LCI Championship ABT Online!

PRIMETIME BACKGAMMON OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE USBGF SUMMER 2020

LCI Championship ABT Online! John O’Hagan defeats Charlie Points Race, L.A., Cherry Raichle in Online Championship: Blossom, Chicago: coverage with analysis and match analysis

U.s. Backgammon federation visit us at usbgf.org Backgammon Means Community 2020 Viking A big reason we host backgammon tournaments is to celebrate our wonderful community. You inspire us to create events BACKGAMMON that players ﬁ nd exciti ng and rewarding. Right now, a lot of us are more isolated Classic than we want to be. Unti l we can play backgammon in person again, we want September 3-7 to make online play easy and fun. Playing together is more than just a distracti on Grand Crystal Beaver from the craziness around us — it keeps us connected. Odin Open · Thor Advanced Friday Frigga · Trophies ABT Online! We are conti nually grateful to you for your friendship and support. Our backgammon October 8 - 11, 2020 community is strong, and we can’t wait to Columbus Day Weekend see you both virtually and over the board! - April and Michael Mesich

vikingbackgammonclassic.com • Sunny Florida Warm-Ups, Thursday evening October 8 • Major Jackpots - Friday afternoon October 9 • Special Jackpots: Women’s, Rookies, Super Seniors • Miami Masters (70+), FTH Board event • Orlando Open • Art Benjamin – the • Lauderdale Limited Mathemagician - seminar • Doubles – Friday evening • USBGF membership required • ABT Main divisions – starting • 100% return on entry fees Saturday, October 10 (ranging from $25 to $100) • Open/Advanced - Double elimination • $30 tournament fee • Last Chance fresh draw – • Trophies Sunday October 11 • Zoom Welcome Ceremony and Awards Ceremony

See website for details: sunnyﬂ oridabackgammon.com USBGF

USBGF AMERICAN BACKGAMMON TOUR #2020 4 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 5 PrimeTime Backgammon Spring Issue

Our regular columnists, Art Benjamin and Rich Munitz, give us some intriguing material. Summer Issue Art uses match-equity tables to derive basic take points of doubles, and Rich examines a hypothetical ruling where time trouble rears its ugly head. Both of these columns will PrimeTime Backgammon amply repay study. By Marty Storer, Executive Editor Two-time U.S. Open champion and experienced writer Mary Hickey, returning to these uch of our Summer issue is Carol Joy Cole, doyenne of U.S. directors, pages a er an absence, supplies a fantastic review of Bill Robertie’s long-awaited book on devoted to online tourna- summarizes the recent Giants of Backgam- the openings. Bill has others in the pipeline that are expected to be released this year, and ments, a er cancellation of mon vote, complete with statistics and brief Mary’s review is a useful window not only on the rst of the series, but of what is to come! Mthis year’s live ABT. John O’Hagan, #9 proles of newcomers to the list of the top Giant for 2019, graces the cover, in honor 64, including the youngest of them, Cary Our Founding Sponsors, whose generous support makes possible all our events and of his Local Club Initiative Online Tourna- Hoarty of Ohio. membership benets, are listed with our prodigious and humble thanks. And as usual, we ment win over Denver’s Charlie Raichle. give tournament results and point-race standings of all our events, including the popular Check out Marty Storer’s analysis of their John Pirner, the new USBGF President USBGF Online Circuit. nal match. and Executive Director, reports on recent MARTY STORER Federation activities, introducing and wel- Finally, check out the list of upcoming events! ere will be plenty of backgammon before Marty Storer is a member of the USBGF We cover other online events in the USA: coming new sta, and giving kudos to out- live events resume again, which they certainly will. Board of Directors and Executive Editor the Cherry Blossom, with analysis of the going contributors like the hitherto-unsung of PrimeTime Backgammon magazine. Advanced nal between Tom and Ryan workhorse Tara Mendicino, the person most “Get Into the Game—Become a Member” Rebelo; the L.A. Open, recapped by impre- responsible for PrimeTime Backgammon’s sario and photographer Candace Mayeron, beautiful online and print production quality. Marty Storer with Marty’s analysis of the nal match John brings both vision and many years of between champion Tim Cross (U.K.) and business acumen to the ongoing challenges local favorite Gus Contos; and the Chicago facing our organization, and other new Open retrospective by Karen Davis. To top Board members and Federation sta add o this coverage, Richard Munitz gives us an great capabilities of their own. With Ben Exclusive reporting PRIMETIME BACKGAMMON explanation of the ABT Online! points race. Friesen, John also gives us a rundown of OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE USBGF SUMMER 2020 the ABT Online! tour. on the new Turning to Europe, Cristian Frisk, General Secretary of the Romanian Backgammon Karen Davis has a writeup of USBGF Ben- Federation, contributes coverage of online ets and how to get the most out of your ABT Online! Tour events across the pond, in Romania and membership. You may be surprised at the other countries, as well as an explanation great package of perks Federation member- ON THE COVER of the Mind Sports Olympics to take place ship confers! John O’Hagan, winner of this year’s Local Club Initiative Championship, in August. e MSO (not aliated with the is one of the leading theorists of the game. He is a Backgammon Masters Awarding Body grandmaster, ranked #9 in the 2019 Giants IOC) now includes several backgammon of Backgammon, won the 2019 Cherry Blossom Championship, and LCI Championship ABT Online! events. We welcome Cristi to our cadre John O’Hagan defeats Charlie Points Race, L.A., Cherry was nalist in the Backgammon World Championship in 2005. Raichle in Online Championship: Blossom, Chicago: coverage with analysis and match analysis of writers. Photo courtesy of Karen Davis. U.s. Backgammon federation visit us at usbgf.org 6 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 7 c In This Issue Summer 2020 FEATURED 34 USBGF CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP LCI Online Tournament results and analysis. BY JEFF PROCTOR AND MARTY STORER 28 2019 GIANTS OF BACKGAMMON The Biannual List of Top 64, with stats BY CAROL JOY COLE 31 ABT ONLINE! 28 Understanding the Online ABT Tour 66 BY BEN FRIESEN AND JOHN PIRNER 33 ABT ONLINE! POINTS RACE IMPRESARIO GOES ONLINE 2019 GIANTS OF BACKGAMMON Not too Dierent from Live ABT Race It’s no surprise that Mochy is #1 again! Candace Mayeron ran the L.A. Open ABT Online! BY RICHARD MUNITZ event from her hitherto-secret lair. TOURNAMENT REPORTS 50 CHERRY BLOSSOM ABT ONLINE! Inaugural Report Featuring the Rebelos 34 BY KAREN DAVIS AND MARTY STORER 63 CHICAGO OPEN ABT ONLINE! Rory and his Crew Adapt Well A NEW CLUB CHAMPION BY KAREN DAVIS John O’Hagan took home the USBGF Club Championship crown. 66 LOS ANGELES OPEN ABT ONLINE! A Report to Rival Live L.A. Coverage BY CANDACE MAYERON 82 EUROPEAN BACKGAMMON ONLINE CHERRY BLOSSOM OPEN FINAL Report on Continental Activities The father-son match between Tom and Ryan Rebelo did not disappoint. BY CRISTIAN FRISK 84 MIND SPORTS OLYMPICS Questions or comments about PrimeTime Backgammon: Now Ocially a Mind Sport Backgammon? We want to hear from you! BY CRISTIAN FRISK Contact us via email at [email protected]. 50 8 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 9 In This Issue USBGF NEWS SALUTE TO USBGF VOLUNTEERS 12 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN April Kennedy – Social Media and Website Adviser Summer Latest Federation Business. Elizabeth Liberty – Website BY JOHN PIRNER Edward Onny – Communication 2020 15 JOHN PIRNER ANNOUNCEMENT Je Proctor – USBGF Social Media Director and Online Circuit Our New President and Chief Executive. Director 16 DAN MINARDI ANNOUNCEMENT BOOK REVIEW Jim Sisti – Graphic Design Introducing our Chief Operating Ocer. 86 HOW TO PLAY THE OPENING IN Patrick Gibson – Director, USBGF Ratings Team; Ray Bills, BACKGAMMON: PART 1 18 GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR Doug DeWitt, Barry Silliman A NEW WAY OF THINKING USBGF BENEFITS Albert Steg, Chair, USBGF Club Committee; Ted Chee, Champion reviews champion — don’t miss this! Membership Brings Great Value. Ben Friesen; Ross Gordon, Joe Miller, Je Proctor BY MARY HICKEY 26 FOUNDING SPONSORS Dan Minardi, Chair, USBGF Finance Committee; Jason Briggs, Ed Corey, Karen Davis, Bruce Farquhar, Tom Rebelo, John Pirner Thanks to Our Benefactors. MATH OVERBOARD Joe Russell, Chair, USBGF Hall of Fame Committee; 92 WHAT’S THE TAKE POINT? Art Benjamin, Patrick Gibson, Kent Goulding, Neil Kazaross, USBGF NATIONAL & ONLINE STATS Bill Robertie Basic take points straight from the MET. 102 ABT ONLINE! RESULTS BY ART BENJAMIN New Tour: Latest Results. WHAT’S THE RULING? 105 ABT ONLINE! STANDINGS Help grow the 99 A DISPUTE WITH ONE SECOND Standings for New Tour. backgammon community LEFT ON THE CLOCK one player at a time! Complications with the clock in play. 106 ONLINE LEADERBOARD BY RICHARD MUNITZ See the latest leaders from USBGF online tourna- Donate via PayPal to: ments, plus wins, losses, and tournaments won. [email protected] TOURNAMENT CALENDAR 107 ONLINE CIRCUIT WINNERS 110 UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS View the list of USBGF members who have won To set up a charitable Mark your calendar and attend these exciting ABT recent Online Circuit tournaments. bequest to the USBGF, and USBGF events taking place across the country. contact [email protected] 109 MASTER POINT LEADERS See the latest leaders from USBGF online tourna- Your tax deductible ments, plus wins, losses, and tournaments won. donation benefits the Write for PrimeTime Backgammon! future of backgammon We are always looking for great content and through education - the photos. If you are interested, we would love to hear USBGF Foundation from you! Contact us via email at [email protected]. is a 501(c)3 10 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 11 PRIMETIME USBGF Board BACKGAMMON Sta & John Pirner of Directors USBGF Volunteers Marty Storer ; , ; ; ED COREY Matt Cohn-Geier , Neil Kazaross Ed Corey, Membership Director, is Joseph Russell a USBGF Silver Founding Sponsor Kristian Heuer and CEO of Gammon Guys, a , USBGF Corporate Sponsor that ; , donates Artgammon backgammon , Robert Amador, Doris Auer boards to novice/intermediate ABT John Pirner winners. His career in the medical Dan Minardi equipment eld as a business owner Bill Riles, Karen Davis (Cover), ; , plus counselor in social services Tara Mendicino, Steve Sax, , and volunteer coaching activities Candace Mayeron ; , have focused on assisting people Art Benjamin of all ages and at-risk youth. Ed’s Karen Davis (Chair), Kristian Heuer, Richard Munitz engaging and caring personality John Pirner, Marty Storer ; make him well suited to handle ; membership needs of the USBGF. .. ; , PrimeTime Backgammon is the ocial magazine of the Karen Davis Matt Reklaitis BEN FRIESEN CARY HOARTY U.S. Backgammon Federation. , ; Ben Friesen, Director of Tournament Cary Hoarty, Education Director. ; Support, is a member of the USBGF Cary is the youngest Giant on the Email: [email protected] Jack Edelson Board of Directors, a Silver Founding 2019 Giants 64 list. He has nished Website: usbgf.org Marty Storer Sponsor, and chair of the Tournament 2nd in 2019 Las Vegas, Sunny Directors Advisory Committee. He Florida, Chicago Open, 1st with his , Volume 11, Issue 3 has directed numerous ABT and ABT mother Laura Hoarty in Doubles at , © 2020 U.S. Backgammon Online! tournaments including the 2019 Texas, Chicago Open, and ; , Federation Cherry Blossom, California State, LA Open; and won the Cherry Frank Talbot Denver Wild West, Los Angeles Open, Blossom Young Politicos in 2019 Ben Friesen Michigan, Ohio, and Sunny Florida. and the Advanced division in 2018 Opinions expressed in these kicking o an amazing climb to , pages are those of the individuals the Giants list. Carol Joy Cole and do not necessarily reect Julius High ocial positions of the U.S. Backgammon Federation. Jeb Horton 12 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 13 President’s Column

shop, oversaw the Online Tournament Circuit, managed the New Initiatives USBGF website, and responded to customer service emails 24/7. Tara will be missed. Although the pandemic has slowed our eorts to develop and promote local clubs this remains prioritized activity. Dan Minardi is our new Chief Operating Ocer and Treasurer. USBGF President’s column Dan is a business leader from Denver and director of Denver’s ABT Online! Wild West Shootout. In response to the suspension of live tournaments the USBGF has Rising to the Challenge created the ABT Online! ese tournaments have been played on Ed Corey replaces Ray Bills as our Membership Director. A business GridGammon, Backgammon Galaxy and Backgammon Studio. By John Pirner, President and Executive Director leader from Connecticut, Ed brings exceptional customer service As in the live tournaments, players compete for points. Top points skills to the role. I would like to thank Ray Bills, our prior Mem- earners will receive recognition for their 2020 accomplishments bership Director, for his help in growing our membership ranks. on our website, our Facebook page, and at the annual awards banquet, whenever that may be! Kris Heuer is our new PrimeTime Backgammon Production Editor. Although he is not a backgammon player, Kris is quickly learning We didn’t know what to expect but online play has proven to be had hoped that the Summer issue of PrimeTime would According to the CDC, 8 out of 10 COVID-19 deaths reported how to use XG. Kris lives with his family in Eagan, Minnesota. quite popular. ese are the results to date announce the resumption of live play at backgammon in the United States have been in adults 65 years and older. It tournaments. Sadly, this issue will not make that optimistic would be a tragedy to lose anyone in our community because Cary Hoarty is our Education Director, a newly created position. Cherry Blossom Open ABT Online! – 98 participants Iannouncement. Instead, it appears that we are entering a new they attended a tournament before the pandemic is under control. His responsibilities will include Chicago Open ABT Online! – 124 participants wave of COVID-19 infections. Restrictions on gatherings in public No one can predict when that will be. It may be a cliché, but it • Managing online “education” Jackpots where the prize is a Los Angeles Open ABT Online! – 89 participants places are continuing or have been reinstated. While some parts is worth repeating: Be cautious and safe, and be mindful of the 60-minute lesson with an acclaimed pro. So far our Jackpot USBGF Spring Fling Open ABT Online! – 94 participants of the country have seen their infection rates level o or decline, safety of those around you. pro instructors include Art Benjamin, Joe Russell, Steve Sax, Bualo/Niagara Backgammon ABT Online! – 46 participants other areas, that had previously been spared, are now experiencing Jonah Seewald, Marty Storer, and Cary himself. spikes in infection rates. Changes • Develop commentary for ABT Online! matches and post Some tournaments are hosted by an ABT director, like the Cherry match analysis. Blossom, the Chicago Open, and the LA Open. Some will be hosted On April 30 the USBGF announced the cancellation of the 2020 ere has been a lot of activity at the USBGF in the past few months. • Post positions of ABT Online! Matches for analysis on the by the USBGF, like the Spring Fling. All tournament winners will ABT points race. It is too early to make a determination for 2021, ABT FaceBook site. receive ABT Online! points. but if infection rates don’t decline we will consider changes to the First, Karen Davis stepped down as President and Executive Direc- • Create new educational content with a focus on youth outreach. 2021 race as well. tor of the USBGF. A literally tireless promoter of backgammon and • Repackage streamed videos from our YouTube collection to USBGF membership and a $10 USBGF registration fee are required champion of the USBGF, Karen’s participation and leadership have include XG analysis and expert commentary for online study. to play in an ABT Online! event. A 3-month Basic membership costs Our community is particularly at risk to be infected by the virus. A been instrumental to the growth of the USBGF. She continues to • Interviews with backgammon authors, grandmasters, and Giants. $10 a quarter when purchased using our recurring billing option. quick look around a tournament room suggests that many of our serve on the board of directors and is Chair of the U.S. Backgam- • Create short instructional and information videos, 2-5 min- A 3-month Novice membership costs $5. e 3-month Premium players are in their retirement years. ey may be managing hyper- mon Foundation, an education non-prot. utes in length. membership is $15. e membership may be cancelled any time. tension or high blood pressure, a heart condition, a compromised • Create new content exclusively for Premium members immune system, and other health issues. Our gatherings are o en Tara Mendicino stepped down as Vice President and Production . crowded, and trying to keep individuals spaced 6 feet apart over Editor of PrimeTime Backgammon. Tara was an equally tireless a backgammon board is not practical. We have people traveling champion of the USBGF. She is also a perfectionist. e wonder- from all areas of the country and internationally. It is impossible ful production quality of PrimeTime is Tara’s accomplishment. to not share common surfaces, such as checkers, dice and clocks. In addition to laying out the magazine Tara also ran the USBGF 14 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 15 President’s Column President’s Column

e upcoming Tour schedule is as follows. Check the calendar instructional videos? Where can I nd information about...? We for the latest updates: can help local clubs grow if we give them marketing and technology JOHN PIRNER support. We can do these things but we need resources. John brings his extensive experience in business to his role 7/5 Michigan ABT Online! Summer Championships as President and Executive Director of the USBGF. He is a 7/17–19 Ohio State ABT Online! Backgammon Karen Davis is managing our capital campaign. To date the cam- generous individual and corporate sponsor. 8/15 USBGF Tournament of Stars paign has raised over $40,000, as well as planned giving bequests 9/3–7 ABT Online! Viking Classic of $325,000. We have enhanced recognition for major donors 9/12 Memphis ABT Online! Backgammon Championships including donated FTH backgammon boards and creation of 9/24–27 Wild West Shootout Beaver and Raccoon Founding Sponsor levels. We have created a ANNOUNCEMENT OF JOHN PIRNER AS NEW 10/9–11 Sunny Florida ABT Online Finance Committee to help nd additional sources of revenue. I will write more about this in upcoming issues. For more informa- PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF USBGF USBGF Website tion contact me, Karen Davis or Dan Minardi. We have begun work on a new website. We are in the early dis- he U.S. Backgammon Federation Outgoing President/ED Karen Davis said, Among her accomplishments, Karen started covery stages but we are underway. I don’t have much to tell you Looking Forward To 2021 (USBGF) is pleased to announce “John is the perfect person to lead the orga- the Founding Sponsor program and helped now but look for a progress report in the Fall issue of PrimeTime e ABT Tour, which is owned by the USBGF, has been a free the selection of John Pirner as nization in the next phase of the Federation’s recruit 199 Founding Sponsors who have Backgammon. benet to anyone who enters an ABT tournament. Membership TPresident and Executive Director of the U.S. growth. He comes with an outstanding donated $340,000 to the organization. has not been required, which is highly unusual for an organization Backgammon Federation by the Board of background in business, the right skill set Karen launched and served as managing Online Tournament Circuit like ours. e USBGF depends on memberships for operating Directors. He is the founder and CEO of in assembling collaborative teams to adopt editor of the USBGF’s preeminent resource, e Online Tournament Circuit is one of our most popular member revenue. at worked while membership levels were growing Gammon Stu, a company established in cutting-edge technology, and a record of the PrimeTime Backgammon magazine, that benets. We are working on an updated version with new features but they have reached a plateau. To expand our community and 2016 to import, stock, and exclusively sell generous support of the organization. In has garnered worldwide kudos. Her Cherry including consolation format options. We expect to roll out the grow our membership levels we need to help local clubs recruit the handmade backgammon boards and this time of great economic uncertainty, Blossom Championship has become a ag- new OTC by the end of the year. and retain new players. at can’t be done without the help of accessories built by Fazil Terlemez (FTH), his steady leadership and can-do spirit will ship event for the USBGF. Her Sunny Florida paid sta and professional marketing. A er consultation with the a German cra sman. John is a Diamond serve the organization well.” Championship sets a high bar for elegance and Capital Campaign & Fundraising Tournament Directors Advisory Committee we have decided to Founding Sponsor of USBGF and Gammon competitiveness. She has been a major sup- To move to the next level we need to be agile as we respond to implement a $10 USBGF tournament fee at ABT tournaments Stu is an enthusiastic corporate sponsor Joseph Russell, Chairman of the Board of porter of local clubs, developing the USBGF the needs of our members, to utilize new technologies, and take for USBGF members and a $20 tournament fee for nonmembers of the USBGF and ABT tournaments. Directors, thanked Karen for her dedicated Local Club Initiative. In three years, she has built advantage of opportunities. We have reached a size that is too large beginning in 2021. service as President/Executive Director. He the South Florida Backgammon Club to the for volunteers. We do not have the resources to update, much less John brings extensive business and manage- noted that she will be continuing on the largest local club in the US. She started the DC grow our infrastructure. Volunteers ment experience to the position. He is an USBGF Board of Directors and serving as Metro Club in Washington DC and hosted the We are still in need of volunteers! Please contact me or Dan Minardi owner and serves on the board of directors Chairman and President of the charitable Michigan-Ohio Team Challenge for nine We need paid sta that can organize and develop new benets for if you would like to contribute your time and talents to the USBGF. of a Midwest-based distributor that sells sister-organization, the U.S. Backgammon years. She holds the rank of BMAB Master our membership. We also need professional marketing that can applied automation and power transmis- Foundation. He said, “Karen’s legacy in the level 2. Her notable winning record includes: communicate regularly and consistently to you, our members. Take care and enjoy the summer!  sion products to machine builders and game will be as an organization builder 1st Super Jackpot, 2019 NY Metropolitan manufacturers. John has also served on the serving as Chairman 10 years and as Presi- Open and serving on Team USA at the World “Get Into the Game — Become a Member” People say, we should have our own online playing site. Our website board of directors, the executive committee, dent/Executive Director for over four years. Team Championships in Montenegro in 2019. should have better functionality. Why don’t we have a library of and as president of the Association of High Karen Davis has been the moving force She ranks #6 in USBGF Lifetime National Technology Distribution, a nonprot trade behind the U.S. Backgammon Federation Master Points, and #2 in USBGF Lifetime organization that supports independent, since its inception, developing its benets Online Master Points. high tech distributors in North America. and achieving growth of the membership.” 16 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 17

DAN MINARDI Dan brings his technology expertise, personalized service style, and management experience as the CEO of one of Colorado’s fastest growing technology companies to the USBGF.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF DAN MINARDI APPOINTMENT CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, TREASURER, AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

e U.S. Backgammon Federation (USBGF) In announcing his appointment, John Pirner, new friends along the way, Dan became the is pleased to announce the selection of Dan President/Executive Director, of the USBGF Director of a newly developed ABT stop in Minardi as Chief Operating Ocer and Trea- noted: “Dan has an amazing ability to juggle Denver, Colorado: the Wild West Shootout. surer of the U.S. Backgammon Federation and multiple tasks, focus, and get things done. He Bringing his business, nancial and design election to the Board of Directors. In 2019 Dan has a track record of success in building and skills to bear, along with his calm demeaner, created and directed the highly-successful Den- growing organizations. e USBGF will benet and the assistance of friends, Directors and ver Wild West Shootout American Backgam- enormously from his business experience, and the USBGF, Dan created a website, brochures, mon Tour tournament bringing a personalized his deep commitment to the game we all love.” themed trophies, and energy to launch a wildly service-oriented style to directing the event successful inaugural 2019 ABT event. Dan that endeared him to all. He also serves as From a young age, backgammon was a favorite is humbled to be a part of such an amazing director of the Colorado Backgammon Club. boardgame for Dan. In late 2017, he discov- community. In addition to being Director He is the founder and President/CEO, of Clear ered the Colorado Backgammon Club and of the ABT’s Wild West Shootout, he is also Blue Engineering which provides contract was introduced to the world of competitive the Colorado Backgammon Club Director manufacturing and contract engineering backgammon. A er many local club events, and a member of the USBGF Tournament services worldwide. It is recognized as one Dan traveled to San Antonio for his first Directors Advisory Committee (TDAC). of the leading and fastest growing Colorado ABT tournament. He was hooked, and never Dan is a USBGF Gold Founding Sponsor. technology companies. looked back. A year and a half, and 20 ABT tournaments later, while meeting hundreds of 18 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 19 Getting the Most out of your USBGF Membership

