OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE USBGF WINTER 2021
Art Benjamin ABT Online! Champion
Genud Cup U.S. Women's Team edges out U.K. Following Up 64P Another 3rd-Roll Complex
U.S. BACKGAMMON FEDERATION VISIT US AT USBGF.ORG Get your copy now! Have fun coloring and learning!
CHERRY BLOSSOM BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIP APRIL 21-25, 2021
ABT ONLINE!
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Congratulations to the inaugural US Women’s Backgammon Team!
Kara Karen Rain Kate Laura Patty Irina Antoinette Schultz Davis Ackerman Elmore Hoarty Johnson Litzenberger Williams (captain) Granger
Team members include top four placing in the inaugural US Women’s Backgammon Championship or with best Performance Ratings out of 28 women competing 2 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 3
Editor’s Note In his President’s Letter, John Pirner shows deep vision about Federation priorities, describing great plans in the Winter 2021 works. And, he announces amazingly good news about Marty Storer, Executive Editor our fund-raising goals!
hat an issue! The headline topic is the 2020 ABT John also discusses the recent Board of Directors Online! tour. Art Benjamin is the champion! His photo election. We welcome Jason Briggs (profiled by Phil adorns our cover, and Karen Davis has a profile of our Simborg), Cary Hoarty (profiled by Bob Stoller), and genial genius. There’s also an analysis of positions from April Mesich (profiled by Candace Mayeron). Our Whis USBGF Summer Finale final against ABT Online! runner-up Brian Board is now bursting with younger talent. Lonergan. As if that weren’t enough, indefatigable Art contributes “Three Checkers Left” for his Math Overboard column. All of that is Cristi Frisk covers the World Online Championship, worth four Benjamins for sure. and tells news from Romania—including the backgammon stand at the Romanian Sports Museum, Another treat: the Genud Cup. That Olympiad featured the women which among other treasures will display an issue of of the U.S. and the U.K.—including America’s Kate Elmore, recent PrimeTime. winner of the Chicago Classic. Karen Davis and Marty Storer recap Team USA’s monumental and (very) narrow victory, including We give special, special praise to our Founding technical highlights. Sponsors, all listed, who have really come through for us. And of course we have the usual tournament results Speaking of feature articles, we have openings analysis in the form and point-race standings of all our events. Finally, check of a third “3rd-roll complex” by Albert Steg. Don’t make the 2 point out the list of all the upcoming tournaments! with opening 64, O.K.? Not unless you read this piece and want to add Marty Storer is a member of the USBGF devilish weapons to your arsenal. Get into the game—become a member! Board of Directors and Executive Editor of PrimeTime Backgammon magazine. In place of What’s the Ruling?, Rich Munitz gives us an in-depth preview of his new USBGF Online Tournament Series. The OTS will be a fantastic testament to Rich’s hard work; of course he’s had some high-class help, but the project has really been his baby. On the Cover Retrospectives? Yes, and intriguing ones: the Wild West Shootout by Denver’s Dan Minardi (a real production, as you’ll see); and Sunny Art Benjamin is a renowned mathematician: a professor Florida by Karen Davis, whose Local Club Champions piece is also at Harvey Mudd College and author of numerous included. There’s a run-down of late-year community Zoom events, too! scholarly works, some involving backgammon. He has been a celebrity on our circuit for decades. His Jeff Spencer from Minnesota provides a wise lesson in backgammon latest achievement, one of many triumphs, is winning humility, partly illustrated by a bad-beat story from Wisconsin, 2017. the 2020 American Backgammon Tour Online! points And we bring you Minnesotan Steve Waller’s review of Color Me race! Art writes a regular column for PrimeTime, sharing Backgammon, an actual coloring book, with analysis—produced by the useful counting tricks, from simple to sophisticated. St. Louis club’s Phyllis Shapiro, and featuring Pip the Raccoon. Who are the analysts? Not so fast—you’ll have to read the review and check out the ad. Photo Credit: Ariel Benjamin USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 5 In this Issue: Genud Cup 2020 60 2020 GENUD CUP Another U.S. – U.K. Olympiad Winter 2021 BY KAREN DAVIS AND MARTY STORER 63 GENUD CUP Zoom Parties 84 POSITION ANALYSIS Featuring four of the tourney's top performers BY MARTY STORER ABT Online! Champion
30 ART BENJAMIN: 2020 ABT ONLINE! WINNER The 2020 ABTO champion BY KAREN DAVIS
33 BENJAMIN VS. LONERGAN: FINAL MATCH, ABT ONLINE! SUMMER FINALE 2020 ABTO #s 1 and 2 face off Cary Hoarty 21 BY MARTY STORER Art Benjamin 30 Features 45 3RD ROLL COMPLEX: FOLLOWING UP THE 64 POINTING PLAY Book Review: The intriguing world of 64P Color Me BY ALBERT STEG Backgammon 56 84 SOCIAL ZOOMING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC Creative community connections
91 BACKGAMMON STAND AT THE ROMANIAN SPORTS MUSEUM There’s nothing like this in the world BY CRISTIAN FRISK
112 LOCAL CLUB AWARDS Jason Briggs 27 April Mesich 18 2020 Players of the Year BY KAREN DAVIS 6 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 7
Columns Board of Directors Tournament Reports Results & Leaders
10 PRESIDENT'S COLUMN: 17 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 75 WORLD ONLINE CHAMPIONSHIP 116 ABT ONLINE! REALIZING OUR MISSION ELECTION OVERVIEW Coverage by our European correspondent TOURNAMENT RESULTS Deep vision and good financial news Three incumbents, three new faces BY CRISTIAN FRISK The online tour has been well attended! BY JOHN PIRNER BY JOHN PIRNER 76 WILD WEST SHOOTOUT 121 ABT ONLINE! POINTS RACE 13 FOUNDING SPONSORS 18 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PROFILE: ABT Online! production comes to life The competition is heating up! We salute our contributors APRIL MESICH BY DAN MINARDI Website and marketing maven 122 USBGF ONLINE MASTER POINTS 56 BOOK REVIEW: BY CANDACE MAYERON 80 SUNNY FLORIDA Keep track of everyone's performance! COLOR ME BACKGAMMON A great event—though the sun was virtual “Artistic, analytical, whimsical!” 21 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PROFILE: BY KAREN DAVIS 123 USBGF ONLINE CIRCUIT WINNERS BY STEVE WALLER CARY HOARTY You've got to be in it to win it! A Giant, energetic, educational expert 94 MATH OVERBOARD: BY BOB STOLLER 126 TOURNAMENT CALENDAR THREE CHECKERS LEFT Mark your calendar and attend these exciting Rules of thumb—a bearoff bonanza 27 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PROFILE: ABT and USBGF events taking place across BY ART BENJAMIN JASON BRIGGS the country. Amazing experience and capabilities 104 USBGF ONLINE BY PHIL SIMBORG TOURNAMENT SYSTEM Detailed preview by the OTS creator BY RICH MUNITZ
87 BAD BEAT STORIES: HUMILITY Lessons for life as well as backgammon BY JEFF SPENCER 8 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 9
publisher USBGF Volunteers USBGF Spotlight John Pirner USBGF membership director Ed Corey executive editor Board of Directors Marty Storer website board chairman; chair, chief financial officer Elizabeth Liberty founding editor executive committee; chair, Jeb Horton Matt Cohn-Geier hall of fame committee communication Joseph Russell rules and ethics committee; Edward Onny production editor hall of fame committee Kristian Heuer president; executive director Neil Kazaross graphic design John Pirner Jim Sisti contributing photographers chief marketing officer and Robert Amador, Doris Auer vice chairman; chair, chief education officer usbgf ratings team April Mesich governance and nominating April Mesich Patrick Gibson (Director), April is USBGF Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Education Officer. She co- usbgf photographers committee Doug DeWitte, Ergin Bayrak directs the Viking Classic ABT Tournament, and the Twin Cities Backgammon Karen Davis, Steve Sax, Art Benjamin chief operating officer; Club with her husband Michael Mesich. Candace Mayeron finance committee; executive usbgf finance committee member, usbgf finance committee; treasurer Dan Minardi (Chair), Jason Briggs, editorial advisory board committee; director, planned Dan Minardi Ed Corey, Karen Davis, Bruce Karen Davis (Chair), Marty Storer, giving program Farquhar, Tom Rebelo, John Pirner Kristian Heuer, John Pirner Jason Briggs chair, ratings and stats committee; chair, rules and usbgf hall of fame committee information executive committee; finance ethics committee Joe Russell (Chair), Art Benjamin, PrimeTime Backgammon is committee; president u.s. Richard Munitz Patrick Gibson, Kent Goulding, the official magazine of the U.S. backgammon foundation Neil Kazaross, Bill Robertie Backgammon Federation. Karen Davis secretary; executive editor; executive committee contact us chair, tournament directors Marty Storer Email: [email protected] advisory committee; chief, Michael Mesich Website: usbgf.org tournament support chair, marketing committee Michael Mesich is the USBGF Chief Technology Officer. He has 25 years Ben Friesen Frank Talbot of experience helping small-to-medium businesses with their technology volume 12, issue 1 infrastructures and developing Information Security best practices. As a co-director of Twin Cities Backgammon Club, the US Backgammon Club, © 2021 U.S. Backgammon education director; social special adviser to board of and the Viking Classic ABT Tournament, he helped develop the online Federation media director; online directors tournament frameworks that have allowed us to stay together tournament director Carol Joy Cole as a community. notice Cary Hoarty Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the U.S. Backgammon Federation. 10 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 11
to backgammon topics such as rules, basic checker solution, I know that if we don’t listen, and if we play, and basic cube ideas. Advanced backgammon don’t create a system that is perceived as fair, we will President’s Column strategy should not be emphasized. lose members and tournament players.
Realizing our Mission We also want to hold Newcomer Online A not-for-profit organization devoted to advancing tournaments, with a Newcomer Prize Package. the awareness, participation, education and John Pirner, President and Executive Director Money will not be offered, just lessons and matches enjoyment of the skill-based game of backgammon. with experts. Look for this to happen after the new Online Tournament Series is launched. If you are reading this, you are very likely a skilled tournament player, one of perhaps 2,000 to 4,000 Ben spoke of “the people we already have.” I think people. I am convinced that there are hundreds of that for the most part, these are Open players who thousands of casual players who enjoy the game, but not-for-profit organization devoted to set of rules. However, it was the accomplished players compete in the ABT points race, local club players are unaware of opportunities to improve their skills advancing the awareness, participation, who tended to win the added money events. The who want to support their local ABT tournament and find attractive playing venues. Many do not want education and enjoyment of the skill-based Prime Tournament added money was eventually director, players of all levels who like the competition to play in tournaments or use the cube, yet we provide game of backgammon. reduced, being replaced by other priorities such as and understand how tournaments work, and curious hardly any opportunities for such casual and social A support for a Local Club Initiative and a Newcomer beginners and intermediates. I fear that many of play. To expand awareness of how wonderful it can be That is the mission statement of the USBGF. Initiative. Added money for Prime Tournaments did those curious players come and go, unnoticed, to play with the cube, participate in tournaments, and not advance “the awareness, participation, education because nobody bothers to explain tournament use Federation and other resources to improve our As the leader of the USBGF, I must ensure that our and enjoyment” of backgammon, and ended this year. terminology and formats. We take their money, they skills, we must broaden our promotion of the game. staff’s time and members’ treasure always support lose two consecutive matches, lose interest, and go the mission. I do not mean to criticize those who It isn’t easy to get out of a mindset, but that is what home. These are some projects and ideas that we are came before me; they contributed tens of thousands we must do. Ben Friesen, Director of Tournament working on: of hours, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of Services, summed it up. Talking about the objectives We invited people who voted in the Board election to seed money. Nevertheless, I believe that over time, of Social Sundays Doubles, and how to structure leave a question or a comment. This comment was left • A task force has been created to organize an the USBGF developed too narrow a focus. After these events for new and non-tournament players, by a USBGF member: educational video library. Starting with the basics, some outreach efforts, such as organizing college Ben wrote, like setting up a board, progressing to reference backgammon clubs, failed to sustain themselves, the When live backgammon tournaments resume, positions, counting, etc. Federation turned most of its efforts to supporting It’s hard for me to break free from the ABT director/ something needs to be done about all the highly skilled • Casual “destination tournaments.” Small, intimate large, live tournaments. organizer mindset that people want to play structured people who are playing in the advanced division groups playing in a less intense schedule, at a backgammon, but we have to do something else if we rather than the open division. The board needs to boutique destination, where different couples are One example was “added money” for ABT want to attract players that we don’t already have. come up with an aggressive, clearly defined method of encouraged to socialize with one another. Events tournaments. The added money was designed to This kind of a program checks a lot of the right boxes moving qualified players into the open division. may be high-roller, or lower entry fees, Open encourage USBGF membership, increase tournament and can easily morph into something that members of or Beginner, but the idea is to achieve a balance attendance, and encourage more uniform playing all skill levels will participate in and enjoy. This topic has been discussed before,but there has between playing and socializing—with players and rules. Requirements to earmark a portion of added been no consensus on a solution to the problem. For non-players. money to the Novice division were added later. The overall goal is to attract new players by giving that matter, there isn’t even firm agreement that this • Better support for local clubs and their events. Initially, funds came from Prime Benefactors; them an entertaining and educational experience. problem exists. But we can and should agree that • Retention strategies for lower-level Open players USBGF resources were added over time. The result Cube play will be optional in the Sunday Social Zoom it is a problem when we force intermediate players and Intermediates. was an increase in USBGF membership, from 55% Meetups. All conversations must be open. No cash to compete at a level that they feel is beyond their • Appropriate playing opportunities for novices, like of ABT entrants to 75%. ABT attendance began prizes or entry fees. Play will last a few hours at most. skills. Some creative ideas have been suggested, like Newcomer Tournaments. to climb, by 10% annually after a decade of decline. All players will have access to experienced mentors, creating a third division, or using a different format • Monthly online seminars. Tournament directors began to use a more uniform who will help with everything from technology issues for Intermediate divisions. Whatever the ultimate • Structured study groups. 12 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine President's Column USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 13
Note that we are proud to own the ABT and support I would like to extend thanks to all of you who have it strongly. We love our ABT events, organizers, and contributed. I cannot tell you how motivating it is for players—which should be no surprise since each us to know that we have your support. and every Board member avidly participates in the ABT tour, and we probably have over three centuries I look forward to 2021. We have a wonderful of combined backgammon experience. The ABT community. Thank you for being part of it! points race has been a great highlight of organized backgammon since 1993, and that will continue! We Regards, hope to increase attendance by attracting many more John Pirner players with initiatives such as those described above.
Finally, I am delighted to announce that we have reached our fund-raising goal of $50,000 for the Photo Credit: Doris Auer Capital Campaign to develop our new website. And, John Pirner brings extensive experience at this writing, we are just a few thousand dollars shy in business to his role as President and Outstanding Supporters of our Organization of meeting our $100,000 goal in the overall Capital Executive Director of the USBGF. Campaign! For myself and on behalf of the USBGF, USBGF Founding Sponsors and Prime Benefactors
he USBGF salutes the individuals and The Capital Campaign, which began in 2020, is an organizations, 208 of them to date, who effort whose purpose is to raise much-needed funds for have generously supported our Federation website enhancement, educational material, equipment, by becoming Founding Sponsors or Prime and tournament support. Gammon Stuff has provided TBenefactors. Their contributions, over $377,000, FTH backgammon sets to those contributing $5,000 have enabled the launch and growth of the Prime or more. We thank the Capital Campaign donors Tournament Initiative and the Federation itself. These shown below, and also give special mention to some benefactors have been indispensable to our success. others: Our newest Diamond Founding Sponsor, Jeb Horton (NC); Platinum Founding Sponsors Gary Supporters receive perpetual recognition on our Koscielny (FL), Dennis Lutz (GA), and Frank Talbot website, and exclusive benefits. We welcome (MI); Gold Founding Sponsors Roberto Litzenberger additional Founding Sponsors and Prime (VA), Denby Pettitt (UK), and Patty Knapp (MA); Benefactors who wish to help us grow the game we Silver Founding Sponsor Greg Merriman; and Bronze all love! Founding Sponsors John Baron (OH), Clement McNally (FL), and James Noble (New Zealand). To honor our supporters, we hold an annual doubles event called the Tournament of Stars, in which More information on the benefits of becoming a Founding Sponsors are paired with luminaries such as Founding Sponsor may be found at USBGF Founding Giants of Backgammon. Sponsors receive an attractive, Sponsor Benefits and on becoming a Prime Benefactor personalized doubling cube noting their level of giving. at USBGF Prime Tournament Initiative. In 2020, for the first time, this competition was online. 14 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 15 Founding Sponsors Corporate Sponsors beaver Jim Pasko (NV) Bernard Nussbaumer (TX) Michael Valliere (PA) Karen Davis (FL) David Leibowitz (NY) Kit Woolsey (CA) Karam Ashoo (CA) Chairman’s PB Jason Lee (MD) Judy Field (MI) Eliot Tawil (NY) John Bird (TX) Michihito Kageyama (Japan) David Kettler (TX) Shay Asraff (NV) President’s PB Josh Racko (CA) Neil Kazaross (IL) Ed Rosenblum (NM) Alan and Joan Grunwald (NJ) Kevin Finch (PA) William Lonergan (NY) Kirby Domingue (LA) Jason Briggs (FL) Dan Dabney (IL) Dan Wittkopp (MI) Boris Docevski (PA) Gammon Stuff Gammon Guys John Pirner (MN) Jack Edelson (MN) Ray Cifani (OH) Ted Chee (CA) Gammon Stuff and its CEO John Pirner are generous Gammon Guys and its CEO Ed Corey are generous donors Art Benjamin (CA) Arkadiy Tsinis (FL) Stephen Deep (LA) Koray Agirbas (GA) donors to the USBGF. Gammon Stuff provides a free FTH to the USBGF. Gammon Guys provides an Artgammon set Sustaining PB Matthew Brown (MD) Stephen Kenney (NC) Rob Goodner (OK) backgammon set (including cups, cube, and precision dice) to winners of Novice and Intermediate divisions for ABT Cloyd Laporte (NY) Anthony Anton (NV) Chris Siddall (DC) to all ABT tournaments with 100 or more entrants, and a tournaments with 10 or more Novice entrants in the previous diamond David Klausa (CO) John C. Hamlin (VT) Eva Marie Doiron (CA) discounted set to smaller tournaments. FTH sets are awarded year. Ed is a Silver Founding Sponsor and volunteers as Thomas Buckner (PA) Bryan Ignozzi (NV) Blake Fleetwood (NY) Christian Briggs (FL) as prizes of FTH Online Jackpots. Gammon Stuff provides Membership Director for the USBGF. Robert Stoller (AK) Dennis Culpepper (VA) Thomas Poole (NY) Boris Dekhtyar (NY) FTH Boards to major Capital Campaign donors, and has Chairman’s PB Albert Steg (MA) Charlie Briggs (FL) Adrian Nedelcu (IL) provided FTH doubling cubes to new Premium members as Malcolm Davis (TX) Jonah Seewald (CO) Eric Petersen (CA) Max Mowzoon (FL) part of a recent membership promotion. Hugh Sconyers (Panama) Ron Fash (TX) Stuart Domeshek (GA) Chris Trencher (NY) Mike Svobodny (FL) Marty Storer (NH) Julia T. Cooley (FL) Allen Tish (CA) Jamie Erin Rosen (NY) Jason H. F. Lovelady (FL) Greg Merriman (MI) Gary Fox (Bahamas) Michael Louis Rosen (NY) Dan Minardi (CO) Candace Mayeron (CA) Ian Terry (TX) Jeb Horton (NC) John Barnett (NY) Jim Slomkoski (MI) Roberto Litzenberger (VA) bronze William Chibnik (IL) platinum Patty Geoffroy Knapp (MA) Victor Ashkenazi (NY) Ken Bame (CA) Gary Koscielny (FL) Contributing PB John Klein (MD) Morten Holm (Denmark) silver Pat McCormick (CA) Elizabeth Liberty (FL) Harvey Gillis (AZ) Kristina Vig (WA) Michael Weinberger (LA) Joseph Feldman (MI) Bruce Newberg (CA) Jake Jacobs (Singapore) Preston Guidry (LA) Vinson Blanton (VA) Joseph Russell (CA) Edward Corey (CT) Sean Cearley (WA) Kimberly Lewis (VA) The Grunwald Fund USBGF National GameSite 2000 ltd Cook Travel Julius High (KS) Bill Riles (TX) Play65 Backgammon (Israel) Daniel Bryant (CA) The Grunwald Fund donates Championship Prize GameSite 2000 is the maker Cook Travel provides discounts Contributing PB Sustaining PB Greg Cottle (NV) Frank Ley (CA) Belair wristwatches (valued Fund of eXtreme Gammon and XG for USBGF members on Delta Patrick & Carla Gibson (CA) Dorn Bishop (CA) James G. Allen (NV) Dick Allen (CO) at $150-$200) to winners of Mobile software, and hosts and American domestic flights: Sustaining PB Contributing PB Mark Gordon (MD) Curtis Wilhelmsen (MO) USBGF Pick-a-Pro Jackpots An anonymous donor has the GammonSite server. CEO 2-5% for economy tickets and Lloyd E Webber (LEW) (VA) Lynn Ehrlich (NY) Rochelle Hasson (NY) Matt Reklaitis (MA) and other Novice initiatives. provided $10,000 annually Xavier Dufaure de Citres is a 10-30% for business/first-class President’s PB Chiva Tafazzoli (Germany) Drew Giovanis (NV) Tim Boyd-Wilson (AUS) for added money at an annual Founding Sponsor. GameSite tickets. For details, see: usbgf. Steve Kenney (NC) Alex Gerding (FL) James E. Roland (IL) Irina Litzenberger (VA) in-person USBGF National 2000 provides a 20% discount org/abt-travel-discounts/ Dennis Lutz (GA) Larry Liebster (NV) Steve Schreiber (NY) Michelle Nussbaumer (TX) Championship. to USBGF Premium members Frank Talbot (MI) Ben Friesen (MI) John Calcott (NM) Jim Sisti (CT ) for first-time purchase of XG In business for over 40 years, Jim Stutz (CT) Jeff Burdsall (NV) Xavier Dufaure de Citres(OH) (off list price of $59.95), and and specializing in discounted gold Gus Contos (CA) Justin and Rynell Nunez (CA) Thorsten Hoyer (Germany) a discounted annual fee for first/business class travel, Saba Bejanishvili (GA) Dion Hogan (MI) Arthur Stein (NY) Tom Rebelo (Canada) all USBGF members ($14 Cook has been recommended Sustaining PB Chuck Bower (IN) Powhatan French (TX) Tim Mabee (IL) instead of $20) for use of by the New York Times and Christopher Cavanagh (CT) Bill Finneran (VA) Carla Gibson (CA) Brian Lonergan (LA) GammonSite. the Wall Street Journal. Alan Pruce208 (VA) Sean Williams (UK) David Rennie (CA) Jak Civre (Switzerland) Carol Joy Cole (MI) Rory Pascar (IL) Phil Simborg (IL) Michael Jerue (VA) Sustaining PB Stepan Nuniyants (WA) Ed Sawyer (AK) John Baron (OH) Mario Savan (CA) Scott Kelland (CT) Twain Pigott (TX) Clement McNally (FL) Anna Covlin (NY) Kathy McGrath Weiner (FL) Jerry Godsey (GA) James Noble (New Zealand) Capital Campaign Donors Myles Covlin (NY) Bob Glass (CA) Michelle Steinberg (NJ) Rod Covlin (NY) Steve Sax (CA) Tariq Siddiqi (England) youth $5,000 and Above $2,500-$4,999 $1,000-$2,499 Perry Gartner (FL) Steve Blanchard (IL) Vladimir Gudgenov (NC) Istvan Eger (Hungary) Anonymous Jeb Horton John Barnett Larry Taylor (GA) Russell Sands (FL) Jason Pack (NJ) Pierce Valliere (PA) Art Benjamin Roberto Litzenberger Alfred Mamlet (MD) Gary Oleson (TX) Edj Analytics John Bird Jason Lovelady Edward B. Bennett (NM) John Stryker (IL) Mike Costello (KS) Jason Briggs Dennis Lutz Richard Munitz (NY) Andrew James Martinez (CA) Lloyd Sorenson (TX) Karen Davis Dan Minardi Jeffrey Acierno (NJ) Michael Flohr (IL) Scott Ward (TX) Alan and Joan Grunwald Denby Pettitt Masayuki Mochizuki (Japan) Joe Potts (TX) Larry Shiller (NY) Steve Kenney Robert Stoller Falafel Natanzon (Israel) Secil Baysal (CA) Matthias Vohwinkel (TX) Gary Koscielny Frank Talbot Within each level, names are presented in the order of becoming Founding Sponsors. John Pirner USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 17
Board of Directors Election
By John Pirner
embers of the USBGF Board of Directors are elected for three-year terms, with approximately one-third of the Board up for election in a given year. All active members M of the USBGF are eligible to vote. In 2020, three Board members chose not to run for re-election, leaving three vacancies. Returning incumbents are: Arthur Benjamin, Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee; Dan Minardi, Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer; and Joseph Russell, Chairman of the Board.
