaments

ABT 19th MINNESOTA OPEN

Dates July 18 - 20 2014Place Comfort Inn Bloomington MN Details Website Phone 612718-2613

ABT WISCONSIN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Dates August 1 - 3 2014Place Radission Madison WI Details Email Phone 608467-0013

Atlanta Northside Backgammon

Presents its 6th annual

Atlanta Spring ClassicApril 4th-6th 2014

Featuringbull Complimentary Hotel Shuttle from Hartsfield-Jackson

Internationalbull Robert Wilensky Memorial - single elimination 13 point matchesbull Senior single elimination 7 point matches for those over 50bull Championship 11 point matches and Intermediate 9 point

matchesbull Mini-Match 2 point matchesbull Atlanta Spring Classic Warm-up 2 matches guaranteedbull Jackpots and After Tournament Jackpot bull Free Wireless Internet and Computer usage in the lobbybull Wireless Internet access in guest rooms discounted to $6Day

You MUST make your reservation by 500pm Tuesday Mar 4th 2014

For more information contactJerry Godsey- Home 770-612-0818

Cell 404-403-1957Email jerrygod2000hotmailcom

wwwAtlantaSpringClassiccom

Sheraton Gateway HotelAtlanta Airport

1900 Sullivan RoadAtlanta Georgia 30337

ABT CAROLINA INVITATIONAL

Dates August 29 - Sept 1 2014Place Charlotte NC Details Email Phone 540222-6431

39th WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPamp 4th MONTE CARLO OPEN

Dates August 3 - 10 2014Place Fairmont Monte Carlo Monaco Details Website Phone 212222-7177

Watch championship backgammon amp learn from the

Giants View over 200 videotaped matches of the worlds leading

backgammon players filmed at American Backgammon Tour

events over the last year

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

youtubecomuserUSBGFbroadcast FRO

_GoBack

Backgammon World Championship Fairmont Monte Carlo Monaco

Monte Carlo OpenAugust 3rd - 4th 2014

World ChampionshipAugust 5th - 10th 2014

Book early Our discounted Fairmont Monte Carlo room rates are in high demand Rates start at euro314 and reservations must be made by June 15th to secure this discount Make your reservations online at wwwbwcmccom or contact Antoinette-Marie Williams at 2122227177

Presented by the IPATT Group | Patti Donner-Rubin | E-Mail pattirubinaolcom

August 3rd - 10th 2014

Pre-Register Online at wwwbwcmccom

Reserve Rooms Early

New Modified Double-Elimination Formatnew format for the 39th world championshipMain flight fighters bracket amp last chance

- KAREN DAVIS

KAREN DAVIS

tournaments

mon Championships

the US Backgammon

makes Bill such an

effective leader

In This Issue

FEATURED

BY RAY FOGERLUND

BY JASON PACK

BY PHIL SIMBORG

March-April 2014

PLAYER PROFILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

March-April 2014

BY BILL RILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY TARA MENDICINO

In This Issue

editorBob Wachtel

Staff ampVolunteers

organizationrdquo

Championship

ongoing work of the

organization

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

- KAREN DAVIS

KAREN DAVIS

tournaments

mon Championships

the US Backgammon

makes Bill such an

effective leader

In This Issue

FEATURED

BY RAY FOGERLUND

BY JASON PACK

BY PHIL SIMBORG

March-April 2014

PLAYER PROFILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

March-April 2014

BY BILL RILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY TARA MENDICINO

In This Issue

editorBob Wachtel

Staff ampVolunteers

organizationrdquo

Championship

ongoing work of the

organization

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

In This Issue

FEATURED

BY RAY FOGERLUND

BY JASON PACK

BY PHIL SIMBORG

March-April 2014

PLAYER PROFILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

March-April 2014

BY BILL RILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY TARA MENDICINO

In This Issue

editorBob Wachtel

Staff ampVolunteers

organizationrdquo

Championship

ongoing work of the

organization

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

PLAYER PROFILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY STEVE SAX

March-April 2014

BY BILL RILES

BY KAREN DAVIS

BY TARA MENDICINO

In This Issue

editorBob Wachtel

Staff ampVolunteers

organizationrdquo

Championship

ongoing work of the

organization

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

editorBob Wachtel

Staff ampVolunteers

organizationrdquo

Championship

ongoing work of the

organization

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

organizationrdquo

Championship

ongoing work of the

organization

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

nology

- BILL RILES

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

and vision

my favorite

Every member is a

goal we all seek

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

was a fun era

in Illinois

in the game

community

determine that

strides

discovered

retained

right track

and Chasing Amy

amaze me

- PHIL SIMBORG

Founding Sponsors

more information

silverLynn Ehrlich

to enter

who did not

backgammon circuit

for not entering

twice as nervous

comes to clocks

Ed headed right

My enthusiasm was

tempered somewhat

Now I know how

the Brooklyn Bridge

nearby

situation

in this event

the Dual-Duel Yay

Quiz Sigh

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 186

11 point match

pip 165score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 1

get that back later

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 193

11 point match

pip 172score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 2

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 3

slow down a bit

is Mochy

score 1pip 98

11 point match

pip 205score 1

to play 41

2081 (G046 B001)7919 (G5060 B1314)

2060 (G026 B001)7940 (G5143 B1412)