3. USBGF Online Tournament Circuit Getting the Most out of a. Once you have an account on an approved backgammon server, register for USBGF Online Tourna- ment Circuit tournaments at http://usbgf.org/trny/ Monthly Circuit tournaments are open to the your USBGF Membership rst 128 players to register. In addition, divisional tournaments are available to play other players at comparable skill level: Masters (Elo of 1650+; Advanced (Elo of 1501-1629); Intermediate (Elo 1500 or below). Most players start at 1500 Elo, but may request a higher level if they have an established rating through online or live play. In addition the OTC oers 32-player Women’s Monthly Circuit elcome to the U.S. Backgammon Federation!! We hope you will enjoy your membership and tournaments open to female members. For a fee, players may enter 32-player FTH Board Blitzes ($30 take full advantage of all the resources we have available to members. Basic members can play entry) with an FTH backgammon board valued at $950 to the winner. Intermediate level players may in online tournaments, participate in the Online Match Series where members vote on checker play in GammonGuys Intermediate Blitzes ($25 entry) with an ArtGammon board valued at $650 to Wplays and cube decisions in a match against the #1 All-time American Backgammon Tour player Neil Kazaross, the winner. Membership blitzes (entry fee $10) are available with a $60 credit toward membership or get tips from experts, view over 200 teaching videos that will improve your game, and much more. Premium USBG Shop merchandise to the winner. and Founding Sponsors get all that plus electronic access to the quarterly PrimeTime Backgammon magazine and discounts from backgammon vendors. Here’s a guide to Getting the Most out of your USBGF Membership. b. You will receive e-mail notices when new tournaments are open for registration. Enter [email protected] into your Contact list to avoid having notices go to a Spam lter. Bene ts Available to All Members: 1. Backgammon Servers for Online tournaments c. Once you are registered for a tournament, the USBGF Online Tournament System will automatically a. To play in the ABT Online! Tour and the USBGF Online Circuit you will need an account on an approved notify you when drawsheets are drawn, the name and nickname of your opponent, and an automatic backgammon server where you will play your matches: Backgammon Galaxy, Backgammon Studio, system for communicating with your opponent regarding a convenient time to play your match on GammonSite, GridGammon, or Safe Harbor Games. Most members set up accounts on both Backgam- GridGammon or Backgammon Galaxy or another mutually agreed backgammon server. You typically mon Galaxy and GridGammon which are the two most common sites used in online tournaments. will have two weeks to play your match. You will also report results of your match using the USBGF Online Tournament System. b. To get a free account instantly, go to http://backgammongalaxy.com and follow the instructions for creating an account. 4. Online Match Series a. Members enjoy playing an Online Match against All-American Backgammon Tour #1 player and c. To apply for a free GridGammon account, login to the http://usbgf.org/ website with your username member of the USBGF Board of Directors Neil Kazaross. Members vote and comment on checker plays and password (or ask that your password be e-mailed to you in upper right of Home Page) and go to: and cube decisions, with majority rule! Jason Lee serves as the Online Match Editor. Experts Grant http://usbgf.org/trny/gg-acct/. Fill out all the required elds including a preferred nickname and Submit. Homan and Kimon Papachristopoulos comment on members’ decisions a er their vote is nalized, GridGammon is a separate organization and has its own policies for granting accounts. Processing can and Neil comments on his checker/cube decisions. To participate go to http://usbgf.org/category/olm/ take some time – typically a couple of weeks. ey will e-mail you a password. Be sure to set support@ or check the What’s New section on the Home Page for the most recent post. gridgammon.com in your Contact directory to avoid having it go into a Spam lter. Contact support@ gridgammon.com if you have questions about the status of your account. Once you have an account b. When you enter, be sure to sign up for e-mails notifying you when new positions are posted. and password, you can download the so ware at http://gridgammon.com/ 5. Chris Bray’s Learning Curve 2. ABT Online! Tournaments a. Every Monday, renowned British columnist and author Chris Bray posts a position on the USBGF a. Go to the Calendar http://usbgf.org/abtonline-calendar/ on the USBGF website to nd upcoming ABT Facebook page. Answers are provided on Tuesdays with explanations of why a given decision is best Online! Tournaments sponsored by the USBGF as well as other online tournaments sponsored by local on the usbgf.org website restricted to USBGF members. clubs or ABT directors. Follow links to individual events to get a full description of details on format, playing site(s), entry and registration fees, and request tournament instructions from the director. 20 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 21 Getting the Most out of your USBGF Membership Getting the Most out of your USBGF Membership

6. USBGF Teaching Videos 9. Check out Your Ratings a. Short 15-20 minute teaching videos are available at http://usbgf.org/category/bg-problems/video/. a. Want to know who the top players are? What to know if your performance over the board is getting Over 200 teaching videos have been posted. is is a great resource for novices and everyone who is better? Want to know who your chief nemesis is? Want to see the drawsheets from your last American still learning! Backgammon Tour tournament? All that information and lots more is on the website. For ABT ratings and statistics information go to: http://usbgf.org/ratings/ and get ABT point leaders, USBGF National b. Beginners may also enjoy the Backgammon Beginners Video Series on YouTub e master point leaders, USBGF Elo ratings, win-loss record, and more. Under the Elo rating heading you’ll nd tournament drawsheets, your Nemesis report, and your playing history: Results of the ABT c. ere are also good resources for Novices in the Learn/Novices section of the website: http://usbgf. Online! may be found at: http://usbgf.org/trny/abt-online/abtonline-winners/ org/learn-backgammon/novice/ b. If you play in the USBGF Online Circuit, you’ll want to keep track of your progress by checking out d. Beginners may also enjoy the Backgammon Beginners Video Series on YouTube and videos on https:// the Leaderboard: http://usbgf.org/trny/leaderboard/ You’ll nd your current USBGF online master backgammongalaxy.com/academy points, Elo rating, win-loss record, tournaments won. Strive for a personal goal.

7. Backgammon Tournaments 10. General Information a. Want to play with other backgammon enthusiasts? Check out the USBGF Calendar at http://usbgf.org/ a. e usbgf.org website has lots of information – do explore and nd the American Backgammon Hall of calendar/. ABT Online! events may be found at: http://usbgf.org/abtonline-calendar/ Fame http://usbgf.org/awards/hof/, backgammon books, equipment, and merchandise, subscriptions to print copies of the PrimeTime Backgammon magazine, and more for sale at http://usbgf.org/shop/, b. Results of the ABT tournaments are reported promptly a er the event at: http://usbgf.org/category/ names and photos of winners of Online tournaments http://usbgf.org/usbgf-tournament-of-stars/, and events/. Results of the ABT Online! may be found at: http://usbgf.org/trny/abt-online/abtonline-winners/ managing your prole at http://usbgf.org/membership/my-prole/.

c. For a complete listing of U.S. local club events see: http://usbgf.org/clubs/us-aliate-backgammon-clubs/ b. USBGF policy statements including the Rules may be found at: http://usbgf.org/category/policies/

d. You may also want to check out MeetUp.com in your local area to nd backgammon playing opportunities. c. Information about the USBGF including its Board, Committees, by-laws, volunteers, nancial statements, sponsors, and more may be found at: http://usbgf.org/about-us/ 8. Learn from Expert Players a. e USBGF provides support for streaming of top players’ matches at American Backgammon Tour d. You’ll also nd links to other backgammon websites and resources in the right hand side of the Home Page. events. To receive notices when matches are being streamed, sign up on https://www.youtube.com/ user/USBGFbroadcast and check Facebook.com/ABT for notices when tournaments are in progress. e. More and more is added each day so check out the website regularly, starting with What’s New in the top center of the Home Page and the News section. b. Another treasure trove is an archive of recorded matches from the USBGF Online Circuit. Go to Find Player in the Online Circuit http://usbgf.org/trny/stats/?plyr=, scroll down the list of players to nd someone whose matches who want to review, and click on Match File. Or go to the complete list of match les at: http://usbgf.org/events/match-les/ Copy the text le onto your Home screen and open in eXtreme Gammon to go through the XG analysis of the match. 22 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Getting the Most out of your USBGF Membership

Premium and Founding Sponsors • PrimeTime Backgammon ADVERTISE ▷ Electronic access to the highly acclaimed PrimeTime Backgammon quarterly magazine, including IN PRIMETIME F P current and back issues to September-October 2010, are available to Premium and Founding Spon- ½ P sor members. http://usbgf.org/download-ptbg/ Issues are typically released at the beginning of each quarter. You will receive e-mail notices as well as posts on Facebook.com/USBGF when a new issue is released. is 120+ page magazine is chock-full of interesting feature articles to help you improve your game, tournament news, player pro les, ratings leaders, upcoming tournaments, and much more. You may also sign up to receive print issues at $18 a copy plus shipping using PayPal or a major credit card: http://usbgf.org/shop/ • Discounts ▷ Membership conveys discounts at several prominent backgammon organizations including: ◆ 20% discount on the eXtreme Gammon neural net so ware http://www.extremegammon.com/ registeronline.aspx?usbgf=1 ◆ 30% discount on http://gammonsite.com/ backgammon server ◆ 10% discount on selected items at GammonVillage: http://www.gammonvillage.com/ • USBGF Sponsored Tournaments ▷ e USBGF sponsors special tournaments for USBGF members including: ◆ e USBGF National Championship held at the Cherry Blossom Backgammon Championship, free rst entry for USBGF members. http://www.cherryblossombackgammon.com/ ◆ e invitational USBGF Tournament of Stars held at the Cherry Blossom Backgammon Cham- pionship team event for Founding Sponsors and Giants http://cherryblossombackgammon.com/. Founding Sponsors select partners from a list of participating Giants, grandmasters, and stars in order of their level and date of sponsorship: http://usbgf.org/about-us/sponsors-and-benefactors/ founding-sponsors/

PrimeTime in Print Subscribe for $72 annually, not including shipping. 4 issues for $18 each. Email [email protected] for details. USBGF Streaming Sponsorship The U.S. Backgammon Federation has acquired an amazing state-of-the-art laptop to bring the highest quality streaming possible to be enjoyed by the global backgammon community. American Backgammon Tour Live Streaming Sponsor We are excited to announce that live match streaming for the 2021 American Backgammon Tour is sponsored by the U.S. Backgammon Federation. Streaming for the Atlanta Spring Classic and 40th Chicago Open may be viewed on Twitch. Streaming for the Cherry Blossom Championship may be viewed on YouTube. Make a Donation to the Streaming Fund and Show Your Support! Show your appreciation of our live broadcast by donating to the U.S. Backgammon Foundation Streaming Fund PayPal account at [email protected], and/or by joining or renewing your U.S. Backgammon Federation membership. Streaming at Select USBGF Prime Tournaments & International Events The enhanced streaming capability is also being made available to select USBGF Prime Tournaments and major international events on an on-going basis.

LIVE STREAMING ON Live Streaming Sponsor 26 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 27

Jim Pasko (NV) Michael Flohr (IL) Edj Analytics Gammon Stu David Leibowitz (NY) Joe Potts (TX) Mike Costello (KS) Gammon Guys F uningJason Lee (MD) SecilSponso Baysal (CA) John Barnett (NY) Cook Travel Frank Talbot (MI) Roberto Litzenberger (VA) Lloyd Sorenson (TX) GameSite 2000 (XG, Mobile XG, Michihito Kageyama (Japan) Bernard Nussbaumer (TX) Scott Ward (TX) GameSite) Josh Racko (CA) Kit Woolsey (CA) Larry Shiller (NY) Georey Parker Games Kevin Finch (PA) Judy Field (MI) Matthias Vohwinkel (TX) e Grunwald Fund Dan Dabney (IL) David Kettler (TX) Michael Valliere (PA) USBGF National Championship Jack Edelson (MN) Neil Kazaross (IL) Karam Ashoo (CA) Prize Fund Arkadiy Tsinis (FL) William Lonergan (NY) Eliot Tawil (NY) Matthew Brown (MD) Dan Wittkopp (MI) Shay Asra (NV) Cloyd Laporte (NY) Ray Cifani (OH) Ed Rosenblum (NM) Karen Davis (DC)- Chairman’s PB David Klausa (CO) Stephen Deep (LA) Kirby Domingue (LA) omas Buckner (PA) Dennis Lutz (GA) Stephen Kenney (NC) Boris Docevski (PA) Robert Stoller (AK) – Chairman’s PB Bryan Ignozzi (NV) Anthony Anton (NV) Ted Chee (CA) Alan and Joan Grunwald (NJ) Dennis Culpepper (VA) John C. Hamlin (VT) Koray Agirbas (GA) Malcolm Davis (TX) Albert Steg (MA) Blake Fleetwood (NY) Candace Mayeron (CA) Hugh Sconyers (Panama) Jonah Seewald (CO) omas Poole (NY) Rob Goodner (OK) Mike Svobodny (FL) Ron Fash (TX) Charlie Briggs (FL) Chris Siddall (DC) usbgf founding sponsors Jason Briggs (FL) Marty Storer (NH) Eric Petersen (CA) Eva Marie Doiron (CA) Jamie Erin Rosen (NY) Jason H. F. Lovelady (FL) Stuart Domeshek (GA) Christian Briggs (FL) Michael Louis Rosen (NY) Dan Minardi (CO) Julia T. Cooley (FL) Boris Dekhtyar (NY) John Bird (TX)- President’s PB Greg Merriman (MI) Adrian Nedelcu (IL) & Prime benefactors John Pirner (MN) Max Mowzoon (FL) Art Benjamin (CA)-Sustaining PB Edward Corey (CT) Chris Trencher (NY) Outstanding Supporters of our Organization Bill Riles (TX)-Sustaining PB Victor Ashkenazi (NY) Contributing PB Allen Tish (CA) Dorn Bishop (CA)-Contributing PB Pat McCormick (CA) Gary Fox (Bahamas) Morten Holm (Denmark) Lynn Ehrlich (NY) Michael Weinberger (LA) Gary Koscielny (FL) he USBGF salutes the individuals In appreciation of this generous support, a e USBGF Board of Directors has approved Harvey Gillis (AZ) Chiva Tafazzoli (Germany) Preston Guidry (LA) Ian Terry (TX) Bruce Newberg (CA) Alex Gerding (FL) Sean Cearley (WA) Jim Slomkoski (MI) and organizations who have gen- doubles event pairing Founding Sponsors the launch of a Capital Campaign in 2020 to Joseph Russell (CA) Larry Liebster (NV) Play65 Backgammon (Israel) William Chibnik (IL) erously supported our Federation and Prime Benefactors with Giants of Back- raise funds needed for website enhancement, Julius High (KS)- Contributing PB Ben Friesen (MI) Greg Cottle (NV) Ken Bame (CA) Patrick & Carla Gibson (CA)- Sus- Jim Stutz (CT) James G. Allen (NV) Tby becoming Founding Sponsors and Prime gammon—e Tournament of Stars—is held educational material, modern tournament John Klein (MD) taining PB Gus Contos (CA) Mark Gordon (MD) Elizabeth Liberty (FL) Benefactors. ese 199 Founding and Cor- annually at the Cherry Blossom Backgammon equipment, and tournament sponsorship. Lloyd E Webber (LEW) (VA)- Presi- Dion Hogan (MI) Rochelle Hasson (NY) Joseph Feldman (MI) porate Sponsors and Prime Benefactors have Championship, honoring the Founding Spon- dent’s PB Chuck Bower (IN) Drew Giovanis (NV) Vinson Blanton (VA) Jeb Horton (NC) Bill Finneran (VA) James E. Roland (IL) Kimberly Lewis (VA) contributed over $340,000, providing the seed sors and Prime Benefactors who have been anks to our newest Gold Founding Spon- Mario Savan (CA) Steve Schreiber (NY) Daniel Bryant (CA) capital needed for the launch and growth of instrumental in the success of the organiza- sor Dan Minardi; Silver Founding Sponsor Jake Jacobs (Singapore) John Calcott (NM) Frank Ley (CA) Saba Bejanishvili (GA)-Sustaining PB Kristina Vig (WA) Je Burdsall (NV) Dick Allen (CO) – Bronze Capital the U.S. Backgammon Federation, and/or have tion. In 2020 there will be an online USBGF Greg Merriman (MI); and Bronze Founding Christopher Cavanagh (CT) 199Patty Georoy Knapp (NC) Justin and Rynell Nunez (CA) Sponsor Alan Pruce (VA) contributed to the Prime Tournament Initia- Tournament of Stars. Founding Sponsors Sponsors Tim Boyd-Wilson (New Zealand), Sean Williams (UK) Arthur Stein (NY) Curtis Wilhelmsen (MO) Carol Joy Cole (MI)-Sustaining PB Rory Pascar (IL) Powhatan French (TX) Matt Reklaitis (MA) tive. e support of our Founding Sponsors and Prime Benefactors receive an attractive Xavier Dufaure de Citres (OH), Thorsten Anna Covlin (NY) Stepan Nuniyants (WA) Carla Gibson (CA) Tim Boyd-Wilson (NZ) Myles Covlin (NY) and Prime Benefactors will be appreciated personalized doubling cube noting their level Hoyer (Germany), Irina Litzenberger (VA), Scott Kelland (CT) David Rennie (CA) Irina Litzenberger (VA) Rod Covlin (NY) for years to come, and includes perpetual of giving. We welcome additional Founding Michelle Nussbaumer (TX), and Jim Sisti (CT). Kathy McGrath Weiner (FL) Phil Simborg (IL) Michelle Nussbaumer (TX) Perry Gartner (FL) Bob Glass (CA) Ed Sawyer (AK) Jim Sisti (CT) recognition on our website and benets not Sponsors and Prime Benefactors who wish Larry Taylor (GA) Steve Sax (CA) Twain Pigott (TX) Xavier Dufaure de Citres (OH) Alfred Mamlet (MD) available to any other class of Membership. to help us grow the game we all love! More information on the benets of becom- Steve Blanchard (IL) Jerry Godsey (GA) orsten Hoyer (Germany) Edward B. Bennett (NM) Russell Sands (FL) Michelle Steinberg (NJ) ing a Founding Sponsor may be found at Richard Munitz (NY) Gary Oleson (TX) Tariq Siddiqi (England) USBGF Founding Sponsor Benets and on Jerey Acierno (NJ) John Stryker (IL) Vladimir Gudgenov (NC) Istvan Eger (Hungary) Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) Andrew James Martinez (CA) Jason Pack (NJ) Pierce Valliere (PA) becoming a Prime Benefactor at USBGF Falafel Natanzon (Israel)

Prime Tournament Initiative. AUER DORIS Within each level, names are presented in the order of becoming Founding Sponsors. 28 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 29 2019 GIANTS OF BACKGAMMON By Carol Joy Cole

hat is a “Giant” of Backgammon? In 1981, Joel Fast-forward to today: e 2019 Giants of Backgammon have been 1st 1st Total Place Total Total Place Total Rettew, co-publisher of the Las Vegas Backgam- announced and posted online at http://www. intbg.org/giants. # Player’s Name (2017 rank) Country Ballots Votes Points # Player’s Name (2017 rank) Country Ballots Votes Points mon Magazine, asked backgammon experts at html. Voters submitted 190 ballots from 29 di erent countries. 1 Masayuki Mochizuki (1) Japan 175 82 5026 33 Gerry Tansey (101) USA 53 0 760 Wthat time to compile a “living list” of America’s 32 Giants. Players 60% of the voters are from foreign countries. Consequently, 20 2 Michihito Kageyama (2) Japan 171 11 4191 34 Dmitriy Obukhov (36) USA 52 0 730 were judged on “tournament performance, academic knowledge, (63%) of the Giants are from around the world, while 12 (37%) 3 Victor Ashkenazi (3) USA 136 7 3202 35 Jürgen Orlowski (20) Germany 50 0 719 money play skills, and air.” are Americans. 4 Lars Trabolt (7) Denmark 135 7 3092 36 Michael “Mik” Larsen (35) Denmark 49 0 697 5 Petko Kostadinov (5) USA 141 3 2903 37 Elias Kritikos (81) Norway 42 1 694 In 1993, Illinois State Championships director Yamin Yamin e top two Giants of 2019 are from Japan, known world-wide 6 Akiko Yazawa (8) Japan 140 4 2658 38 Jacob "Stick" Rice (17) USA 48 0 670 revived the concept of the Giants, but he expanded it to include for their brilliant skills as players, teachers and ambassadors 7 Neil Kazaross (9) USA 109 3 2171 39 Roberto Litzenberger (155) USA 44 0 652 international players. His goal was to get a general consensus on of Backgammon: 8 Steen Grønbech (13) Denmark 101 3 1992 40 Yoshiyuki Nakamura (27) Japan 31 2 589 who the best players are, based on their tournament records and 9 John O‘Hagan (15) USA 110 0 1935 41 Toni Bernaba (106) Lebanon 35 0 555 10 Ralf Jonas (66) Germany 84 10 1765 42 Thomas Myhr (31) Denmark 46 0 553 their in uence in the backgammon world. He wanted to know Masayuki “Mochy” Mochizuki, age 40, was voted to the Giants list 11 Falafel Natanzon (6) Israel/USA 82 5 1764 43 Carol Joy Cole (42) USA 43 0 530 which players are the most respected by the voters. for the rst time in 2005 at #28. By 2009, he was ranked as the #1 12 Zdenek Žižka (18) Czech Rep 100 0 1762 44 David Wells (79) USA 34 2 485 Giant, and 10 years later he has been #1 for a record-setting ve 13 Thomas Kristensen (14) Denmark 79 2 1696 45 George Kleitsas (53) Greece 20 11 472 He and his Committee chose to conduct the international Giants times. In 2019, he won the Ultimate Backgammon Championship 14 Steve Sax (12) USA 98 2 1664 46 David Presser (54) Israel 30 0 449 vote every two years because the project was time-consuming. against Sander Lyllo in Monte Carlo, he was honored at the U.K. 15 Mislav Kovačić (23) Croatia 94 1 1642 47 Takis Chatzelis (105) Greece 23 0 438 Open as the International Player of the Year, and he earned the BMAB 16 Thomas Tenland (26) Sweden 74 2 1543 48 “Othello” Itikawa (43) Japan 25 0 424 In 1993, 66 Giants ballots were collected, 73% of which were cast title of Super Grandmaster (SG3) with PR less than 2.5 over 300 EP. 17 Jörgen Granstedt (10) Sweden 92 0 1480 49 Bill Robertie (46) USA 32 0 416 by Americans. Twenty-seven (84%) of the Top 32 players were His tournament results in 2018 - 2019 include cashing in the Super 18 Sebastian Wilkinson (30) England 95 0 1468 50 Ray Fogerlund (32) USA 34 0 412 Americans. Wilcox Snellings was Giant #1. Jackpot at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas, nalist at the Backgammon 19 Kit Woolsey (19) USA 96 0 1465 51 Raj Jansari (33) England 29 0 405 20 Matt Cohn-Geier (4) USA 84 0 1438 52 Kazuki Yokota (107) Japan 21 1 383 CONGRATULATIONS to 21 Kimon Papachristopoulos (40) Germany 78 2 1415 53 Giannis Pasialis (72) Greece 15 0 378 22 Tobias Hellwag (16) Germany 88 1 1367 54 Dag nn Snarheim (60) Norway 30 0 374 MOCHY and MICHY 23 Marty Storer (28) USA 69 0 1219 55 Karsten Bredahl (25) Denmark 28 0 373 the WORLD’S BEST 24 Bob Wachtel (11) USA 83 0 1196 56 Frank Raposa (171) USA 25 0 369 25 Ed O’Laughlin (21) USA 72 1 1114 57 Thomas Rönn (57) Sweden 24 0 369 26 Marc B. Olsen (29) Denmark 73 0 1080 58 Carlo Melzi (68) Italy 19 1 347 MASAYUKI “MOCHY” MOCHIZUKI 27 Hideaki Ueda (---) Japan 58 0 1054 59 Giannis Atmatzidis (115) Greece 15 0 346 28 Sander Lyllo (24) Denmark 66 0 1033 60 Amir Eshraghi (51) Iran 28 0 344 Giant #1 for 2019, photo by Ralph Burd 29 Wilcox Snellings (116) USA/Costa Rica 56 0 972 61 Richard Munitz (95) USA 28 0 343 30 Eli Roymi (133) Israel 51 2 961 62 Konstantinos Chiotinis (75) Greece 17 0 343 MICHIHITO “MICHY” KAGEYAMA 31 Dirk Schiemann (192) Germany 44 2 826 63 Frank Talbot (70) USA 24 0 341 Giant #2 for 2019, photo by Roland Herrera 32 Joe Russell (22) USA 47 1 811 64 Cary Hoarty (---) USA 23 0 335 30 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 31 2019 Giants of Backgammon