We welcome three new members: Jason Briggs, director of the Planned Giving Program; Cary Hoarty, Education Director; and April Mesich, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Education Officer.
Voter turnout was very strong, setting a record of 357 ballots, nearly double the 179 cast last year. The previous record was 239 ballots, cast in 2015. Thanks to all those who voted!
The Board thanks retiring members Jack Edelson, Julius High, and Matt Reklaitis for their contributions to the USBGF. They made the organization stronger and we are grateful for their service.
The USBGF encourages members to run for the Board if they believe they can contribute to the growth of our community and advocate for our financial strength. Board members are expected to:
• Be strong and reliable promoters of the USBGF mission. • Be loyal to the organization and avoid conflicts of interest. • Contribute financially to the USBGF. • Contribute significant time and skills. • Serve on committees and task forces. • Help with fund-raising. • Attend all meetings and promote a collegial atmosphere.
Regards, John Pirner 18 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 19
Board Member Profile Interestingly, while researching backgammon boards, she found there was a Twin Cities Backgammon April Mesich Club. “We went that Thursday night,” she says. “We had no idea what the people would be like. Well, they By Candace Mayeron were wonderful and we started going regularly. I’ve never felt so comfortable with a group of strangers. I here is nothing typical about April Mesich (pronounced felt like I’d found My People!” Mess-ick). Let’s start with the fact that she’s lived in Minnesota almost her entire life. Most people from Minnesota…well, they Michael cashed in his second week. But something leave. Not April, she loves Minnesota. “The quality of life here was bothering April. Tis great,” she says. “There’s lots of work, plus a really robust arts, theater, and music culture.” “That club was a mile and a half from my house and I never knew it existed. I felt it should not be so Minnesota loves April right back. To be precise, Minneapolitans Photo Credit: April Mesich difficult to find.” With 15 years’ experience in digital love April. Why? Because, much as Midas turned everything into MINI-ME, MINI-YOU: April and her marketing, April set about publicizing the club. Her gold, April (and her partner-now-husband Michael) turned a small, look-alike daughter, Ava. Not telling secret weapon? Meetups. “Meetups are, hands down, lackadaisical Midwest backgammon club into twice-weekly “must see which is which. the most effective way to bring new players to a club. BG” and went on to establish the Viking Classic, a roaring success on Once you get them there, you have time to nurture Michael and April Mesich’s engagement photo. Can you the ABT circuit. Even that’s not enough for this enterprising wonder them.” tell they kind of like one another? woman: a mere six years after she walked wide-eyed into her first ABT tournament, she ran for and was elected to the Board of Directors of the She started giving 15-minute lessons, then other “Our eyes popped like we were cartoon characters. USBGF. club members started arriving early to play with the This was the Real Deal. We decided to put on our novices. It worked; boy, did it work. “There were own event.” The late Steve Brown, an Open division But wait. I’m running through this as if it were Speedgammon. 15 to 16 some-time players when I started. We circuit player, was a huge help. They got advice from doubled that to 30 hardcore regulars.” Jeff Spencer, Bill Davis, Carol Joy Cole, and Karen Davis. “People Let’s be clear. Minneapolis is a major market only for snowshoes and a Minneapolis regular and ABT circuit player, is a were so supportive,” she says. mosquito repellent, certainly not for backgammon; that’s for major huge fan. “April is just a dynamo of energy. She is metropolitan cities where there is a larrrge pop-u-LAY-shun. It all always thinking how to bring in new players. That’s Back home, things didn’t go as smoothly. The hardest started some 20 years ago; at home with two young children, April her focus. Her secret power is making people feel task for a tournament director can be finding a played FIBS online in between the kids’ nap times. “I got killed,” she comfortable. That’s why they come back.” Eventually suitable venue—a place where the organizers can laughs. “I was playing world-class players. But it was fun and intellectual April and Michael started a second club night on afford the ballroom and the players can afford the and I just knew there had to be game plans I could study.” Life, Mondays. (Jeff now runs the Thursday-night events.) sleeping rooms. “We wanted to be near the Mall of however, interrupted—as Life often does—“and I had no time to keep “We wanted our club atmosphere to be warm, fuzzy, America to attract players to Minnesota.” Eventually my plants alive, let alone play backgammon.” and personable,” says April. they made a deal with the Radisson Blu, an upscale hotel attached to the Mall. Nothing more happened until she met Michael in 2014. Michael is a With club success in her pocket, April set her sights games player. No, let me rephrase: Michael is a Games Player and a on the ABT circuit. “In 2015 we attended a teeny, The next detail was the trophies. “I think players like Game Board Collector. Michael Mesich has 500 game boards at home, tiny ‘Minnesota Open.’ It was small but we had fun. substantial trophies,” says April, and indeed they and has played on them all. “I wanted to share in his love of games,” Michael and I decided we should see the real thing, spend almost five times what bigger tournaments she recalls, “but the only game I was interested in was backgammon. so in 2016 we went to San Antonio. spend on trophies. In fact, their trophies (as well as He knew the basics but I had more experience. We played on a crappy Dan Minardi’s; see this issue’s Wild West recap) are board from Target.” spectacular and look like they cost as much as they actually do. 20 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Board Member Profile USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 21
In 2017 they held the first Viking Classic. “We April has also taken a lead role with the USBGF. Board Member Profile expected about 50 people, but 83 came! We were She was Social Media Director for a year, then won crammed into 1800 square feet. We spilled into a seat on the Board in the recent election and is now Cary Hoarty hallways and restaurants, but everyone really enjoyed its Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Education the experience.” The following year she could not Officer. She is also redesigning the USBGF website. By Bob Stoller get a reasonable deal at the Radisson for a larger ballroom, and moved the tournament to a suburban April and Michael got married on February 19, 2020. ary Hoarty, Giant of Backgammon #64 for Crowne Plaza. People came because of the good They took their engagement honeymoon on Susan 2019, was elected to the USBGF Board of word-of-mouth from the first event. Will’s Backgammon Cruise, where April was able Directors for a three-year term beginning to display her other superpower: dancing. Yep, she’s December 1, 2020. He serves as Education They started traveling the backgammon circuit. an expert swing dancer and lindy hopper. In fact, CDirector for the USBGF, responsible for social media and the Meetups are not going to bring in the Giants; only dancing sort of brought her together with Michael. Online Tournament System. person-to-person contact will do that. At the same They met originally—where else for a couple of tech time, April started working seriously on her game. nerds? —online: on “OK Cupid”! He has appeared before in PrimeTime’s pages: in a Fall She had risen to Advanced level through her club play. 2018 profile by Karen Davis, with Marty Storer’s analysis Now she collects and devours backgammon books, “He reached out to me but we only had one date,” April of positions from his Advanced Division win at that year’s Photo Credit: Lili Iravani and has hired kingmaker Jonah Seewald as her coach. recalls. “I enjoyed the date,” says Michael, “but I didn’t Cherry Blossom tournament. In the Winter 2020 issue, In 2019 she pushed herself into the Open division. “I know if she was into me so I didn’t call again.” Eight Marty analyzed positions from Cary’s dramatic 2019 I was intrigued by the apparent complexity of the was having bad experiences with Advanced—some months later she added a photo of herself dancing, and Sunny Florida final against Ed O’Laughlin. –Ed. game, in contrast to the simplicity of the rules. I poor sports—and I wanted to play stronger players that gave Michael the excuse to call again. They’ve been remember that when I first began to play, I rarely beat to get better and have better experiences. I started together ever since. Tech and games are not their only Bob Stoller: Please tell us about your life before anybody in my family. My mom and I used to play small with the Wisconsin Open and then held my shared interests: they both love science fiction in all backgammon. what we would call a “race to 100,” with gammons breath and entered the Championship Division at its forms. “We built our relationship at science fiction and backgammons counting, but no doubling cube the powerhouse California State Championship. I conventions,” laughs Michael. Cary Hoarty: I was born in 1999 in New Bern, involved. I’m not sure that I won a single one of didn’t cash in the Open, but I didn’t stink up the place North Carolina. I graduated from Turpin High those series. This was definitely motivation for me either.” Her PR is now usually between 6 and 8. “I’m It’s pretty clear that April and Michael, and others School in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2017. I began studying to continue to play and learn the game – I wanted to not happy if I play over an 8.” of their ilk—young, passionate about the game, at the University of Cincinnati in 2017, majoring in know what I was doing wrong! good players, extremely tech-savvy, well-liked on mathematics – a subject that I have enjoyed for my the circuit, willing to give back (Cary Hoarty, Jack entire life. In your profile by Karen Davis you mention Edelson, Ben Friesen, Rory Pascar, and Dan Minardi contacting your local Cincinnati Backgammon come to mind) —are the future of the community, How did you discover backgammon? What was Club and its Director Peter Carcieri. How did you Below: A typical night at the Twin Cities Backgammon Club. the Federation, and the game itself. attractive about it? go about finding the Club and Mr. Carcieri?
My family had a backgammon board lying around During my senior year of high school, while the house my whole life, but it almost never got used. heading to North Carolina for Christmas, my mom Finally, when I was 18 years old, my mom taught mentioned that there might be a backgammon me how to play the game. For a few months, I would club in Cincinnati. We Googled and found the casually play with my mom, dad, and uncle before Cincinnati Backgammon Players Club. The rest of finding the more competitive tournament scene. our Christmas vacation was dedicated to learning the doubling cube – that insignificant block that we formerly set to the side whenever we played. Immediately following that trip, we headed to our Photo Credit: April Mesich local club’s first tournament of 2018. We had grand 22 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Board Member Profile Cary Hoarty USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 23
ambitions of placing first and second between us, Are there any books or other backgammon So when he came to me one day and said, "Mom, I'll always love my but that did not happen as we both lost in early literature you have found helpful? marimba but backgammon is my new passion," I already knew he would rounds. Even so, everybody at the club was extremely work to be the best he could be! I also knew that he loved math and welcoming, and we both knew right away that we Honestly, I have not read any backgammon books at was well above average at it. Some family members were concerned that would be coming back to these tournaments. all. This is something that I definitely plan to start he would not return to school, but I knew him well enough to have doing, and I would like to start with Michy’s Opening no doubt that he would. Cary made it very easy for me to support his How did you get started on the American Concepts. One piece of literature that definitely helped passion. I also recognize that I was very lucky to have a 19-year-old son Backgammon Tour, and why did you decide to me improve my cube play early on is Kit Woolsey’s who wanted to spend a year traveling with his mom. Who would pass continue playing in the ABT? article on the five-point match. up that opportunity?