1972 (G026 B001)8028 (G5237 B1408)

2298 (G027 B001)7702 (G5454 B2079)

1890 (G040 B001)8110 (G5217 B1308)

1910 (G023 B001)8090 (G5282 B1404)

1921 (G026 B001)8079 (G5307 B1456)

1796 (G028 B000)8204 (G5222 B1262)

1721 (G022 B001)8279 (G5372 B1353)

1689 (G026 B000)8311 (G5397 B1346)

2251 (G017 B000)7749 (G5836 B2566)

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 200

11 point match

pip 102score 1

to play 11

8275 (G7531 B4920)1725 (G007 B000)

7971 (G7036 B4214)2029 (G012 B000)

7962 (G7021 B4173)2038 (G012 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

blunder too Ok

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 282

11 point match

pip 98score 1

to play 41

7954 (G7038 B3743)2046 (G015 B000)

7964 (G7018 B3708)2036 (G017 B000)

7933 (G6947 B3670)2067 (G020 B000)

7873 (G6973 B3687)2127 (G021 B000)

7691 (G6273 B3171)2309 (G022 B000)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 5

four at Position 6

is Mochy

score 1pip 40

11 point match

pip 108score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 6

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 7

much respect

is Ray Fogerlund

score 1pip 67

11 point match

pip 40score 1

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 8

worried I thought

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

on roll cube action

pressure

in backgammon

myself however

I played 12 lol

pardners

- RAY FOGERLUND

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 9

is Mochy

score 1pip 45

11 point match

pip 88score 1

to play 55

6472 (G000 B000)3528 (G127 B005)

6198 (G000 B000)3802 (G166 B005)

5641 (G000 B000)4359 (G146 B005)

cfmresourceid=6524

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 160

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 43

5221 (G1582 B078)4779 (G1376 B064)

5191 (G1647 B083)4809 (G1486 B100)

5101 (G1346 B050)4899 (G1271 B047)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 1

a 43 to play

I confirmed my

or play purely also

tendencies

are equal

of this tactic

hit and cover

is Slava Pryadkin

score 0pip 126

25 point match

pip 176score 1

to play 33

4595 (G1226 B034)5405 (G1580 B079)

4567 (G1220 B035)5433 (G1791 B099)

4369 (G1152 B027)5631 (G1401 B059)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 2

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 3

moves like this one

non-gammonish cube

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 126

25 point match

pip 131score 0

on roll cube action

on his next roll

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 118

25 point match

pip 120score 0

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4

then closed out

is Lars Trabolt

score 2pip 148

25 point match

pip 163score 2

to play 44

4876 (G934 B027)5124 (G1200 B042)

4653 (G1477 B047)5347 (G1328 B054)

4677 (G793 B018)5323 (G815 B026)

4688 (G797 B017)5312 (G849 B028)

4620 (G1199 B042)5380 (G1178 B041)

4686 (G1077 B041)5314 (G1489 B055)

4492 (G1192 B044)5508 (G1289 B049)

4374 (G705 B013)5626 (G823 B025)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 4-A

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 134

25 point match

pip 142score 3

to play 54

5521 (G1684 B050)4479 (G1215 B045)

5463 (G1624 B046)4537 (G1220 B039)

4617 (G512 B006)5383 (G278 B007)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Position 5

is Slava Pryadkin

score 2pip 153

25 point match

pip 138score 3

on roll cube action

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Position 6

lacks an anchor

as was once thought

not on the bar)

over email

- JASON PACK

twice a year

DOUBLES WINNERS

played doubles

the competition

Ukraine)

Doug Mayfield (USA)

(Turkey)

Damme (Belgium)

Cyprus

Yazawa (Japan)

forces with other

Turkish backgammon

Federation The most

receive prize money

it is only through

sponsorship that we

backgammon by

players to our

tournaments

logullari (Turkey)

(Turkey)

Company FMgammon

decisions

100 videos thus far

- PHIL SIMBORG

achievements

following table

Winner Tournament

from New York City)

Tournament System

I at 1947

DAVID PRESSER

- KAREN DAVIS

mates at school

Backgammon

on her progress

- KAREN DAVIS

He compliments Bill

online backgammon

Gammon

Florida

- KAREN DAVIS

SCOTT BUTKI

in their local area

backgammon sets

one another

- KAREN DAVIS

gap to 10-6

finals honors

McGraw in the final

Cecilia Pedroza and

ble free event

By Steve Sax

Stepan Nuniyants

other competitors

and Gary Bauer

and the world

- STEVE SAX

to make their mark

fourth place

PRESSER amp SUTTON

SAM WANG WINS

Phipps

live matches

- KAREN DAVIS

JASON LEE

GARY BAUER

GREG WINS SENIORS

second round

Ray Fogerlund

01 04 07 10 13 16

02 05 08 11 14 17

03 06 09 12 15 18

01 1004 1307 16

02 1105 1408 17

03 1206 1509 18

Ashkenazi

Championship

tive audience

Paul Magriel

San Antonio

(Wisconsin)

the last chance

TOURNAMENT OF STARS

were runners up

San Antonio

- STEVE SAXBIL

Name Points

Name Rating

Name Points

10 Abby Biss 208

Name Rating

Name Points

Name Rating

Novice Beginners

division

ABT 20th OHIO STATE

LIVESTREAM

ARCHIVE

_GoBack

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