World Series in Sochi, Markowitz Masters #27 Hideaki Ueda just started playing in 2016. #31 Dirk Schiemann, #3 Giant in 2003, moved at the Chicago Open, Super Jackpot at the He quickly became a BMAB Grandmaster to Costa Rica and took a backgammon break Merit Open in Cyprus, and Super Jackpot (G2). He appears on the 2019 Giants list for for 15 years. A er returning to Germany, at the Concorde Open in Cyprus. Besides the rst time ever. He won the Ultimate Back- he was on the 2018 winning World Team in giving Prociency Quizzes and international gammon Challenge Contender Tournament Gibraltar, and he won the 2019 Porta Nigra seminars, Mochy has been preoccupied with in Gibraltar this year to challenge Mochy Championship in Germany. his three children and his wife Michiko in in the 2020 UBC title ght in Monte Carlo. Tokyo. His 8-year-old son Yugo won the #64 Cary Hoarty is a young Ohio student who ABT ONLINE! Children’s event at the Japan Open last year. #40 Yoshiyuki Nakamura is a young BMAB cashed in 11 ABT events in 2018 and 24 in By Ben Friesen and John Pirner Grandmaster (G2) in Tokyo. He has won the 2019. He nished 2019 with an exciting Mochy ONLINE! Michihito “Michy” Kageyama, age 58, was supreme Meijin title twice in Japan, and the Challenge: four matches on Backgammon BACKGAMMON voted to the Top 64 Giants in 2007 at #35. Merit Open Warm-Up in Cyprus in 2018. Galaxy against one of Japan’s best teenage TOUR #2020 Since then, he has been voted as #2 a er players, Kentaro Meijo, with live commentary the last four ballots in a row. His enduring #47 Masanori “Othello” Itikawa is a veteran by Mochy. Cary won the most matches and legacy will be his acclaimed Backgammon Tokyo player who won the Japan Open in also edged out Kentaro in PR, 3.57 to 3.72. Odyssey series of seven books, collaborat- 2019. He has challenged players for years ing with his British friend Roland Her- with his Othello Quiz. #33 Gerry Tansey (MO), #39 Roberto Litzen- he U.S. Backgammon Federation (USBGF) is pleased to e 2020 ABT Online! points leader will be crowned Champion rera: #1 Opening Concepts was published berger (VA), #41 Toni Bernaba (Lebanon) and announce the launch of the ABT Online! Tour, which is at the annual USBGF Awards Dinner to be held in 2021. Trophies in 2017, #2 Endgame Technique in 2019, #52 Kazuki Yokota is another young #56 Frank Raposa (VA) are also noteworthy separate from but similar to the American Backgammon will be awarded to the top three points leaders. e top 20 leaders and #3 Game Plan is due to be published Champion who won the Japan Open and newcomers to the Top 64. TTour (ABT). As in the ABT, players entering ABT Online! Tourna- will receive certicates of recognition. this summer. Michy’s tournament record Othello’s Quiz in 2018. ments will earn points toward ABT Online! rankings. for 2018-19 includes winning the Phil Me Trophies will be awarded to Mochy and Michy. Results of each ABT Online! tournament will be announced on the In Jackpot at the Nordic Open, the Nation’s Notable Newcomers in 2019: Personalized certicates will be mailed to the e ABT Online! complements the in-person American Backgam- USBGF and ABT Facebook pages, the USBGF website, and Prime- Capital Doubles at the Cherry Blossom in #10 Ralf Jonas of Germany won the Top 32 Giants. mon Tour. e 2020 ABT points race has been canceled because of Time Backgammon magazine. Key matches from the ABT Online! Virginia, the Farewell to Brighton Jackpot Speedgammon event in Gibraltar, Merit the Covid-19 pandemic and safe distancing public health recom- tour will be featured in PrimeTime with analysis by expert players. in the U.K., the P40BG Super Jackpot at the Super Jackpot and Super Speedgammon anks to all 190 voters for their participation. mendations. Swedish Open, and the Mega Jackpot at the in Montenegro, and the Swedish Open Cheers to all the Giants of 2019! ABT Online! tournament formats, entry and registration fees, Merit Open in Cyprus. He also cashed in two years in a row. He had been among e goals of the ABT Online! Tour are to: payouts, and technical requirements vary by each event and are the Merit Open in Montenegro, the Japan the Top 32 Giants four times previously, Carol Joy Cole, Editor • Build community through online backgammon. generally decided by collaboration between the tournament direc- Open, the Cherry Blossom Championship, ranking #15 in 2011 and #16 in 2013. Yamin A. Yamin, Chairman • Add value to current USBGF memberships by expanding our tors and Ben Friesen, ABT Online Tour Director. and the Super SpeedGammon events at the Jake Jacobs, Auditor online tournament playing opportunities Swedish Open. He is a BMAB Grandmaster #29 Wilcox Snellings, #1 Giant in 1993 and John Stryker, Data Manager • Create and sustain a new tournament circuit as another e USBGF has established anti-cheating provisions for ABT Online! (G1) living in Osaka. 1997, took a 20-year hiatus from tournaments. product from the ABT brand. tournaments. e USBGF and tournament directors reserve the right In 2019, his expert commentary enhanced IN MEMORIAM of two beloved Giants: • Develop and expand partnerships with ABT and ABTOnline! to exclude any player from participation without giving a reason. More Strength from Japan: streamed matches in Michigan and Monte Carlo. #11 Falafel Natanzon, USA, age 51, 2/20 event organizers. #6 Akiko Yazawa moved up from #8 #45 George Kleitsas, Greece, age 62, 10/19 • Build the USBGF membership base. a er she won the World Championship #30 Eli Roymi of Israel won the 2019 in Monte Carlo for the second time World Championship and the 2018 Pasha http://www.intbg.org/giants.html in 2018. Cyprus Open. 32 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 33 ABT Online!

USBGF Membership USBGF membership is required to play in the ABT Online! tournaments. A USBGF ABT Online! Points Race tournament fee of $10 per player will be assessed to cover USBGF ABT Online! tour costs. • A USBGF Basic membership is available for as little as $10 every three months and By Richard Munitz $5 per quarter for Novice members. Purchase through PayPal is required for a quarterly membership. Basic and Novice members have access to the following benets: ive tournaments comprising the American Backgammon entire calendar year one giant competition – a points race to see • e USBGF Online Tournament Circuit. Members may play in more than 100 Tour (ABT) have been suspended during this unprec- which players can earn the most total points for the year. And online tournaments a year. edented COVID-19 period. So what is the next best thing this also oers a personal challenge to see how many points you • Chris Bray’s Learning Curve column. Lfor players who seek real-time tournament competition? It is ABT can amass over time. e same kind of annual points race now • e Online Match Series, where members play collectively play against all-time Online! tournaments, of course! e USBGF has created an online exists for ABT Online! ABT points leader Neil Kazaross by voting on checker plays and cube decisions. tournament tour intended to replicate many of the features of the • Over 200 teaching videos. ABT, but in a safe, socially distant environment. You get top-level ABT Online! Tournaments provide a great way to keep connected competition. You get social interaction. You get tournaments run with real-time backgammon competition and to interact with Premium membership is available quarterly for $15. Benets include the above benets plus in real time by many of the same top-level directors. You have a real people from our USBGF player community - without the electronic access to PrimeTime Backgammon magazine and select online tournaments. great way to spend a weekend playing the game you love. You expense of ights and hotels. And because nobody is traveling, also have the opportunity to earn ABT Online! points – much ABT Online! tournaments are allowed to use more abbreviated To join the USBGF, go to the Membership section of the USBGF website at like on the ABT, which you earn from a strong nish in major tournament formats than are required of live ABT events, so you http://usbgf.org/membership/join. live events. And you can earn more recognition for being one of don’t always have to commit to playing for several full days on the players to amass the most points over the course of the year. and around a weekend. Join in on the fun and try to earn some Upcoming ABT Online! Current Tour Schedule ABT Online! points are not combined in any way with the ABT ABT Online! points! A schedule of major U.S. online tournaments may be found on the USBGF website at points earned from live play. It’s a whole new Tour with an entirely http://usbgf.org/abtonline-calendar/. To add events to the calendar, directors should separate system for recognition. See which players are currently leading the annual ABT contact [email protected]. Online! points race here: ABT Online! points are awarded in much the same manner as http://usbgf.org/abt-online-points-race/ Events currently scheduled for the ABT Online! Tour include: ABT points. Like a prize pool, the number of points awarded 7/17–19/2020 Ohio State ABT Online! Backgammon Championships – Played on is proportional to the number of players that entered the event. See the results from past ABT Online! tournaments here: Gridgammon Similarly, only the top nishers in the event receive a portion of http://usbgf.org/trny/abt-online/abtonline-winners/ 8/15/2020 USBGF Tournament of Stars the points, with players advancing further earning more points. 9/3–7/2020 Viking Backgammon Classic ABT Online! See http://www.vikingback- Points are awarded to all players who place in all skill divisions; See the calendar for upcoming gammonclassic.com/schedule.html the higher the skill division, the more points that are awarded. ABT Online! tournaments here: 9/12/2020 ABT Online! Event – Memphis ABT Online! Backgammon Champion- is is a system designed to recognize the most successful play- http://usbgf.org/abtonline-calendar/ ships ers. But the more tournaments you enter, the more chances you 9/24–27/2020 2020 Wild West Shootout Online – Contact Dan Minardi at Dan@usbgf. have to be successful. One of the exciting things about the ABT Read more about the ABT and the ABT Online! and how org is not just that players can earn points by placing in an event, but points are awarded here: 10/9–11/2020 Sunny Florida ABT Online! – sunnyoridabackgammon.com at Karen@ that it creates a competition that spans events, and makes the http://usbgf.org/docs/ABT-policy-formula.pdf usbgf.org 34 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 35 LCI Online Championship

Analysis of Positions from the LCI Online Final by Marty Storer

e 2020 Local Club Initiative Online Championship nal match, between John O’Hagan and Charlie Raichle, was close and well-played, John earning an eXtreme Gammon (XG) John O’Hagan Takes LCI performance rating (PR) of 3.61 and Charlie receiving a 4.57 PR. ose numbers are based on XGR++ evaluations along with many rollouts. I will now analyze 20 interesting positions from the 22 games of this exciting match. ough most of those positions were misplayed Online Championship! by the contestants, their play and their results were of high overall quality, and I think we can learn something from every one of their decisions we scrutinize. Introduction by Je Proctor and Match Analysis by Marty Storer e rst game was exciting and complex. Charlie got an initial edge, with a stronger inner board and a potentially strong attack. He had to decide whether to double: Charlie Raichle won the Denver club’s LCI event and then battled his way n a tight nal match, John O’Hagan, repre- to the Online Championship nal. senting the Flint Area Backgammon Club, Position 1 defeated the Colorado Backgammon Club’s ICharlie Raichle, 17-15, in the USBGF Local Club 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips Initiative Online Championship. 17-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 144 17-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 144 Finishing 3rd/4th were Joe Calvaruso from White on roll. Cube action? the Columbus Backgammon Club and Yury ND Winning Chances: 67.92% (G:21.44% B:0.92%) Millman of the Twin Cities Backgammon Club. ND Winning Chances: 32.08% (G:7.61% B:0.28%) D/T Winning Chances: 68.13% (G:21.38% B:0.93%) John now joins 2019 winner Carl Sorg and 2018 D/T Winning Chances: 31.87% (G:7.74% B:0.32%) winner Gus Contos as an annual Local Club Best choice: Double / Take Initiative Online Champion. No Double +0.730 (-0.055)  Double/Take +0.785

For his winning e orts, John will receive a free 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.215) entry to an ABT event of his choice. Both players will receive certi cates. Twenty positions from their nal match are analyzed by Marty Long ago, American Hall-of-Famer Joe Sylvester, whom I and (with a good chance to make his bar point, a key asset, in one or Storer, below. many others considered the strongest tournament player of the two rolls). e Race is equal. So the position ought to be a clear 1980s and part of the ‘90s, formulated a doubling rule that he double and take, and according to XG it is. Twenty-three representatives of USBGF Local called PRAT (Position, Race, and reats). PRAT applies to money GIANT O’HAGAN Prime Clubs began this tournament in early games or money-like match situations such as the rst game of a Unsurprisingly, Charlie doubled and John took. Charlie rolled 21 March. Congratulations to everyone who par- 17-point match. A clear edge in two of those three factors requires and prudently played 8/7* 7/5, correctly reducing return shots John O’Hagan, #9 Giant of Backgammon for 2019, won the LCI Online Championship to add to a long list ticipated in the event! a double; a de cit in all three means the position is a pass, perhaps compared to the decent alternative of 13/11 8/7*. John rolled 21 of victories. Among those wins was a second-place even too good to double. Here, Charlie has the edge in Position in reply: nish in the 2005 Monte Carlo World Championship. (better blockade; better position of back checkers) and reats 36 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 37 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship Position 2 is is a case where your opponent will be on roll in a critical 4-point gammon and taking a 4 – 0 lead. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips position, so you must minimize his good numbers. Unfortunately 17-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 150 for John, Charlie hit twice with 61 (13/7* 3/2*), John missed the In the second game, John had a doubling decision a er his fourth 17-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 151 return shot, and Charlie attacked and closed John out, winning a move: Position 4 Black to play 21 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips Bar/23 24/23 -0.039 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 150  Bar/22 -0.061 (-0.022) 17-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 152 Bar/23 6/5 -0.120 (-0.082) Black on roll. Cube action? Bar/24 5/3* -0.127 (-0.088) ND Winning Chances: 66.64% (G:24.22% B:1.34%) ND Winning Chances: 33.36% (G:8.64% B:0.45%) Bar24 13/11 -0.206 (-0.168) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 D/T Winning Chances: 66.83% (G:24.70% B:1.41%) D/T Winning Chances: 33.17% (G:8.86% B:0.56%) John split to the 22 point, an aggressive attempt to mobilize his back checkers. It would have been more prudent to make the 23 point, Best choice: Double / Take which is a pretty good anchor given that Charlie does not own his 8 or 7 point. e anchor would make it harder for Charlie to block No Double +0.791 (-0.088) or attack, and easier for John to concentrate on making forward points. Still, John’s move is reasonable, agged by XG as a misstep of  Double/Take +0.879 merely 0.022 points per game (PPG). e direct attacking play, bar/24 5/3*, is too risky against a stronger inner board. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.121)

Charlie replied with 51, correctly hitting loose with the 5 and stepping up to the 21 point. John came back with 62 and had to nd a 6: is is a “Position, reats” situation similar to Charlie’s cube defense enables him to hit or build without much fear. decision in the rst game. Accordingly, with John having a clear Position 3 edge in two out of the three PRAT factors, this position is also a John doubled, Charlie took, and John wound up with a broken 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips double and take. John’s main threat is to hit in Charlie’s board, but ve-prime against three checkers back including the 22 anchor. 17-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 145 he also has latent threats to attack or block. ese come into play John’s main problem was to escape his back checkers. He had a 17-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 151 particularly a er he rolls a 3 to anchor, in which case his good roll of 32 to play in this position: Position 5

Black to play 62 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 120 Bar/17 -0.171 17-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 114  Bar/23 24/18 -0.229 (-0.058) Bar/23 8/2 -0235 (-0.064) Black to play 32 Bar/23 13/7 -0.289 (-0.118)

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21/18 6/4 +0.669  9/7 9/6 +0.583 (-0.086) 6/1* +0.486 (-0.183) John entered on Charlie’s 2 point and moved the other back hit-covers, and fewer double hits (55 being the only one, vs. 61 7/5 7/4 +0.362 (-0.307) checker out to Charlie’s bar. e trouble with that play is that it and 41 a er John’s play; note that a er bar/17, Charlie’s 2s are is risky compared to bar/17. Moving to the 17 point leaves fewer duplicated to hit loose on the 1 and to cover the 3). 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 38 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 39 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship

John cleared his 9 point, 9/7 9/6. In general, you should think twice but White’s 10 point puts his back checkers under more restraint Perhaps reasoning that: a ve-prime would be enough for a winning from being primed, prevents John from making the stalwart 21 before breaking a strong prime, and this position is no exception. and thus gives him more incentive to keep his prime. Best in that double: Charlie declined to point on his 4 point, instead making anchor, and gives good defense if an attack fails. Owning the 20 John’s best plan is to keep the prime in place and escape, but he feared case is 21/16, but the margin in favor of breaking the anchor is the 20 and 9. It is also possible, though unlikely, that he thought anchor, Charlie can attack with relative impunity, and he will usually to play 21/18 and leave two blots. He also rejected 6/1*, and properly much smaller than in the game. the choice was between his actual play and the pure attacking be able to o er a winning or at least a very strong initial double. so. But note the perfect duplication a er 21/18 6/4: Charlie has 5s to alternative 8/4*(2) 7/3(2). escape from the 22 point, and 5s to hit on his 4; at the same time he Charlie rolled 54 and ran to the midpoint, and remade his 22 John rolled 51, failing to make the 21 anchor, and had nothing has 2s to move his spare back checker to the edge of John’s prime, point a er John attacked. From there, John broke his 21 anchor Making the ve-prime is a big mistake because it is too passive. better than 8/3 24/23. Charlie had a cube decision in this position: and 2s to hit on his 7 point. Besides 5s and 2s, Charlie’s only other and controlled the out eld, bearing in safely and then attacking in Charlie should make the 20 and 4 points. at play strengthens good numbers are 41 and 11, all others playing badly. And even if his board. Charlie saved the gammon and led in the match 4 – 2. the inner board, advances the four-prime, stops the back checkers Charlie is able to attack up front, he will still have di culty escap- Position 7 ing his three back checkers from behind John’s broken ve-prime. Early in the third game, Charlie had a slight edge and rolled a 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 double 4 joker: Score Pips In the variant position where White owns the 10 point instead of 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 142 the 9, John cannot achieve duplication by breaking the 21 anchor, 15-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 137 Position 6 White on roll. Cube action? ND Winning Chances: 70.53% (G:21.92% B:0.93%) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips ND Winning Chances: 29.74% (G:5.83% B:0.19%) 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 158 D/T Winning Chances: 70.80% (G:22.55% B:1.07%) 15-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 143 D/T Winning Chances: 29.20% (G:6.08% B:0.20%) Best choice: Double / Take White to play 44 No double +0.800 (-0.142)  Double/Take +0.941 24/20(2) 8/4*(2) +0.856 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.059)  24/20(2) 13/9(2) +0.650 (-0.207) Charlie’s position is obviously strong, and he threatens to attack Another factor in favor of advancing to the 23 point is that the 8/4*(2) 7/3(2) +0.573 (-0.283) in his board and make the key 4 point before John can do so. He point is slotted in case Charlie makes the 4 point immediately; doubled, and that was the easy part of this cube action. Should instead of having a direct shot to anchor on the 24 point, John

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 John take? would have a direct shot to make the superior 23 anchor. at anchor would provide better defense than the 24. Using PRAT, we can see that Charlie has a clear edge in Position Online Match Series! and reats, while the Race is close. So PRAT predicts double- Charlie rolled 61 and could not hit on his 4 point. A er his move of take, and XG’s rollout supports that prediction. But note that if 13/7 6/5, John rolled an excellent double 1, making the 21 anchor Play on the USBGF Team against All-Time ABT Point Leader John had not advanced to the 23 point, thus putting pressure on while hitting outside and continuing to the 11 point. Charlie Neil Kazaross! Vote on Checker and Cube Decisions! Commentary Charlie’s stripped 8, he would have had to pass. Without 24/23, fanned twice on John’s three-point board while John escaped one from top-experts Kimon Papachristopoulos (Germany) and Grant John would have fewer return shots if Charlie broke his 8 point checker. reatening to escape the remaining straggler, John had Ho man (New Zealand) will help improve your game. to attack on the 4, so Charlie’s reats would have been stronger. a cube decision here: To participate go to http://usbgf.org/category/olm/ or check the What’s New section on the Home Page for the most recent post. 40 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 41 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship Position 8 Position 9

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 147 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 150 15-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 117 13-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 162 Black on roll. Cube action? ND Winning Chances: 58.57% (G:11.79% B:0.26%) Black to play 63 ND Winning Chances: 41.43% (G:7.41% B:0.28%) D/T Winning Chances: 59.06% (G:11.55% B:0.26%) Bar/22 11/5 -0.087 D/T Winning Chances: 40.94% (G:6.94% B:0.38%) Bar/22 24/18 -0.170 (-0.082) Best choice: No redouble / Take  Bar/16 -0.171 (-0.083)  No Redouble +0.478 Redouble/Take +0.291 (-0.186) 6

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Redouble/Pass +1.000 (+0.522) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

John can lose his market if he rolls a 6, but he can also get into In the next game, Charlie escaped a back checker with 65 and is choice looks unimportant; both reasonable 6s seem to have is is another case where the opponent’s next roll is critical, and trouble if he fails to escape and Charlie immediately enters, a parlay then pointed on a blot on his 4 point. John replied with 63, not merit. John’s 22/16 tries to escape and bids for more building therefore you should minimize the chance for a big swing in his that happens about half the time. He properly kept the cube, hop- the greatest roll but quite playable. power and out eld control, and 11/5 adds a builder-attacker to favor. John’s 22/16 is far riskier than 11/5, which removes a builder ing to minimize his disadvantage in the bad variations, or cash oppose Charlie’s back checker. But 11/5 is best by far. If Charlie for the bar point but also hides a blot and adds another builder a er escaping. In fact he did double Charlie out a er rolling 61: rolls a 4 to hit a er a bar/16, John will usually have few return for every open point in the inner board. 21/14 followed by a weak reply of 42 from Charlie. e score was shots (a maximum of 12 a er 64: 24/14*). A er 11/5, Charlie will now even at 4 points apiece. have fewer good numbers: the four combinations of 5 and 3, plus Charlie missed with 53, correctly advancing to the 21 point instead 44, 65, and double 1, most others being mediocre. of making his 3. John pointed on the blot with 42 and had a strong position a few moves later, when Charlie rolled 42: 42 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 43 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship Position 10 He properly played for gammon a er Charlie stayed on the bar, In the next game Charlie had a promising position but rolled a bad 52. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips but was forced to cash a er he hit twice in his board and Charlie 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 140 hit back. John now led 5 – 4. 13-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 130 Position 12