In March 2018, my mom and I traveled with a few Related to study: I have not had any backgammon The two of you have also had extraordinary success competing as a other members of the Cincinnati club to the Ohio teacher or coach to date. doubles team in ABT events, including at least four 1st-place finishes State ABT event, only seven months after I'd learned and at least five 2nd-place finishes during 2018 and 2019. Why do you the rules. This was an incredible experience for both I surmise that your mother has been very think you’ve been so successful in doubles? Could excellent rapport of us. After the first day, I was one of six undefeated encouraging of your backgammon activities. have anything to do with that? I contend that a harmonious team players in the Advanced Division. I narrowly missed Would either of you care to expand or comment? Photo Credit: Lili Iravani can frequently do better against a nominally stronger team whose cashing after losing twice in a row, and I finished members disagree about crucial plays. second in the P-40 board event. We met many Anybody who has seen me and my mom in the great new people, including tournament director backgammon room knows that we are best friends. I agree with your contention. I have noticed that argumentative doubles Ben Friesen, who was excited to see a new young I have been extremely fortunate to have her with me teams frequently have trouble working out the logic of tough positions. face in the backgammon room. After having such at almost every major tournament. Backgammon We believe that our unique relationship serves as a strong competitive a great time, and meeting so many new friends, it tournaments can obviously cause anybody to advantage. Neither of us can recall a single instance of contention, was clear that we would be traveling to more ABT experience a wide variety of emotions, and she has and generally we are both happy with whatever play we settle on. My tournaments. always been my biggest supporter through all the mom understands that I am the stronger player, and has no problem exciting wins, bad beats, and everything in between. conceding to me in a disagreement. At the same time, I give much With respect to the eXtreme Backgammon weight to her reasoning, which has certainly saved us from many program — “XG” — how, precisely, do you make Laura Granger (Cary’s mother): If you knew Cary blunders when I try to get too creative. We are always on the same use of it? from a young age, the question should be, "How wavelength, and I attribute much of our success to this perfect balance. can you not support Cary through this dream?"! He eXtreme Gammon has been the most integral had already proven his intense drive to be the best Before I forget, Laura has had meaningful success in one-on-one part of my backgammon learning process. When I he could be at anything he was passionate about. At ABT competition. My hunch is that her “solo successes” have started taking the game seriously, I watched as many the age of 16, he bought his marimba and worked contributed to her ability to perform well in doubles competition. streamed matches as I could find, and analyzed hard to be the best marimba player he could be. them thoroughly in XG. Once I began to play in He would come home from a 10-hour band camp Yes, she has certainly had her share of success. She placed 1st in the tournaments, I started to review almost every online and go straight to the basement to practice more, Wild West Shootout ABT Online! Warrior Jackpot, 2nd Consolation or recorded match that I played. I have found that sometimes with bleeding hands as he developed the in the Sunny Florida ABT Online!, and was in a four-way tie for 2nd in reviewing my mistakes is the most direct and efficient calluses needed to hold two mallets. He had his first the U.S. Women’s National team qualifier. [Laura was a member of the way for me to patch holes in my game. professional gig at the age of 17, accompanying a U.S. Women’s Team that recently won the Genud Cup olympiad against the choir for a Christmas piece. Also at 17, he joined a U.K. –Ed.] She contributes much value to our doubles team. competitive indoor percussion troop and spent every weekend in Louisville, two hours away, practicing with his team. He went on to earn the honor of performing the Grand Solo at his senior graduation. 24 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Board Member Profile Cary Hoarty USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 25
I have been paired against Ed O’Laughlin many the competition? According to Carol’s write-up, times. We have often played in the first round. The you won the majority of the four matches, and 2019 Sunny Florida final was my second one against out-performed Kentaro in your respective XG Ed in a major event. He beat me in Phil Simborg’s performance ratings (PRs): 3.57 for you vs 3.72 for Jamaican Open high roller final just six months prior him. What did you learn from that experience? to Sunny Florida. I believe that the first time Mochy heard of me I certainly will never forget the Sunny Florida final. was when Ben Friesen mentioned my name. After seven games, I had achieved a comfortable Mochy assumed that I hadn’t cashed in many live lead of 10-3 Crawford. I failed to win another game, tournaments. When Ben showed him the 2019 ABT despite being more than 97% in two different games, results page with my name listed more than twenty including at double match point. times, his interest was piqued. After that, he watched several of my streamed matches from the Las Vegas Shortly thereafter, you finished 2nd in Las Vegas, Open, and was impressed with my play. The Mochy this time against Joe Feldman. What are your Challenge between Kentaro and me was held online recollections of that match? five weeks later. For each of the four matches in the series, one point was given to the winner, and one Photo Credit: Lili Iravani This was one of the most memorable and exciting point to the player with the better PR. Cary Hoarty with Clare Phelps. finals matches I have been in, as Joe Feldman and I are very good friends. The field in this tournament PR, which stands for “Performance Rating,” measures In Karen Davis’s profile, Cary mentioned his plan Fortunately, my father was also very supportive, and was very large, and very strong; I had to get through your play’s accuracy throughout a match, regardless of to play in every ABT event for a year. Cary, did he helped financially. We spent the next year putting Steve Sax, Allen Tish, and John O’Hagan along the the dice rolls. The PR formula is (500 x total equity you really attend every ABT event from Wisconsin 60,000 miles on our 2018 Kia Soul, which was fully way. The 17-point final was less exciting than I would lost) / (# of decisions) — a rescaling of average error (August 2018) through Michigan (2019)? How did equipped with a bed, television, Nintendo 64, and have hoped; Joe beat me swiftly. That being said, it per decision. The equity loss is based on all your you budget, and how did you manage to live out of a license plate that read: “BGJURNY”. While traveling was a great experience to play in a major tournament errors, and the lower your PR, the more accurate your suitcase for that length of time? Did your winnings the country, we slept at rest areas, malls, parking final against a pal. decisions were on average. cover expenses? How did you negotiate a leave of garages, and even hotel parking lots. But during each absence from your University studies? tournament we always stayed at the hosting hotel. Joe and I had a bit of fun before the match really Kentaro is an astoundingly good player, and it was started; we decided to play a prank on the live an honor to play him. I was fortunate to edge him Yes, my mom and I really did attend every ABT For many people this trip might sound like a nightmare, stream. I doubled at my first opportunity, then Joe out in overall PR, and to win the entire series which event during that period, and even threw in the but we saw it as the adventure of a lifetime. We were able immediately redoubled, and so on, until we reached came down to the final match. I studied quite a bit in Backgammon Cruise, as well as Phil Simborg’s to see almost the entire country, and made sure to stop at DMP at the beginning of Game One. Of course, we preparation, including playing practice matches with Jamaican Open high roller! Following my freshman every landmark we wanted to see. Though our winnings had agreed that this game would not count, but we Mochy. This was a great learning experience for me. year in college, we made a request about my college did not cover expenses—I almost always had backers got great reactions from the spectators! Almost anyone can benefit from playing the best in scholarships, asking if they could be deferred for who bought substantial portions of my equity—they the world. one year. The premise for the request, which was were definitely helpful. According to Carol Joy Cole’s article on the accepted, was that backgammon is an extremely 2019 Giants voting — Summer 2020 PrimeTime What, if any, career highlights have you achieved mathematical game that fits perfectly with my Your 2nd place finish to Ed O’Laughlin at the 2019 Backgammon at page 28 — yet another memorable in 2020, constrained as this year has been by the studies. My mom has always been a stay-at-home Sunny Florida ABT must have been your most backgammon achievement for you in 2019 was coronavirus? mom, so she was eager to hit the tour with me. memorable achievement up to that point in your competing in the “Mochy Challenge” against backgammon career. What do you remember about Kentaro Meijo, whom Carol described as “one Though I have not played in many online that match? What did you learn from competing of Japan’s best teenage players.” How did that tournaments this year, my mom and I placed first head-to-head against Ed O? match come about, and how did you coordinate in the San Antonio ABT Doubles, one of the few 26 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Board Member Profile USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 27
live events of the year. I also placed 2nd-4th in the Karen Davis’s profile of you covered your affinity Board Member Profile USBGF Summer Finale ABT Online!, and 3rd-9th for the marimba. Do you still pursue your interest in the Wild West Shootout ABT Online! – the only in music? Do you enjoy pursuing any interests Jason Briggs two ABT Online! events I have entered. besides backgammon? By Phil Simborg In August of 2020, I began to work for the USBGF I don’t play marimba as much as I used to, mostly as Education Director, Online Tournament Circuit because the instrument is too big and noisy to keep in ason Briggs was elected to the USBGF Board Director, and Social Media Coordinator. I have my apartment. But it is something that I thoroughly of Directors for a three-year term beginning become quite passionate about backgammon over the enjoy, and I believe it will always be a part of my life. December 1, 2020. He will direct the USBGF last three years, and in these new roles I am excited My other main interest is traveling, which obviously Planned Giving Program and serve as a member to share this passion with many others. Since then I pairs very well with backgammon. I look forward to ofJ the Board of Directors of the U.S. Backgammon have been elected to the USBGF Board of Directors. the day it will be safe to travel again. Foundation. –Ed. I respect and appreciate each Board member immensely, and feel honored for the opportunity to Can you please discuss your goals in backgammon I met Jason Briggs about five years ago at a work with this group to promote enjoyment of the and in life? backgammon tournament in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He game we all love. approached me because he had heard I was a good I am definitely looking forward to winning my first teacher and he wanted to talk to me about improving Photo Credit:Nick Mele Compared to three years ago, is your “backgammon live ABT Open division. Aside from that, I just love his game. Fast-forward five years, and I moved from vision” better? Can you describe any differences? playing backgammon, and hope I continue to do well Chicago to Florida because Jason had set me up as a Through his private club memberships in Palm Beach in tournaments. lecturer and teaching pro at five prominent private clubs and New York, Jason became interested in Court It comes down to knowing which aspects of a in the Palm Beach area, where I had run clinics and Tennis, an indoor version of the game which dates position are most important. All I can say is that As a college junior majoring in mathematics, my gained many students. So clearly, meeting Jason had a back centuries in England. There are only a dozen I know more today! Each position has many main focus is on completing my degree. I hope to strong, positive effect on my life for several reasons. or so of these courts left in the U.S., and Jason loved quantitative and qualitative features, and my ability have a career in some field of mathematics. this little-known game so much that he now owns to weigh all of them has grown significantly over the In the meantime, Jason went from a low Intermediate a company which makes the special racquets the last three years. Besides the topics we have covered, is there player to a strong Open player, and while I humbly players use, and he also sponsors some key players. anything else that you would like to say? take partial credit for his improvement, Jason also got Jason plays the game well and earned a Silver Medal In the Spring 2020 issue of PrimeTime Backgammon a lot of help from Bill Robertie, Steve Sax, and Perry in Mixed Doubles at the 2019 U.S. Open. at page 79, there is a photograph of you, giving a A highlight in my backgammon career was finishing Gartner along the way. lesson to your girlfriend Clare. There is an ancient third in the 2019 ABT points race. On the last day Proving that he is a man with varied skill sets, he has Latin proverb to the effect that “We teach, so of the 2019 California State Championships (the last A few facts: Jason is 49, was raised in Philadelphia won trophies in golf, tennis, swimming, table tennis, that we ourselves can learn.” Have you found that ABT event of the year), I was still in the running and graduated from Columbia University, and also tennis, backgammon, and court tennis. However, teaching has helped you improve your own game? to win the ABT title. Unfortunately, I lost in the attended Oxford University in the U.K. His primary the game which eventually captured his heart and semifinal of the Consolation. Had I finished second residence is in Palm Beach, FL, and he also has a attention is backgammon. Absolutely! I have spent quite a bit of time, especially in the Consolation, I would have finished second in summer home in Northeast Harbor, ME. Jason is in the past year, teaching backgammon to Clare the ABT points race, and winning the final would divorced and spends as much time as he can with Jason has been playing backgammon socially for and a few others. Teaching not only requires that I have given me the 2019 ABT championship. Just his 10-year-old son, Charlie. Charlie, by the way, many years, but he really didn’t get serious about his understand the positions, but also that I convey my knowing that I had a shot at it was very exciting for is a truly fine backgammon player, and I would say game until around 2016, which is when I first met understanding well. I have been forced to analyze me, and I was still elated to achieve third. he’s among the best in the world under 15. Notably, him. positions more closely and that has definitely Charlie played in his first professional tournament improved my play. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond (Advanced division, Sunny Florida tournament) at In Palm Beach there are several private clubs that had to my questions. just eight years old. Like his Dad, Charlie is a whiz at some occasional social backgammon get-togethers but math, which we know is a real plus in backgammon. no really serious activity. Jason took it upon himself 28 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Board Member Profile Jason Briggs USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 29
to grow the game at all of these clubs, not just the for the local kids. Here is a man who not only loves ones where he was a member. He brought me in for playing backgammon, but is dedicated to growing the that effort, along with Bill Robertie, Steve Sax, Perry game wherever he happens to be! Gartner, and later, Mochy and Michy, to lecture and to show the members that there is much more to the Obviously, the pandemic has thrown a wrench into game than they may have realized. He sponsored our day-to-day activities, but Jason and I have done tournaments, bought boards and equipment, and much to educate the Palm Beach crowd using online organized matches and tournaments between clubs. play. Many now have eXtreme Gammon and are His efforts have clearly succeeded, as many clubs in actively using it to improve their game. And, as any the area now have weekly backgammon nights as well experienced backgammon player knows, the more as regular tournaments for both singles and doubles. you learn about the game the more fun it is and the more addicted you become. When things go “live” I had the honor of playing in a Pro-Am event and again, we already have plans for many lectures, won it, defeating my teaching partner, Perry Gartner, lessons and tournaments, all in Palm Beach. in the finals just last year. Jason encouraged the clubs to hire me for regular lectures and “beat the pro” By the way, due to Jason’s influence and introductions, sessions. Consequently, I moved to South Florida to I am also involved with other clubs in Florida outside spend more time with Jason and his friends. of the Palm Beach area, and I see the game growing at those clubs as well. A couple of them have hired Over the last few years Jason organized many events me to give seminars and lectures in order to help between clubs, including an invitational that featured their teams get strong enough to compete with the eight players from each of several clubs competing Palm Beach clubs, as well as other clubs around the simultaneously. He regularly provides huge trophies country: in New York, D.C., and elsewhere. Most and has also arranged for Steve Sax, me, and others to USBGF members are not aware of the long-standing give lectures and lessons — and he has underwritten tradition of backgammon at these private, wealthier all the costs. His generosity is unbounded. These clubs, and with Jason’s help, we are doing much to efforts have not only led to tremendous growth of grow the activity and game at those clubs. the game in the local clubs, but have also motivated many Palm Beach-area players to start attending the I’ve said a lot of nice things about Jason here and it’s Jason, Charlie, and Christian Briggs, Sunny Florida, 2018. Photo Credit:Candace Mayeron weekly South Florida events, and to compete in ABT not just because we have become close friends. In tournaments around the country. all the time I’ve spent with him I have never seen him demonstrate any acts of poor sportsmanship, You will often see Charlie at tournaments with Jason, It’s pretty clear from all he’s done to date that Jason As I mentioned earlier, Jason has a summer home in no matter how bad his dice and no matter how rude but you might also notice an “older” version of him Briggs is a true benefactor of the game, supporting Northeast Harbor, ME, and, “in normal times” he or out of line any of his opponents are. But what I as well; Jason’s dad, Christian. Christian is a retired and sponsoring tournaments, players, and special invites me and several other backgammon friends to respect the most about Jason is the kind of father he is doctor and also loves the game and has won doubles events, and doing all he can to make the game more join him. Of course, we love the golf and tennis and to Charlie. With all of his interests and activities and titles with Art Benjamin and Perry Gartner. Jason popular with his peers. And it’s beginning to pay off. all the great Maine lobsters and the ocean, but as you travel and work (yes, he is actively involved in some of and Steve Sax, his dear friend and teacher, won the His peers are starting to show up at ABT events; can expect, we play a lot of backgammon too. The the companies he owns and invests in), Charlie always 2018 Colorado State Doubles Championship. these are people Jason has personally encouraged to most notable tournament we regularly compete in is comes first and that has paid off in spades; Charlie is a compete and test their skills at a higher level than for a charity that raises college funds for the local kids great kid, not to mention a top honors student, taking what they might be used to. We are so happy to see who work at the Northeast Harbor Golf Club. Jason courses way above his grade level. his efforts bear fruit, and the entire backgammon originated this tourney with his dear friend, Temple community owes a debt of gratitude to my good Grassi, and it has raised tens of thousands of dollars friend, Jason Briggs. USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 31
Art Benjamin: Backgammon Career Art finds both online and live play appealing. He An accomplished player, Art is #11 on the All-time knows he must spend more time on study if he wants American Backgammon Tour (ABT) with a total to improve his game. For the last four years, he has of nearly 200 points. He had a lot of early success taken lessons from David Presser, top Israeli expert playing in Southern California. Propelled by winning and author, to sharpen his game. David urges him the 1993 Autumn Grand Prix Tournament in La just to play his best game, and not to change his play Jolla, California, he placed second to Marty Storer in based on his opponent. And he loves importing his the first ABT in 1993. He then went on a fantastic matches into XG and learning from his mistakes. winning streak, placing in seven tournaments from 1993 through 1997, finishing third in the ABT Art participates in the Backgammon Masters in 1996 and winning in 1997. In 1997 he won the Awarding Body (BMAB) qualification process. Michigan tournament, his first major tournament He has a 4.69 PR and is ranked as a BMAB win outside of California. He finished second in Master, Class 1. His goal is to get to a 4.0 PR and a Pittsburgh in 1998. Grandmaster ranking.
He took a hiatus from backgammon as his Professional Career professional career as a mathemagician took off, Art grew up in Cleveland, where he attended public and he devoted time to his young family. In the last high school, going on to receive a Bachelor of Science Art Benjamin: five years, he has resumed playing with considerable degree in Applied Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon success as a Doubles partner. With Christian University in Pittsburgh in 1983. He received his 2020 ABT Online! Winner Briggs, he won the Doubles at the Nevada State Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences in 1989 from Johns Championships in November 2017, and in the May Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he met the By Karen Davis 2018 Tournament of Stars, again with Christian, love of his life, his wife Deena. They were married at he split first place with the team of Joe Russell and The Magic Castle in Hollywood in 1993, and have Chris Trencher. He and Chuck Bower were Open two daughters, Laurel and Ariel. Doubles runners-up at the 2018 Michigan Summer Championships. He joined the mathematics faculty at Harvey Mudd Photo Credit:Ariel Benjamin College in Claremont, CA, in 1989, where he has On the USBGF Online Tournament Circuit, he taught ever since, including a stint as department Editor’s Note: Portions of this profile are abstracted and updated from Karen Davis, “Art Benjamin: USBGF Board of has an Elo rating of 1898, which puts him 1st on chair, and now serves as the Smallwood Family Directors and TED Talk Mathemagician” in PrimeTime Backgammon, Fall 2018. the USBGF Online Leaderboard. He ranks 4th in Professor of Mathematics. He has been repeatedly 2020 USBGF Online Master Points, and 18th in honored by the Mathematical Association of America rt Benjamin, a member of the USBGF Board of Directors since 2011, won the inaugural All-time Online Master Points. Included among (MAA) for his research, teaching, and writing. ABT Online! with a stellar year. Among the 17 ABTO events, he compiled an impressive these tournament wins was the 2020 Tournament He served as co-Editor of MAA’s Math Horizons 72-37 win-loss record, and finished first in three tournaments (Buffalo/Niagara, Ohio, and of Champions, a contest among 2019 tournament magazine for five years. Princeton Review profiled Summer Finale), took second in one event (Spring Fling), and cashed in six others (Michigan, winners. Benjamin in their book, The Best 300 Professors. Minnesota,A Sunny Florida, St. Louis, California, and Chicago Classic). Altogether he earned 70 ABT Known as a “mathemagician,” he has demonstrated Online! points, with Brian Lonergan placing second with 61 points. Ray Fogerlund edged out the U.K.’s Tim and explained his mental arithmetic techniques to Cross, 39.35 points to 39.29, to finish third. audiences throughout the world. Reader’s Digest calls him “America’s Best Math Whiz.” His book, Five women finished in the top 20, representing one-quarter of the field. Kate Elmore was in fifth place Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to overall. See p. 121 for all of the top 20 finishers, who will receive plaques at the next in-person USBGF Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks, is Awards Dinner, with trophies going to the top three. one of the most popular math books for the general 32 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Tournament Report ABT Online! Summer Finale Final Match USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 33
public, with over 300,000 copies sold worldwide. He is a sought-after lecturer on the ABT and ABT Looking Toward the Future It has been translated into more than a dozen Online! Circuit. He made a video called Counting In Art’s opinion, backgammon is the best game for the mathematically languages. His most recent book, which was a New Magic: Handy Mental Shortcuts to Improve your inclined. It can also be a great tool for learning mathematics. He hopes York Times bestseller, has the fun title The Magic of Game. This lecture was originally presented at the to build even more connections between the USBGF and the collegiate Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why. 2018 Michigan Summer Championships and then mathematics community and eventually write a book for the general recorded at the 2018 Silicon Valley Open. It provides public on the mathematics of backgammon. He has produced five math courses for the video simple math tricks for counting, memorizing, and series The Great Courses. These are: Secrets of calculating that will markedly improve your game. In the future, Art would like to see the USBGF continue to attract Mental Math; Joy of Mathematics; The Mathematics Once you see the way that Art calculates with his and retain members, produce a high-quality magazine, support of Games and Puzzles: From Cards to Sudoku; fingers, you’ll appreciate the “Handy” in the video’s tournament directors, and support novices. He looks forward to seeing Discrete Mathematics; and his newest course, title! improvements on the USBGF website and rating system, and hopes a Math and Magic. Art has given three TED good backgammon server can be developed on which all members can Talks (Mental Math, Statistics vs. Calculus, and Backgammon at Joint Math Meetings play. With more people playing online these days, he would love to see Fibonacci Numbers) which have been viewed over Art has leveraged his status as a leading member of USBGF share the joy of backgammon online with live and recorded 20 million times. In 2017, the Joint Policy Board the professional mathematics community to introduce playing and teaching sessions. for Mathematics awarded Professor Benjamin its thousands of math enthusiasts to backgammon. Communications Award for bringing mathematics He concludes: “Why do I love backgammon? I can think of no better to the masses through his books, videos, and His efforts began in August 2011, when over 1000 game where a little bit of math goes such a long way.” presentations. mathematicians gathered in Lexington, Kentucky, for MathFest 2011, the annual meeting of the Service to the USBGF and the Mathematical Association of America. At Art’s Position Analysis Backgammon Community initiative, the meeting featured “Backgammon Art has served on the USBGF Board of Directors Night,” a free social event offering group lessons, a Art Benjamin vs. since 2011, and was recently re-elected to another quiz designed especially for top-level mathematicians, three-year term. He is currently Chair of the and a tournament to test their newly acquired skills. Brian Lonergan: Final Governance and Nominating Committee and serves on the Executive Committee. He is also a member This initial effort has grown to an evening of social Match, ABT Online! of the U.S. Backgammon Foundation Board of backgammon at the Joint Mathematics Meetings Directors, a charitable 501c3 organization. He is a (JMM) of mathematical societies that take place Summer Finale Beaver Founding Sponsor, and generous contributor each January in cities around the U.S. Art arranges to the Foundation’s backgammon educational the sessions and recruits local clubs to come and By Marty Storer activities. He has a passion for stimulating interest in work with professors and students of different skill the game and for educating young people. levels. The workshops are designed to highlight the mathematical aspects of backgammon and recruit rt Benjamin, this year’s ABT Online! winner, faced Art contributes a regular column called “Math more college students and professors to the game. second-place finisher Brian Lonergan in the ultimate Overboard” for the quarterly issues of PrimeTime round of the ABT Online! Summer Finale. (Ray Backgammon, featuring bite-size techniques for Fogerlund placed third, edging out U.K. star Tim Cross backgammon counting, memorizing, and calculating. byA a fraction of a point.) Art stormed to victory, but the 13-point final Recent articles have discussed how to remember take match was exciting nevertheless. With the help of our favorite bot, points for initial doubles, and estimating your game eXtreme Gammon or XG, I will analyze 12 positions from that contest. winning chances in long races. The current issue’s article discusses cube actions that arise in the last few At his fifth move of the first game, Brian already had a cube decision: rolls of the game. 34 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis ABT Online! Summer Finale Final Match USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 35
Position 1 would not only have stolen some equity but would Now Brian offered a strong double and Art took, a Position 3 have gained new information that he could use later bad idea because his position is too undeveloped. His Score Pips Score Pips in the match. He would be more inclined to double in 48-pip deficit means he will be gammoned too often 13-Away White (Lonergan) 155 13-Away White (Lonergan) 84 close positions, reasonably believing that Art might for comfort, and it will take a while before he can 13-Away Black (Benjamin) 179 13-Away Black (Benjamin) 130 pass too soon. Brian is obviously the favorite here, so build enough of a board to make hitting a real threat. at worst a double might not have been far wrong. White on roll. Cube Action? White to play 63 In discussing Position 1, I mentioned what can 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Brian’s roll was a monstrous 66, making the 14 and 7 reasonably be called the "Double a little early" match- 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 points and hopping the back checker out to Art’s bar play stratagem. It's possible Brian succeeded here point. Art stayed on the bar, and suddenly Brian was with another kind of ploy, "Don't double when your too good to double. He rolled 63, bringing a checker opponent has an obvious take," hoping the opponent around to his 9 point. But Art came back with 54 to makes an error later in a more difficult position. anchor on Brian’s 5 point. This was the position with Brian on roll: Brian rolled 51 to clear his 14 point and make his 9, and Art made his 4 point with 42. Art was able to Position 2 build a threatening board and had a good holding game in the following position (Position 3 at right). Score Pips Brian’s roll was 63 and he had to decide whether to 13-Away White (Lonergan) 122 volunteer a direct shot, or else to bury checkers deep 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 13-Away Black (Benjamin) 170 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 in his board and hope for better things later. ND Winning Chances: 67.09% (G:26.09% B:2.51%) 7/1 6/3 +0.241 ND Winning Chances: 32.91% (G:6.64% B:0.28%) White on roll. Cube Action? 7/1 4/1 +0.238 (-0.002) D/T Winning Chances: 67.21% (G:26.25% B:2.59%) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ü 13/10 13/7 +0.102 (-0.139) D/T Winning Chances: 32.79% (G:6.69% B:0.32%)
Best choice: Double / Take ü No Double +0.830 (-0.060) Double/Take +0.890 Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.418)
Brian has a big lead in the race, and is ready to improve his position further. He should double. Art has enough to take, with all checkers in play and an anchor on the 24 point. It’s important that Brian does Brian Lonergan, 2020 Runner-Up not yet have outfield builders aiming at his open 5 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Brian is a 32-year-old accounting and finance professional from Louisiana. point. In bad variations Art can fall back on some Known as a tough competitor, he was a star of last year's ABTO, winning ND Winning Chances: 75.18% (G:16.92% B:0.30%) kind of ace-point game, likely with reasonable timing. ND Winning Chances: 24.82% (G:3.37% B:0.11%) twice (Viking Classic and Chicago) and cashing five more times (Beale St. D/T Winning Chances: 75.22% (G:18.24% B:0.44%) Blues, St. Louis Gateway, Summer Finale, Buffalo, and LA Open). Brian left the cube in the middle, possibly because D/T Winning Chances: 24.78% (G:3.74% B:0.11%) he thought his position was too good to double. Best choice: Double / Pass However, it seems much more likely that he wanted No Double +0.979 (-0.021) to improve his position further before turning the ü Double/Take +1.148 (+0.148) cube. Even so, he could have considered doubling to Double/Pass +1.000 2 as a kind of test. If Art passed incorrectly, Brian 36 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis ABT Online! Summer Finale Final Match USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 37
Positions like this can be hard to solve. Brian Position 4 XG's rollout says the best of a bad lot is simply 24/20 Position 5 volunteered a 15-number shot, a risky decision 13/8, though two alternative 5s are reasonable: 6/1*, Score Pips Score Pips because Art’s five-prime and outfield control will keeping Art off balance, and 8/3, slotting a potentially 13-Away White (Lonergan) 169 13-Away White (Lonergan) 190 very likely be enough for a hit to be winning. Brian useful inner-board point. As the trailer at a lopsided 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 151 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 150 was afraid of leaving a greater number of shots later, score, Brian should be wary of inflexible or committal but he has enough time to wait, either for a double plays, like the stacking 13/8, or 6/1* which puts a White to play 54 Black to play 42 to clear the midpoint or a better opportunity to checker out of play for blocking. He wants to maintain 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 volunteer a shot. For example, he might be able to options to play a holding game or backgame as the volunteer if Art breaks his five-prime without making underdog. But despite stripping the midpoint and another point in his inner board. At worst Brian stacking a fifth checker on the 8 point, 13/8 is quite might have to leave a direct shot that gives Art about reasonable because it protects Brian’s racing chances. the same hitting chance he has after the blotting play chosen. It would have been much better to “pay later,” Art replied with a roll of 21, entering both checkers either with 7/1 4/1 or 7/1 6/3. with a hit. Brian was happy to come back with double ace, entering with bar/23 and making his 5 point. Art hit with 41, but Brian rolled double 2 to come in Art hit Brian’s 9-point blot with 62, Brian made the and make the 5 point, putting Art on the bar against coveted advanced anchor on Art’s 5 point, and now a five-point board! But Art burst Brian’s bubble with Art had 42 to play.
26 from the bar, jumping out to the 17 point. Brian 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 failed to roll an ace to come to the edge of Art’s Art brought the outside checker around the corner, to 24/20 13/8 -0.326 23/21 8/4 +0.135 prime, and Art cashed the game to go ahead 2 – 0. Online Match Series! 24/20 6/1* -0.340 (-0.014) ü 16/10 +0.105 (-0.030) Play on the USBGF Team against All-Time 24/20 8/3 -0.343 (-0.017) 23/21 13/9 +0.089 (-0.047) In the next game Art doubled fairly early after ABT Point Leader Neil Kazaross! Vote on ü 13/9* 6/1* -0.365 (-0.039) 16/14 8/4 +0.079 (-0.056) making a four-point board and putting one of Brian’s Checker and Cube Decisions! Commentary from 13/11 8/4 +0.033 (-0.102) checkers on the bar. Brian made a good decision top experts Kimon Papachristopoulos (Germany) to take; he had to fear being gammoned but still No doubt motivated by his 7-point deficit in the and Grant Hoffman (New Zealand) will help had many chances to win. However, Art did win match, Brian played aggressively, hitting twice with improve your game. Art brought the outside checker around the corner, to a gammon for 4 points, opening a lead of 6 – 0. 13/9* 6/1*. But although as a big match underdog you his 10 point where it may prove useful — as a builder In the game after that, Brian played an 18-point should seek opportunities to complicate, Brian should for making the bar, or a slot for the potentially holding game but missed a shot after Art cleared have tried a more solid play. His forward position is valuable 10 point. I certainly would have made this his midpoint. Art rolled double 4 to bring the last too weak to support the loose double hit against Art's play at the virtual table, and am skeptical of XG's checker home and bear two checkers off, and Brian strong setup; the resulting attacking chances are just recommended 23/21 8/4. had to pass Art’s 2-cube on the following roll. too dicey. Brian does not want to be hit back, and his 20 point is critical for defense. The race is close But XG may be right in preferring the conservative play, The fourth game of the match is worth special enough that he must seize the chance to grab the which prepares to escape the back checker and duplicates scrutiny. The next eight positions come from that advanced anchor. Brian's hitting 4s in two places. Art’s play is attractive game. With Art leading 7 – 0 to 13, both players enough positionally, but it is somewhat risky. Although were tested by a complex strategic and tactical battle. Brian may have to give up his advanced anchor in order to hit in Art's outfield, six of the 17 hitting numbers keep At his third turn, Brian had to decide whether to To participate visit http://usbgf.org/category/olm/ the anchor, and double 5 is a mini-joker. make an advanced anchor or go for a double hit: or check the What’s New section on the Home Page for the most recent post. 38 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis ABT Online! Summer Finale Final Match USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 39
XG's recommended play looks ugly but may well be The alternatives are (1) to make the 9 point with three Art's play is actually the least committal. Some Brian played 8/2*, putting Art on the bar but moving correct. See the analysis of the next position to learn checkers and forgo the 7 point, and (2) to make the 7 purists may cringe at Art's choice, but it's fine and a checker deep within his board. With four checkers more! point but leave a third blot with 13/9. flexible, perfectly meeting the position's needs. The back and dubious chances to go forward, Brian has results of a strong 4-ply rollout uphold Art’s move. A to be wary of such antipositional plays. In general, In reply to Art’s normal-looking play of 42, Brian was Playing against a full backgame, or even a developing rollout with standard settings (3-ply for checker play, the more checkers back, the greater the disadvantage happy to hit with 63, knocking back Art’s builder and backgame such as Brian’s, it is often best to "put your XGR for cube decisions) gives a similar ranking of in dumping checkers to low inner-board points. The keeping both anchors. Art rolled 44 in reply. checkers where you want them" despite leaving blots. plays but smaller differences between alternatives. forward checkers should be placed with an eye toward Here, I believe Art made the best choice. He still has forming a strong board or prime. Position 6 two back checkers to escape, and Brian is not going Brian’s next roll was 51: to let him do so without a fight. Brian has what Bill In fact 8/2* is wrong. Better would be 15/9 (XG's Score Pips Robertie has called a "two-way forward game," where Position 7 preference), or even 15/10 8/7 which leaves a triple 13-Away White (Lonergan) 181 he will try to contain Art's back checkers but will direct shot but forces Art to hit and give Brian more 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 159 Score Pips likely be hit if his containment attempt fails. Being timing in order to escape. Such timing-oriented 13-Away White (Lonergan) 181 hit will give him timing and enable him to play a plays are often desirable when far behind in a match Black to play 44 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 143 backgame if necessary. with reasonable backgame possibilities. They signal 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 that you aren't afraid to take risks to improve your White to play 51 Art's immediate priority is to escape his back position. Many opponents will play too conservatively 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 checkers. He does not want to allow Brian to switch in response. from a potential backgame to a viable priming- attacking game. Therefore he made the best possible Brian’s backgame is playable. With deeper backgame point, his 7, and played safe with 8/4. He did not points such as the opponent’s 1 and 3, you must make the 9 point, for two reasons: because losing always worry about escaping spare back checkers. the midpoint gives up too much outfield control, Here, the 20 anchor is a convenient launching pad for and because the 7 point is such a good landing spot any checkers that may be hit. for fleeing checkers. Nor did he leave a blot on his 9 point; that would risk being hit and subsequently
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 contained. ü Bar/21 11/7(2) 8/4 -0.010 As the backgame defender, you should try to keep Bar/21 13/9(3) -0.025 (-0.015) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 your checkers in play for priming. If your opponent Bar/21 13/9 11/7(2) -0.056 (-0.046) 15/9 -0.114 cannot gain much by hitting, you can afford to slot 15/10 8/7 -0.125 (-0.011) and make important points, freely leaving blots if 15/14 8/3 -0.172 (-0.059) Art made a safe and constructive move, grabbing the need be. Here, such plays are risky because Art does ü 8/2* -0.186 (-0.072) valuable 7 point and playing 8/4 to avoid an outside not want to be hit. The shape of the game has not yet 8/7 8/3 -0.194 (-0.081) blot. The question is whether he should create a dilly clarified, and 8/4 is not the ugliest move; at least the builder on his 4 point; the spare checker would be spare checker on the 4 point can be used to make or better situated on the 8. slot the 3. 40 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis ABT Online! Summer Finale Final Match USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 41
Art rolled 42 in reply: Brian replied with 53. Bar/22 15/10, which gives Art too many targets Brian knew he had to make the 4 point and keep for attack, is second best but still quite wrong. the 8 point slotted. He made his 11 and 4 points, Position 8 Position 9 Alternatively, the purely timing-oriented bar/20 an excellent hybrid priming and attacking play. The 13/10 is overcommittal; sometimes you must embrace resulting position is shown below (Position 10a). Score Pips Score Pips your backgame, but you should not be too eager to 13-Away White (Lonergan) 175 13-Away White (Lonergan) 198 avoid safer plans. The blot-happy bar/20 13/10 loses Position 10a 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 145 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 139 even more gammons than the anchor-breaking play Score Pips Brian selected. Black to play 42 White to play 53 13-Away White (Lonergan) 163
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 130 But Brian’s forward-going play worked out well. Art made his 9 point, but Brian created containment After Brian played 44 correctly, making the threats by escaping two checkers to Art’s outfield. In 4 and 11 points. the following position Brian had 44 to play: 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Position 10
Score Pips 13-Away White (Lonergan) 179 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 126
White to play 44 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Bar/21 6/4 +0.161 Bar/20 8/5 -0.052 Bar/21 13/11 +0.153 (-0.008) Bar/22 15/10 -0.110 (-0.057) ü Bar/23* 13/9 -0.007 (-0.168) ü Bar/20 23/20 -0.120 (-0.067) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Bar/20 13/10 -0.159 (-0.107)
Art erred with bar/23* 13/9, recirculating Brian’s Each of XG's top five plays makes the 4 point. Two badly placed checker and giving him more timing. Brian entered on Art’s 5 point, a natural and logical prime-oriented alternatives (making the 7 point, and He should have made the 21 anchor with the 4 and choice. But with the rest of his roll he gave up his 23 making both the 9 and 11) are big blunders. Though played either 13/11 or the ugly 6/4 for the deuce. I anchor by putting a second spare on the 20! Maybe the 11 point is outside the prime-field that includes prefer 13/11 despite the long 4-ply rollout, which he hates backgames with a passion — not the worst the 8, 6, and 5 points, the two checkers on the 11 are slightly favors bar/21 6/4 over bar/21 13/11 at a attitude to have! — but he should have kept the builders for that prime-field. statistical significance level of 93.7%. It seems wrong double anchor in Art's board. The best play is bar/20 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 to pile a fourth checker onto the 4, thus creating 8/5, retaining the midpoint and leaving many options 15/11(2) 8/4*(2) +0.491 a big structural weakness. With 13/11 Art would open. After that move Brian may be able to attack 15/11 8/4*(3) +0.418 (-0.073) keep a flexible position which would give Brian more Art's blots and end up with a strong board or prime 15/11 13/9 8/4*(2) +0.414 (-0.077) chances to err. that allows him to go forward. 15/11 14/10 8/4*(2) +0.412 (-0.078) 13/9(2) 8/4*(2) +0.386 (-0.104) 15/7(2) +0.298 (-0.193) 15/11(2) 13/9(2) +0.143 (-0.348) 42 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis ABT Online! Summer Finale Final Match USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 43
Making the 11 point is better than making the 9 Position 11 Position 12 Brian rolled 65 to hit and make his bar point, and (shown below in Position 10b). Art replied with 64, correctly jumping to the 15 Score Pips Score Pips point and leaving two blots in Brian’s outfield. Brian 13-Away White (Lonergan) 162 11-Away C White (Lonergan) 166 Position 10b missed with double 6, and Art cleared both blots. 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 101 1-Away C Black (Benjamin) 131 One of Brian’s back checkers escaped, but Art primed Score Pips the other and rolled home to victory in the game and 13-Away White (Lonergan) 163 Black on roll. Cube Action? Black to play 61 match. Art Benjamin had won the USBGF ABT 6-Away Black (Benjamin) 130 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Online! Summer Finale, a stepping-stone on the way to his second ABT championship! After the weak alternative of making the 4 and 9 points. As for the final match: Don’t let a few mistakes 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 fool you. Everyone makes them and some make more than others. Both Art’s and Brian’s eXtreme Gammon Performance Ratings (PRs) were grandmaster-level, below 4.0. Certainly both players will continue to do well, and deserve our congratulations and esteem.
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ND Winning Chances: 60.79% (G:48.65% B:1.21%) 16/15 16/10 +0.463 ND Winning Chances: 39.21% (G:7.56% B:0.29%) 16/10 7/6 +0.423 (-0.040) D/T Winning Chances: 61.00% (G:48.76% B:1.14%) ü 16/10 6/5* +0.422 (-0.041) D/T Winning Chances: 39.00% (G:8.06% B:0.30%) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13/7 6/5* +0.386 (-0.076) Best choice: No Double / Take 1 0/4 6/5* +0.369 (-0.093) Compared to making the 9 point, making the 11 Help grow the ü No Double +0.530 increases outfield coverage and thus does the most for backgammon community Double/Take +0.436 (-0.093) long-term priming chances. It also gives more return Art took the opportunity to clear the 16 point, Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.470) one player at a time! shots if Art hits back on Brian's 8 point. making the valuable 10 point and using the ace to knock Brian off the 5. Though this move may Donate via PayPal to: After Brian’s nice play, Art entered with 41 and Brian In a rollout, XG says that at 0-0 to 13, Art would easily work well, there's no hurry to take a two-blot [email protected] rolled 21 to make the 8 point. But Art rolled double 6 have a strong double and Brian a 0.949 take. But risk. Art can become a huge favorite if he clears his to point on his 2 point and make his 1 for a five-point doubling would be a big mistake; the position is outfield points without being hit. Best is 16/15 16/10, board. Brian stayed on the bar and Art was on roll. volatile, and at the current score Brian's winning giving Brian 15 shots and one blot. In contrast, the To set up a charitable Despite his big lead, he paused to consider whether chances give him great redoubling power. Art play Art made leaves two blots with 18 ways to hit on bequest to the USBGF, to double: correctly left the cube in the middle. the 5 point and five more ways to hit outside. contact [email protected]
Brian scored a two-point win in the next game, but Your tax deductible lost two points in the following game and another donation benets the point in the next. Then, in Game 8, he found himself future of backgammon behind at Crawford needing 11 points to win. By the through education - the seventh move Art had gained a clear edge, and his USBGF Foundation is a 501(c)3 roll was 61: USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 45
Improving Your Play 3rd-Roll Complex: Following Up the 64 Pointing Play Get into by Albert Steg
ne of the more surprising revelations That won’t be news to folks who began playing in the of backgammon’s computer era has bot era of backgammon, who might be amused to hear been that making your 2-point with that there was a time when top players and theorists an opening 64 (commonly abbreviated even eschewed the 3-point in favor of bringing down the Game O“64P”) is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. two builders with a 53 opener. While it’s no surprise that a pure-play guru like Barclay Cooke would have Join the U.S. Backgammon Federation today! Position 0 advocated 13/10 13/8 (The Cruelest Game, p. 26), even Paul Magriel in 1976 discussed the 3-point as “not When you join the U.S. Backgammon Federation, you can play in online tournaments, Score Pips effective” as an opening blocking play Backgammon( , participate in the Online Match Series where members vote on checker plays and cube decisions 17-Away White 167 p. 54). So of course making the lowly 2-point was in a match against the #1 All-time American Backgammon Tour player Neil Kazaross, get 17-Away Black 167 tips from experts, view over 200 teaching videos that will improve your game, and much more. scarcely worth discussing, it was so obviously wrong. (Bill Robertie alludes to the “snickers” a suggestion of Premium and Founding Sponsors get all that plus electronic access to the quarterly PrimeTime Black to play 64, making the 2-point 64P might have earned in chouettes back in the 1970s, Backgammon magazine and discounts from backgammon vendors. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 and his newly published How to Play the Opening in Perks of your membership with the U.S. Backgammon Federation include: Backgammon (2019) provides a lot of rich anecdotal history about how opening gambits evolved from the Many ways to compete online: USBGF Teaching Videos: 1970s until now.) But there it is, right in between ABT Online! tournaments, Pick-a-Pro Short 15-20 minute teaching videos are splitting and running according to the eXtreme Jackpots, USBGF Online Tournament available at http://usbgf.org/category/bg- Gammon opening book, all of them essentially equal… Circuit, and special tournaments organized problems/video/. Over 200 teaching videos at least if you play the way XG plays. by the USBGF. have been posted. This is a great resource for novices and everyone who is still learning! And there’s the rub. Pointing with 64 is a play Chris Bray’s Learning Curve: unlike any other opener owing to the uniquely anti- Every Monday, renowned British columnist Learn from Expert Players: positional structure it establishes. Perhaps the best argument for choosing this play over the other two and author Chris Bray posts a position on the The USBGF provides support for streaming 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 options is that many opponents will flub the reply, USBGF Facebook page. Answers are provided of top players’ matches at American 24/18 13/9 +0.013 tossing some immediate equity in your lap. But then on Tuesdays with explanations of why a given Backgammon Tour events. ü 8/2 6/2 +0.011 (-0.002) the monkey jumps onto your own back as you’re faced decision is best on the usbgf.org website just 24/14 +008 (-0.004) with a much larger array of difficult 3rd-roll positions for USBGF members. 24/20 13/7 -0.059 (-0.072) that will threaten to claw back that equity, and more. In fact, here’s some advice that will improve your Why wait? Join today at usbgf.org game with a minimum of effort: just don’t make your 2-point with an opening 64. Even at gammon-go, 46 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Improving Your Play 3rd-Roll Complex: Following Up 64P USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 47
where XG has pointing best by .022, you’ll have to the back men. In contrast, making your 2-point Replying to the 64P Opener Position 2 play extremely accurately to enjoy the small advantage stretches out the distance between your rearward and Before getting to the third roll, let’s make sure we Score Pips it confers. But read on if you’re curious, by all means. most advanced checkers to a near-maximum 23 pips. understand how your opponent should be replying 17-Away White 167 Marc Brockmann Olsen refers to this range as the to your opening gambit. After all, getting some 17-Away Black 157 The first and most widely appreciated structural “connectivity zone” (Pure Strategy, p. 35) and stresses inaccurate replies is part of your motivation for oddity of 64P is that it makes a point six pips in that when you lead in the race, you should generally making this play to begin with, so it’s worth noticing White to play 21 front of the 8 point, undercutting its blocking power. look to shrink this zone. Making your 2-point does whether you’re enjoying any of this upside in practice. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 You begin every game with two points established just the opposite of that. This factor will have a in a priming zone that ranges from your 3 point back substantial impact on your 3rd-roll decisions, as the Position 1 to your 14 point. The 8-point cannot participate in racing game plan should be nurtured, but will not be Score Pips a prime that begins on the 2 point (the 7th point in easy to pursue. 17-Away White 167 a prime being superfluous). Therefore, by consigning 17-Away Black 157 two valuable checkers to the deuce, you are essentially So, 64P badly compromises your priming game and sacrificing your priming game plan. Even if you were complicates your racing game. What’s to like? Well, White to play 43 to follow up with 11 and make your bar and 5-points, “a point’s a point,” and your lowly 2-point will keep 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 you would find it very difficult to fill in your 3 and 4 an opponent on the bar as effectively as your 5-point points while your opponent sits back on your will. Like real estate, if you can get it for free it’s ace point. probably worth owning, even if it’s not in the most
convenient location. With a two-point board, your 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 A second distinctive feature of 64P is less obvious: attacking game plan is strengthened, just as when you 13/11 6/5 -0.123 it’s a racing play that doesn’t run! 64 is an above- make one of the more attractive inner-board points. 13/10 -0.156 (-0.033) average racing number, and by making your 2-point, Playing well in this complex requires that you keep 24/21 -0.178 (-0.055) you have “locked in” a 10-pip gain for the moment. your attacking game plan foremost in your thoughts, Only the 65 “Lover’s Leap” opener locks in such a because you have largely committed to that strategy. racing advantage — but that play also enacts a racing b) Slotting correctly pursues a priming strategy (21, strategy, safely achieving half of the task of escaping 41, 51, 62). The increased cost of being hit after your
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 opponent has made a fresh point in his board usually discourages the slot, but after 64P it is solidly better 13/10 13/9 -0.109 than playing more meekly (Position 2). Slotting is 24/21 13/9 -0.150 (-0.041) marginally better than 13/8 when replying with 41, 24/20 13/10 -0.162 (-0.053) essentially forced with 51, and tied with the major Position of the Week split 24/18 13/11 on a 62 roll. Your opponent already a) Minor splits foolishly invite attack (21, 23, 25, trails in the race, and having a checker sent back will Renowned British columnist and author Chris Bray 34, 45). Some players may misinterpret the seeming make it easier to secure an advanced anchor, foiling posts a position each Monday on the facebook. thinness of your offensive structure as a free pass your attacking strategy, so being hit is not so costly. com/USBGF page. Post a comment with your to split their back men, but inviting attack in this preferred play and see the answer on Tuesday. manner is exactly the wrong idea. While it’s okay on 52 (-.005) and only a smallish (-.015 or -.012) error to Members may visit usbgf.org website split either way with 32, the cost of splitting on other for a complete explanation in rolls (for example, Position 1 above), is steep. Chris’s The Learning Curve column. 48 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Improving Your Play 3rd-Roll Complex: Following Up 64P USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 49
Position 3 c) Running deep into the outfield is bad (62, 63, 64, Following up the 64P Opener Position 5 54). When your opponent has stripped his 8-point, it is Score Pips Score Pips always easier to camp out on his bar-point without fear of Position 4 17-Away White 167 17-Away White 162 being hit with a spare ace. So it’s never correct to play a 17-Away Black 157 Score Pips 17-Away Black 157 checker all the way out to the 16, 15, or 14 point. At best 17-Away White 164 it will cost you -.022, and at worst much more than that. White to play 64 17-Away Black 157 Black to play 21 after White plays 13/8 Instead, make the major split out to your opponent’s bar- 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 with 41 point with 63 and 62 (or, as we have seen, slotting is also Black to play 11 after White slots with 21 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 acceptable with 62). But with 64 you must mirror your 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 opponent’s opening play and make your own 2-point! This is perhaps the play your opponent is most likely to get wrong, and at the greatest cost.