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 White to play 42 Score Pips 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 144 13/11 8/4 -0.653 12-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 146 13/9 8/6 -0.772 (-0.120) 13/11 13/9 -0.773 (-0.121) White to play 52 8/6 8/4 -0.776 (-0.124)  13/9 6/4 -0.779 (-0.126) 10/8 6/1* -0.122 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 8/4 6/4 -0.786 (-0.133) 10/5 8/6 -0.236 (-0.114)  10/3 -0.250 (-0.128) Charlie made an ambitious play, putting a builder into good posi- impending attack before he is free to build. e best balance of risk tion with 13/9 6/4. But it’s just too risky to leave a blot on the 9 and building power is given by 13/11 8/4; 8/6 8/4 minimizes blots point where it is much more likely to be hit than a blot on the 11, but compromises Charlie’s position by putting two dilly builders 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 both now and later. ough an outside builder-blot on the 9 point on the 4 point. Charlie’s move gave John a doubling decision. gives more ways to make a useful point, Charlie has to survive an Yet again we see a critical position where it is necessary to minimize value of many of John’s replies, particularly 6s. For example, John the opponent’s good numbers. No matter what he does, Charlie could make his 4 or 5 point only with doubles, and would have Position 11 must leave a direct shot on his side of the board. He thought 10/3 only six ways to anchor on Charlie’s bar point. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips was the best of a bad lot, not wanting to stack another checker on 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 134 his 8 point or put a blot on his 1. But the best play is to stack and John wound up with an 18-point holding game, with the cube still 13-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 130 go deep with 10/8 6/1*. Hitting is quite advantageous, not only centered. Charlie rolled 53 in this position: Black on roll. Cube action? minimizing shots but also gaining a tempo and thus reducing the ND Winning Chances: 66.83% (G:22.96% B:0.58%) Position 13 ND Winning Chances: 33.17% (G:7.45% B:0.35%) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 D/T Winning Chances: 67.08% (G:23.06% B:0.55%) Score Pips D/T Winning Chances: 32.92% (G:7.63% B:0.38%) 13-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 66 Best choice: Double / Take 12-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 70  No Double +0.709 (-0.060) Double/Take +0.769 White to play 53 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.231) 13/5 +0.395 In terms of PRAT, John is leading in both Position (a superior Charlie’s take is clear, but his misplay last turn was signi cant;  6/1 5/2 +0.356 (-0.040) blockade and better placement of builders) and reats (a stronger if he had played his 42 correctly, John would not even have had 6/1 4/1 +0.324 (-0.071) inner board plus 12 great numbers, namely 62, 44, 22, 53, 55, 64, enough to turn the cube. 65, and 66). Add a small lead in the Race, and John’s advantage is more than su cient for a double. However, John did not double, and was “punished” with a hitting 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 double 2. 44 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 45 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship Position 15 Charlie had a borderline double before the roll, but le the cube Charlie will probably get some later shots as well. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 alone, a decision that XG says cost him only 0.005 PPG. He played Score Pips 6/1 5/2, hoping John would leave a direct shot. But the best play But Charlie’s plan worked as John le a shot with 65, Charlie rolled 3-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 126 is to volunteer a shot with 13/5, keeping his ve-point board and 61 to hit and li his inner-board blot, and John fanned. Charlie 5-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 135 playing for the race. Because John has so much ground to cover then cashed the game to tie the score at 5 – 5. before he can start bearing o , Charlie is e ectively ahead more White to play 21 than the pip count indicates. And even if John hits, Charlie may e score seesawed for the next twelve games. With Charlie ahead win by hitting as John tries to come around. Of 17 immediate 3-away to 5-away, an intriguing opening battle ensued, and Charlie 22/20 6/5 -0.049 hitting numbers, seven fail to li the blot on John’s 5 point, and had 42 to play in this position: 22/21 7/5 -0.123 (-0.074) Position 14 7/5 6/5 -0.158 (-0.109)  6/5 6/4 -0.169 (-0.121) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips

3-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 148 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 5-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 141 Charlie is ahead in the race, and his board is so much stronger In the next game, John got an early but overwhelming advantage and White to play 42 than John’s that he should mobilize his back checkers before John doubled Charlie out, evening the score at 14 – 14. Charlie took a point can bring down builders to help block them further. Right now in the following game a er hitting a timely y shot, to lead 15 – 14. 22/20 13/9* +0.044 John’s out eld is somewhat weak, so if he attacks he will probably  13/11 13/9* 0.022 (-0.066) have to leave many return shots. e best play is to split with the Now Charlie was ahead 2-away to 3-away, a score where the leader can 2 (while splitting is good, as the saying goes), of course using the seldom double. If he has decent gammon chances he should usually play 13/9* 9/7 -0.083 (-0.126) 1 to make the 5 point. Charlie made his 5 point without splitting, on and hope for a match-winning undoubled gammon; otherwise he 6/5 6/4, no doubt hoping to run later, but that was a surprisingly must be wary of the trailer’s automatic redouble which would devalue

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 large error. I believe very few players would split in this position. his gammons and put the match on the line in a cubeless game.

is is an interesting choice. Obviously Charlie must hit with the 20 anchor, and controls out eld territory. Interestingly, the score John rolled 52, correctly li ing his 10-point blot and stacking two Charlie gained an advantage, but John turned the game around. 4, and then the natural move is to keep the defensive anchor and appears to have little to do with the decision; the hit-and-split is checkers on his 8 point. Charlie was unable to escape his back checkers In the following tense situation, he had a doubling decision: bring a builder to the 11 point. However, now is a good time to correct even at 0-0 to 17, by a similar margin of equity. before John built a broken ve-point prime, which was good enough to try to improve the position of the back checkers! John is on the cash the game. Charlie now led in the match by a single point, 14 – 13. bar and Charlie has a racing lead plus a stronger inner board, so John replied with 64: bar/15, Charlie missed the shot, and John 22/20 is the best deuce. It prepares to run, bids for the valuable came around the corner to his 10 point. Charlie then rolled 21: 46 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 47 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship Position 16 Charlie had to decide between moving a back checker and slotting his John replied with 64, hitting on Charlie’s 11 point, but Charlie 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 5 point. ough Charlie wants to be aggressive at the score, hoping came back with double 2, hitting both outside blots! John remade 2-Away White (Charlie Raichle) 92 for an undoubled match-winning gammon, the slot is still inadvis- the 24 point, but Charlie made the bar point, followed by hitting 3-Away Black (John O’Hagan) 123 able. It would be much better to make his 11 point and come out to loose on his 4 point and covering next turn. John countered with Black on roll. Cube action? John’s bar. But he made neither play, instead passing up the 11 point 54 to make the 20 anchor, a welcome defensive bastion. Charlie and playing 24/16. He should have no fear of stopping on the 18 had 61 to play in this position: ND Winning Chances: 56.38% (G:11.66% B:0.67%) ND Winning Chances: 43.62% (G:19.85% B:0.67%) point; that way he gains more chances for an advanced anchor, and D/T Winning Chances: 56.27% (G:12.05% B:0.82%) more chances to hit a return shot a er being hit in John’s out eld. D/T Winning Chances: 43.73% (G:22.16% B:0.89%) Apart from that, the 11 point would be a good asset for Charlie. Best choice: Double / Take Position 18  No Double +0.307 (-0.055) Double/Take +0.362 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.638) 2-Away C White (Charlie Raichle) 136 1-Away C Black (John O’Hagan) 159 Charlie obviously has plenty of winning chances. But he gets no and won an undoubled gammon. He led at Crawford with Charlie value out of owning a dead 2-cube, and the position is highly needing 2 points. John had to be careful that Charlie could not White to play 61 volatile. Since John is a clear favorite and a two-point win would win an undoubled gammon for the match. get him to Crawford, he should double to make sure the cube is  24/18 8/7 +0.418 on 2 if he hits and then becomes a big favorite. A er two moves by each side, the positions were the same except 24/18 7/6 +0.380 (-0.038) that John had his 4 point while Charlie had his 3. Charlie had 62 24/23 13/7 +0.332 (-0.086) John did not double, a decision he may have regretted when he to play: saw his roll of 55. He made his 3 and 4 points, then played for

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

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips Charlie made the 18 and 7 points, quite a good move. Of course Charlie made the 8 point next turn, then le a blot on his midpoint. 2-Away C White (Charlie Raichle) 152 Charlie must make the 18 point, but he also recognized the value With John on roll, he was not too afraid of being hit because John 1-Away C Black (John O’Hagan) 154 of his own bar. e alternative 24/18 7/6 would be safe for the had three blots in his inner board: moment but would give few chances to improve his position. White to play 62 Charlie is not too afraid of being hit on the 8 point because most hitting numbers force John to break his 20 anchor. 24/18 13/11 +0.225  24/16 +0.184 (-0.041) “I am addicted to games in general. Games are controlled 13/5 +0.174 (-0.054) violence. You take out your frustrations and hostilities over 24/18 11/9 +0.151 (-0.074) a backgammon set. In games, you know what’s right and 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 wrong, legal and illegal. In life, you don’t!” -Paul Magriel 48 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 49 LCI Online Championship LCI Online Championship Position 19 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips About Marty 2-Away C White (Charlie Raichle) 117 1-Away C Black (John O’Hagan) 130 arty Storer is the Executive Editor of PrimeTime MBackgammon. In 2015 he won the Michigan Summer Championship and the USBGF National Black to play 11 Championship East. He won the rst ABT title (1993), and is a three-time New England Backgammon Club champion.  13/12*(2) 6/5 2/1 +0.018 24/23 13/12* 6/5 2/1 -0.041 (-0.059) Marty has been awarded the title of Grandmaster Class 13/12* 12/11 6/5 2/1 -0.067 (-0.085) 2 by the Backgammon Masters Awarding Body. He is the #23 Giant of Backgammon for 2019.

His two-volume Backgammon Praxis was released in 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2005 to rave reviews. In 2011, with intrepid co-author Mary Hickey, he published What’s Your Game Plan? John’s dice came through with double ace, one of the two dream hit, but instead rolled 42 to cover his 2 point, leaving a blot on Backgammon Strategy in the Middle Game. He is currently rolls that hit and also clean up the inside blots to make a ve-point his 8. John rolled another joker double 1 to switch points in his at work on another book, Astounding Backgammon. board (the other is double 4). inner board, and Charlie stayed on the bar while John got his back Marty lives in southern New Hampshire with his wife, checkers around to his out eld. In the following position, John children, pet mammals, and pet bots. But the game wasn’t over. Charlie came in immediately with 42: found the only roll to leave a direct shot: bar/23 6/2, and John rolled 52 to leave a blot! Charlie could not Position 20 Professional 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips Backgammon Scoreboard 2-Away C White (Charlie Raichle) 109 Imported from Finland 1-Away C Black (John O’Hagan) 77 This top-of-the-line professional backgammon scoreboard is a must-have item for any Black to play 61 tournament or chouette player! Extra-heavy coated cardboard construction ensures enhanced  10/3 +0.377 stability and long-term durability. 10/4 6/5 +0.303 (-0.074) Match scores from 0 to 25 points are visible from either side, and are easy to read from a distance. This is the nest and highest quality backgammon scoreboard 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 available for purchase. Imported from Finland.

John was forced to play 10/3. Charlie fanned, John covered with 53: As be ts the nal of a big event, the match was exciting and well $39.00 each plus shipping. 6/1 6/3 (clearing his 6 point in the process), and Charlie entered played by both contestants. Congratulations to both of them!  with a 6. But John rolled the nal joker: double 6 to clear the 10 usbgf.org/shop Professional Scoreboard USBGF BG SHOP point and win the game and match. 50 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 51 Cherry Blossom Online!

he Cherry Blossom Online! kicked o the ABT Online! Tour on April 25-26. e event, directed by Ben Friesen and hosted by Karen Davis, attracted 98 players, including 51 in the Championship division and 47 in the Advanced. Trophies Tdonated by sponsor Jason Briggs were awarded to the winner and nalist in both divisions. Cherry Blossom Online! e ABT Online! Tour has been inaugurated in response to the cancellation of the live American Backgammon Tour for 2020. e ABT Online! Tour consists of a series of online events held over a given calendar year. Like the live ABT, the ABT Online! Tour provides recognition to players who lead in the annual ABT Online! Points Race. e standings for the live ABT and the online ABT are separate, but the formulas used to award points By Karen Davis and Marty Storer are similar. e year-end awards also work the same way: the top three annual nishers receive trophies presented at a U.S. Backgammon Federation Annual Awards Dinner, and all of the top 20 receive certicates of achievement.

Fabio Sallusto (IT, above), Championship Fabio Sallusto from Italy won the Championship division in a double elimination format, winner and Mario Savan (CA, below), defeating nalist Mario Savan (CA). It was Fabio’s rst tournament, either online or in- runner-up person! Bill Finneran (MD) claimed third, while Roberto Litzenberger (VA) nished fourth.

e Montreal father-son team of Tom and Ryan Rebelo dominated the Advanced division. Both had done exceptionally well in the 2020 Boston Open held in February. ey nished rst in the Sweetheart Doubles; they both reached the nal of the Loveable Lim- ited Jackpot, Tom winning over Ryan; and Tom placed second in the Advanced division, also conceding the nal of the USBGF Free Roll given the press of time. Tom won 21 matches in a row before losing the Advanced nal – a streak which happens about one in two million times for equally matched players!

Ryan prevailed in the Undefeated bracket of the Cherry Blossom Online!, but Tom fought A FATHERSON SHOWDOWN back to win the Fighters Bracket, returning to defeat Ryan in the nal playo. Ryan had the satisfaction, however, of edging out his father on Performance Rating (Ryan 5.87, Tom Tom Rebelo (L) and Ryan Rebelo, of Montreal. Tom won the Advanced and Ryan placed second. 6.33). Key positions are analyzed by USBGF Executive Editor and BMAB grandmaster Marty Storer below.

Tom noted how hard Ryan has worked on his game, pointing to Ryan’s outstanding memory as one key factor to his success. Tom noted, “I am really impressed with Ryan’s improved play. He is actually getting better every day! About a month ago I bought the book Cube Like a Boss by Marc Brockmann Olsen. Ryan picked it up and devoured it in about two weeks. As a result, his cubing has really become world class. His strength is a precise memory for reference positions. His checker play is good, but since it is dicult to apply checker plays to reference positions, he is not as much on point. 52 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 53 Cherry Blossom Online! Cherry Blossom Online!

“He has a steel trap memory. He learned every world capital by “Ryan is currently studying jazz guitar in junior college (with a Analysis of Positions from the Advanced Final by Marty Storer the age of 12. But I would say a lot has to do with being young minor in backgammon!).“ and your gray matter not calcifying. … All that is to say that it is I will analyze ten interesting positions from the father-son nal e Advanced nal was a 9-point match. In the rst game, Tom amazing to see what the young brain can accomplish, as compared Organizers of online tournaments are experimenting with using of Tom vs. Ryan Rebelo, doing my best to concentrate on the started with Lover’s Leap, and Ryan replied with 31 to make the to mine, for example, which struggles with passwords. a variety of tools for managing the tournament and facilitat- needs of Advanced-level players. Of course eXtreme Gammon 5 point. Tom made his own 5 point with double 4, and Ryan had ing communicating among players and directors. e Cherry (or XG, the familiar and intrepid computer player and analysis 53 to play. “One thing we do share is the love of backgammon. We play at least Blossom Online! used backgammongalaxy.com as the default tool) will supply its justi ably haughty opinions. ese will help a match almost every day, and I really struggle to beat him now. backgammon server, although other sites could be used by mutual me understand what really went on in the match. Forget about PR, I just need to get lucky! I can honestly say, however, agreement of opponents. Brackets were entered in Challonge.com. that my cubing has de nitely improved as well because of Ryan. Challonge sent e-mails to players notifying them of the details Position 1 of their upcoming match along with a contact e-mail for their 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips “I try to play with him as much over the board to help him pre- opponent. Players joined a Zoom meeting prior to the start of play, 9-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 163 pare for live tournament play. Ultimately, to become world class receiving the director’s instructions and having an opportunity 9-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 140 you have to step into a room and play with the pressure you do to ask questions. Players registered using Venmo or PayPal, with not get online. 100% return on entry fees ($50/$25) and a registration fee of $6. White to play 53

“One of the highlights of my backgammon career happened in Boston this year, when Ryan and I won the doubles tournament. 13/10 13/8 -0.403 Sharing that win with my son was a special moment. 8/3 6/3 -0.438 (-0.035) 13/5 -0.444 (-0.041)  24/21 13/8 -0.453 (-0.049) 13/10 6/1* -0.521 (-0.118) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Ryan brought a checker down to his 8 point, and split his back e Zone (short for Attack Zone) is a key concept in backgam- checkers with the 3. But Tom has 10 checkers in the Zone (the mon. Be very careful about splitting your checkers against ten or inner board plus any points containing checkers within six pips more checkers in the Zone, especially when your opponent has of any inner-board point the player has not yet made). That an in exible forward position. e most common situation where should be a danger signal. Ryan’s play attempts to run or gain an you should try such a split is when your inner board is stronger advanced anchor, but it gives Tom some attacking chances, and than your opponent’s; another is when you are desperate to get Ryan is behind by 23 pips anyway. Instead of splitting, Ryan should your back checkers going. keep his defensive anchor and concentrate on restraining Tom’s back checker. Escaping that checker is Tom’s rst priority, so Ryan In this position, neither of those conditions is present. Tom does should bring two builder-attackers down from his midpoint in the not have much in the way of blocking threats, and each player attempt to improve his inner board and blockade. has a good-quality two-point board. Splitting is a clear mistake. 54 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 55 Cherry Blossom Online! Cherry Blossom Online! Position 2 It is o en di cult to decide whether to double or play on for the at least a powerful double and sometimes a very safe opportunity 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips gammon. To get such problems right, it is usually necessary to to play for gammon. Since it is unlikely that disaster will overtake 9-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 132 look ahead to the next couple of rolls. If there’s a realistic disaster him any time soon, Ryan should play on. But he doubled Tom 9-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 148 scenario, it will typically be best to cash the game. Otherwise your out, a sizable mistake. position may be too good to double. But if you are in doubt about Black to play 44 the decision, double and hope your opponent gives you the gi In the next game Tom got on the scoreboard, cashing a point a er of a terribly optimistic take. quickly building an overwhelming advantage. Now the score was  Bar/21 13/9 8/4* 6/2* +0.322 2 – 1 for Ryan. Bar/21 13/5 8/4* +0.147 (-0.175) Here, Ryan has 28 numbers to hit a second checker (27 numbers including a 6, 2, or 1, plus double 3). He may be able to make his At his fourth move of the third game, Ryan hit two checkers and bar point in short order, a er which Tom will be in trouble. Tom’s Tom rolled 66 to stay on the bar with both of them. Ryan had 51 backgame timing is shaky because he is not guaranteed to escape to play:

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 any additional checkers Ryan may hit. at means Ryan will have

A er Ryan split, Tom replied with 55 and made his 3 and 1 points, tiger play, de ned as a double hit that leaves a double return shot Position 4 putting Ryan on the bar. Tom correctly doubled a er Ryan came in the inner board. Tom found this move (bar/21 13/9 8/4* 6/2*), 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips in with 32, and Ryan properly took. Two moves a er that, Tom which as a bonus gives him excellent gammon chances if Ryan 7-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 142 had double 4 to play: stays on the bar with both checkers. 8-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 152

Obviously Tom must hit at least once. If Ryan establishes an anchor, Unfortunately for Tom, Ryan hit back on his two successive White to play 51 Tom will have to rely almost entirely on a running game, and Ryan moves, rst sending one checker to the bar and then hitting twice. will have ne chances to win by priming or hitting. is means Tom entered one checker, and Ryan had a cube decision in the Tom cannot hold back: he must go for the kill now, with a double following position: 8/7 6/1 +0.241  10/5 6/5 +0.171 (-0.070) 10/9 6/1 +0.165 (-0.076) Position 3

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 9-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 145

9-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 167 In this position an ugly-looking play is best primarily because of Ryan has a potential blitzing position, and in a blitz it is o en White on roll. Cube action? the shot count. Ryan made the pretty play, unstacking his 6 point correct to ignore the quality of points made, as opposed to the ND Winning Chances: 75.71% (G:34.02% B:2.85%) to grab the 5. Yes, the 5 point is more valuable in itself than the number of points. Here, XG’s two top plays each make a second ND Winning Chances: 24.29% (G:4.65% B:0.15%) 1 point, for all the usual reasons; and note that in this position inner-board point, but the correct 8/7 6/1 leaves only one shot D/T Winning Chances: 75.45% (G:34.01% B:4.08%) the 5 point is good for both attacking and priming. But making (joker double 5) and diversi es the attack force by adding a builder D/T Winning Chances: 24.55% (G:5.13% B:0.23%) the 5 leaves Ryan with a big problem: the blot on his ace point. to the unoccupied 7 point. Best choice: Too good to redouble / Pass With the move played, Ryan gives Tom a good chance to hit that No redouble +1.087 blot and turn the game around. Tom came in with double 3 and correctly doubled on his next Redouble/Take +1.462 (+0.375) turn. Ryan accepted, and soon Tom had 43 to play:

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24  Redouble/Pass +1.000 (-0.087) 56 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 57 Cherry Blossom Online! Cherry Blossom Online! Position 5 Ryan hit with the 6 and kept the checker going to safety on the 1 could still hit the blot in Tom’s board, a er which Ryan’s four-point 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips point. But the best way for him to win is to keep Tom on the bar board might hold up long enough for him to advance or escape 7-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 133 long enough to escape the back checkers. To do so he needs to his back checkers. 8-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 107 make more inner-board points, and the best way to achieve that goal is to slot both open points in his board (9/3* 6/4). Few players A er Ryan’s “hit-bounce,” Tom stayed on the bar. Ryan then rolled Black to play 43 would nd this move. 62 and slotted his 4 point, 8/2 6/4! ough this choice was well motivated, a rollout indicates that it’s a small mistake; but for the 6/2 5/2 +0.157 It is imperative for Ryan to prevent Tom from escaping. at’s next roll it worked out as Tom fanned again and Ryan made his 4  22/15 +0.009 (-0.148) the key to this position! If Tom’s back checker hops out of Ryan’s point. However, Tom replied with 53 to jump to Ryan’s out eld, board — with or without a hit — then it will be di cult for Ryan and eventually won the race. Now Tom led in the match, 3 – 2. to get his back checkers past Tom’s broken ve-prime. e “safe” 9/3* 3/1 takes a much bigger risk of letting Tom ee, thus it’s a In the next game, Ryan constructed a broken four-point prime

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 big mistake. against Tom’s 22-point anchor, with builders in position to make a h blocking point, and having a back checker on Tom’s 1 point. is is another case where the best play looks unattractive but is Consider what happens a er Tom’s play. Ryan will attack on his Yes, Ryan would rather not be hit, but Tom would be only slightly Tom rolled 51: clearly best. Tom broke his 22 anchor, unwilling to stack three 3 point and hope to keep Tom on the bar long enough to escape favored to hit a er the double slot. And even if Tom did hit, Ryan checkers on his 2 point. at was a big mistake because Ryan the back checkers. ree checkers on the 2 point is a small price has big problems if Tom stays anchored. In that event he has few to pay for denying Ryan that chance. Position 7 good throws, and most o en will have to leave shots on his side of 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips the board (66, 65, 64, 63, 55, 42, 32), or else bury a checker. Tom A er Tom broke his anchor, Ryan’s roll was 62: 7-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 135 will then be happy to have his 2 point and will be better ready to 6-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 147 start escaping.