d) “Naturals” and doubles play naturally (31, 42, 53, 61, 65, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66). It’s hard to go wrong on any of these. Stepping up for a better anchor with 22, 33, and 44 is always at least tied for best, though your opponent’s poor priming game makes it acceptable to play the all-
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 offense 13/11(2) 6/4(2) with 22 and 8/5(2) 6/3(2) with 33. Unsurprisingly, doing anything but the standard 8/2 6/2 -0.107 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 24/20(2) 13/9(2) with 44 is a huge blunder, and making 24/14 -0.178 (-0.072) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 24/23 13/11 +0.058 the bar and 5 points with 11 is virtually forced. 24/18 13/9 -0.190 (-0.083) 24/20* +0.254 24/21 +0.029 (-0.029) 24/22 6/5(2) +0.131 (-0.123) 13/10 +0.024 (-0.034) Even if you don’t elect to open with 64P yourself, you’ll 8/7(2) 6/5(2) +0.114 (-0.140) 13/11 6/5 +0.017 (-0.041) certainly want to be a master of these replies, since these days almost everyone seems to be doing it! Now let’s look at how to follow up the play if you’re in the 64P club. Don’t Play a Priming Game. Students of the opening Keeping your game plans in mind should also steer reply know to hit a slotted checker on the 20-point you away from costly slotting plays, as in Position 5. with 31 but to leave that checker alone with double 1s, Volunteering 14 chances of forfeiting your racing lead making the powerful all-out priming play 8/7(2) 6/5(2) betrays the logic of your opening 64 gambit. Slotting Albert Steg lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife Alyson and works instead (against unsplit checkers). In Position 4, given key points is a priming tactic. Splitting, on the other as a freelance Filemaker Pro database developer. the decreased blocking value of your 8 point, you might hand, gets your back men moving in racing mode expect 8/7(2) to be a terrific upgrade – and it is. This (often by way of gaining an advanced anchor along A familiar face in Boston chouettes since the 1990s, Albert has roll offers you the best possible opportunity to revive the way) – and your extra home board point usually ventured into the wider ABT scene more recently, notching promising a priming game, but it’s a huge -.123 blunder to try! gives you the edge in a blot-hitting contest should you results: he won the Blitz event in Las Vegas (2016); the Limited You’ll get this play and many others right if you take be attacked. Marty Storer points out, too, that Black’s Jackpot in Chicago (2015); finished second in the USBGF National your game plans seriously: hitting contributes to both 6-point, only four checkers high, isn’t exactly top- Championship West (2017); and won the Warm-Up event at the 4th your racing and attacking strategies. If you want to play heavy and doesn’t cry out for unstacking1. Merit Open in Cyprus (2016), topping off a field of 256 players. a priming game, choose a different 64 opener.
1 Albert is an organizer of the New England Backgammon Club, where Intriguingly, both volumes of Marty Storer’s Backgammon Praxis begin with a 64P opener, each played by Malcolm he was club champion in 2015 and finalist in 2017. Davis. This happenstance leads to a great deal of interesting discussion and useful analysis of the topic. Although Praxis remains out of print, the author is working on a re-release. He can be contacted by email at: [email protected]. 50 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Improving Your Play 3rd-Roll Complex: Following Up 64P USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 51
Position 6 Position 7 Position 8 Position 9
Score Pips Score Pips Score Pips Score Pips 17-Away White 162 17-Away White 160 17-Away White 162 17-Away White 159 17-Away Black 157 17-Away Black 157 17-Away Black 157 17-Away Black 157
Black to play 11 after White splits to Black to play 41 after White splits to Black to play 41 after White splits to the Black to play 31 after White splits with 62
Black’s 3-point Black’s 4-point Black 3-point 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 24/21 8/7* +0.037 6/5(2) 2/1*(2) +0.268 24/23 8/4* -0.055 13/8 -0.085 13/10 8/7* +0.004 (-0.032) 24/22 6/5(2) +0.154 (-0.114) 24/23 24/20 -0.099 (-0.044) 24/23 24/20 -0.105 (-0.020) 8/5 6/5 -0.022 (-0.059) 8/7(2) 6/5(2) +0.144 (-0.124) 13/8 -0.111 (-0.056) 24/23 13/9 -0.106 (-0.021) 8/3* -0.151 (-0.066) Properly focused on your attacking plan, and willing 6/1* -0.177 (-0.092) Pursue your Attacking Game. When your opponent Even if you have attacking in mind, you might well to sacrifice your 8 point to prevent your opponent splits on the reply, you should expect to attack, balk at hitting loose in situations like Position 7 from anchoring on your bar, you won’t be distracted and the 64P opener presents some unusual tactical unless you have fortified yourself with study and That insight will help you see why hitting in this by the shiny prize of your 5 point in Position 9. opportunities that are easy to overlook. Once you see practice. You have only eight checkers in the zone, seemingly similar situation (Position 8) is wrong, and Usually, you would follow up the hit with 13/10 if the switching play in Position 6, it’s quite obvious you and must give up a useful point to do it, yet hitting by an even larger margin! (Hitting with 21 here is you had made a better priming point in your home should pursue your attacking plan by putting your is right by a substantial margin. So you must develop somewhat less bad, but still poor, -0.025.) White’s board – but now this unstacking play is nearly a opponent on the bar against your three-point board, an appetite for this kind of wide-open, lightweight checkers are less well diversified for priming or blunder. In fact, if you’re going to play this wrong, but the play is so unlike any other in a typical early attack if you are going to play 64P as your opener. anchoring here, so leaving him alone is less risky; you’re better off eschewing the hit altogether and just game that it’s easy to miss. There are few opening It may help to recognize you achieve something else but another important difference is that you use up making your 5 point after all. The 64P complex is plays in backgammon that present such an easy by hitting: you frustrate your opponent’s desire to your whole roll by hitting, so you don’t get to split full of these kinds of positions where relying on your opportunity to blunder so grievously on your very develop a priming game by taking away half his roll, your stragglers. Perhaps the fact that White’s blocked habits of following up 31, 42, or 53 openings will lead next roll. and your split makes it more likely you will achieve 2s now hit back is also a factor, but “hitting and you badly astray. an advanced anchor if hit in return, also undercutting splitting” is a familiar and effective tactic in the early his priming game. Often when your attack plan fails, game when other plays are too passive, as when you you will fall back on a viable holding game. attack the straggler on your ace point with 52 or 54 after your opponent splits to your bar. 52 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Improving Your Play 3rd-Roll Complex: Following Up 64P USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 53
Position 10 Position 11 Position 12 Position 13
Score Pips Score Pips Score Pips Score Pips 17-Away White 160 17-Away White 158 17-Away White 162 17-Away White 162 17-Away Black 157 17-Away Black 157 17-Away Black 157 17-Away Black 157
Black to play 41 after White splits to the Black to play 54 after White uses 54 to build Black to play 33 after White plays safe with 41 Black to play 44 after White plays safe with 41
Black 5-point 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 24/15 -0.010 24/21(2) 8/5(2) +0.494 24/20(2) 13/9(2) +0.628 24/20 6/5* +0.061 24/20 13/8 -0.026 (-0.016) 8/5(2) 6/3(2) +0.477 (-0.017) 24/20(2) 8/4(2) +0.569 (-0.059) 6/5* 5/1* +0.059 (-0.002) 13/9 13/8 -0.032 (-0.022) 24/21(2) 13/10(2) +0.432 (-0.062) 13/5(2) +0.459 (-0.169) 13/9 6/5* +0.028 (-0.033) 13/10(2) 8/5(2) +0.412 (-0.082) 24/16(2) +0.432 (-0.196)
The preference for splitting over unstacking in the Another familiar opening principle to be abandoned preceding examples is consistent with our interest Doublets provide you an immediate way to shorten And yet, again, a similar decision (Position 13) is that when attacking a checker high in your home in developing the racing game plan: you should feel that connectivity zone, so unless your opponent has split results in a different solution. Having rolled 44 in board, you should leave that checker slotted on a added urgency to get your back checkers moving. In his back men, inviting attack, you should advance the same situation, you do indeed advance the back point that you would wish to make, rather than Position 11, unstacking your midpoint and restocking your own back men with half your roll. Position 12 checkers, but now you unstack the midpoint with continuing on to hit a second checker way down on your stripped 8-point is clearly productive, but instead provides a nice illustration of priorities. Swapping your 13/9(2) rather than swapping your 8-point for an your ace-point. But having made the 2-point, you are you should run a checker all the way into the outfield, devalued 8-point for your coveted 5-point with 33 will inner-board point. While the order of inner board (a) far less invested in making your points in ideal pursuing your race. Remember that you want to shrink always be superior to unstacking your midpoint. Note points is generally less important having committed priming order, and (b) far more averse to having a that 23-point “connectivity zone.” It might help to that advancing the back men is marginally correct to an attacking game, the distribution of checkers is checker sent back, owing to your racing advantage. imagine an elastic band stretched all the way around even though White’s very weak priming threat would just much better after coming down. Note that the So the double-hit plays generally gain strength the board exerting a pull on those back checkers: normally allow you to focus purely on offense. The correct play in both cases avoids the familiar “every having made your 2-point, while the unstacking bringing two down just stretches it even tighter. peculiar checker distribution that results from this play is other point” pattern (10/8/6 and 6/4/2) that leads to option suffers in comparison to the hit-and-split typical of proper play in this complex, again illustrating duplication of a lot of good numbers, and also that option. The result is that the usual hit-and-down the need to focus on game plan and not aesthetics. 8/4(2) leaves you without a convenient ace to play play is now a solid error. Often the double-hit and However, if your opponent has split with his reply, it anywhere on the board. 13/9(2) outperforms 8/4(2) hit-and-split plays will be close, as in Position 10 – will usually be right to leave your back men alone and very consistently in following up 64P. The pure but hitting twice is thematic, easy to remember, and develop your attacking posture. For instance, when your running play 24/16(2) is very wrong, as it almost never wrong by much. opponent splits “high” with 32, you should play 13/10(2) invariably is in opening play, as improving your 8/5(2), challenging him to anchor immediately. position in two ways typically trumps a 54 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Improving Your Play 3rd-Roll Complex: Following Up 64P USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 55
hyper-improvement in a single aspect of your game. Position 14 offers another departure from usual But of course it’s never as easy as that, and there Maybe the best reason is just for fun. By steering Unstacking will make it much easier to bring your practice. Double 6 usually plays naturally by making are plenty of positions where rival plays are hard to away from the familiar, you add variety to your checkers home safely. both bar points, but if you can hit twice by playing compare. What’s particularly alarming about this game. Standard holding games and races may be 13/7*(2) 7/1*(2) you should just go for the knockout 3rd-roll complex is the high cost of getting plays good for your PR, but we all like games that make Position 14 punch. Your opponent will have to pass a cube in wrong. In my previous two articles on 3rd-roll you sit up and pay attention due to their novelty and the 27 games where he fails to come in with both positions, the second-place plays would typically difficulty. (Aren’t the “PR killers” the most fun to Score Pips checkers. But even at DMP, the double-hit is correct cost a player -.02 to -.08 in equity. Of the 90 or play?) Perhaps to be considered a “complete player” 17-Away White 158 by a big .051 margin because affording your opponent so positions I’ve included in the Taskmaster quiz one ought to be able to follow up 64P accurately, just 17-Away Black 157 a whopping 17 numbers that anchor and frustrate accompanying this article, a couple dozen of them as you should defend against back games well, or bear your attacking game is far too generous. Hitting involve playing doublets in non-obvious positions in checkers against an ace-point game for maximum Black to play 66 after White splits with 63 twice benefits your attacking plan far more than it where making a plausible but incorrect choice will safety. Whatever it might be, just be sure you know 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 costs your running game, and is similar in approach cost something in the -.050 to -.120 range. Blunders your own reason for pointing with an opening 64, to Position 6, where you used 11 to make your 5 point abound. And of course the complexity doesn’t end and know how to follow it up. and switch from your 2 point to your 1 point in order with your 3rd roll: when things don’t go smoothly to put your opponent on the bar against your three- you’ll be plagued with a disjointed position and tough As with my two previous articles, I have prepared point board. tactical and strategic decisions for much of the game. a Backgammon Taskmaster file that includes the 14 exemplary positions from this article and a whopping The preceding problem helps to explain a big part of So why bother? There are just a few reasons I 70 additional positions for practice in mastering this the challenge in playing the 64P opener: your two can think of. First, 64P is the XG Book play at difficult 3rd-roll complex. There are also a further 10 most promising game plans are in conflict. When you “Gammon Go” where rollouts give it the nod by a “Continuation” problems that invite you to explore make a better point on your opener with 31, 42, or +.0221 margin. If you pride yourself on knowing some further decisions that arise on the 5th or 7th even 53, subsequent plays like bringing two down that, and you want to claim that small morsel of rolls of games where you open by making your 2 with 54 contribute to both priming and attacking equity in the blue-moon occasions where you roll 64 point. The Taskmaster presents the problems in quiz 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 plans. Your options remain open and your plays at a GG score, you don’t want to embarrass yourself format, allowing you to self-score your performance 13/7*(2) 7/1*(2) +0.855 often serve two strategies. Not only do you close off blundering back a ton of equity on your very next and then re-quiz yourself over time on the positions 24/18(2) 13/7*(2) +0.715 (-0.139) one game plan with 64P, but your subsequent plays play. More compelling is the fact that sometimes you find most difficult. will tend to benefit either racing or attacking, but you’ll wind up properly making your deuce point not both, and the cost of pursuing the wrong game early in the game (perhaps in reply to your opponent’s TheBackgammon Taskmaster is available only for use on plan is often very steep, as it is in any backgammon opening 64P), so you will be forced to confront these the Apple iPad, and requires that you first download position. scenarios occasionally. the free Filemaker Go app from the Apple App Store. Full instructions and match files are available A rough priority list does emerge. Your first on the NEBC website at nebackgammon.org/ imperative is to attack enemy blots, hitting twice if index.php/bg-taskmaster/. If you should meet with you can. Absent that opportunity, favor getting your any difficulty using the Taskmaster, please email the back checkers in motion, splitting or running as author: [email protected]. seems best. The lowest priority is placed on bringing new material down from your midpoint, bringing attacking and point-making material into the zone. 56 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 57
Book Review Marty, who also served as the book’s overall editor, As an artistic plebe, I can only tell you that the analyzes positions 4, 5, and 8. These analyses artwork is fun to color, with lots of mandala- Color Me Backgammon illuminate the concepts of risk vs. reward, aggressive like geometric designs. The boards and checkers vs. safe play, the importance of the 5 point, and themselves are also colorable. But the star of the By Steve Waller some of the ways artificial intelligence software and show is Pip, the raccoon raconteur who inhabits analysis have changed our strategic play and vision. these pages and takes on a life of his own! There is Color Me Backgammon: A playfully serious backgammon book Position 8 deals with the end game and emphasizes a humorous two-page spread at the end of the book for players of all ages and levels the importance of counting the number of winning in which Pip good-naturedly mocks each of the five rolls in different variations. Marty has also composed collaborators. Produced by Phyllis Shapiro; Positions analyzed by Roberto Litzenberger, an Appendix, “How to Count,” which has already Wilcox Snellings, Marty Storer, and David Todd; helped me improve my PR (Performance Rating)! Layout and Design by Lorien Balofsky; “Pip” created by Ezra Goldberg. Amazon Publishing, 2020. ISBN (979) 856-5416411. Positions 6 and 7 are presented by Roberto, who The blurbs on the back cover are stellar. This book uses them to highlight concepts of the “pay now vs. is endorsed by luminaries of the game: Michy Go to colormebackgammon.com for the lowest price in the U.S. and later” problem in early end-game positions, as well as Kageyama, Carol Joy Cole, Frank Talbot, Art Canada; see amazon.com for other destinations. reinforcing Magriel’s criteria for “safe vs. bold play.” Benjamin, and Arda Fındıkoğlu. Besides carefully Finally, David discusses some of the little-understood studying the positions, I’m looking forward to using issues and strategies regarding the back game, which this book to introduce my grandchildren can be critical to surviving this sometimes harrowing to backgammon! COLOR ME BACKGAMMON, subtitled “A Although each problem comes complete with XG type of position. playfully serious backgammon book for players of all analysis, the descriptions and explanations are not ages and levels,” is indeed all that, and also a book heavy with statistics. Instead, the top several plays whose time has come. Phyllis Shapiro has merged a are compared and contrasted, and the analysis backgammon book with the popular (especially now!) is integrated smoothly into coherent and cogent genre of adult coloring books. The result is an artistic, discussions. concise, readable, and highly entertaining way to improve your game. Wilcox analyzes the first three positions, the first two of which discuss some important aspects of the early Ten positions, with their solutions, are arrayed on game: establishing an anchor, offense vs. defense, full-page spreads so they are easy to visualize and blocking vs. escape, and the value of assets/equity. analyze. The four analysts, who are backgammon The third position illustrates, in the middle game, masters, teachers, and champions, take multiple the importance of maintaining contact when behind, core concepts in each example and make them advice which many inexperienced players have a hard Steve Waller has been a practicing clinical anesthesiologist in understandable to players at all levels. Roberto time accepting. Minneapolis, Minnesota for almost 35 years. He lives with his Litzenberger, Wilcox Snellings, Marty Storer, and spouse, Michelle, and their three male tuxedo cats in a northwestern David Todd are familiar to many of us, and each suburb of Minneapolis. brings a unique perspective to the fundamentals of modern backgammon. When he’s not working, he enjoys tennis, golf, traveling, playing with his six grandchildren, and, of course, backgammon. He belongs to the Twin Cities Backgammon Club, has won the USBGF Advanced Division tournament several times, and hopes to travel to more live tournaments once he retires in a few years. Photo Credit: Michelle Waller American Backgammon Online! Tour We are excited to announce live match streaming of the American Backgammon Online! Tour sponsored by the U.S. Backgammon Federation. Streaming may be viewed on: USBGF YouTube channel. Announcements of streamed matches may be found on the ABT Facebook page. Expert Commentary Expert commentary is provided by USBGF Board members, grandmasters, Giants of Backgammon and American Backgammon Hall of Fame honorees including: Neil Kazaross, Steve Sax, Chris Trencher, Roberto Litzenberger, and Ben Friesen. 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. Purchase an Ad Purchase a Notice or Ad of your organization or event. Contact Dan Minardi at [email protected].
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The event was named for Lee Genud, the 1981 Backgammon World Champion and the first woman to win that title. She joined the streaming team for an interview with Joe Russell. The interview and streamed matches may be found at:
• facebook.com/ukbgf/videos • Round 1 : facebook.com/(510) 300-799062334/videos/(192) 204-095856695 • Rounds 2-4 (Saturday): facebook.com/(510) 300-799062334/videos/(173) 846-880958613 • Rounds 5-8 (Sunday): facebook.com/(510) 300-799062334/videos/(105) 218-5031952566 Tournament Report Players Both countries assembled first-rate teams of eight players for the event. 2020 Genud Cup The U.S. team consisted of Karen Davis (captain), Rain Ackerman, Kate Elmore, Laura Granger, Patty Johnson, Irina Litzenberger, Kara By Marty Storer and Karen Davis Schultz, and Antoinette Williams. U.K. team members were Anna Price (captain), Rebecca Bell, Anna Clarke, Julia Hayward, Dorothy Lee, Rachel Rhodes, Cecilia Sparke, and CJ Uttley.
The U.S. team was selected based on performance in the 2020 USBGF he inaugural Genud Cup, a challenge between women’s Women’s National Backgammon Championship, held October 3-4, backgammon teams from the USA and the U.K., was held on 2020 on GridGammon.com. Twenty-eight women competed in this the Heroes.BackgammonStudio.com server, November 28- triple elimination Swiss event of 11-point matches. The winner was Kara 29, 2020. It was a round-robin format with 9-point matches Schultz with a 5-0 record. Tied for second with 4-1 records were Rain Tbetween the eight members of each team. Three points were awarded Ackerman, Karen Davis, Laura Granger, and Patty Johnson. Qualifying for each match won, and 1 point for the player with the better eXtreme for the team based on PR were Kate Elmore, Irina Litzenberger, and Gammon Performance Rating (PR) evaluated using Backgammon Antoinette Williams. Karen Davis donated $500 in added money, and Masters Awarding Body (BMAB) settings — thus there were 4 points personalized T-shirts for all the women on the team. at stake in every match. In a closely contested event, the USA prevailed by a score of 129-127. The U.K. team won 33 matches to 31 for the Genud Cup Results: Overall U.S. Points USA, and Team USA had the better PR in 36 matches to the U.K.’s 28. Players earned distinction on many fronts: matches won, best PRs, and points won – details are provided below. The event was organized by Julia Hayward from the U.K., and Joe Russell, chairman of the U.S. Backgammon Federation Board of Of the U.S. players, highest points accumulated went to Karen Davis Directors. Both the U.K. Backgammon Federation and the USBGF with 22 points, followed by Antoinette Williams with 18 and Irina contributed $250 to the prize pool and marketed the event through their Litzenberger with 17. Of the U.K. players, highest points accumulated communication outlets. Andrew Selby and David Potter headed the went to Rebecca Bell with 25, followed by Julia Hayward with 19 and streaming team, with a distinguished set of commentators that included CJ Uttley with 18. As noted above, each match win was awarded 3 Jon Barnes, Chris Bray, Julian “Jooles” Fetterlein, Geoff Hall, Neil points, and 1 point was awarded for better PR of the two opponents in Kazaross, Gaz Owen, Rory Pascar, Joe Russell, Steve Sax, each match. See Table 1 (Page 62). and Bob Wachtel. Graphic Credit: Kris Heuer 62 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Tournament Report 2020 Genud Cup USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 63
Table 1. Genud Cup, Wins, PR Points, and Total Points Genud Cup Players of the Event Conclusion The tournament directors, Julia Hayward and Joe It was an extraordinary, close performance all around. United PR Total United PR Total Russell, bestowed a Player of the Event award to one While the USA won the points tally 129-127, the States Wins Points Points Kingdom Wins Points Points member of each team. The award was based on the U.K. won the most matches (33-31) and edged out best overall performance, including total points and the USA on average PR, 9.145 to 9.208. Team USA Antoinette Williams 4 6 18 Anna Clarke 3 4 13 Performance Rating. The Genud Cup Player of the players had the better PR in a greater number of Irina Litzenberger 4 5 17 Anna Price (c) 3 3 12 Event for the U.S. was judged by the directors to be matches (38 to 26). Kara Schultz 3 7 16 Cecilia Sparke 3 3 12 Karen Davis, and Rebecca Bell won the award for the Karen Davis (c) 5 7 22 CJ Uttley 5 3 18 U.K. Kate Elmore 3 6 15 Dorothy Lee 4 0 12 Laura Granger 5 1 16 Julia Hayward 5 4 19 Patty Johnson 4 2 14 Rachel Rhodes 3 7 16 Position Analysis Rain Ackerman 3 2 11 Rebecca Bell 7 4 25 Tota l 31 36 129 Tota l 33 28 127 2020 Genud Cup
The average PR was also close, with the U.S. averaging 9.21 and the Position Analysis U.K. 9.15. Antoinette Williams had the best average U.S. PR with 6.61, and Rachel Rhodes topped the U.K. team with 6.70. In individual By Marty Storer (with thanks to Aaron Jordan for copy editing) matches, Antoinette had the best single PR with 2.78 in her match against Rachel Rhodes, Cecilia Sparke scored 2.87 in her match against ith the help of eXtreme Gammon Position 1 Antoinette Williams, Karen Davis had 3.23 in her match against (XG), I will examine several decisions Score Pips Dorothy Lee, and Kara Schultz earned 3.7 in her match against Cecilia from each of two notable Genud Cup 9-Away White (Davis) 163 Sparke—all BMAB grandmaster-level results. See Table 2 and the matches. Rebecca Bell and Karen 9-Away Black (Bell) 161 Scoreboard for more details: WDavis were the respective Players of the Event, and Rachel Rhodes and Antoinette Williams were the Black to play 41 Table 2. Genud Cup, Average Performance Rating PR winners. Both 9-pointers were interesting and full 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 of action. There were very many instructive positions United United and I tried to choose some good ones. As usual, I’ve States Avg. PR Kingdom Avg. PR learned something in the process of analyzing them.
Antoinette Williams 6.61 Anna Clarke 8.78 Rebecca Bell vs. Karen Davis Irina Litzenberger 7.75 Anna Price (c) 11.16 In the first game Rebecca made a good play in Kara Schultz 7.2 Cecilia Sparke 7.33 the opening (Position 1 at right). She anchored on Karen Davis (c) 7.07 CJ Uttley 12.38 the 18 point and played 6/5 with the ace. Though Kate Elmore 8.17 Dorothy Lee 11.13 this move is completely logical, it is quite tempting to Laura Granger 14.28 Julia Hayward 7.59 make the 8 point in an attempt to repair the broken Patty Johnson 10 Rachel Rhodes 6.7 outfield (which resulted from making the 5 point on Rain Ackerman 12.58 Rebecca Bell 8.09 the previous turn, actually a principled choice and 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Team Average 9.208 Team Average 9.145 likely best). However, the 18 point is a stronger asset ü 22/18 6/5 +0.171 at the moment, protecting against attack. After 13/8 22/18 8/7 +0.128 (-0.043) Karen would be happy to blast away at the blots on 24/23 22/18 +0.072 (-0.098) her side of the board, and could easily escape her back 13/8 +0.053 (-0.118) checkers later if the opportunity arose. 64 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis 2020 Genud Cup USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 65
Later in the game, Karen doubled and Rebecca took, If Rebecca hits in Karen's board after 8/1*, then Karen Karen won two points that game. In the next, The best move is to make the 9 point and leave 12 both correctly. Rebecca turned the game around may gain a direct return shot at a second blot, after Rebecca had an intriguing choice on the cusp of the shots (any 1, plus double 6). Though it's usually best and “missed” a redouble on three occasions, perhaps which Rebecca will usually not be at the prime’s edge middle game: to "prime an anchor, attack a blot," the 9 point does deeming each position too good for a cube-turn. In bidding strongly to escape. If Karen picks up a second a lot to restrain Karen's back checker — perhaps for the end she had a fine chance for gammon, but Karen checker in any variation, the game is almost hers. Position 3 long enough to allow Rebecca to attack. Being hit on hit a last-ditch shot and soon had 61 to play here: the midpoint is not as bad as being hit in Rebecca's Score Pips There are related scenarios that occur after 8/1*. inner or outer board, in which case Karen would do 7-Away White (Davis) 133 Position 2 If Rebecca gets to the edge of the prime without two good things at once: not only hitting but also 9-Away Black (Bell) 149 hitting, then Karen will attack. In that case the ace- starting to escape her back checker. Score Pips point blot may be helpful, increasing the chance for 9-Away White (Davis) 94 Black to play 42 Rebecca to hit and thus give Karen a direct shot to Karen hit the blot with 62, later clearing her outside 9-Away Black (Bell) 36 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 pick up the blot in Rebecca's board. checkers and cashing the game to go ahead 3 – 0 (or 6-away to 9-away). White to play 61 Whether Karen plays 8/1*, puts a blot on her 2 point, 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 or simply leaves her 8 point slotted, Rebecca will be In the third game, Karen attacked with an early forced to hit in order to hop out from behind Karen's double ace, and Rebecca fanned on the two-point five-prime. This mitigates the effect of any variation board. Karen had a cube decision: where Rebecca hops out of Karen’s board.
And, whether Karen hits loose on her 2 point or makes US Player Profile that point, she rolls forward. If Rebecca hits back, she Karen Davis (C) • President and Executive usually allows Karen a winning direct return shot. Director, U.S. Backgammon Otherwise Karen will most often close Rebecca out. Federation (2017-2020), 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Chairman and President of U.S. 13/9 11/9 +0.186 Backgammon Foundation Karen's actual play gives Rebecca a welcome chance • Organizer of the Cherry 11/9 8/4 +0.145 (-0.040) to safety her inner-board blot with an ace or deuce. Blossom and Sunny Florida ABT 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 11/5 +0.131 (-0.055) Backgammon Championships Thus it comes fifth in the rollout, by a surprisingly 8/1* +0.201 ü 13/11 13/9 +0.051 (-0.135) • BMAB Master Class 2 large margin of 0.038 money-equivalent points per 8/2 5/4 +0.190 (-0.011) • #6 in USBGF Lifetime National Master Points, and #2 in game (PPG). USBGF Lifetime Online Master Points. 12/11 8/2 +0.185 (-0.016) It's easy to make this play on automatic pilot. • Member, Team USA in 2020 Magriel Cup, winning 5 of 13/12 8/2 +0.175 (-0.026) her 7 matches If Rebecca's 3-point blot were safe on her 2 point, Rebecca broke the midpoint, playing 13/9 13/11 ü 13/7 12/11 +0.163 (-0.038) then Karen's play of 13/7 12/11 would be best, and to leave Karen only four shots. A better four-shot would be better than the loose hit by 0.032 PPG play is 11/9 8/4, stripping the 8 point and moving a U.K. Player Profile according to a rollout. Without the chance to pick builder into somewhat undesirable position on the 4 Anna Price (C) Karen played 13/7 12/11, bringing an active builder • 3 Gold Mind Sports Olympiad to her 7 point. This looks like a fine play at first up a second checker, Karen could not afford to point, but increasing the number of builder-attackers medals (3 points, 7 points and 11 glance, but the blot on Rebecca's 3 point is critical! dump a checker on the ace point or allow Rebecca and keeping the midpoint for the time being. An points) • Consolation winner of St. Albans Four of XG's top five plays take aim at that blot, simultaneously to hit and get to the edge of the interesting alternative is 11/5, trying to prime or Open 2018, Gilbertson Finals either by hitting loose on the 1 point from the prime. The lesson of this position is that many risky- attack as soon as possible, but giving Karen 14 ways 2015 (BIBA), British Open 2017, 8 point (best according to the rollout), or slotting looking or unnatural plays become correct when the to hit. Winchester Open 2019 • Tuchins Trophy Winner in 2015 (Team event) the 2 point directly. opponent has one or more inner-board blots, and we • Sussex Cup finalist in 2019 should always take that fact into account! • Winner of the Harris and Hoole Cup in 2019 • Qualified for the Tour winners invitational at Shrigley Hall twice. 66 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis 2020 Genud Cup USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 67
Position 4 With a significant lead in a match, such as Karen Position 5 Immediately after Karen’s play as well as later in the has here, do not give an attacking double if you're in game, Rebecca erred by failing to return the cube. Score Pips Score Pips doubt and you're sure your opponent has a take. If She eventually lost two points. I can’t emphasize 6-Away White (Davis) 156 6-Away White (Davis) 176 the tactics go against you, then your opponent may enough the need to be an aggressive redoubler when 9-Away Black (Bell) 157 9-Away Black (Bell) 143 have a powerful redouble. You may have to pass, or behind in a match. play on for 4 at elevated risk and with diminished or White on roll. Cube Action? White to play 21 nonexistent recube power. Rebecca fought back hard, winning three successive 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 games to narrow Karen’s lead. Trailing by a point, she Karen is an aggressive player, and she turned the had an edge in the seventh game. Karen rolled 41, cube, hoping to improve her blockade quickly and and the choice probably did not seem too difficult. perhaps also to attack. But it will be hard for her to do everything at once or in quick succession: block, attack, anchor, escape. Again, the score is a big factor.
If we improve Karen's position by moving a checker US Player Profile from the midpoint to make the 8, and also make Antoinette-Marie Williams • FIRST on GridGammon, to reach the score 0 - 0 to 9, doubling becomes correct but 2016 rating Rebecca's take is still clear. In the game position at • Winner, 2019 Monte Carlo the actual match score, Karen's double is a big error. World Championship Ladies 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Tournament; • Semifinalist, 2018 Monte Carlo ND Winning Chances: 63.77% (G:19.80% B:1.19%) Bar/23 24/23 -0.677 Rebecca took the double, and she gained the Open Championship; ND Winning Chances: 36.23% (G:9.50% B:0.41%) ü Bar/22 -0.748 (-0.071) • Winner 2017 Texas Championship; D/T Winning Chances: 63.76% (G:19.83% B:1.48%) advantage after some lucky rolls. Karen had 21 to • Consolation, 2017 Cherry Blossom Championship; D/T Winning Chances: 36.24% (G:9.36% B:0.43%) play in this position: • 3rd place, 2017 American Backgammon Tour; Karen played bar/22, no doubt because she wanted to Best choice: No Double / Take • 2016 Finalist and 2015 Winner, Merit International maximize her chances to escape a back checker while Ladies Tournament. ü No Double +0.552 US Player Profile keeping her 22 point. But she should have made her Double/Take +0.331 (-0.221) Irina Litzenberger 23 point for a double anchor. That move gives Karen Double/Pass +1.000 (+0.448) • First place, 2018 Ohio State Championship Intermediate more options, allowing her to go for an attack, and Division. perhaps to fall back on a backgame or even a variety Karen has a discernible positional edge, with a • Finalist, 2017 California State of "22-23 holding game" if things go wrong. The Championship Intermediate superior and developing blockade. The race is about Division. double anchor also gives Karen more ways to move U.K. Player Profile even. With nine checkers in the attack zone against • Finalist, 2019 Texas Championship Intermediate a back checker if need be! Moving to the 22 point Anna Clarke a checker on the bar, she has some threats. But each Division. leaves any 6 or 4 to do so, plus a roll of 51 — whereas • Finalist, 2020 Beale Street Blues Tournament. ABT • 2016, met Carter Mattig for the player has two checkers back and Rebecca owns her Online! Open Division. after making the 23, Karen can move a back checker first time, U.K. 5 point. Finally, Karen leads 3 - 0 in the 9-point with any 4, 5, or 6. • Member of U.K. Women’s Team since inception match, so Rebecca is eager to take a cube and try to U.K. Player Profile • Ladies World Champion, turn the game around. Karen still has only a two- CJ Uttley Though Karen’s play was well motivated, flexibility Monte Carlo, 2017 point board, with blots to consolidate. This must be a • Monte Carlo 2011 Beginner - Last of game plan wins out in this position. After the • Runner-up Irish Open 2019 - lost to some guy called Jon Barnes in the final. I was robbed take for Rebecca. Chance winner move played, Rachel should have turned the cube to • 2015 - New York - Advanced • Twice U.K. Open Doubles Champion (with Jon Barnes, Beginner - Main Winner 4, but a rollout says the position would have been no he may have helped) • 2017 - Japan - Intermediate Main redouble against the 22-23 formation. Both of those • UKBGF Board Member 2016-2018 Winner decisions are close calls. • Clubs - St Albans, Newbury, Romsey • 2019 - UK - Intermediate Invitational Main Winner 68 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis 2020 Genud Cup USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 69
Position 6 The main idea is that Karen must increase her threats Karen won two points that game, and followed with US Player Profile by accelerating forward development. In fact she can an undoubled gammon to win the match. Though Kara Schultz Score Pips • 2018, Winner Novice division of easily afford to do so. With a stronger board, and two XG says she was luckier than Rebecca, she scored 4-Away White (Davis) 144 the California State Championship. checkers momentarily stuck on the 24 point, she does one point for better PR as well as three for winning • 2018 Winner, Intermediate in 5-Away Black (Bell) 138 not mind exchanging hits. A third checker back can the match. Like every other American tally, that Sacramento, California. • Cashed in both the Las Vegas improve her defense, as can a fourth if things come PR point was indispensable for Team USA’s win, a White to play 41 Open (2019) and San Antonio to that. With 6/5 she threatens to improve her board victory achieved by the very slimmest of margins. (2020) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 further, and unstacks her extremely top-heavy 6 point. • First place in the Los Angeles Online Open advanced division, June 2020 6 Rachel Rhodes vs. Antoinette Williams Notice that after slotting her 5 point, she remains • Tied for third in Wild West Shootout Online! with five checkers on her 6 (Position 6a below). If you The Rhodes – Williams match was between the two • Currently leads the master points race in the U.S. look at that position a while, it will become clear that PR winners, and saw the tourney’s best PR: a stellar Backgammon Club White really has little choice but to slot. 2.78 for Antoinette. Rachel bore up well under many difficult decisions. Position 6a Antoinette opened the first game by splitting with US Player Profile Score Pips 62, and Rachel hit with 21. Antoinette replied with Kate Elmore 4-Away White (Davis) 139 65: • 2020, Winner, Chicago Classic 5-Away Black (Bell) 138 ABT Online! Open division Position 1 • 2020, Winner, Sunny Florida ABT 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Online! Advanced division Variation: after White’s best play of 8/4 6/5. • Tied 2nd-4th in the St. 8/4 6/5 -0.385 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Score Pips Louis Gateway ABT Online! ü 8/7 8/4 -0.451 (-0.066) 9-Away White (Rhodes) 164 Intermediate division, 2020 • Tied 3rd-6th in the USBGF Spring Fling Advanced 9-Away Black (Williams) 166 division, 2020 • 2017 Atlanta Spring Classic– 1st in Advanced Just about everyone would play the safe-looking 8/4 Black to play 65 • 2014 Atlanta Spring Classic – 2nd in Advanced 8/7 as Karen did, but she badly needs to create a • 2011 Atlanta Spring Classic – 1st Last Chance in Advanced 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 diversion. Her normal and conservative move simply • 2010 Atlanta Spring Classic – 1st Last Chance in consolidates and hopes for better things later, but Advanced it creates no real threats and leaves Rebecca free to increase her edge. That’s a risky proposition because Rebecca has fewer back checkers and is ready to start priming, now or on subsequent turns. U.K. Player Profile 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Julia Hayward The best play is to make the 4 point and slot the • Set up a Cambridge town club 5, leaving a double shot! Though this is obviously and league risky, it takes advantage of duplication: with many All I can say is Wow! There are many other examples • Now involved with running Mind Sports Olympiad as well 3s, including 21, Rebecca will be forced to decide where hyperaggression is the best way to combat a as UKBGF. between hitting and making a point. She can hit with developing prime, but this is surely a position worthy 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 • Won BMAB December 2018 6s, but those are good for escaping anyway. of further study! • Won Cambridgeshire league six times in ü Bar/14* +0.291 eleven seasons Bar/20 24/18* +0.249 (-0.041) • Ten medals in Mind Sports Olympiad, including gold in 2015/7 and seven silvers - I'm good at losing finals • Undefeated in this year's UK Men vs. Women challenge 70 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis 2020 Genud Cup USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 71