Position 6 Black to play 51

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips 9/4 6/5 -0.669 7-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 107 9/4 8/7 -0.699 (-0.030) 8-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 126 9/3 -0.707 (-0.038) 8/7 6/1* -0.721 (-0.052) White to play 62  13/7 -0.759 (-0.091) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9/3* 6/4 -0.090

9/3* 5/3 -0.182 (-0.092) Tom had hoped to make his 5, 4, or 3 point, or failing that, at least priming or attacking, falling back on a holding-racing game from 9/3* 8/6 -0.210 (-0.120) his 9. But his 51, quite a bad throw, gave him a di cult choice. the 22 anchor if the attempt failed.  9/3* 3/1 -0.228 (-0.138) No play stands out. Tom’s weaker inner board gives him poor Tom tried 13/7, adding a builder to the 7 point but giving up the 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 attacking prospects, and 6/1* dumps a checker to a low point where midpoint. is move gambles that Ryan will not be able to hit (20 it doesn’t want to be. It seems best to slot the 4 point; a popular numbers fail to do so) and that Tom’s builders can then come into choice would be 9/4 8/7, hoping to make the 4 and follow up by play and start making points. 58 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 59 Cherry Blossom Online! Cherry Blossom Online!

e best option is to slot both the 4 and 5 points! e double slot A er Tom’s 13/7, Ryan doubled and Tom passed. XG approves of Ryan has a strong alternative that leaves no blots. He can make his bar By this analysis, it should come as no surprise that making the 5 gives Ryan 24 ways to hit, but some of those numbers are dupli- Ryan’s double, but says Tom had an easy take despite the danger. point, unstacking the heavy 8 point and giving excellent chances to bear point is a blunder here. e lesson is that the value of any given cated to make a point on Ryan’s side of the board. And if Ryan at’s because Ryan has much work to do: he must escape and in safely. He can pile spare checkers on the 8, 7, 6, and 3 points while point changes throughout the game, according to di erent fac- misses, Tom will have a good chance to make one or even both then win against the 22 anchor, which is more resilient than many hoping for natural priming or attacking numbers. If he simply moves tors. In this case the bar point leads to greater exibility, which is slotted points. If he makes both points, he will have a multi-way players think. A er slotting twice, Tom would still have had an one spare checker to his bar point a er he makes it, Tom’s back checkers another way of saying it gives more good rolls in the near future. game plan of priming, attacking, and racing. So although the easy take, and Ryan’s double would have been borderline. staying where they are, then all numbers play completely safely (though Of course, the fact that making the bar leaves seven fewer shots double slot takes signi cant risk, it gives a decent prospect for a 63 and 53 are awkward). Any new point Ryan makes will not only is also critical. large gain. is move is certainly di cult to nd, and I doubt that With the score tied at 3 apiece, Tom won a point in a tactical slug- menace Tom’s back checkers but will also be a safe place for builders. most Open-level players would make it. fest. In the following game, with Tom owning the cube at 2, Ryan Tom’s next roll was double 3, 24/15* 9/6, hitting Ryan’s blot! A er held a big lead in the race and had escaped both back checkers. Ryan stayed on the bar, Tom increased his advantage. He was on roll e play Tom made is extremely risky, abandoning the midpoint But Tom was far from beaten, with a stronger inner board and in the following position, with an important redoubling decision. as well as giving Ryan 16 ways to hit. If Ryan misses, Tom may two split back checkers controlling some territory. Ryan rolled 31 Position 9 have a hard time consolidating his position without leaving more and had to choose which point to make. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 direct shots. Tom is desperate to improve his prime and his inner Score Pips board, and the sensational double slot is his best chance to do so. 6-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 130 His 22 anchor gives him enough defense to enable such a bold play. 5-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 113 White on roll. Cube action? Position 8 ND Winning Chances: 70.99% (G:8.40% B:0.21%) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips ND Winning Chances: 29.01% (G:3.70% B:0.12%) 6-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 126 D/T Winning Chances: 71.39% (G:7.93% B:0.23%) D/T Winning Chances: 28.61% (G:3.43% B:0.17%) 5-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 146 Best choice: No redouble / Take No redouble +0.797 White to play 31 Redouble/Take +0.754 (-0.043)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24  Redouble/Pass +1.000 (+0.203) 10/7 8/7 +0.449  8/5 6/5 +0.346 (-0.104)

Tom redoubled and Ryan passed. Most likely, Ryan overestimated from 0.61 to 0.18. And if Ryan turns things around, an 8-cube the value of Tom’s 17-pip lead in the race. Tom’s next roll can be would put the whole match on the line. His redoubling window awkward (33 to leave a direct shot; 65, 64, 62, 53, 21) and he still for an 8-cube (the range of winning probabilities from the point 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 needs to make more points in order to gain a safe position from where doubling might be correct to the point where the opponent which to bear in. A hit would put Ryan in very good shape, and must pass) opens at around 31% winning chances! Ryan would e 5 point is the 5 point, as Kit Woolsey likes to say. He means that e trouble with making the valuable 5 point is Ryan’s 10-point his hitting chances are not at all negligible. need little incentive to roll a “big fat snowman” (the 8-cube) back the point has great value and that you should make it if you’re in blot. Tom has seven shots at that blot a er Ryan makes the 5! at his father. doubt. But in this position Ryan’s game plan is to come home safely Seven out of 36 is over 19% of the total number of rolls, and a er At a score of 0-0 to 9, a rollout puts Tom’s cube decision right on and win the race, and everything is secondary to that goal. On the making the 5 point Ryan will likely have to leave more shots even the redoubling threshold. But at the current score, Ryan can eas- With XG estimating Ryan’s raw winning chances at nearly 29%, other side of the coin, Tom’s plan is to hit as Ryan tries to bear in. if Tom fails to hit right away. ily take a 4-cube, and Tom should not even redouble! With the and with gammons losing value for Tom if the cube goes to 4, Ryan cube at 4, Tom’s gammon value (the relative value of winning a does much better by taking Tom’s 4-cube than passing to make gammon as compared to winning a single game) goes way down the score 6 – 3 in Tom’s favor. But Tom’s redouble was a coup since 60 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 61 Cherry Blossom Online! Cherry Blossom Online!

Ryan passed. e score made the pass a double blunder, 0.203 In the next game, Ryan doubled aggressively and Tom took. Ryan “TAKE, BOY!” points per game (PPG) worse than best. gained a big advantage, but Tom found his only hitting number. e game seesawed; Ryan had the advantage but le a direct shot. Tom practices opponent-handling with the help of a training partner. As the leader in a match, be cautious when considering whether Tom hit and won two points from there. Now Tom was in ahead to give your opponent the chance to put the whole match on the at Crawford, Ryan needing six points to win the match. line in one game! As the trailer, you must realize that winning chances are critical at higher levels of the cube. Your opponent In the Crawford game, a tactical opening led to this position, with may not gain much more from winning a gammon than from Ryan to play double 4: winning a plain game, and in that case you can o en redouble quite early. Not only that, your opponent will be wary of taking. Look for opportunities to take a cube and turn the match around.

Position 10

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips 6-Away White (Ryan Rebelo) 177 1-Away Black (Tom Rebelo) 147

White to play 44

 Bar/21 24/20 13/5* +0.116 Bar/21 13/5* 5/1* +0.070 (-0.046) Bar/21 20/16 13/5* +0.026 (-0.090) resulting from putting one checker on the bar instead of two), Tom replied with 65, hitting two checkers, and Ryan came back Ryan’s play seizes a concrete asset, avoids dumping a checker to with 43, making the 21 anchor and hitting the blot on Tom’s 3

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 the 1 point so early in the game, and initiates a direct battle for point. Ryan ended up with very good chances in a 3-4 (or 22-21) the all-important 5 point. With more checkers back, it is gener- backgame, and hit a late shot. But Tom immediately hopped out of Ryan is behind at a “gammon-go” score, where he urgently wants to how does that fact apply to this position? ally desirable to avoid placing checkers deep into the inner board. Ryan’s four-point board with a hit, and brought his back checker win a gammon and losing a gammon is no worse than losing single. With fewer checkers available to form a blockade up front, you home safely. He bore o his checkers without leaving a shot, win- If he wins two points, he will need four points to win the match and Parameters like GV are helpful guidelines, but guidelines only. In must try to use your remaining forward checkers e ciently, and ning the game and the match. can do so with two doubled wins or one doubled gammon. But if he this position Ryan can hit twice, bar/21 13/5* 5/1*, or he can hit that means keeping them in play for blocking. A checker on the wins only a single point, he will be much worse o , requiring either once, leaving his 5 point slotted and grabbing the Golden Point ace point may not be a big liability in a blitzing position, but it Father triumphed over son this time, but I’m betting they both have three two-point wins or one two-point win and a doubled gammon. (Paul Magriel’s term for the 20 anchor) instead of hitting a second does not help priming chances. quite a future in doubles events as well as individual competitions. at means he should try his best to win a gammon this game! time. Both plays seem reasonable. As Karen Davis said, both Rebelos had ne PRs for an Advanced Despite leaving many blots and return shots, Ryan’s play is best by event, and probably not far from the Open mean, on one side or e question is how to do so. He does not want to risk too many Ryan selected the best option, entering on the 21 point, hitting an appreciable amount. e double hit wins a few more gammons, the other. We congratulate them!  game-winning chances in return for the prospect of a gammon. on the 5, and making the advanced anchor. It is true that a er but Ryan’s strong move more than makes up for that in overall the alternative double hit, Ryan will o en end up with an anchor winning chances. In fact it would have been best even if he had At this score, Ryan’s gammon value (GV) is elevated compared on the 20 or 21 point. But the single hit is best because it is more needed two points at Crawford, a score where the gammon value to the money game or early-match case: 0.613 instead of 0.5. But exible. In return for one tempo (the di erence in “time gained” is a very high 1.0 for the trailing player. 2020 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 63 WILDWEST SEPTEMBER SHOOTOUT 24-27 Chicago Open Backgammon ONLINE ABT Online!

2nd Annual By Karen Davis Denver Open Backgammon Tournament MODIFIED he ChicagoOpenBG ABT Online!, held May 18-24 on Backgammon Galaxy, was a week-long tournament directed by Rory Pascar and assisted by Ben Friesen, SWISS USBGF Director of Tournament Support and Services. For those of us who in Tpast years have looked forward to Rory’s Chicago Open over Memorial Day weekend, it was a welcome opportunity to play in a competitive MoreSwiss-format tournament. e ADDED Chicago Open ABT in-person event has been rescheduled to December 16-20, 2020 at CASH the Sheraton Hotel near Chicago O’Hare airport in Rosemont, Illinois. HOOTOUT S BOUNTIES e ChicagoOpenBG ABT Online! was just the second tournament of the new ABT BOARD Online! Tour. Participation was comparable to Rory’s record turnouts for his in-person Chicago Open in each of the last two years, with 124 entrants, 68 in the Open and 56 in EVENT the Advanced division. Rory works hard to attract international players to his live tournament, so it was no surprise to see a total of 13 international entrants from ten countries: Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, England, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, New Zealand, Turkey, and Venezuela. Some of these players had never played in an American Backgammon Tour event.

e MoreSwiss format (see Rory’s website MoreSwiss.com for details) has been used for nearly a decade in the Chicago Open, and is currently the only Swiss movement tournament on the ABT. Rory recently developed a web application to move away from the painstaking manual draw previously used in his live events. MoreSwiss.com uses a pairings hierarchy well suited to an elimination tournament. A er a rst-round random draw, players are paired with opponents with the same win-loss record. Swiss rounds continue, and participants are eliminated when they lose their third match. e winner of the tournament is the last player with fewer than two losses. At the end, all players with Register online: two losses will place following the winner. e long road to the playo made each round ONLINE! Chicago Open Backgammon ABT Online! BACKGAMMON a high-pressure event; once a player had two losses, the next loss would mean ejection! Champion, Brian Lonergan DenverBG.org TOUR #2020 64 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 65 Chicago Open Backgammon ABT Online! Chicago Open Backgammon ABT Online!

It was an innovation to hold the tournament over an entire Knockouts were scheduled for ursday through Sunday, giving e pros of online play for players and spectators included: largely marketed through U.S. Backgammon Federation (USBGF) week. is gave players more exibility to adjust their schedules the most notorious backgammon addicts even more play and communication outlets, including its popular ABT Facebook site, in order to compete in the event. One match was held each day another chance to cash. Winners in the $100 Knockouts were • Start times and penalty points were strictly enforced, allowing the director’s Facebook and mailing lists, and bulk e-mails to over from Monday through Friday, and two matches were played on Long Nguyen, Chris Trencher, Bruce Finstad, and Mark Osborne; the tournament to run on time. 3000 players around the world. Saturday. A concluding Swiss round on Sunday le three players winners in the $50 Knockouts included John Shakory, Aaron still alive in the Open, and two in the Advanced division. ose Foust, and Jeremy Ly. • Electronic pairings/brackets were readily available to anyone e USBGF’s ABT Online Tour features points awarded to annual ve players each had a most impressive 7 - 1 win-loss record. interested. leaders, along with trophies and certicates. e USBGF assists Playos determined the nal divisional winners. Innovations directors by request. Membership in the USBGF, and a $6 USBGF e Greek philosopher Plato said that necessity is the mother of • e schedule was focused on the Main event without the registration fee, are required in order to cover Federation costs. Results invention. e COVID-19 pandemic will be known for its mas- delays or distractions that often accompany side events; A $10 registration fee osets director’s costs. Results are reported In the Open division, the three remaining players were Brian Lonergan sive loss of life, surpassing 100,000 deaths in the U.S. alone in knockouts were scheduled so that they would not interfere in USBGF communication outlets, including its ABT Facebook (LA), Boris Dekhtyar (NY), and Neil Kazaross (IL). All three play well. the rst ve months. is accounted for nearly a third of global with the main event. page, website, and PrimeTime Backgammon quarterly magazine. Neil is a backgammon legend, best known as an inaugural inductee COVID-19 fatalities and claimed more lives than Americans lost of the American Backgammon Hall of Fame in 2015 and the all-time in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined. Yet the pandemic • eXtreme Gammon analysis was available immediately a er Conclusion American Backgammon Tour points leader. But Brian and Boris have has spawned an inspiring level of determination and creativity. each match, providing great feedback to players and watchers; As we all begin to look forward to a time when we can leave our worked hard on their games and have scored some notable successes all match les were submitted to the director. homes and resume normal work and social life, we are likely to nd in recent years. Brian won the Atlanta Spring Classic in 2018 and the Backgammon is a mind sport that necessarily involves close the backgammon tournament world a dierent place. It is likely Sunny Florida Championship in 2018. Boris placed second in the personal contact, with players typically sitting 18 inches across • Streaming of key matches, including expert commentary, was that for some time, measures will be taken to combat resumption 2020 Texas Malcolm Davis Longhorn Masters Jackpot and won the from each other in a crowded venue with 100 to 500 contestants. available to viewers numbering in the thousands. of the pandemic and ensure a safe environment. Consolation of the Open division at the 2020 Boston Open. Rather than out the 6-foot recommendation for social distancing, players have heeded public health ocials’ warnings and ceased e major downside is that the popularity of online play has put But the genie is out of the box. A er players have become accus- Boris got the rst-round bye, and Brian defeated Neil setting up in-person play. strains on the major backgammon servers. Backgammon Galaxy tomed to smooth-running tournaments, with predictable schedules the nal match with Boris. Brian emerged victorious, relegating held up well, occasional minor problems being quickly corrected. and without delays, featuring electronic brackets and pairings as Boris to third place. Cashing and tied for fourth through tenth But online tournaments have ourished, creating new formats and But the day following the tournament, the server was down for well as quick and easy ways to report results and nd opponents, places were Victor Ashkenazi (NJ), Karen Davis (FL), Geo Hall opportunities for intense competitive play. e ChicagoOpenBG an extended period. At least one local club tournament had to be there will likely be little tolerance for long wait times and uncer- (England), Steve Hills (DC), Ary Nogueira (Brazil), Steve Nelson ABT Online! used an application, WhatsApp, to facilitate com- canceled as a result. One shudders to think how that would have tain schedules. (Hong Kong), and Jonah Seewald (CO). Both the semi-nal and munication between director and players. Rory created WhatsApp aected the Chicago Open. nal matches were streamed with commentary from Justin Nowell Group Match Chats for each pair of opponents with the director, And while in-person events will continue to hold appeal, with and director Rory Pascar. enabling quick, easy, and private communication and ensuring that For directors, online tournaments require less sta and lower the social stimulation of live play (and the great food available at matches had started as scheduled. Phones were on during the match, expense. Many processes are automated – pairings, reporting of events like Rory’s Chicago Open!), online tournaments are likely In the Advanced division, Marcy Kossar (MD) and Stewart Pem- permitting fast interaction if needed – such as quickly resolving results, and assurance that matches are starting on time. e simpler to become a permanent xture. ey are more feasible for many berton (FL) made it to the nal, with Marcy prevailing. Marcy is a problem of a frozen computer screen. Matches were played on format, without competing events, makes for more predictable start players whose participation in live events is limited by budget, well known on the Advanced circuit, having won prizes in numer- BackgammonGalaxy.com with free accounts readily available to times for rounds, thus allowing players to schedule downtime to travel, and work obligations. ous events including rst place in the Intermediate division of the all. Winners reported results to the director by downloading and relax or be with family and friends. Fixed start times permit the 2018 NY Metro, the 2018 Boston Open Advanced, 2018 Montreal emailing their match text le from Backgammon Galaxy. Pairings organizers to schedule streamed late-round matches with expert So keep up with the ABT Online! calendar of events! e calendar Open Intermediate Jackpot, and most recently the Consolation of were posted on MoreSwiss.com, giving players and viewers around commentary, and to attract viewers by publicizing those matches can be found at: http://usbgf.org/abtonline-calendar/. We look the Advanced division in the 2020 Boston Open. Tied for third the world the ability to follow the standings in every round. far in advance. Marketing costs are lower and planning times forward to “seeing” you o en!  through sixth places were Ray Cifani (OH), Peter Kasturas (NJ), are necessarily shorter. ere is no need to print and transport Max Levenstein (CA), and Howard Linnemann (NY). brochures, nor to do multiple mailings. e Chicago Open was 66 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 67

The 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open

Candace Mayeron with Match Analysis by Marty Storer

n Southern California we have two large backgammon events a year: arrangements are made. By January of 2020, six months in advance of the Los Angeles Open the rst weekend in June, and the California the event, ads, banners, and brochures were designed, printed, and paid for. State Championship the rst weekend in December. As the producer On March 3rd I $nail-mailed $everal hundred brochure$. Iand organizer of both, I have learned that it takes nine months to plan one of these events, but I have only six. erefore planning begins on the next And then the world came to an end. one before the current one has even started. Money is spent and 68 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 69 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open

ere were indicators of possible trouble in February and early prize money should not attract cheaters. with which players can report their results. Venmo was the pay astounding 21 players. Cary coached 19 and worked with Benjamin March, but they were mere whispers, rumors and half-sentences app of choice; I cannot take PayPal for the boring reason that I the rst two days of the tournament. Benjamin wrapped up the coming from places far, far, far away. Airports, airlines, and As a nal step, we added the requirement of making and submit- am a robust eBay seller and cannot commingle my personal and coaching program by making a training video (!) for all the play- hotels were inaugurating safety measures. en, however, came ting a video le. With a video le we could hear if another person business funds. Later we added Zoom as the platform for the All ers as a review. Managing the tech coaching program was a lot of the death knell in the form of a Los Angeles city ban on more was in the room giving advice, and we could see if a player was Players Meeting to be held at the start of the tournament, for a extra work, but it paid o massively once the tournament started. than 50 people in a single place at one time. With this, I made checking XG. Zoom and Skype were the only platforms considered, grand total of ve apps to support our event. Sure, we had players who still needed help with a platform, but my announcement on Facebook. and we ultimately decided Skype was superior due to its ability those numbers were whittled down to a manageable few handled to save to the cloud; you can only do that on Zoom with a paid THE COACHES easily by Cary and Ben. account. So Skype it was. With those three elements — low entry Fearful that our pool of players would be overwhelmed with all fees, known players, and a video le — we felt we could ensure this technology, I created a program of technological coaching. THE ZOOM MEETING the integrity of the event. Benjamin and Patrick felt it should be mandatory . With only To give players the feel of a live event, we began with an All one tech director, we had to have every player familiar with all Players Meeting on Zoom. Speakers (“cast members”) would be We considered three play sites: Safe Harbor Games, GridGam- ve apps. John Pirner, the newly elected President and Executive Director mon, and Backgammon Galaxy, and frankly only the latter two of the USBGF, plus those tournament directors with events were seriously considered. Galaxy of course has clocks and Marc Our coaches were beyond wonderful, and I want to mention each following the L.A. Open. I wanted the meeting to be exciting My Facebook announcement on BACKGAMMON CANDACE Brockmann Olsen — two huge pluses. Interestingly, Benjamin by name: April and Michael Mesich, David Klausa, Cary Hoarty, as well as informative, so a friend and I made an introductory MAYERON that the Los Angeles Open was canceled. didn’t care about the clocks. His experience had already taught Scott Johnston, Joseph Guichebarou, Kara Schultz, Long Nguyen, video with aerial footage of iconic Los Angeles scenes, leading at same day I called my tournament directors, Patrick Gibson him that online matches go signi cantly faster than live ones. and eventually Benjamin Friesen himself for the really hard cases. to dozens of photographs of players at past SoCal backgammon and Benjamin Friesen. Patrick, he of the American Backgam- For my part, ease of navigating the site was paramount. To do It was an extraordinary program, o ering high-quality personal events, played against pulsating royalty-free music. ( e 3-min- mon Hall of Fame, had directed the ABT SoCal events for 40+ our jobs and ensure on-time matches, Patrick would have to coaching for about $10 - $30. Some coaches really got into help- ute video is available for viewing on YouTub e; or search “2020 years before turning them over to me. Benjamin Friesen, whose be able to nd and monitor over 40 matches at a time, and for ing their “clients.” Kara drove 20 miles to one player’s house to aid Los Angeles Open Introduction Video”.) technical skills roughly approximate Tim Cook’s, had recently this task Galaxy is not ideal. ere is no simple way to nd even him in setting up! Long had the Catalina skills we needed. David directed a few online tournaments. If we were going to do an one speci c opponent or match, and because matches continu- Klausa is familiar with both Windows and Mac, and helped an For the meat of the meeting I wanted participants’ audio and online tournament, I wanted it to approximate a live event — ally change places in the global list, a match once found cannot video turned o , but cast members needed A/V control so they including side events, an opening meeting, and a high-dollar easily be found again. In contrast, GridGammon is smaller and could appear and disappear onscreen on cue. is bit of techno- entry fee. With Benjamin’s assurances that I would not have to matches are super-easy to nd. Its only shortcoming is the lack of logical tap-dancing necessitated a written script and a full dress do anything technological [when I see you next, Ben, you are a clocks — about which we didn’t care so much. On the downside, rehearsal, which we had the day before the Zoom meeting. anks dead man], we decided to hold the event online. Now we just had GG has a reputation for slow registration and I needed 24-hour to everyone’s hard work, the All Players Meeting owed seamlessly. to gure out what the hell to do. turnaround or better. is led me to contact Gabriella Barclay, e best part was the last 20 minutes when all players turned on part of the original development team in 1997 and now owner their video so that we could see all the friends we hadn’t seen in THE APPS of GridGammon (formerly GamesGrid). I o ered an exclusive if so long! ere were 89 players registered for the tournament, yet I contacted some Giants for their input regarding a high-dollar she could guarantee me 24-hour registration. She came through, we had 98 participants on Zoom! online event. Benjamin, Patrick and I were concerned about opening a special portal for me to submit registrations, which cheating. To my great surprise the Giants were nowhere as portal she monitored personally. Gabriella was a great addition concerned as we. eir consensus was that if all registrants to our team. She has an eye for detail and a desire for perfection. were known by at least one of the three of us, they were not In the nal three days, she got me registration activation within

concerned. I made the promise. We also lowered the Open 15 minutes of submission. Photo credit: Candace Mayeron entry fee from $500 live to $200 online. At $200 it was still the Kara Schultz, Tech Coach most expensive entry thus far online, but low enough that the e only bracket app we considered was Challonge for the ease Extraordinaire 70 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 71 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open

Streaming the matches online was one of Benjamin’s most critical roles during the event, as it has been in the past. He monitored and streamed from his command center in Michigan. He calls this his Technical Dungeon, and it is well equipped: key items are the USBGF 15-pound super-gaming laptop; a personal gaming laptop; at least three other desktops he accesses and manipulates through TeamViewer; two 55” monitors; and a 24” monitor.

Photo credit: Candace Mayeron

Throughout the tournament, I was in constant Skype communication with Patrick Gibson (shown at upper right of my screen).

Local players did well; there really is something to the Home Court Advantage. e Advanced division was won by local player (and tech coach) Kara Schultz, besting Paul Armbruster, another Californian.