Many players get this and similar choices wrong, but Position 2 Position 3 White’s main and reasonable alternative is 21/10, Antoinette has been around long enough to know keeping the useful 18 anchor and trying to make Score Pips Score Pips the controlling theme. (Possibly she knew it even the 4 point. Rachel’s 8/2 7/2 creates a three-and-a- 9-Away White (Rhodes) 184 9-Away White (Rhodes) 181 in 1979 when I first met and played her as a young half-point board but forms a gappy structure which 9-Away Black (Williams) 154 9-Away Black (Williams) 128 sprout, though for some reason I don’t remember.) would give Antoinette an excellent chance to escape Instead of hitting on Rachel's bar point and inviting after being hit. That weak formation is why making White to play 53 White to play 65 a blot-hitting contest — just what Rachel wants now the 2 point is quite wrong. As she did in Position 2, 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 that she has more checkers back — Antoinette hit Rachel must place her forward checkers efficiently. on Rachel’s 11 point. That way she is more likely Here, efficiency means making points in order of to escape one checker and remain with a clear effectiveness; the 4, 3, and bar points are much more advantage. Kit Woolsey says, "When ahead in the attractive targets than the 2. After making her bar race, race," and that's what Antoinette is trying to do. point, Rachel would have a chance to roll a deuce and On top of that she figures to gain good options to gain a solid five-prime that would strike at least a build new points, and perhaps even to attack. Note small bit of fear into Antoinette's heart. that her move is tactically strong, not only because it hits but also because it gives Rachel the immediate and twofold problem of covering the bar point and US Player Profile trying for an advanced anchor. Laura Granger • 2020 Texas State Championship 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1st doubles At Rachel’s eighth move she had five checkers back • 2019 Wisconsin State 1st ü 13/8 11/8 +0.042 18/7 -0.211 to Antoinette’s one, but held a strong double anchor Advanced Consolation 21/13 -0.018 (-0.061) 21/10 -0.233 (-0.022) • 2019 Los Angeles Open 1st and threatened to hit a blot in Antoinette’s board. She 21/18 11/6 -0.033 (-0.075) 24/13 -0.258 (-0.047) doubles missed, and had several plausible alternatives with her 24/16 -0.037 (-0.079) ü 8/2 7/2 -0.291 (-0.080) • 2019 Massachusetts State 1st Queen of Hearts 53 roll: • 2019 New York Open 1st doubles 21/16 11/8 -0.043 (-0.086) • 2019 Las Vegas Open 1st doubles • 2018 Colorado Backgammon Championship, Jackpot Champion U.K. Player Profile Should she break an anchor, or advance the spare Faced with the choice of which if any defensive Cecilia Sparke back checker and take pressure off Antoinette’s anchor to break, Rachel stood pat and made her • 2015: Winner of the Bristol Backgammon Premier League. deuce-point blot? She did neither, but broke her 2 point. Now that she has broken her four-prime, • 2016: Winner of the Monte Carlo midpoint to make her 8. This fine play creates a four- offense becomes a higher priority and for the long Ladies World Championship. point prime and applies maximum pressure. Assets run her best anchors will be her 21 and 24 points. • 2016: Winner of the Ladies tournament in Georgia- 2017: are everything, and the 8 point has great value. No The right play is 18/7, breaking the forward anchor Finalist in the Bristol Open. other move makes a comparable gain; 21/13 is second to remake the prime and add another checker to • 2018 - Winner of the Brunel Cup 2018, a Bristol in the rollout by a nasty 0.061 PPG. her Zone! If Antoinette hits, she improves Rachel’s U.K. Player Profile tournament that runs over a year. Dorothy Lee timing by 7 pips and also must worry about being hit • Was initiated into BG while in Soon Rachel had 65 to play in the following position, back. Even if she makes her bar point, Antoinette Beirut in the ‘70s. not exactly the smaller roll she could have hoped for. figures to have a hard time bearing in and off safely; • Most memorable win was the Las Vegas Open in 2010, three checkers on the 2 point, combined with gaps on intermediate division. the 5 and 3, will hurt her chances. • Winner at Coventry Open in 2013. • Plays in Manchester and Liverpool and anywhere else she can. 72 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis 2020 Genud Cup USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 73
A few turns later, Antoinette had to decide whether Antoinette rolled 41 to miss the 28-number shot, Rachel moved a checker from her 12 point to fill the US Player Profile to double: doing the best she could by moving from her 6 point gap on her 4. This violated a principle of gammon Patty Johnson • Began playing live tournament to make her 1. Rachel replied with anti-joker double saving, to my knowledge first stated in print by Danny backgammon about six or Position 4 6, overstacking her 2 point and repeating the shot! Kleinman long ago. I paraphrase: When trying to save a seven years ago with the Gammon Associates club in Los This time Antoinette hit, and a slugfest ensued. gammon, it is most often wrong to waste pips in order to fill Score Pips Angeles. Antoinette had the better of that, and Rachel tried high gaps in the inner board. If you're going to fill a gap, • Playied in the semi-finals of the 9-Away White (Rhodes) 133 her best to save the gammon. She had 53 to play here: a lower one is usually better — the idea is to use large Tournament of Champions 9-Away Black (Williams) 109 • Won ten straight matches to join the 1000:1 club. numbers to come home and add smaller ones to bear Position 5 off, thus diversifying good throws. And of course, if Black on roll. Cube Action? you can bear in exactly to the 6 point you do not waste 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Score Pips any outside motion and thus tend to get your checkers 9-Away White (Rhodes) 87 home as soon as possible. 9-Away Black (Williams) 6
Both of those observations lead to the right play White to play 53 here: 12/7 9/6, crossing to the 6 point and wasting US Player Profile 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 no outside motion, at the expense of leaving a gap on Rain Ackerman 6 the 4 point. XG's rollout tells us that Rachel's 12/4 is • New to the tournament scene, she is absolutely delighted to wrong by 0.058 PPG, a lot to give up in a gammon- have found herself on a team saving situation. with seven stellar women who all love backgammon. • Interest and enjoyment of the Rachel’s next roll was 32, and she had to play 9/6 game is evolving into a passion which could very well become that "new skill to learn" 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12/10, leading to the following position. to slow (or stop!) cognitive aging. New languages and musical instruments can take a brainy back seat—let's ND Winning Chances: 72.58% (G:32.47% B:0.85%) Position 6 look at that end game! ND Winning Chances: 27.42% (G:7.43% B:0.31%) • Forever an optimist, Rain is hoping that in a year or two, D/T Winning Chances: 72.45% (G:33.62% B:0.99%) Score Pips Women's Backgammon teams of the world will be D/T Winning Chances: 27.55% (G:7.89% B:0.36%) meeting each other in person on each other's turf. 9-Away White (Rhodes) 74 Best choice: Double / Pass 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 9-Away Black (Williams) 1 No Double +0.867 (-0.133) 12/7 9/6 -1.415 ü Double/Take +1.244 (+0.244) ü 12/4 -1.473 (-0.058) White on roll, hoping to save the gammon.
Double/Pass +1.000 12/9 12/7 -1.492 (-0.077) 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Position, Race, and Threats: Antoinette has a clear 7 edge in all of those, predicting at least a double and U.K. Player Profile pass according to Joe Sylvester's PRAT heuristic. Rachel Rhodes • Played at Monte Carlo, Cyprus, U.K. Player Profile Estoril/Portugal, Germany, and Rebecca Bell Realizing that Rachel might instantly improve in the U.S., New York, Texas, Las • Began playing BIBA tournaments Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, in the late 90s. Won a few her game by making her 15 or 4 point, Antoinette and on the backgammon cruise trophies. correctly turned the cube instead of playing on for • Twice won the British Open and • Played for St. Albans gammon. Rachel’s take was a large error, no doubt Liverpool Open Backgammon Club since 2008. due to underestimating Antoinette's gammon • Countrywide, has made fabulous friends and had some chances: over 33% according to XG. Rachel's weak 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 amazing coaches. board augurs poorly for her in any hitting exchange. 74 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Position Analysis USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 75
Here she had 17 rolls to bear off: any 1 would miss As the game went, Rachel rolled 21, which loses a Tournament Report (11 numbers) plus 63, 53, 43, and 32 for a total of 19 gammon in either position. Antoinette led 4 – 0, misses. going on to win the match after first gaining a second Giorgios Lazaris Wins the World four-point gammon following her pushy double and Had Rachel played 53 correctly in Position 5, the Rachel’s correct take, then winning a priming battle Online Championship position would have been this: in the Crawford game. Though her luck factor was well over 5 (through the roof), she played an excellent By Cristi Frisk Position 6a match and gained four points for Team USA. he first World Individual Online Championship Score Pips The inaugural Genud Cup was a fine event, with a has recently ended. The final was played between 9-Away White (Rhodes) 74 breathtaking finish. I wish there were space to cover Giorgios Lazaris (Greece) and Eva Zizkova 9-Away Black (Williams) 1 more of the intriguing positions that came up. (Czech Republic). Zizkova had to win two Tsuccessive matches in order to win the championship. The situation if earlier 53 had been played She won the first, but Lazaris took the decisive match to correctly by White. become the World Online Champion. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Lazaris had PRs of 3.39 and 3.28 in the two matches, 7 and his average for the entire tournament, over 21 rounds in all, was 5.09. The reputable finalist Eva Zizkova played 5.32 in the decisive match and 7.83 in the previous, finishing the tournament with an average of 6.27.
The German Torsten Lux also got to the podium by taking the bronze medal.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 One hundred forty-two players competed; that is Carla Di Filippo was luckier in the final, her PR a new record. The best-ranked among the North being 7.31 against Damon Binesh’s 4.29. Pedro Kiasi Americans were Michael Neagu (Canada; 4.02 PR), and Kazuki Yokota were the bronze medalists. The difference here is that Rachel would have had Alfred Mamlet (USA; 4.68 PR), and Joe Russell 3s to bear in as well as 4s. This results in five more (USA; 4.86 PR), all with 10 – 5 win-loss records and Having witnessed the success of such online gammon-saving numbers! The gap on the 4 point tied for 10th place. competitions of world scope, under conditions of the does not hurt as much as bad 3s do in Position 6. pandemic, the WBIF has already begun a World Rachel would have had 22 numbers to bear off from At the World Youth Championship, 16 players Championship for three-player teams, of which five here: misses include any ace (11 numbers) plus any qualified for the playoff phase after seven Swiss stages have been completed. The World Doubles combination of 4 and 3 excluding double 3 (three System rounds. Carla Di Filippo, from Argentina, Consulting Championship began in December on more misses, for a total of 14). The difference between made it to the final by defeating Andrei Păun Heroes.backgammonstudio.com: triple elimination this position and Position 6 is a good illustration of (Romania), Daminder Singh (India), and semifinalist format, with matches up to 9 points, 18 minutes time the principle stated above. Pedro Kiasi (Iran). On the other side of the draw bank and 15 seconds delay. Teams consist of two the Iranian Damon Binesh prevailed, defeating players who will play two consultation matches as Laura Marinova (daughter of the famous Bulgarian follows: in the first match, one player sits at the board player Petyo Marinov), Behnam Bordbar (Iran) and and partner joins via Videochat, and vice-versa for semifinalist Kazuki Yokota (Japan). the second match. 76 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 77
First and foremost are the accommodations. Where don’t forget to update the brochure, registration will you shoot this production? Is it easy to get to? and website to include the new event – again, more Does it have a large enough meeting space and images, more content, and more HTML. room capacity? Are there places for grub nearby? Is there a saloon? These questions are the number-one The production is only as good as the staff. Staffing consternation of tournament directors, not to mention the production is almost as important as choosing the number-one liability. Most establishments the location, and there are no better staff members begin booking their meeting space 12 months than Ben Friesen (Co-Director of the Wild West out. Depending on the time of year, directors are Shootout) and Candace Mayeron (Tournament Tournament Report competing with weddings, graduations, retirements, Support). Make sure the brochure, registration, and business events, and yes, bridge tournaments. Besides website all include the names of your staff! Lights, Camera, Action! identifying the meeting space required for the event, directors also must determine how many room nights Now that the brochure is ready for print, call printers Behind the Scenes of a Wild West Production they think they’ll need, not just in total, but for each for quotes, determine the number of brochures night. That’s hard to do for a family vacation, let required, and pull the trigger. Maybe you should pay By Dan Minardi alone an ABT production. a little more now and order a smaller quantity; this will allow for final updates. Each brochure you throw Then there’s the guarantee. Every director personally down on the saloon floor is probably $0.15 to $0.60. Photo Credit: Chris Murray/Unsplash guarantees the meeting space and typically 80% of I’m just saying. the room nights, for what is typically a commitment n the day, more than 400 films and television From script to reality — of $15,000 to $40,000. That’s true love! Who does The 2020 sponsor of the Wild West Shootout is shows were produced at a hidden Wild West the 2020 Wild West Shootout! that? So, be kind to your directors – BOOK YOUR GammonStuff, so it’s important that FTH receive the backlot on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. It’s September, 2019 and the first annual Wild West ROOM EARLY! They have enough to worry about. artwork in time to design, manufacture, and deliver Tourists would flock to the Old Tucson Studios Shootout is under our gun belt. Carol Joy Cole has the custom backgammon board for the Quick Draw Iin hopes of stepping back in time to enjoy authentic just won the ABT Open Gunslinger division, with The next task on the production list is get the word event. And since the board event is for a custom shootouts and swinging saloon doors. But the real nearly 100 players participating in this inaugural out: to advertise, so that guests can plan. Again, board, it’s a good idea to have that prize available. Oh, draw (pun intended) was to step through those doors backgammon event. It’s now time to sit back and don’t forget that the competition is brutal, what with yeah, don’t forget to update the brochure and website and see how the magic was made. enjoy a cold one, knowing that we’ve just delivered a all the weddings, birthdays, vacations, and bridge with information about your sponsors! quality production to our audience. tournaments. The sooner a brochure is created, the The USBGF American Backgammon Tour (ABT) easier it is to promote the event. Write the story, Next, the trophies. Because the Wild West Shootout is similar in many ways to a production studio, albeit Whoa, whoa! Get off your high horse and take in describe the event, find the images that portray the is a themed event, trophies should represent the without as many employees and with fewer lights and the smell of the saloon. The 2019 ABT event didn’t entertainment value, add the competitiveness players theme. Finding and purchasing so many Wild West- cameras. Just like movies, the ABT events that you just end—the 2020 Wild West Shootout is about to expect, and lay it out to make it informative, legible, themed trophies is one thing, but when stock is no enjoy, that you buy tickets for, are productions. The begin. and entertaining. And while you’re at it, create the longer available one must be resourceful. Thank way all of these productions are planned and executed online registration, and of course update the website goodness for eBay. (And make a note to identify a makes them entertaining and enjoyable, whether Each year the 20-plus live USBGF ABT themed and so the material is easy to get to; domain names, different trophy for your event next year.) Of course, you are an ABT player or a movie-goer. However, un-themed events begin with the script. How many HTML coding, more images, and more content. the trophies require bases and placards. The bases looking behind the façade, stepping through the players are expected, what events will be offered, how are custom manufactured, including milling; and the saloon doors, reveals that there is a great deal of work many days are required, how many hitching posts Fortunately, the new year provides directors a chance placards require revised graphics for the laser printer. (and expense) required to create that which you’ve are necessary for the rides? These are just a few of to remove whatever didn’t work from the past, and The total outlay of cash for Wild West Shootout come to expect. the all-important questions that need to be asked. to add something new. If the event isn’t growing, trophies is approximately $1500, excluding labor. The answers, whether known or estimated, pave the it’s dying, so let’s make sure it’s growing. Let’s add a Trophies for many smaller events might cost in the wagon trail to success, or failure. new event that pits the old against the young. And, $300-to-$600 range. 78 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Tournament Report Behind the Scenes of a Wild West Production USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 79
Lastly, miscellaneous items must be taken care of. In order to continue to provide the backgammon Online sounds like it should be free. But even online, more content. With the help of the USBGF, our Since the room nights with guaranteed rates are community a stage for the tournaments they enjoy, the outlay of cash (and risk) is significant. Most if job here is complete—notifications are sent to the the biggest liability to the Directors, as well as the the USBGF team members, such as Ben Friesen, not all tournament directors run events not to make a backgammon community using Facebook and email biggest benefit to the players, additional advertising created a new type of tour almost magically—the buck, but because of their love for the community and reminders. Now it’s time to wait, and tweak the can only be beneficial. So, a standing free-form ABT Online! Working with tournament directors passion for the game. This is a tough hobby and an website and registration page, again. banner, with themed graphics and an emphasis on whose events had been canceled, the USBGF helped even tougher business, and the goal is always to come making your boarding reservation early, was created rearrange the schedule for some events and lock in close to breaking even. Despite all the time I spend, It’s a wrap — one for the record books! and purchased (thank you, Candace). Also, small- the dates for those tournaments going from live to I need a co-director to run such a large event. Part The 2020 Wild West Shootout Online! was fantastic. themed tokens of appreciation for early registration online. The Federation cooperated with the entire of the effort is to overcome the problems that come The event included nearly 100 players from around need to be acquired. And, don’t forget to confirm the backgammon community to identify the technology with new technology. There’s an art, newly developed, the world, across the country and local, both young acclaimed and accredited auctioneer for the date of and implement the solutions needed to make ABT in herding 100 players into their correct virtual and old, first-timers and Giants. Ryan Rebelo, the live auction. Online! happen. Some of us were already familiar locations. one of our youngest players, won the ABT Open with some of these things, and some of us learned Gunslingers, while James Fleming won the ABT Other than preparing the brackets and making sure about technology that we swore we’d never touch. Fee And now, once again, for the advertising. These new Advanced Warriors. Al Hodis took home the coveted the logistics are taken care of, I think we’re ready for structures were changed in the attempt to limit the plans will work only if there are enough players. GammonStuff FTH custom backgammon board, the 2020 Wild West Shootout. Wow! There was a lot possibility of cheating. All for the good of the game! So, it’s time to advertise. Players still need to plan. and bounties were paid out for the early demise of to do, but it’s a good feeling to have most of the work The competition is different, but still brutal—now it some of backgammon’s elite players. out of the way, and so early in the year. A new script — the 2020 Wild West includes such things as home repairs, and working Shootout Online! from home on the weekends. Oh, and online bridge The feeling of stepping through the saloon doors What could go wrong — a worldwide It was now time to turn the Wild West Shootout into tournaments. The brochures that were printed aren’t may have been lacking, but given the circumstances, pandemic, perhaps? an ABT Online! event. This started with identifying very useful now, but the website is still a viable it was a production worthy of an Oscar…okay, not It happened quite quickly; live events were no longer which events would still work and which events means for sharing the new story. It’s time to describe an Oscar, but one for the record books. And yes, the possible. After government agencies began restricting needed to be shelved. It was very important to give the new event, find or create a few new images 2020 ABT Wild West Shootout Online didn’t just gatherings and requiring social distancing, the the online players as much backgammon as possible, (still offering bounties for players), redesign online end, the 2021 Wild West Shootout LIVE is about to USBGF followed in kind. No more sanctioned ABT within ABT Online! guidelines—all the while trying registration, revise the entire website, write some begin. events until further notice. So many individuals out to make it feel like a live tournament. more HTML, provide more images, and generate of work, so many events canceled. However, the See y’all in September. backgammon community has been very resilient, After seeing how well Rory Pascar’s online MoreSwiss figuring out how to move live events ONLINE! But, weekly format was working, we decided, with Rory’s for some directors, the logistics were challenging. assistance, for MoreSwiss to meet the Wild West. Certainly not “how to put grub on the table” Next came trophies and scheduling, which took far challenging, but challenging nonetheless. more time than one would have thought. Part of the reason for this was that we had to be sure the entry The first thing most directors did, myself included, fees for the tournament covered the costs of the Wild was to extricate themselves from their hotel contracts. West Shootout Online!; more accurately, we had to In some cases that was easy, but in other cases it ensure that they were at least close. required more persuasion. Waiting until the last minute was also a popular activity. But in the end, there were no more live events for 2020, and all of the hotels rescinded their contracts.
Open Champion, Ryan Rebelo Advanced Champion,James Fleming Jackpot Winner Laura Hoarty Granger 80 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 81
Kate Elmore (GA), a member of the USA Women’s Backgammon Team, won the Advanced division in a tightly contested final match against Larry Brown, director of the Beltway Backgammon Club in the Washington, DC area. Local Florida player Rick Wolf took the Consolation, while Laura Hoarty Granger, newly relocated to Florida but well known for playing doubles with her son Cary in past Sunny Florida tournaments, was second in the Advanced Consolation. Scott Salisbury (CT) took the Last Chance.
Tournament Report Florida is home to numerous baseball spring training camps, so the Rookie division, for beginners and novices looking to move up on the Sunny Florida Online! tour, was appropriately titled! It was won by Steve Peck (MD). James Ross (NY), who winters in Palm Beach, and Lisa Speer, a year-round By Karen Davis Palm Beach resident, took the Consolation and Last Chance events, respectively.