Photo credit: Candace Mayeron e Open division was won by England’s superstar Tim Cross who Photo credit, Linda Friesen was the only undefeated player in the Main. In 2018 Tim won three U.K. Opens, as well as the UKBGF tour with the highest score ever A boy and his toys. Benjamin’s home setup. He calls it his Technical Dungeon recorded (similar to our ABT Player of the Year). He also holds the SAYING HELLO TO OLD FRIENDS AT THE END OF THE ALL PLAYERS ZOOM MEETING all-time high rating on the UKBGF list. Long-time local champion On my screen you can see some of the Zoom Chat on the far right. This is but one of three screens showing all the participants. Patrick and I worked side by side — literally but virtually. We kept Gus Contos, who suered only one loss in the Main, was ready to Participants, left to right. 1st row: Patrick Gibson / Candace Mayeron /Phil Simborg / Fabio Sallusto / Ebby Jebreel; a Skype video call open on our desktops and could speak with give the BMAB Grandmaster a run for his money in the nals. In fact, 2nd row: Ralph Burd / Leon Marzillier / Dan Minardi / Marc Emrich / Steve Douglas; 3rd row: Doug DeWitte / Richard Stubbe / Ben one another at will. Patrick monitored all matches and simply had Contos beat Cross in the rst nal match which, under the double Friesen / Herb Roman / unidenti ed; 4th row: Danny Saltzman / Paul Armbruster / Alain Azoulay / Frank Talbot / to tell me who was late or missing so that I could locate them by elimination format, necessitated a second nal that would determine Jacques Stambouli; 5th row: Frank Ley / Jeremy Bagai / Ary Nogueira / unidenti ed / Larry Saltzman Skype or cell phone. His focus was hawk-unwavering and matches the tournament winner. With expert streaming commentary and owed smoothly. superb analysis by Victor Ashkenazi and Steve Sax, Cross ultimately THE LOS ANGELES ABTOnline! OPEN Cary Hoarty back to help Benjamin. Ironically, the app that prevailed, becoming champion of the rst Los Angeles online event. We had 89 players, 51 in the Open, a staggering number for a gave us the most trouble was Skype. Challonge doesn’t really high-dollar online event. ey were from 11 countries, includ- have to do much more than sit there and look pretty. Grid- ing Italy, Greece, Australia, England, and Brazil. Keeping my Gammon performed perfectly; no dropped matches, no lost promise to the Giants, I turned away almost two dozen play- players. Gabriella Barclay was available the entire time to the ers who were not known to us. In addition to the Open and three of us. She also decorated her GridGammon Lobby with Advanced, we had four jackpots, one daily. e tournament announcements and special player tokens — all to make the itself bordered on anticlimactic for Ben, Patrick and me. We event look even more professional. had done so much advance preparation that behind the scenes everything ran as smoothly as it appeared out front. A couple of players needed tech help on the opening night, so I brought 72 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 73 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open

Analysis of Positions from the Open Final Match 2 by Marty Storer e rst position came at Gus’s second turn of the game: Position 1 Candace said that Ben Friesen wasn’t worried about using a clock for the matches in this 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 tournament, noting that online matches typically go quickly. Tim Cross and Gus Contos Score Pips certainly played both their nal matches at a fast pace. But the intrepid commentators, 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 166 Victor Ashkenazi and Steve Sax, kept up well on the live stream, while a “peanut gallery” 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 157 of YouTube watchers followed and occasionally chimed in via the chat window. White to play 62 e second nal match was for 9 points, and the winner would take the title of Los Angeles ABTOnline! Champion. Gus was playing in L.A., nearly 5000 nm on the great circle from Bar/23 13/7 -0.287 Tim, who was playing in the U.K. in the small hours of the morning.  Bar/23 24/18 -0.383 (-0.096) Bar/23 8/2 -0.478 (-0.191) Two games were critical: the fourth and the eighth. A er Tim doubled too early in Game 4, he won a gammon a er both players made some mistakes in a di cult sequence. But

Gus came back, and Game 8 commenced with Tim leading 6 to 5: the interesting 3-away, 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4-away score. Tim Cross (UK, above), Championship win- Gus entered with the 2 and moved to Tim’s bar point with the 6. clues: 13/7 unstacks the midpoint and brings another checker to ner and Gus Contos (Los Angeles, below), e following nine positions are from that game, analyzed with the help of eXtreme runner-up Compared to the alternative bar/23 13/7, Gus’s play was a signi cant the Zone; 24/18 removes a slot for an anchor-point within Tim’s Gammon (XG). I chose them because I think they have a lot to teach us not only about mistake, giving Tim more ways to hit outside his board and six board. In fact Gus is more likely to establish an anchor a er 13/7. checker play, but about cube action at the score. Note that “us” here literally means all of more very good numbers overall. But this is a di cult problem us: commentators Ashkenazi and Sax, Giants #3 and #14 respectively, were not always to solve by counting, and the raw count is not the whole story ough Tim has many good rolls a er Gus’s play, he is far from right in their judgments about these positions. because we need to know how good the “good numbers” are. For a double because his board is still undeveloped. Be wary of the example, we can reject the shot-minimizing 8/2 at once because “pointless double,” a cube-turn made with only a one-point inner it strips the 8 point and creates a second inner-board blot on a board. Pointless doubles are much more likely to be right if the point Gus does not particularly want. doubler has at least one useful interior point slotted while the opponent has at least one checker on the bar. e most useful shortcut is to see that 24/18 e ectively leaves a quadruple shot (6s, 3s, 2s, and 1s for Tim to hit outside his Tim did not double, and rolled 53 to hit on Gus’s 4 point and make board), while 13/7 leaves only a triple shot (6s, 3s, and 2s). Other his own. Gus replied with 54.

“The fascinating thing about backgammon is that it represents an interesting paradox. People who want a sure thing don’t make it in backgammon. There are risks, yes, but on the other hand there is an enormous amount of control needed, something most gamblers lack.” -Paul Magriel 74 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 75 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open Position 2 Tim doubled, and both commentators thought he was right to he can later redouble to 4 with little excuse. Owning a 4-cube, the 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips do so. Moreover, they believed Gus should pass. But he took, game would be for the match with gammons not counting double; 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 179 and quickly. we say a redouble would kill Tim’s gammons. Not only that, Tim 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 149 needs at least 40% cubeless, gammonless winning chances in order Tim’s position is obviously strong. But at the score his double was to take a 4-cube; that would be his match-winning chance if he White to play 54 quite wrong! at’s because much of his advantage is based on his passed and went to 3-away, 2-away. chance to win a gammon. XG’s rollout tells us that a er taking,  Bar/20 8/4* -0.587 Gus can win the game about 35% of the time. In fact, according to XG’s estimates of winning chances, Gus would do better to take and immediately redouble than he would Bar/20 18/14 -0.691 (-0.104) Tim’s gammon value — the relative value of winning a gammon to pass! at gives us a pretty good idea that Tim’s double must Bar/16 -0.701 (-0.114) compared to winning single, measured in match-winning chances be a mistake. — is 0.86 with the cube in the middle, but only 0.45 with the cube

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 at 2. In other words, at the current match score Tim gains big by is position shows us that it’s critical not only to know your winning 2 points instead of 1 point, because the second point gets gammon values for di erent match scores and cube levels (or at Whatever Gus does, Tim is a clear favorite, with the stronger inner Tim replied with 41, correctly hitting on Gus’s 4 point and his him to Crawford. By contrast, the gain from a match-winning least be able to calculate them at the table), but also to make good board and many shots. A er the forced bar/20, Gus opted for the own 5, trying to blast Gus o the board in short order. Gus came doubled gammon is relatively less. If Tim wins 2 points he’ll be estimates of winning and gammon chances for each side. Neither best among bad choices, hitting with the 4. is play is purely back with 31, missing the return shot but at least entering both at Crawford while Gus needs 4, which is already pretty close to task is easy, which is one reason match play is so very di cult. a defensive maneuver; it gains a tempo and keeps three points checkers. Gus had a cube decision in this position: winning the match. slotted on Tim’s side of the board, any of which would be a big Tim rolled 41, covering his 5 point with the 1 and playing 20/16. improvement to Gus’s position. Any other move would give Tim Now look at things from Gus’s point of view. Owning a 2-cube Gus’s reply was 21, which did not make Tim’s bar point but at least the full roll to attack and would therefore be a big error. But Gus’s gives him two advantages at this score. First, his gammon value was good enough to make the 22 anchor, 23/22, and gain a tempo well-considered choice surprised at least one of the commentators. becomes a very high 0.97, though that isn’t worth too much because with 6/4*. Tim came back with a roll of 54: he wins so few gammons here. Second, and very important, is that Position 3 Position 4 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 192 Score Pips 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 148 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 189 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 157 Black on roll. Cube action? ND Winning Chances: 65.61% (G:35.27% B:5.34%) ND Winning Chances: 34.39% (G:6.33% B:0.45%) Black to play 54 D/T Winning Chances: 65.12% (G:38.06% B:9.75%) D/T Winning Chances: 34.88% (G:6.11% B:0.64%)  Bar/16 +0.078 Best choice: No Double / Take Bar/21* 21/16 +0.063 (-0.016) No Double +0.760 Bar/21* 23/18 -0.031 (-0.047)  Double/Take +0.605 (-0.155) Bar/21* 13/8 +0.006 (-0.072) Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.240) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Bar/21* 16/11 +0.004 (-0.075) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 76 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 77 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open

e commentators, along with several YouTube watchers includ- e score is the key to this decision. If we keep everything the had great in uence. ese useful silicon companions generally It’s much better to keep the double anchor and try to time the ing myself, thought Tim had simply missed the hit. But it seems same but change the score to 9-away vs. 9-away (0 - 0 to 9), hit- avoid having many checkers hit. us most modern players seem backgame the old-fashioned way, by getting sent back and then that he saw something we didn’t. He did not want to give Gus ting becomes best by quite a bit. But at the current score, winning to abhor backgames entirely. recirculating the hit checkers. Even the “kamikaze” four-blot move, additional defensive resources by sending a second checker back! chances are paramount. As soon as Gus gains a signi cant threat 8/2 4/3*, nishes ahead of 22/15* in XG’s rollout. Finally, XG to exceed Tim’s 40% take point, he can redouble for match. is is a position where anti-backgame bias is destructive. No prefers 13/7 4/3* even at the score of 0 - 0 to 9, no matter where Tim is not too concerned if Gus makes the 4 point, but he doesn’t forward-going attempt works well here: not Gus’s 22/15*, nor the cube is; that’s more evidence in support of the play. want to give him additional defensive options. e 22-24 anchor A few moves later, Tim had made his bar point, but Gus was in 23/16 which hangs on to the 22 anchor, nor any other move combination would give Gus a chance to play a backgame, and the the game, holding a double anchor on Tim’s 2 and 3 points. He involving 22/16. A er any of those plays, Tim will probably just A er Gus hit with 61, Tim missed with double 1: bar/22 8/7. 18 point combined with the 22 point would also be resilient. One threw 61 and had a tough choice: hit somewhere, and then Gus would be happy if he could recover Eventually the game became prime vs. prime, Tim having the edge problem with Tim’s choice is that it gives Gus his best opportunity the double anchor just given up! with ve consecutive points in front of Gus’s three back checkers. to make Tim’s bar point, but overall the play is very likely best — at But Tim rolled double ace and had to lose the ve-prime: least against an XG-caliber opponent. Position 6

Position 5 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 128 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 174 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 104 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 126 Black to play 11 White to play 61 7/5(2) -0.564 13/7 4/3* -0.097  7/6 7/4 -0.601 (-0.036) 8/2 4/3* -0.174 (-0.076)  22/15* -0.185 (-0.088) 13/6 -0.202 (-0.105) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 23/16 -0.294 (-0.196) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Gus played 22/15*, springing one checker from behind the ve- Again: When you own a 2-cube at 4-away to 3-away, your chance point prime and trying to go forward. Both commentators agreed, to win matters most. Near 60% you have a powerful redouble, and assessing his backgame timing as poor. But neither they nor any if you exceed that threshold your opponent must pass! With a of the watchers mentioned the best play: 13/7 4/3*! 4-cube in play gammons do not count double for either side, and Position of the Week cube ownership has no value because the game is for the match. Renowned British columnist and author Chris Bray posts a It is true that Gus’s timing is not so great — at least not yet! But position each Monday on the Facebook.com/USBGF page. his bold hit on the 3 point leaves multiple blots and will likely ese days there’s a pervasive if understandable fear of playing Post a comment with your preferred play and see the answer force Tim to hit at least one checker if he wants to escape any time backgames. e time-honored wisdom about backgames runs like on Tuesday. soon. e extra timing thereby gained would certainly increase this: Be wary of backgames! ough a backgame may be useful Gus’s winning chances. as a last-ditch plan, you usually get gammoned when you lose. Members may visit usbgf.org website for a complete explanation in Chris’ Learning Curve column. Go forward if possible! at’s sound advice. But players of today’s generation have been raised during a time when bots like XG have 78 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 79 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open Position 8 Tim played 7/6 7/4, but he should have put two spare checkers Now this was the position, with Gus on roll: 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 on his 5 point, 7/5(2). at way 44 and 33 play worse on his next Score Pips turn, but in return ve other rolls (43, 42, and 22) can be handled 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 128 without breaking an inner-board point. 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 104 Position 7 Black to play 55 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 128  12/7* 6/1(3) -0.631 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 100 6/1(4) -0.496 (-0.134) White on roll. Cube action? ND Winning Chances: 50.93% (G:11.33% B:0.29%) ND Winning Chances: 49.07% (G:14.83% B:1.68%) D/T Winning Chances: 51.67% (G:10.45% B:0.22%) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 D/T Winning Chances: 48.33% (G:16.81% B:1.66%) Best choice: Redouble / Take Tim had to choose between moving four checkers to the 1 point, e answer is that immediate hitting chances dominate. Tim  No redouble +0.548 (-0.052) leaving one blot and 17 shots, or hitting and moving three to the 1 hit and le two blots, a ne play with which some of the peanut Redouble/Take +0.600 point, leaving two blots but only 15 shots, at the same time getting gallery, myself included, disagreed in real time. Now Gus was on

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Redouble/Pass +1.000 (+0.400) his outside checker much closer to home. Since he must anticipate roll in this position: a redouble from Gus, Tim needs to decide whether decreasing is position illustrates the trailer’s recube power at this score. XG Gus was unhappy to roll 21, and unhappier when Tim rolled the overall hitting chances is more important than giving himself now makes Gus a slight favorite in the game, and he can lose his double 5 to leap the four-prime and bring two checkers to the 12 fewer ways to win if he does get it. If Gus manages to hit two blots, market if he rolls any 5 or 6 and Tim follows with a bad number! e point. Gus would have liked to reply with a 5 or 6 to oppose Tim’s Tim will really, really be in trouble. commentators disagreed about the redouble, and Gus did not return 12 point with a single checker, but could do no better than slot the cube, no doubt underestimating his winning chances. But XG both his open inner-board points. Tim cleared an outside checker tells us that redoubling is correct by 0.055 points per game. If Tim from his 12 point to his 5, and this time Gus exited with 54: 23/18 had played his double ace correctly last turn, Gus would still have 7/3, making a h inside point. Now Tim rolled a potentially had a redouble, which would have been correct by a smaller margin. disastrous double 5: 80 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 2020 Los Angeles ABT Online! Open Position 9

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips 4-Away White (Gus Contos) 116 3-Away Black (Tim Cross) 53 White on roll. Cube action? ND Winning Chances: 45.54% (G:13.73% B:0.59%) ND Winning Chances: 54.46% (G:20.18% B:1.55%) D/T Winning Chances: 46.64% (G:11.13% B:0.09%) D/T Winning Chances: 53.36% (G:23.09% B:1.27%) Best choice: Redouble / Take  No redouble +0.181 (-0.176) Redouble/Take +0.357

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Redouble/Pass +1.000 (+0.643

Owning a 2-cube at 4-away to 3-away, you must try your best to Tim had double 4 and double 5 to repeat the shot, but rolled 63: make sure that you don’t lose your market! Here Gus is a slight 7/4 6/o . According to XG, Gus was still a 72 – 28 favorite to save underdog to hit (15 numbers out of 36), but the vast majority of the gammon and stay alive, but Tim put away the game and match hitting sequences lose his market by a mile. with a timely double 5 near the end. Tim Cross had racked up another victory, and his rst in a U.S. tournament! Gus did not redouble. He may have been trying to cut his losses in the missing variations, hoping either to play for gammon a er But the result could easily have gone the other way, and the play- hitting one blot, or to stay alive in the match by saving the gam- ers’ XG performance ratings were close. eir entertaining nal mon a er a miss. Unfortunately, his gammon chances are not high matches were an exciting nish to a superbly run event. e icing enough to justify that attempt. Holding the cube was a blunder. on the cake is that Tim had promised Candace if he were to win he would personally come to Los Angeles in 2021 to defend his title.  Gus missed with 32, coming in with the 2 and closing his board. Like us on Facebook!

DID YOU KNOW? The first issue of PrimeTime Backgammon was facebook.com/usbgf September-October 2010. 82 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 83 Online Backgammon in Europe

as a training venue Stefan has even invented a game for the little ones, mini-back- for the Romanian gammon, which is played on a normal backgammon board with players who will seven checkers for each side. Each player starts with two checkers participate in the on the 6 point, two on the 7 point, and three on the 24. When World Junior and asked where the idea came from, Stefan said he thought that since Youth Champi- rugby teams consist of either 15 or seven players, why not apply onship organized the same approach to backgammon? A seven-checker backgam- online by the mon version would be perfect for that purpose. World Backgam- mon Federation. e seven-checker version gives children an easy way to learn basic strategy and tactics of checker play and cube action. Stefan Stefan Ghena, 6, of the youngest generati on of Romanian players. The following six also noted that big doubles, such as 55 or 66, would not be so Online Backgammon in Europe players partici- useful at the beginning of the game, given that there are fewer By Cristian Frisk pated in the June 1 Online Cup: lorin Tacu (age 24), Andreea pieces on the board. Axinte (21), Victor Axinte (19), Andrei Păun (12), David Păun (6), and Ștefan Ghena (6). e results are not important, because, Stefan is also preparing to play in a backgammon competition to uring the COVID-19 pandemic, backgammon players e World Backgammon Federation is currently holding the World in the opinion of the organizers, all, by simple participation, are be held in memory of his grandfather. He is also a soccer player, have migrated to the online world. eir favorite live Backgammon and Speedgammon Championships. e registra- considered winners. in the youngest group of the Progresul Spartac Bucharest club.  tournaments have followed, morphing into online tion period for the rst world competition dedicated to journalists Devents. Popular sites, such as GridGammon, Safe Harbor Games, will close on June 27. e Backgammon Association of Northern e youngest of the participants, Ștefan Ghena, turned 6 exactly Backgammon Galaxy, Backgammon Studio Heroes, and PlayOK, Cyprus plans to hold an online World League for national teams, on June 1, the day the competition launched. He started playing have registered a large in ux. and the list goes on. See this link for more information about online chess two years ago, at preschool, and a erwards diversi ed his backgammon tournaments: https://www.backgammon-rules. activities by practicing Go and backgammon. Obviously, playing online is more convenient than playing live, com/category/tournaments/online-backgammon-tournaments/. requiring no travel, being faster, and allowing automatic pip counting. But apart from convenience, the rise of local, national, June 1 Online Backgammon Cup - A Special Event in Romania regional, and international tournaments has emphasized the concept In Romania, backgammon is quite a popular pastime. But we at About Cristian of social responsibility in the context of backgammon. Although the Romanian Backgammon Federation want to make this ne players may miss playing live, this is a time for prudence. And game more popular still. is year we inaugurated a special event ristian Frisk lives in Romania, where backgammon is so popular that it is o cially recognized as a sport. For almost a year, he has been General Secretary of the Romanian Backgammon luckily, the online experience has many attractions. Internet-based for children and young people in Romania: the June 1 Online C Federation, which has the status of a public utility. He is a professional sports journalist and tournaments o er quality time to players, in the comfort of their Backgammon Cup. Following the structure proposed by the World commentator, holding a Ph.D. in sports journalism. He has given live soccer commentary for own homes. ere are many opportunities for them to compete Backgammon Federation, the divisions were Under14, Under 16, the World Cup nals, the European Championship nals, the Summer and Winter Olympics, and and improve their skills. Quick computer analysis, a er an online Under 18, and Under 26. many other events. match, is a very good method of training with a real opponent. He started playing backgammon and analyzing soccer as a kindergartner, learning our game e Romanian Backgammon Federation considers that backgam- at his father’s knee and pretending to be a radio commentator for soccer matches. He has since In all the European countries where backgammon is played, online mon is a mind sport suited to youth, because the game contributes published seven books, all with a sports theme. Since working for the RBF he has seriously studied events have been organized at the national level. e Turkish associa- greatly to the development of intellectual abilities. e June 1 Online backgammon, and has already defeated some big-name players. Backgammon is a vital part of tion organized a series of Stay at Home tournaments, the grand prize Cup is a step toward introducing backgammon curricula into Cristian’s spiritual life; he considers it to be a mind sport of perfect elegance. This is his rst article for PrimeTime. for each being a discount of €1400 for the Monte Carlo tournament. Romanian schools and universities. is tournament also served 84 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Mind Sports Olympiad by Cristian Frisk

e Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international e Mind Sports Organization, which runs the MSO, has reached multi-sport competition and festival for games of mental skill and an agreement with the World Backgammon Federation to run the mind sports. e MSO has nothing to do with the International Olympic backgammon competitions in collaboration. e MSO Exquisite Craftsmanship Olympic Committee (IOC), and results of MSO competitions are backgammon events will be held online in August, according to Our boards are made by Fazil Terlemez, a German craftsman. not recognized by the international Olympic movement. the following schedule: Disabled from polio when he was 3 years old, and limited to working from e MSO is composed of single events, each of which is contested August 5 Backgammon 1-point matches (DMP) a sitting position in a wheel chair, Fazil has earned his livelihood for the past 20 years by making superb backgammon boards, dice cups and doubling for the title of Olympiad Champion. Some trademarked games August 6 Backgammon 3-point matches cubes. For Fazil, no detail is too small to be overlooked. Everything about are also included, with authorization by designers and publish- August 12 Hypergammon 3-point matchess his designs speak of strength, durability, and beauty. His boards are a ers as the o cial world championships. All games, whether an August 13 Speedgammon 5-point matches joy to play on. Olympiad or an o cial world championship, can count towards August 15 Backgammon 7-point matches the Pentamind prize, awarded for best aggregate performance August 22 Nackgammon 7-point matches Fazil’s playing surface of choice is a felt made from dense Merino sheep wool. Merino wool is a quiet yet lively playing surface. Dice tumble easily across in ve valid events (now including backgammon). Besides the August 27 Blitzgammon 5-point matches the soft board surface. Checkers will never lose their smooth glide action. Pentamind, participants can win trophies, as well as gold, silver, August 29 Backgammon 11-point matches and bronze medals for each event. Similar prizes are awarded to Our boards are built with 45mm (1.75”) and 50mm (2”) checkers. Their the best-performing juniors in each category. Backgammon matches will take place on the Heroes.Backgam- smooth surfaces perfectly compliment Fazil’s Merino wool playing surfaces. mon.Studio.com platform. Every board comes with 8 corner protectors, a unique handmade 40mm 65+ unique Games in the competition include chess, bridge, draughts (check- doubling cube, 2 or 4 dice cups, 4 or 8 ball-cornered precision dice, and a board designs Chouette pack that includes 4 acrylic doubling cubes, 2 scoring cubes, and ers), shogi, Chinese chess (xiangqi), Othello, poker, cribbage, and In related and hopeful news, the WBGF has asked FIDE (Fédéra- a high quality leather dice bag. Our newly released Titan Series boards are are in stock and Mastermind, as well as newer games like Abalone, Bōku, Continuo, tion Internationale des Échecs, or International Chess Federation) built with 50mm (2 inch) checkers. Every board ships with a heavy duty ready to ship. Entropy, Kamisado, Lines of Action (LOA), Pacru, and TwixT. to include backgammon in the program of the Chess Olympics to canvas carry bag. Backgammon is a new addition to the MSO. be held in Moscow in 2021. Many chess players use backgammon as a training method, and now the answer is awaited. You can find us at gammonstuff.com or at facebook.com/gammonstuff “ e Coronavirus has created enormous challenges but it’s also reminded us just how precious life is, and that we are all inter- WBGF has also asked that backgammon be recognized by FISU connected in a more global world than ever before. As we begin (Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire, or International to reemerge towards a new normal, we’re seeing that most large University Sports Federation), in the hope of organizing World gatherings this year are being canceled or postponed. Although University Backgammon Championships in the future. Other we won’t be hosting MSO this year in London, we’ve decided that mindsports, such as chess and bridge, will hold World University this is a great opportunity to hold this year’s Olympiad online,” Championships this year.  said Etan Ilfeld, Managing Director of MSO on the o cial website of MSO, https://msoworld.com.

www.gammonstuff.com | www.facebook.com/gammonstuff 86 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 87 How to Play the Opening in Backgammon: Part 1

Regarding the responses to opening moves, Robertie has chosen chose to leave out special match scores, and extensive discussions to organize them by roll, with a table at the end of each section of unconventional opening rolls, such as double-slots and the showing how to play them depending on your opponent’s opening “Becker” two-downs with 64, 63, and 62. Fair enough on both move. at’s certainly reasonable, and can give the reader a feel counts: the foundation of good match play is good money play, for what the defaults tend to be. He includes a note when there is and regarding the hot-dog opening moves, we don’t see them a “toss-up,” where eXtremeGammon’s (or XG’s) current rollouts o en for good reason. He concentrates on the ones we expect to make another play very close. A wise policy, given that some future see most frequently. version of XG may reverse the decision in favor of the other play. Book Review It also makes sense to allow for matters of style, even in a book More fair-enoughs for this part of the book: Conventional and that doesn’t focus on human factors relating to either the player easy-to-understand notation for rolls and responses — good! A or the opponent. sucient number of clear and precise diagrams for good ow, but How to Play the Opening in no more — this part of the game is easy enough to visualize for A potential reader may ask, “Why not just use XG?” Yes, XG will almost any reader, even those pestilential sorts who set up at least provide rollouts for response plays, and if you know where to two alternatives for every play. (You know who you are, and also Backgammon: Part 1 look, you can nd them tabulated for each opening roll. But you why your opponents like clocks so much.) And a fair-enough for won’t nd them tabulated the way Robertie has done it, nor will the entire book: No cartoons. Cartoons add little if any value to A New Way of Thinking you nd his explanations for why you should make one response backgammon books, although I admit I did laugh at one where By Mary Hickey a er some opening rolls, but do something dierent a er ones an alien swims frantically to escape from a shark. But that was in that may look supercially similar. another book, not this one.

eaders of the Gammon Press e-newsletter and visitors to complete this series that starts with “Part 1” in timely fashion. For Even an experienced player may also nd an occasional surprise Note about the rollouts: ese are money game problems, with the the website have anticipated publication of Bill Robertie’s this review, he tells us that both the remaining books are already that jumps out from the response chapter in a way it might not Jacoby rule in force. e Jacoby rule can disproportionately aect series on the backgammon openings for some time, and written, with proofreading and typesetting in process. Part 2 should from the dry and comment-less tables in XG. For example, if the the size of a dierence between two close plays when said dier- Rthe rst book is now available. ose who have been watching for be available in late July or early August, and Part 3 is scheduled opponent plays an opening 43: 24/20 13/10, Bill’s rollout, the ence is small. Even then, though, it seldom swings the decision it will not be disappointed, and will nd it was worth the wait. for the end of 2020. Put that one on your Christmas wish list! current XG book, and a rollout I performed to conrm it, all say at this early stage of the game, so that’s yet another “fair enough.” that the right response with a 61 is the sharp and tactical 24/18 With any book, one must ask, “Who is the intended reader?” e What about students of backgammon who have already pur- 6/5* rather than quietly making the bar point. Who knew? Not On to the remaining chapters! section on the opening rolls, obligatory in the rst volume of a chased Michihito Kageyama’s Opening Concepts? Robertie’s book me — until I read this book, that is. series on the openings, may appear intended for beginners. e approaches the opening so dierently that there’s plenty of room Robertie’s third chapter concerns the all-important 5 point, and response portion that follows will appeal mostly to early inter- on your bookshelf for both of these volumes. Mastering the open- A book covering all the nuances of replies to the opening rolls when to make it. Sometimes you should opt for an even stronger mediates, but the three later sections will add value for players ing is an ongoing process, and gaining dierent perspectives can’t would likely balloon to the size of MCO. (at’s Modern Chess alternative, such making another valuable point or hitting, and of all levels. From this progression, it’s reasonable to predict that hurt. To keep his project independent and avoid unintentionally Openings, for those who came to backgammon from somewhere other times the price of making the 5 point is too high. Making Books 2 and 3 will also appeal to the full range of backgammon derivative elements, Robertie condes that he didn’t read Michy’s else.) To avoid producing a book that large and also that esoteric, it can be wrong when it leaves your opponent too many good students and players. book until he had completed this one. an author must decide when the work is nished enough. Too follow-up options, as in Position 1: many digressions from the main themes can produce a thicket of Prospective buyers are rightly leery when backgammon authors Robertie’s approach is more methodical, suitable for both learning verbiage that in the end obscures rather than claries. Robertie oer what they claim will be the rst of a series. Book One or Book and later reference, while Michy’s is more anecdotal and heuristic. A frequently leads to Book Two or Book B either many years later, Both can help you master this important part of every backgam- or never! But smart money gives the nod to Robertie’s ability to mon game you will ever play. 88 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 89 How to Play the Opening in Backgammon: Part 1 How to Play the Opening in Backgammon: Part 1

Position 1 (Robertie’s Diagram 3.8.2, from p. 91) Position 2a (Variant of Position 2, with fourth checker on the 8 point taken from the 11)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Money White 153 Score Pips Money Black 153 Money White 160 Money Black 163

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

e 5 point sure looks good, especially because it rolls your awk- e right approach is the quieter 24/21 23/22, avoiding the added It’s now a blunder to double-hit, and this remains true (though structure we get with both the 8 and the 5, and we don’t know ward protoprime forward using a checker from that immobile weakness of a third blot while setting up to run or gain a decent by a lesser amount) if we “steal” the fourth checker for the 8 point how much we hurt our position by leaving two out eld blots in stack on the 6. But when you set it up, you may observe a yellow anchor next turn. from the mid or the 6 instead of picking up the blot from the the base problem. Let’s look at some more variants. caution light blinking because of the direct 6-shot it leaves. Pay 11. But we still aren’t sure whether this is about the much better attention to that alarm, because making the 5 point here is a seri- Later in the same chapter, we nd an example where hitting twice Position 2b (Variant of Position 2, with stripped 8 point) ous error. As Bill notes, your split back men give your opponent beats out the 5 point because of the value it adds in the race, and 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ways to attack even if he misses the shot on the 8 point this turn. also once again cuts down the opponent’s good options: Score Pips Money White 160 Position 2 (Robertie’s Diagram 3.11.1, p. 99) Money Black 169 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips Money White 160 Money Black 166

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

If instead we strip the 8 point so that making the 5 abandons the 8 the 5 point. Now we know that the better structure weighs quite entirely, the choice becomes a close call slightly favoring the double heavily in the decision to make the 5 point or hit another checker. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 hit when we take the 8 point’s spare to the 11 point. If we instead But an additional blot in our outer board is also a negative factor As Bill notes, “Bar/22 and 24/21*/15 accomplishes an awful lot But as is o en true in small-di erence problems, this one can turn take the spare to the midpoint, it becomes a dead heat, with the that pushes the decision back toward the double hit, as shown by with just one shake.” It gains big in the race, knocks o an enemy on a dime, especially any dime that enables you to make the 5 rollout showing a tiny and likely insigni cant pull toward making this nal variant: builder, and provides you with a potential builder for your own point without abandoning the 8 point, as shown here: outer board. e rollout shows it beating out bar/22 24/21* 8/5(2) by .027, a small but signi cant margin. 90 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 91 How to Play the Opening in Backgammon: Part 1 How to Play the Opening in Backgammon: Part 1

Position 2c (Variant of Position 2, with stripped 8 point and out eld blots) Position 3 (Robertie’s Diagram 4.2.7, p. 110)

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips Money White 160 Money White 132 Money Black 169 Money Black 162

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

If we drop that spare onto the 9 or 10 instead, it represents a I like the way the original problem encourages exible thinking Your opponent is up to no good, trying to extricate his last back problem where Barclay’s extreme distaste for splitting the back men lingering liability just as it did when le on the 8 point. In both when presented with many options, and so supports the book’s checker that’s already halfway out the prison door, and then coast on early on would have led him to play correctly. Neither of the top plays those cases the double hit emerges as clearly best, though it’s still intent of providing “a new way of thinking.” But overall, I didn’t his advantage in the race. ere’s nothing truly awful about making is a split, and though they have di erent kinds of drawbacks, both nowhere near a blunder to make the 5 point. feel the analysis reached the heart of the rollout’s meaning. the defensive anchor on the 20 point, but the sharper play (by .021) are better than all the splitting alternatives. is 13/9 and 23/20, providing yourself with more coverage of Junior’s Conclusion: Adding another point to a good forward structure is Chapter 4 concerns making the 20 point versus competing plays path to safety while not allowing the opponent to use inconvenient As you read this book, feel free to disagree with the answers to prob- much better than a mere upgrade, and too many blots that require that work in other ways toward your noble goal of winning your rolls to dump checkers safely behind you. Also, if the action starts lems where the di erences are small, or to ask XG about additional our attention are no help, either. As Robertie intended, we see that opponent’s money. Here is one that shows how keeping both your to pop during this next sequence, your made 9 point might prove a alternatives you think should have been discussed. But don’t ignore sometimes making even the all-important 5 point comes at too game plan and the immediate needs of the position in mind can useful start for a containment structure. the reasoning Bill presents in those cases, because the thought habits high a price in both liabilities added and opportunities missed, prevent mindless plays: you learn will help you navigate other close calls — and maybe some and other plays may turn out to be better. You’re not in super shape no matter what you do, but the resplit- that aren’t so close. Backgammon openings diverge so quickly down so and-down play has an added vig that it might hold o the cube. It’s many roads, that trying to memorize lots of ne-di erence reference no big deal if Oppo sends it over, since his double is small and your positions can’t possibly be the best use of your presumably limited About Mary take is huge in both cases. But wouldn’t you rather he give you a free study time. Setting a good process in place, which the explanations in roll now, and lose his market a er the most gammonish sequences? this book can help you do, beats out excessive emphasis on product. ary Hickey is an internationally known backgammon champion and teacher. She won the U.S. Open in 2010 and 2011, the nal Carolina Open in 2016, and most recently the Steve Brown M Chapter 5 concerns the 4 point, when to make it and when some So, who should buy this book? You should, no matter who you are or Memorial Masters event at the 2019 Viking Classic in Minneapolis. Her students have also won numerous championship trophies. In 2010 she produced a book in CD format titled Chouette and competing objective or need provides greater value. Robertie ends how long you’ve been playing. Even its author assures us, “If someone More: The World’s First and Only Backgammon Sci- Soap Opera, and in 2011 she co-authored What’s the chapter with a brief note regarding the late Barclay Cooke, a pio- else had written this book, I’d have bought it.” Good call, because Your Game Plan? Backgammon Strategy in the Middle Game with Marty Storer. Many of her articles, neering backgammon author whose work spanned backgammon’s paying someone else $50 to do this much work for him would make reviews, news items and tournament reports remain archived at the online GammonVillage magazine. antiquity (pre-Magriel) and Middle Ages (post-Magriel but pre-bot). perfect sense. Instead, Robertie himself is the one who has done the

Her writing experience outside backgammon includes work as a newspaper reporter, columnist, and He describes Cooke as a “creative thinker who lacked the hard data work for you. Save yourself months of time and e ort, and pick up photographer, and winning a Keystone Press statewide journalism award. Her ction and articles that would validate or disprove his theories.” is note’s context is a a copy of this book when you have a chance.  have appeared in The Gri n, Happy, Kalliope, other literary and commercial publications, and several anthologies. She has also done technical writing, and might do something that boring again if the only Bill Robertie, How to Play the Opening in Backgammon: Part 1 — A New Way of inking, e Gammon Press https://thegammonpress.com/, Arlington, MA, 2019. alternative was living in a cardboard box without Internet. ISBN 978-1-880604-23-6 (150 pages). Paperback, list price $50. 92 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 93 What’s the Take Point?

To see this, consider the Match Equity Table (MET) in Table 1 to 3, then you need 2 points to win the match and your opponent that is in common use today for all scores within a 9-point match. needs 4 points, so the entry in Row 2, Column 4 says that your e entry in Row i and Column j denotes how o en you win the match winning chances are 67%. (e entries in the rst row and match when you need i points and your opponent needs j points. column indicate the match winning chances when one of the For example, if you are winning a 7-point match with a score of 5 players is at the Crawford score.)

Table 1. Match Winning Chances within math overboard 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a 9-point match. The entry in row i, 1 50 68 75 81 84 89 91 93 94 column j is your match winning chance What’s the Take Point? when you need i points and your 2 32 50 60 67 74 80 84 88 90 opponent needs j points. 3 25 40 50 57 65 71 76 80 84 By Art Benjamin 4 19 33 43 50 58 64 70 75 79 5 16 26 35 42 50 57 63 68 73 hen we rst learn backgammon, we are told that the double and win, we win 2 points, which is 3 points better than if our opponent doubles us, our winning chances dropping. So by taking the double, we have 3 times as much to 6 11 20 29 36 43 50 56 62 67 need to be at least 25%. Let’s recall one argument gain as to lose. In essence, we are being given 3-to-1 odds on the 7 9 16 24 30 37 44 50 55 61 Wfor this result. If we drop the double, we lose 1 point (putting us at cube, so our winning chances need to be 1 in 4, which is 25%, to 8 7 12 20 25 32 38 45 50 55 –1 on the number line below). If we take the double and we lose, take. (We will ignore the eect of gammons in this article, which we lose 2 points, which is 1 point worse than dropping. If we take can change the calculations.) 9 6 10 16 21 27 33 39 45 50

Downside = 1 Upside = 3 Consider the score 2-away to 4-away (which we will abbreviate you are leading 2A/5A and the trailer doubles you. If you pass, 2A/4A). Suppose you are trailing and the leader doubles you, then your score is 2A/4A with match winning chances 67%. If you -2 -1 0 1 2 you can use the table to determine that your winning chances need take and lose 2 points, the score will be 2A/3A and your match Lose Drop Win to be 19% to take. is is because if you take, you will redouble winning chances will be 60%. If you take and win 2 points, then next turn and play for the match; if you pass, you will be trailing your match winning chances will be 100%. (See Figure 2.) us, 4A/1A and have 19% chances. you are risking 7% (67 – 60) to gain 33% (100 – 67). Now you Figure 1. For a typical money double, there is 3 times as much When playing for money, all dollars are worth the same. e gain have almost 5 times as much to gain as to lose, so your winning to gain as there is to lose, which suggests a take point of 25%. from going from 3 to 4 on the scoresheet, is the same as the gain At other scores, the calculation is trickier. (Note: in this article, we chances only need to be about 7/(7 + 33) = 7/40 = 17.5%, which from going from 7 to 8 on the scoresheet. But in matches, not all will learn a method that avoids this calculation, but it is useful to is a surprisingly low take point. In practice, for non-gammonish positions (like races or holding points are created equal. see how these numbers are derived.) For example, suppose that games), your take point is actually a little bit lower. e reason is that when you take the double, you don’t have to win the game In a long match, with both players needing 9 or more points, each Downside = 7 Upside = 33 outright – you only need to reach a position where you can double point that you win increases your match winning chances by about out your opponent. (To use a football analogy, to win the game, the same amount (around 4% at most scores), so the take point at 60 67 100 you don’t have to reach the 100-yard line; you only need to get these scores is essentially the same as money. But as soon as one Lose Drop Win close to the 75-yard line.) For this reason, the take point is typi- of the players needs less than 9 points, then the match winning cally lower, around 22% for money games. chances per point can vary in an irregular way. Figure 2. When leading 2A/5A, if you drop the double, you have 2A/4A = 67%. If you take and lose, you have 2A/3A = 60%, and if you win, you have 100%. 94 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 95 What’s the Take Point? What’s the Take Point?

Table 2. Take Point ag for an initial Doubler needs  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 On the other hand, if you double the trailer, they perform a similar redouble), which is 68%. Hence, they are risking 16% to gain 52%, double in a 9-point match calculation. See Figure 3 below. Passing puts them at 5A/1A, which so their winning chances need to be 16/68 ≈ 23.5%. Paradoxically, 2 32 25 19 23 23 23 20 22 is 16%. Taking and losing, brings them down to 0%, while taking the trailer has a much higher take point than the leader at this score. 3 26 25 25 21 21 21 18 16 and winning puts them ahead 1A/2A (since they automatically 4 20 22 22 23 23 24 23 23 Downside = 16 Upside = 52 5 17 19 19 20 20 19 19 19 6 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 22 0 16 68 7 22 23 22 23 22 22 21 22 Lose Drop Win 8 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 9 21 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 Some scores are even more complicated to analyze. For instance, Figure 3. When trailing 2A/5A, if the trailer drops the double, at 4A/4A, if you are doubled and pass, your score is 4A/3A, and they have 1A/5A = 16%. If they take and lose, they have 0%, and if they win, they have 1A/2A = 68%. your chances are 43%. If you take and win, you have you’re at e number in Row i, Column j is the take point when the dou- a few exceptions to these rules. e minor exceptions are o by 2A/4A with 67%, for an upside of 24%. If you take and lose, then bler needs i points and the receiver needs j points. For example, if only 1%, and are printed in red italics. e major exceptions are your chances at 4A/2A are 33% for a downside of 10%. us, on To see that not all points are created equal, look at the numbers in the doubler needs 2 points and the receiver needs 5 points, then o by more than 1% and are printed in a bolder red. Note that the surface, it would seem that in order to take, you would need Column 3 of Table 1, which shows your Match Winning Chances the receiver’s game winning chance needs to be at least 23%. We within a 7-point match, there is only one major exception, and 10/(10 + 24) = 10/34 ≈ 29%. But this calculation ignores the fact when your opponent needs 3 points to win the match. Reading that omit the scores where the leader is 1-away, since the take point that is the score where trailer doubles at 2A/5A and the leader’s that you have a very potent recube (their take point is 33%) so column from the bottom to the top your chances are 16, 20, 24, 29, is essentially 50% when the doubler needs an even number of take point is 17%, which we discussed earlier. when you win, it will o en be at the 4-level. Because of this cube 35, 43, 50, 60, and 75. (I have put the scores in red where you need points (free drop) and around 2.5% when the doubler needs an leverage, you can actually take with chances that are closer to 22%. 4, 2, or 1 point.) As you go up the column, your winning chances odd number of points (free take). Putting the exceptions aside for the moment, including the nine We shall omit the details of how that is derived since the point of also go up by 4, 4, 5, 8, 10, 7, 10, 15. Column 4 tells a similar story: scores within a 4-point match, here are my simple rules for take this article is to learn take points without doing any calculations! your chances go up by 4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 7, 10, 14. In these examples (and When looking at this table, some interesting patterns emerge. points within a 9-point match. in practically every other column of the table beyond Column 1) First of all, in the upper le -corner, when both players need 4 For many years, I would perform calculations like this over the the amount gained from going from 4-away to 3-away is less than points or less, the take points vary wildly and you simply have to Take 5! When your opponent is 5-away, you can take more eas- board, but eventually I realized that by memorizing the take points, the gain from 5-away to 4-away or from 3-away to 2-away and memorize them at these 9 scores. (I’ll provide mnemonics later.) ily, with as little as 19% or 20% chances. I could save valuable clock time. from 2-away to 1-away. As a consequence of this, we’ll see that we Outside of this corner of the table, we see that rows 3, 7, and 9 are are more inclined to take a double when our opponent is 5-away. light green (the color of money) to indicate that the take point Odd money! When your opponent needs 3, 7 or 9, treat it like Before diving into the Take-Point Tables, and how to memorize them, is either 21% or 22%. Rows 4, 6, and 8 are colored dark green to a money double. Your take point is 21% or 22%. let’s see why reaching some scores are more valuable than others. In So without further ado, Table 2 is the table of Take Points that I use for indicate that you need 23%, a little bit more than for a money particular, reaching 0-away, 1-away (Crawford), 2-away, and 4-away tends initial doubles in a 9-point match, for typical non-gammonish posi- game. Row 5 is colored light blue to indicate that you can take Even more! When your opponent needs 2, 4, 6, or 8, you need to gain you more match winning chances than reaching other scores. tions. All numbers have been rounded to the nearest integer percentage. more liberally, since the take point is 19% or 20%. ere are just even more to take, namely 23%. DORIS AUER DORIS 96 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 97 What’s the Take Point? What’s the Take Point?

Table 5. Mnemonics for take points in a Since our table clearly resembles a ag, Table 3 gives a second Receiver Doubler Assoc Take Needs Needs D Word Word Point 4-point match. version, with more patriotic colors. 2 2 DONNY MOON 32 Table 3. Take point ag with 2 3 DENIM NACHO 26 Doubler needs  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 patriotic colors 2 4 DINER NOISY 20 2 32 25 19 23 23 23 20 22 3 2 DEMON NAIL 25 3 26 25 25 21 21 21 18 16 3 3 DUMMY NEIL 25 4 20 22 22 23 23 24 23 23 3 4 DEMURE NUN 22 4 2 DRAIN TUB 19 5 17 19 19 20 20 19 19 19 4 3 DRUM NILE 25 6 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 22 4 4 DREARY NOON 22 7 22 23 22 23 22 22 21 22

8 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 I’ll note that I sort of abused the phonetic code convention here, I also use the phonetic code to memorize the exceptions to our 9 21 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 when I used the words DONNY and DUMMY for D22 and D33, general rules. Here they are, where the rst ve listed are the major respectively. Technically, each consonant sound is supposed to be exceptions. e others are o by only 1%. used separately, so consonant sounds DNN should generate words So how do we memorize the take points for the 9 scores in the For slightly more precision, I memorize these take points using like DANNON or DINE ON, but I nd DONNY and DUMMY It is natural to wonder if the patterns in the 9-point match extend for upper le corner of the table? e rst three take points, when the phonetic code method that I taught in my earlier article on to be easier to remember. longer matches. Here is the table of take points for an 11-point match. the doubler needs 2, come directly from the MET. At these scores, Memorizing Match Equity Tables (Spring 2020). Briey, each digit when the leader doubles, the trailer will immediately redouble is assigned a consonant sound as in Table 4. Table 6. Mnemonics for exceptions and play for the match. us, if the trailer passes, the trailer will Receiver Doubler Assoc Take Needs Needs D Word Word Point within a 9-point match. have a score of 2A/1A or 3A/1A or 4A/1A, with respective win 2 5 DENIAL DUCK 17 probabilities 32%, 25%, or 19%, respectively. Perhaps that’s all you 8 2 DIVINE NOSE 20 really need, along with the rules that when the doubler is 3-away 8 3 DEFAME DEFY 18 take point is about 25%, and when the doubler is 4-away, your Table 4. The phonetic code, where every digit gets a consonant 2 8 DENEUVE NIGHT 21 take point is like money. sound. 9 3 DIP MY DISH 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 9 2 DEEPEN NEON 22 7 4 DAGGER NERO 24 t, d n m r L ch, sh, j k, g f, v p, b s, z 9 6 DEBAUCH NUN 22 3 7 DUMB GUY ENEMY 23 5 7 DIALOGUE ENEMY 23 Vowel sounds can be placed wherever desired. So as not to get these which I pair up with the word NACHO, which translates to the confused with mnemonics that I use for memorizing the MET, number 26, indicating that the person being doubled needs 26%. On I place the letter D (for initial Double) in front of the consonant the other hand, if the score is 2A/4A and the leader doubles, then for the receiver’s needed points, followed by the doubler’s needed D42 = DRN is DRAIN, and the word pair DRAIN TUB indicates points, and create the appropriate word pair. For example, suppose that the take point is 19%. By contrast, if the trailer doubles at this that the score is 2A/3A and the trailer doubles. en the person score, then D24 = DNR, leading to DINER NOISY says that the being doubled (the leader) needs 2 (which is “N”) and the doubler leader has a 20% take point. See Table 5 below. needs 3 (which is “M”), so D23 = DNM becomes the word DENIM, 98 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 99 What’s the Take Point? What’s the ruling? Doubler needs  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Table 7. Take Points for Initial Doubles in an 2 32 25 19 23 23 23 20 22 20 21 11-point match. A Dispute with One Second 3 26 25 25 21 21 21 18 16 17 15 USBGF Left on the Clock 4 20 22 22 23 23 24 23 23 22 22 By Richard Munitz, Chair, USBGF Rules and Ethics Committee 5 17 19 19 20 20 19 19 19 19 18 Submit questions to: [email protected] 6 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 22 22 21 7 22 23 22 23 22 22 21 22 21 20 Question 8 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 22 22 22 9 21 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 21 21 Player A had 1 second of clock time remaining, plus the 12-second delay. Player A made an illegal move but had not yet hit the clock when player B pointed out the illegal play. Player A paused the clock. A er both players agreed that the checkers had been moved 10 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 22 22 22 illegally, Player A’s time was restarted. e time on the clock expired before the play was completed. Should Player A lose the match on 11 22 23 23 23 22 22 22 22 22 22 time in this situation, or not? e director and the Ruling Committee didn’t agree. How would you have ruled?

e take points in this table suggest that when the match is 11 points Are there simple rules for 4-cubes and 8-cubes? Yes, indeed! Spoiler e Ruling » Rule 1 [ILLEGAL MOVES]: Both players must promptly or longer, the “even more” factor fades. (Indeed, Jeremy Bagai tells Alert: the take points can be considerably dierent from the numbers I would rule that Player A does not lose the match on time. Player point out and correct all illegal plays noticed before the me that when the trailer is extremely far behind, the take point can that arise with initial doubles. But we will save those for a future A’s clock shall be reset with 1 second of reserve time, the original opponent has made a valid roll.. drop below money.) If the receiver needs 9 or more, then treat it article a er you have had time to practice and master the initial position and dice roll that existed prior to the illegal move shall like money, unless the doubler needs 3 or 5. (I include the 4A/9A cube material here. be restored, Player A’s time shall be restarted and legal play shall Rule 1 requires that the illegal play be pointed out promptly when take point in light green, since the true take point is 22.6%, so I’m commence from there. noticed. If you see something, say something! Immediately! e ne with putting it in the money category.) If the doubler needs 5, Acknowledgments: I am extremely grateful to David Presser, John reason not to wait is that the more time and other actions that then the “Take 5” rule still applies. If the doubler needs 3, then if O’Hagan, and Jeremy Bagai for valuable information and conver- Rationale for Ruling pass, the more likely it is that the facts could become confused the receiver needs 10 or 11 points, then the take point is 1 percent sations.  It is unusual that a director’s ruling is appealed. It is even more and a dispute over the facts will arise. Avoiding dispute over facts lower than the respective take points for 8 or 9. unusual that the director’s ruling is overturned by the Ruling Com- takes precedence over any technicality that an illegal move has not mittee. In this situation, I am not surprised that this happened. It is actually occurred yet (since the move has not been completed). a hard and complicated decision. More critically, this is a situation Player B acted properly by pointing out the potential illegal move. About Art in which the letter of the law, the spirit of the law, and factors of circumstance and fairness are pointing in every direction. When Player A paused the game clock. rt Benjamin, math professor at Harvey Mudd College, is one of backgammon’s Aforemost contributors as well as a ne player. He has been a member of the that happens, judgment is required. USBGF Board of Directors since 2011. He currently chairs its Governance and » Rule 2 [GAME CLOCK PROPRIETY AND EXPIRATION]: Nominating Committee, and is a Diamond Founding Sponsor. e rst question is whether either player acted improperly, aside Game clocks should only be stopped in limited circumstances, from the illegal move itself. most notably when a die falls on the oor, between games, He has supported intercollegiate play and propelled successful outreach eorts to professional mathematicians. He won the 1997 ABT championship, placing second and during a dispute. in 1993 and third in 1996, and has had many good results since then. He loves to Player B interrupted Player A while Player A was moving. Techni- invent quick and easy counting and memorization methods for backgammon. cally speaking, an illegal move doesn’t occur until Player A ends his turn. Should Player B say anything before that? Absolutely! 100 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 101 What’s the Ruling? A Dispute with One Second Left on the Clock What’s the Ruling? A Dispute with One Second Left on the Clock

Player A had moved the checkers. Player B stated that the checkers to bludgeon that player with a loss of the match. at would not reset. Due to all of these uncertainties and inconsistencies about Summary were moved illegally. Since Player A is presumed not to have moved be fair and the director must therefore nd a fair solution. Rule 4 the handling of illegal moves in conjunction with a game clock, I make an exception and rule that Player A doesn’t lose the match with the intent of cheating, we presume that Player A believed at authorizes the director to make an exception to a rule based upon the Ruling Guide oers us some clarity: on time. I believe that a player who is interrupted during their turn that moment that he had moved legally. at’s a dispute. As per circumstance, overriding the clear written text in that particular due to a potential illegal move should not be punished more severely Rule 2, it is appropriate to pause a clock when a dispute occurs; situation. Does that grant a director license to rewrite the rules e checkers, dice, doubling cube, and match score shall than a player who makes an actual illegal move by hitting their Player A acted appropriately by doing so. Fortunately, Player A as they see t? No. Rule 4 requires that exceptions be narrowly revert back to the game and match state that existed aer clock. Tournament directors have a dicult job. It is hard for every quickly agreed on the facts with Player B and the dispute was tailored. Here is what the Ruling Guide says about making nar- the dice were rolled, but before the illegal move took place. player to come away happy from this kind of situation. But in the resolved without the need for mediation. rowly tailored exceptions: e oending player’s time is restarted on the game clock, end, players at a tournament don’t expect to be treated favorably; with a full delay time. they expect to be treated fairly. No set of rules should deprive the Player A’s time was restarted. at’s ne. e game is ready to e exception must be limited in scope based on the tournament director of the ability to make a fair judgment for the resume, so the clock must be restarted. particular circumstances of the situation and as tightly players involved based on the unique circumstances of a particular constrained as possible so as to address the particular case. e USBGF Rules specically allow such exceptions to be Player A’s time expires. problem at hand without broadly undermining the rule at made, subject to conditions and limitations. I believe that those large… In order for an exception to be made, the Tourna- conditions were met in this case. Doing the right thing is better » Rule 3 [GAME CLOCK PROPRIETY AND EXPIRATION]: ment Director must be capable of articulating what facts for the players, and better for backgammon.  A player automatically loses the match when it is noticed about the circumstance justify making an exception in that that their reserve time has expired… particular case, without which an exception would not be justied in the general case. To review the complete USBGF Tournament Rules, Ruling Guide, Since it was noticed that Player A’s reserve time had expired, Rule 3 appears to establish that Player A has lost the match! A director may make an exception, but may not change a rule and Tournament Options, please visit usbgf.org/docs/rules.pdf. in general. What else matters? Well, a lot matters. For one thing, it feels wrong! It seems unfair! ere are unusual factors involved in this particular I must therefore articulate the facts special to this particular situ- case. But the rule text is clear. Can we make an exception just this ation that justify making an exception. once? It turns out that we can About Rich Player A lost clock time processing the interruption from Player ichard Munitz is one of the original founders of the » Rule 4 [INTERPRETATION AND SCOPE]: Based on the B. Had the interruption not occurred, it is reasonable to believe RUSBGF, has served on the Board of Directors since 2009, and serves as Chairman of the Rules Committee circumstances of a particular case, the Director may nd the that Player A would have completed their (illegal) move before and the Ratings and Stats Committee. solution as dictated by fairness or make narrowly tailored time expired. If Player A had hit the clock to complete their illegal exceptions. move, a er restoration to the original position they would have He is a winner of the American Backgammon Tour and been entitled to the full delay time to complete a legal move. Should has ranked as high as 4th in lifetime ABT points. He has been voted Giant of Backgammon multiple times, e director is authorized by Rule 4 to consider circumstance. they be penalized 12 seconds simply because their opponent ranking as high as #21. Typically the judgment of fairness comes into play when the pointed out the irregularity a moment sooner? Let’s go back to the rules don’t entirely cover a situation, yet a ruling must be made. origin of the dispute – the interruption. What is the spirit of Rule Richard runs the NYC Backgammon Meetup. He is a Rule 3 seems to cover the situation of time expiry, though surely 1 in which Player B is allowed – in fact encouraged – to interrupt professional software developer and lives in Suern, NY. it doesn’t cover every possible reason for an expiry. We all must Player A? e intent is to minimize any additional confusion of fundamentally believe that if players forget to pause the clock the facts that the additional passage of time could introduce. e between games, and then upon starting the next game it is noticed intent of Rule 1 is not to try to speed up the match or increase that one player’s time has expired, that this rule must not be used the chance to penalize the oender by denying a clock delay time 102 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 103 abt Online! tournament results ABT Online! Tournament Results April 2020 June 2020

ABT ONLINE! - CHERRY BLOSSOM BACKGAMMON ABT ONLINE! ABT ONLINE! - LOS ANGELES OPEN BACKGAMMON ABT ONLINE! April 25-26, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com June 4-7, 2020; GridGammon.com

CHAMPTIONSHIP (51): 1-Minollus/Fabio Sallusto (Italy), 2-dorado11 /Mario Savan (CA), OPEN (51): 1-timcrazy/Tim Cross (England), 2-SongScout/Gus Contos (CA), 3-barkin/Bill Arkin (CA), 3- n n e r a b /Bill Finneran (MD), 4-VikingCafe/Roberto Litzenberger (VA), 5/6-darren/Ronald Rubin (CA) / 4-dorado11/Mario Savan (CA), 5/6-Vengeance526/Brian Lonergan (LA) / minollus/Fabio Sallusto (Italy); dave56/David Staggs (IN). 1LC-wockadoo/Bob Wachtel (CA), 2LC-mapacho/Michael Miller (CA).

ADVANCED (47): gasparcan/Tom Rebelo (Canada), 2-RyanRebel /Ryan Rebelo (Canada), 3-Withano/Brion ADVANCED (38): 1-Karasuzy/Kara Schultz (CA), 2-wavesinair/Paul Armbruster (CA), 3-Sheshbesh/Avi Brooks (IL), 4-LuckyLarry/Larry Brown (VA). Cohen (FL), 4-BradRose/Brad Rosenberg (AZ); 1LC-JimmyGofPC/Jim Glover (FL), 2LC-eonny1/Edward Onny (CO).

May 2020 LAST GASP JACKPOT (18): 1-capitalcarl/Alex Toth (WA), 2-karendavis/Karen Davis (FL).

DINNER BRAWL (11): 1-Lulu2/Lynda Clay (CO), 2-PencentricExec/James Fleming (NV). ABT ONLINE! - CHICAGO OPEN BACKGAMMON ABT ONLINE! May 18-24, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com EARLYBIRD TOURNAMENT (9): 1-dorado11/Mario Savan (CA), 2-cigarsmoker/Jonah Seewald (CO).

OPEN (68): 1- eDaveShow/Brian Lonergan (LA), 2-NeilKaz/Neil Kazaross (IL), 3-Bor742 /Boris Dekhtyar WARM-UP (23): 1-alamofo/Mark Ferrin (TX), 2-95682/Terry Stigall (CA), 3/4-Khyar/Michael Ramsey (CA) / (NY), 4/10-akelabg/Victor Ashkenazi (NJ) / karendavis/Karen Davis (FL) / Switch/Geo Hall (England) / boardmaker/Bob Zavoral (IL). Hillsralive/Steve Hills (DC) / hksteve/Steve Nelson (Hong Kong) / arynog/Ary Nogueira (Brazil) / Jonah/Jonah Seewald (CO). Transparent Ba e Box with Etched USBGF ADVANCED (56): 1-daddyschips/Marcy Kossar (MD), 2-stewartp/Stewart Pemberton (FL), 3/6-RayC/Ray Circular Logo in Both Cifani (OH) / PeteK/Peter Kasturas (NJ) / MaxLev/Max Levenstein (CA) / Howard/Howard Linnemann (NY). Large & Small Sizes A USBGF BG Shop exclusive! $100 KNOCKOUT #1 (8): 1-ctrencher/Chris Trencher (NY), 2-Talbot/Frank Talbot (MI). Absolutely gorgeous transparent $100 KNOCKOUT #2 (8): 1-Ozzie/Mark Osborne (NY), 2-b r u c e n /Bruce Finstad (TX). ba e box with the beautiful USBGF logo etched on the front. $100 KNOCKOUT #3 (4): 1-LVN/Long Nguyen (CA). $100 KNOCKOUT #4 (4): 1-b r u c e n /Bruce Finstad (TX). Our ba e boxes are made from durable 1/8” clear acrylic. These $50 KNOCKOUT #1 (8): 1-caspianhero/John Shakory (TX), 2-BenjaminHugon/Benjamin Hugon (TX). designs are speci cally made for $50 KNOCKOUT #2 (8): 1-Vegasvillain/Aaron Foust (NV), 2-cscotty1972/Chris Scott (IL). travel and easy assembly. Ba e Box: $45.00 - $75.00 each. Carrying Case: $10.00 each. usbgf.org/shop USBGF Baffle Box USBGF BG SHOP 104 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 105 ABT Online! Tournament Results ABT Online! Points Race ABT ONLINE! - USBGF SPRING FLING ABT ONLINE! Updated: 07/01/2020 June 15-22, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com 2020 ABT Online! Standings Top 20 OPEN (58): 1-SweetRolls/Rich Sweetman (NH), 2-Mathemagics/Art Benjamin (CA), 3/8-herman/Herman Arzuman (NY) / Lancs/Tim Cross (England) / RayF/Ray Fogerlund (NV) / Glazer/Giorgis Lazaris (Greece) / # Name Points # Name Points FDR/David Rennie (CA) / Selbs/Andrew Selby (England). 1 Brian Lonergan 28.34 11 Gus Contos 9.27 2 Art Benjamin 24.08 12 Bob Wachtel 9.27 ADVANCED (36): 1-Vegasvillain/Aaron Foust (NV), 2-edmaciel/Eduardo Maciel Costa (Brazil), 3 Tim Cross 22.98 13 Aaron Foust 8.73 3/6-retsguod/Douglas DeWitte (NV) / TeamZiba/Kate Elmore (GA) / JimmyG/Jim Glover (FL) / 4 Fabio Sallusto 19.92 14 Boris Dekhtyar 8.60 RetUSAF/Edward Onny (CO). 5 Rich Sweetman 19.33 15 Bill Finneran 7.62 $100 KNOCKOUT #1 (8): 1-ctrencher/Chris Trencher (NY), 2-LVN/Long Nguyen (CA). 6 Mario Savan 14.04 16 Kara Schultz 7.24 $100 KNOCKOUT #2 (8): 1-blu ngU/Alex Toth (WA), 2-Mae/Maeis Petrosian (CA). 7 Neil Kazaross 13.24 17 Karen Davis 6.57 $100 KNOCKOUT #3 (4): 1-Frisk/Cristian Frisk (Romania). 8 Marcy Kossar 10.30 18 Ryan Rebelo 6.35 $100 KNOCKOUT #4 (8): 1-Frankthetank/Frank Farjood (CA). 9 Tom Rebelo 10.16 19 Jim Glover 5.43 $100 KNOCKOUT #5 (8): 1-arminsoltani/Armin Soltani (Canada). 10 Victor Ashkenazi 9.57 20 Roberto Litzenberger 5.28 $100 KNOCKOUT #6 (8): 1-blu ngU/Alex Toth (WA). $50 KNOCKOUT #1 (8): 1-Withano/Brion Brooks (IL), 2-MarcGru24/Marc Grutka (FL). $50 KNOCKOUT #2 (8): 1-cscotty1972/Chris Scott (IL), 2-BenjaminHugon/Benjamin Hugon (TX).

ABT ONLINE! - BUFFALO/NIAGARA ABT ONLINE! BACKGAMMON eXtreme Gammon is now available on your Android device, iPhone and iPad June 28, 2020; Heroes.BackgammonStudio.com

OPEN (27): 1-Mathemagics/Art Benjamin (CA), 2-akelabg/Victor Ashkenazi (NJ); 1C- eDaveShow/Brian Lonergan (LA), 2C-KarenDavis/Karen Davis (FL). iOS ADVANCED (19): 1-antanggioalo/Alec Izzo (FL), 2-VegasVillain/Aaron Foust (NV); 1C-Limoncello/Joe Calvaruso (OH), 2C-Ghost55/Frank Costello III (CA). Mobile The power of eXtreme Gammon in the palm of your hands  Play with instant feedback using the Tutor Mode  Setup a position and analyze it using the same engine than XG desktop (up to 3-ply)  Games are saved and can be emailed for a full analyze in XG  2 player mode: use XG Mobile as a portable board  High Quality Graphics  Track your Progress, results and dice statistics www.xg-mobile.com 106 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 107 usbgf online leaderboard usbgf online circuit winners Updated: 07/01/2020 Updated: 07/01/2020 Online Circuit Top 20 Recent Online Circuit Tournament Winners

2020 Start Date Status Tournament Winner Online Trnys High # Name GG ID Rating Master Pts Win - Loss Win % Won Rating April 1, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #112 Ronald Loero April 1, 2020 Completed USBGF Advanced Divisional LXXXV Frank Costello 1. Ted Chee tedc 1852.66 29.54 349 – 210 62% 16 1900.58 April 1, 2020 Completed USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXVIII Ed Corey 2. William Lonergan KellyRae 1830.77 27.71 377 – 274 58% 27 1867.03 April 1, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for April Qualier 5 Ted Chee 3. Martin Stemberka Marstem 1750.61 22.87 164 – 137 54% 7 1780.94 April 1, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for April Qualier 4 Jerry Ungar April 4, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for February Playo William Lonergan 4. Leyla Zaloutskaya Lilia888 1815.93 21.89 92 – 71 56% 4 1825.27 April 13, 2020 Completed USBGF Masters Divisional CVIII Jiri Vala 5. Peter Wisniewski Pantera 1780.34 21.66 142 – 118 55% 7 1825.94 April 13, 2020 Completed USBGF Masters Divisional CVII Aubrey Brengelman 6. Konstantin Keresteliev bateKosio 1580.23 20.47 95 – 112 46% 4 1603.6 April 13, 2020 Completed USBGF Womens Monthly for April Irina Litzenberger 7. Roberto Litzenberger cafecafe 1874.82 19.72 173 – 103 63% 6 1887.78 May 1, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #113 David Vakil 8. Steve Hills Hillsralive 1856.69 19.55 70 – 41 63% 2 1909.2 May 1, 2020 Completed USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXIX Teri Harmon 9. Kevin Jones specul8tor 1813.3 19.55 137 – 92 60% 5 1823.87 May 1, 2020 Completed USBGF Advanced Divisional LXXXVI Manny Olszynko 10. Ray Bills RayBills 1804.78 17.66 152 – 114 57% 1 1835.61 May 2, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for March Playo Konstantin Keresteliev 11. Andrew Selby selbs 1733.71 17.59 220 – 186 54% 17 1793.97 May 3, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #114 Patricia Johnson May 3, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for May Qualier 5 Gary Oleson 12. Scott Ward sw1111 1795.43 17.48 184 – 130 59% 6 1853.47 May 3, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for May Qualier 4 Eva Zizkova 13. Aubrey Brengelman Pheasant 1797.05 16.74 58 – 45 56% 1 1810.12 May 3, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for May Qualier 3 Ted Chee 14. Michael Klein Primer888 1776.59 16.6 113 – 83 58% 4 1900 May 3, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for May Qualier 2 Michael Klein 15. Brian Lonergan Vengeance526 1907.67 15.71 63 – 29 68% 4 1928.28 May 3, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for May Qualier 1 Doug Mayeld 16. Eva Zizkova elza 1778.61 15.09 297 – 204 59% 12 1852.95 May 10, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #115 William Lonergan 17. Art Benjamin mathemagics 1825.34 14.61 122 – 72 63% 7 1923.18 May 10, 2020 Completed USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXX Alice Kay 18. Jiri Vala orkadimenza 1778.64 14.28 31 – 19 62% 2 1779.55 May 10, 2020 Completed USBGF Advanced Divisional LXXXVII Avi Cohen May 15, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #116 Andrew Selby 19. David Parks MopUP 1658.53 13.38 165 – 185 47% 6 1692.86 May 15, 2020 Completed USBGF Womens Monthly for May Leyla Zaloutskaya 20. Mario Savan dorado11 1716.82 13.08 219 – 190 54% 7 1822.36 May 27, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #117 Ali Shamsian June 6, 2020 Completed Membership Blitz #118 Kristian Mills June 6, 2020 Completed Circuit Monthly for April Playo Martin Stemberka 2020 USBGF Online Circuit Up-to-date ratings may be found at: usbgf.org/trny/leaderboard/ Quali cations for inclusion in USBGF Online Circuit Events Tournament of Champions

e numbers following the player names show their Elo ratings, cumulative since September 2012 in the USBGF All 2019 Online Circuit tournament winners will be invited to participate in the 2020 Online Tournament Circuit. To be listed, a player must be a current or past member of the USBGF. USBGF Online Circuit Tournament of Champions. This exclusive event will start in July 2020. Don’t miss it! USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 109 usbgf master point leaders Updated: 07/01/2020 National Lifetime Master Points & Elo Top 20

Lifetime Master Current Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime Events Lifetime Events # Name Pts Rating Win – Loss Win % Plyd Won 1 Ray Fogerlund 1021.86 1644.4 788 – 653 54.70% 349 22 2 Ed O’Laughlin 984.79 1664.07 750 – 552 57.60% 278 22 3 Neil Kazaross 595.9 1697.77 486 – 307 61.30% 146 11 4 Victor Ashkenazi 526.23 1620.45 403 – 282 58.80% 148 12 5 Steve Sax 478.8 1627.43 388 – 292 57.10% 153 7 6 John O’Hagan 463.65 1596.28 380 – 310 55.10% 152 7 7 Karen Davis 452.58 1573.39 384 – 376 50.50% 180 2 8 Alfred Mamlet 425.21 1667.87 340 – 257 57.00% 138 7 9 Richard Munitz 419.8 1699.7 361 – 265 57.70% 117 7 10 Kit Woolsey 416.6 1697.45 325 – 235 58.00% 116 7 11 Carter Mattig 415.1 1528.23 373 – 327 53.30% 124 3 12 Roberto Litzenberger 405.62 1600.98 346 – 318 52.10% 157 5 13 Carol Joy Cole 405.58 1544.39 383 – 423 47.50% 158 3 14 Frank Raposa 390.54 1625.81 345 – 268 56.30% 112 10 15 Phil Simborg 385.8 1576.72 337 – 356 48.60% 149 1 16 Petko Kostadinov 364.12 1612.37 304 – 241 55.80% 107 8 17 Malcolm Davis 361.31 1601.32 270 – 238 53.10% 117 11 18 Julius High 351.26 1490.38 314 – 365 46.20% 180 5 19 Gary Bauer 350.25 1553.81 286 – 262 52.20% 124 3 20 Joseph Russell 313.23 1653.26 235 – 163 59.00% 90 8 110 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine upcoming tournaments Upcoming ABT Online! Events Be sure to mark your calendar and attend these exciting ABT tournaments & USBGF events. For complete tournament listings, see usbgf.org/calendar.

ABT ONLINE!: OHIO STATE JUL CHAMPIONSHIPS Dates: July 17 - 19, 2020 Details: Website • Boards Phone: 330/268-4610

ABT ONLINE!: USBGF TOURNAMENT AUG • Checkers OF STARS Dates: August 15, 2020 Details: TBD • Doubling Cubes

ABT ONLINE!: VIKING SEP BACKGAMMON CLASSIC • Precision Dice Dates: September 3–7, 2020 Details: Website Phone: 612/703-3211

ABT ONLINE!: MEMPHIS SEP BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIPS Dates: September 12, 2020 Details: Email Joe Russell ([email protected]) What’s your point? Phone: 310/749-8274

ABT ONLINE!: WILD WEST SEP SHOOTOUT Dates: September 24 - 27, 2020 Details: Website Phone: 303/356-3679

ABT ONLINE!: SUNNY FLORIDA OCT Dates: October 9–11, 2020 Details: Website Phone: 917/488-5364 LIVE STREAM ARCHIVE Watch championship backgammon & learn from the Giants! View over 1000 recorded matches of the world’s leading backgammon players fi lmed at American Backgammon Tour events across the nation. ANDREAS HUMKE; BILL RILES BILL HUMKE; ANDREAS

youtube.com/user/USBGFbroadcast LEFT: FROM