Photo Credit: Denys Kostyuchenko/Unsplash Joe Russell, chairman of the U.S. Backgammon Federation Board of Directors, won the Miami Masters Jackpot in a field of 16 players. Alex he Sunny Florida ABT Online!, held October 8-11, 2020, Toth (WA) was finalist, while Victor Ashkenazi (NJ) and Stuart Hosen offered the wide array of events that have drawn players in the (TX) took 3rd/4th place. past few years to the in-person Sunny Florida ABT tournament – including the popular FTH Board event, doubles, a beginners Patrick Enright (WA) won the Orlando Open Jackpot, with David Tdivision, and lots of jackpots, including senior and women’s jackpots. Klausa (CO) taking second. In the Lauderdale Limited, Ted Cetola, Single-night events were offered for those wanting something to do at from the Orlando, FL area, captured first place; Miami player Juan the end of the day or those only able to come for an evening or two. In all Rospigliosi took second; and Tony White from Ohio finished third. 92 players participated, including 20 who came to enjoy the side events. James Ross took the Rookie Jackpot by defeating Steve Peck in the final.
Tim Cross from the U.K. won the Sunny Florida ABT Online! Doubles events are very popular, but can be complicated to run online Championship, which was played on Backgammon Galaxy with 32 because it is necessary to facilitate communication between partners as entrants. This was his second win on the tour after the LA Open ABT well as to keep the event moving. Backgammon Studio Heroes, which Online! in June, and helped propel him to a fourth-place finish in the offers excellent chat features as well as a playing clock, was tapped as ABT Online! points race. Tim is a Backgammon Masters Awarding Photo Credit: Chrissie Cross the backgammon server. The team of Marc Emrich (CO) and Pat Fusco Body (BMAB) Grandmaster who is currently ranked second on Tim Cross, UK Grandmaster, won the (TN) won the event; Boris Dekhtyar (NY) and Felix Goykhman (NJ) Backgammon Galaxy out of over 30,000 registered users! He tied for Open event and finished 4th in the were second. third in the USBGF Spring Fling Online! and was on the third-place ABT Online! points race. team in the USBGF Tournament of Stars. His foray into USBGF online Events that begin and end in an evening are attractive to Main event tournaments, combined with his friendly demeanor, have captured the players as well as those who are busy during the day. Sunny Florida hearts of competitors and fans alike. offered events of varying formats every evening, and on Thursday these included warm-up jackpots on the GridGammon server. The Open was Boris Dekhtyar (NY) was the Sunny Florida finalist. Roberto won by Ronald Loero from Venezuela, and Matt Brown (MD) won in Litzenberger (VA) and David Klausa (CO) finished first and second the Advanced division. A free Rookie warm-up was won by Ted Cetola in the Consolation event, while Art Benjamin (CA), the 2020 ABT (FL), which earned him a free entry into the Rookie Main flight. Online! champion, won the Last Chance in the Championship division. 82 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine
After a full day of Jackpots and Doubles, the Friday Bash was a 7-point single elimination affair, won by Canada’s Michael Neagu. The Saturday Night Fever event was a true double elimination with a Fighter’s Bracket. Kate Elmore battled her way through the field, placing first by defeating Odis Chenault (CA) in the final. Michael Neagu and Victor Ashkenazi finished third and fourth, respectively. Neagu placed first in the Sunday Grand Finale, a single elimination with a progressive consolation. Long Nguyen (CA) won the Consolation, and the runner- Exquisite Craftsmanship up was Odis Chenault. Our boards are made by Fazil Terlemez, a German craftsman. Florida player Rick Wolf captured the Seniors event, while organizer Karen Davis took the Women’s Jackpot. Disabled from polio when he was 3 years old, and limited to working from 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 “Board events” have been increasingly popular for some time. Sunny cubes. For Fazil, no detail is too small to be overlooked. Everything about Florida ran jackpots with beautifully crafted backgammon sets going his designs speak of strength, durability, and beauty. His boards are a to the winners, drawing many players who wanted to own one of these joy to play on. keepsake boards. The FTH Board event featured a set that was specially designed by craftsman Felix Terlemez and supplied by U.S. distributor Fazil’s playing surface of choice is a felt made from dense Merino sheep wool. Gammon Stuff. It was won by Sam Mizutani from Japan. Steve Peck Merino wool is a quiet yet lively playing surface. Dice tumble easily across finished second in the 16-player field, winning a consolation cash prize. the soft board surface. Checkers will never lose their smooth glide action.
Art Benjamin, member of the USBGF Board of Directors and noted Our boards are built with 45mm (1.75”) and 50mm (2”) checkers. Their smooth surfaces perfectly compliment Fazil’s Merino wool playing surfaces. mathemagician, gave a seminar on Handy Backgammon Tips. Every board comes with 8 corner protectors, a unique handmade 40mm 65+ unique doubling cube, 2 or 4 dice cups, 4 or 8 ball-cornered precision dice, and a board designs Jason Briggs, director of the Palm Beach Bath and Tennis Club Chouette pack that includes 4 acrylic doubling cubes, 2 scoring cubes, and backgammon interest group, provided beautiful trophies to all the a high quality leather dice bag. Our newly released Titan Series boards are are in stock and winners. Ed Corey, CEO of Gammon Guys, provided doubling cubes built with 50mm (2 inch) checkers. Every board ships with a heavy duty ready to ship. to the winners in the Main events. canvas carry bag.
Organizers of online tournaments continue to experiment, and Sunny You can find us at gammonstuff.com or at facebook.com/gammonstuff Florida ABT Online! was no exception. The tournament was capped off by a closing Awards Ceremony, held via Zoom, where director Ben Friesen featured the winners and sponsors in a PowerPoint display.
Ben Friesen and associate director Cary Hoarty turned in a flawless performance, ensuring a fun experience for attendees. Many thanks to them! Our gratitude also goes to Rory Pascar, who streamed key matches on USBGF’s YouTube channel.
www.gammonstuff.com | www.facebook.com/gammonstuff 84 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 85
“There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for Patrick Gibson,” You can view just the 14-minute video: says Candace. “He’s my mentor and my friend. dropbox.com/s/sxvolcob5149dck/Patrick%20 Fortunately I had some resources to call upon.” Gibson%203rd%20Final%20Bars%20 Candace, along with Ergin, Patrick’s wife Carla Countdown%20MP4.mp4?dl=0 Gibson, and Ceci Pedroza, his friend of 40 years, created a “This is Your Life”-style video for the surprise Thankful on Thanksgiving birthday Zoom. Carla’s task was to find and digitize Not only is Antoinette Williams one of the best the many required photographs, and send them to female players, she has been a force to be reckoned Backgammon Around the World Candace. Carla was sequestered at home with the with since the 70s. She organizes the room list for birthday boy, yet was hell-bent to keep the Zoom a Patti Rubin’s World Championship in Monte Carlo, Social Zooming surprise. She used grocery trips to make phone contact thus gaining a valuable database of email addresses. with Ceci, Candace, or Ergin. Performer and film When Antoinette sends an email, people respond. Through the Pandemic producer Clarke Wilson agreed to do the video for Candace, and Carla prepared a list of family and friends who would pre-record the speaking parts. Team PG80 created the schedules and audio/video scripts, rounded up the cast, and generated email invitation blasts.
oom, the teleconferencing app, is the success story of the “In addition,” says Candace, “I wanted a big Get. pandemic. It has facilitated business meetings, graduation I went for the biggest Get in backgammon, the ceremonies, family gatherings, even television talk shows on capo di tutti capi: Nack Ballard. People admire and Top (L to R): Antoinette Williams, Candace Mayeron, broadcast TV. From mid-March to mid-October, respect Patrick and Nack wanted to honor him. He Kit Woolsey, Robert Bieder. Middle: Herb Roman, ZoomZ stock increased 500%. did an amazing job!” She also got top international Blake Fleetwood, Lyn Goldsmith, Jack Edelson and tournament director, Arda Fındıkoğlu, to pre-record Christina Elias. Bottom: Mary Hickey, Jeff Spencer, In the backgammon world it’s pretty clear that everyone misses live from Istanbul. Anyone who did not pre-record could Peggy Neubig, Marco Fornasir. tournaments, and the element most missed is the social interaction. “I say something to Patrick, live on the call. Clarke’s film miss everyone,” says Candace Mayeron, tournament producer for two came in at 14 minutes. Antoinette lives by herself in New York City and major ABT events and accomplished Zoomster. “I even miss the people like the rest of us misses the social interaction of I don’t like!”, she laughs. While Zoom has been the app of choice for On the big night, Patrick — expecting a private backgammon. “With Thanksgiving approaching, many of the online chouettes keeping players busy during self-isolation, meeting with Ben Friesen about the upcoming I wanted to get together with others in my only recently has it been used not only to play, but also to maintain California State Championship — nearly ruined the backgammon family who might be celebrating alone. social contact with backgammon friends. surprise by arriving 20 minutes early. “I kept him in the Candace Mayeron facilitated the call, using her paid Waiting Room while we let in the guests and rehearsed Zoom account,” says Antoinette. “About 25 showed A Surprise Birthday Zoom their audio and video for the moment of surprise,” says up. We exchanged stories of how long we’ve been This November was the 80th birthday of long-time director and Candace. It all worked perfectly, and everyone had a playing, places we’ve played, and how we met—and American Backgammon Hall-of-Famer Patrick Gibson. A group of his great time socializing and kidding Patrick. About 60 we told each other how great we all look!” Antoinette California friends decided to surprise him with a birthday Zoom. Such participated. One nice surprise was that Marco Fornasir was able to entice people normally not seen on Zoom: events can be more sophisticated than a simple group call; for example, joined from Italy at 2 a.m. local time! Lynn Ehrlich, Lyn Goldsmith, and Blake Fleetwood, the honoree can be kept in a waiting room so the guests can yell to name a few. “So many friends dropped by,” says “Surprise!” upon entry. “Or, you can get over-the-top Hollywood-like You can view the Zoom call: Antoinette happily. Guests included Chris Trencher, production value,” says Ergin Bayrak, one of the birthday hosts. “All you dropbox.com/s/pyl2cy9xntogvm9/PG80%20 Karen Davis, Jack Edelson, Kit Woolsey, Mary have to do is have Candace Mayeron on your planning committee!” The legendary Nack Ballard made a Call%20Asus%201%20hour.mp4?dl=0 Ann Meese, and more. Even the ubiquitous Marco rare appearance to honor Patrick. Fornasir called in. 86 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Backgammon Around the World USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 87
My Fair Lady Late in the year, April Mesich got the idea to form a Bad Beat Stories backgammon women’s Zoom group. It was ready in under two weeks, and the women have already become a well- Backgammon Is Life: Humility functioning unit, some 20 to 30 of them getting together every other week. Meetings alternate between loosely By Jeff Spencer planned events allowing for socializing, and more carefully planned events dedicated to backgammon strategy or history. The second meeting centered on Mary Hickey and Marty Storer’s superb book, What's Your Game Plan? Top (L to R): April Mesich, Candace Mayeron, Goldie ast year I played in an ABT Tournament Humility Backgammon Strategy in the Middle Game, with Mary Goldstein, Rain Ackerman, Donna Lafferty.2nd row: and had a fabulous time. While watching I’ve been playing backgammon for over 45 years. Hickey herself (already an active member of the group) Mary Hickey, Ceci Pedroza, Patty Johnson, Antoinette the final match of the Advanced Consolation Over those years, one of the things that has struck answering questions about the positions. Williams, Jia Jung. 3rd row: Marjorie Harbrecht, Amy Flight, I observed an exchange that me is how backgammon is an amazingly helpful Trudeau, Mary Morse, Carol Joy Cole, Lynda Clay. Lprompted me to write this article. Obviously, the metaphor for life. Not only that, playing this game A brilliant discovery of the women’s group is Denver’s Bottom: Lyn Goldsmith, Karen Davis, Amelia Pascar, finalists were both excellent players since they had has made me a better person overall. I know what Goldie Goldstein, a Novice player with a champion’s Christina Elias. Members not shown: Laura Granger, won an awful lot of matches to get through the you’re thinking, “Dude, get over yourself, it’s just attitude. Goldie volunteered to be the group’s secretary, Peggy Neubig, Kara Schultz, Lee Genud, Molly consolation bracket. As it happened, it was a man a game!” Backgammon is far from “just a game.” and her efforts have been stellar. “I’m thrilled to be at Anderson, Irina Litzenberger, Carla Gibson, et al. playing against an exceptionally attractive woman. Playing competitive backgammon has had such a the center of this project,” she says. “I’m meeting and He was behind several pips bearing off in the profound effect on my life, that I actually referenced interacting with powerful, accomplished women like Crawford game. Then his friend, who was watching, the game in my Health Care Directive (Living Will). Lee Genud, April Mesich, Candace Mayeron, Lynda If you are a woman of backgammon and wish to join the kibitzed, “One set of doubles, and you’re back in it.” Clay, Carol Joy Cole, and Karen Davis. It’s Zoom group, email Goldie at: [email protected]. —Ed. “Religion doesn't inform my healthcare decisions at very exciting.” Now his opponent appropriately stopped the clock all. When considering whether or not to employ a and she stated strongly, “We need to address this specific treatment, I believe the numbers based on the right now.” But he was having none of it, thinking statistical analysis of possible outcomes. Backgammon her objection unreasonable, and began berating her. is a more reasonable metaphor for my approach to life It seemed to me that he was upset that he was being than any religion. When my health is throwing me beaten “by a girl.” He’d underestimated her ability a doubling cube, I have to seriously consider whether and she had just outplayed him, so in his arrogance, it’s time to drop.” he began taking it out on her. He felt humiliated, but didn’t understand it was a humiliation of his own For me, a big part of living a happy and fulfilling making. At least, that’s the way I saw it as an outside life is humility. But, I approach humility differently observer. If only there were some kind of software than most people. Being humble isn’t about sulking program that we could input our behavior into and it around like a sad dog that has been beaten into would give us a humility or arrogance ranking. submission, although I do feel that way sometimes after having faced some especially stiff competition at an American Backgammon Tour event. No, a state of perfect humility is simply when my view of myself matches others’ views of me. People see me in basically the same way I see myself. If these two images are different, then I’m living in a fantasy world. The bigger the difference, the more extreme the fantasy. 88 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Bad Beat Stories Backgammon Is Life: Humility USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 89
Arrogance Inhibits Growth Humiliation is Sometimes a Gift Objectivity Can Help Unbelievable Parlay You know that member of your backgammon club You also know the arrogant guy (it always seems to Fortunately, in backgammon we have an objective Consider this position from the 2017 Wisconsin who makes the same mistakes over and over. He be a guy) at the office. He’s always bragging about tool that we can use to tell us our strengths and Backgammon Championships. I was playing in the constantly annoys everyone with loud complaints where he’s been, what he’s done, what he can do, weaknesses without exception. eXtreme Gammon Advanced Division against a local Wisconsin player about how lucky his opponents are. “OMG! Perfect and how much money he makes, all evidence to the can analyze our play and tell us exactly how good we named Mark 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 roll after perfect roll. How can anyone win against contrary. He talks a good game, but there’s no “there” are. It’s a digital mirror of sorts that we can use to Milkie. Mark, this guy’s luck? Why, he’s Evil Incarnate!” And when there. He’ll have a modicum of success. But sooner find humility as well as new insights into how to play playing Black you try to calmly point out an alternative play, or or later he is found out. His colleagues stop trusting the game. Even so, I’ve sometimes shown positions was ahead 6-3 explain how he didn’t need to leave that joker, he him and stop working with him. They tire of being to my friends where XG has pointed out the correct in a 9-point balks, scoffing at the mere suggestion that he doesn’t used by him as he takes credit for their work and play and they have simply denied the result. “That match and had know how to play this simple game. finally, he gets his comeuppance. As the saying goes, can’t be right!” they exclaim in horror. Letting go of a 6-1 to play. He if you lack humility, you will be humiliated. And previously held beliefs can be hard, even impossible at has the tough 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I used to be that guy. In my youth, I had no idea of disillusionment is the key to humility. times. choice that we the nuanced aspects of backgammon. Part of my all face in life and over the board, “Should I stay or misunderstanding was the fact that I just hadn’t Disillusionment Can Be a Nobody Deserves to Win should I go?”. He can run and resign himself to getting played enough, maybe only a couple of thousand Spiritual Experience When we’re on the receiving end of a particularly gammoned 100% of the time, or he can stay and risk games. I hadn’t seen enough of those jaw-dropping Disillusionment is difficult to experience without bad beat, it just seems wrong. Most of us remember the backgammon and the match. He decided to stay at parlays. The fact of the matter is that in backgammon, pain. We each tend to overestimate our own the times when we were just about to win it all. We which point I became a 90% favorite to win the game just like life, anything can happen. All you can abilities in almost anything. This has been shown were already experiencing the thrill in our head when and to get almost even. I also gammon him 68% to go do is the best you can and leave the rest to the in psychological experiments1 over and over. And victory was abruptly snatched away by a joker of epic ahead in the match. And not only that, 18% of the time capriciousness of Fortuna, the Goddess of Chance. depending on our tolerance for pain and the level proportions. “I played it perfectly, and then I was just I backgammon him to win the match outright. That’s of attachment to our false self-image, we can live punished.” We explain. And our five-year-old inner a lot of pressure, and I would have made the mistake to Disillusionment is a Requirement in this fantasy for a long time, enduring the pain child screams, “NO FAIR!” It’s situations like these cut and run which was a massive blunder. And that’s where humility comes in, because “the of humiliation over and over again until we quit or that prompted Ralph Stowell, the current patriarch best you can” needs to get better. And you can’t get accept the fact that we’re “not all that.” It’s kind of of our club, to adopt the catch phrase, “You can’t But Mark stood his ground and correctly played 13/7 better until you realize that you’re not really that like being a drug addict. If you look at the Twelve make this shit up!” Sadly, there is no such thing as 11/10. And of course, I rewarded him by rolling a 3-1 good. As long as I was arrogant enough to think that Steps of Recovery in Narcotics Anonymous, the “deserving to win.” The Dali Lama is not luckier than hitting him and leaving two blots which he promptly I didn’t need to study, the rest of my buddies at the first step is “1. We admitted that we were powerless Charles Manson for having lived a good life. Clean put on the bar. That led to this position. Backgammon Club saw me as a fish. I was just going to over our addiction, that our lives had become living has no effect on dice. To illustrate, here’s a bad lose in the weekly tournaments and hand them money unmanageable.” This is a critical step because a beat that I put on someone else. He didn’t deserve to Now that’s a sad 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 in the chouettes. And that is the very definition of a drug addict can’t recover until they realize that they lose. In fact, he played well. But he couldn’t overcome enough story “lack of humility.” Unfortunately, my arrogance could have a problem with addiction. The evidence is in the dice sequences which were so extraordinary that I as it is, but it not be extinguished until I was disillusioned. how unmanageable their life is; their friends and have vowed never to complain about dice again. doesn’t stop family abandon them, they lose their job, and finally there. I’m only a Disillusionment sucks. It’s painful, and pain hurts, their car is repossessed. Trust me on this, drug 2-to-1 underdog so we avoid it. But with that pain comes personal addicts have a high tolerance for pain and extremely from here so I’ve growth. On the other side of that raw realization is grandiose illusions of being able to “handle.” But still got chances. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 freedom. Once I had accepted the objective truth sooner or later the consequences of life on life’s terms Where there’s of my skill level, I no longer had to pretend to be catch up to them. The bigger the illusion the harder life, there’s hope, as they say. He can’t double me out something I wasn’t. Maintaining that façade took an they fall. If you wanted to rewrite that first step for because at this score I have too much equity to drop. awful lot of wasted energy. But now I could use that backgammon, it would look something like, “We energy to actually learn the skills that I lacked and admitted we were powerless over the dice that our understand the concepts that had been escaping me. game had become unmanageable.” 90 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Bad Beat Stories USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 91
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 And this is where the unbelievable parlay began. I Mark just Backgammon Around the World came in with an 3-1 and he rolled a 6-5. He had to slumped. hit me with the 6 because he couldn’t afford to let “You’ve got to News from the Romanian me make the ace-point. If I make his ace, I become be kidding me.” a 2/1 favorite. I respond with an 1-1 hitting him and He remarked Backgammon Federation making his ace point. Now he has his bar-point open under his breath. and I own his ace-point, at least temporarily. As soon But he kept his By Cristi Frisk as I throw a six, I’m going to have to leave. composure and 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 found the best play, 18/15 11/5. ackgammon is extremely popular in Romania, and the RBGF has the legal status of a public utility. We Mark comes in 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 of the USBGF look forward to the day when international travel to live tournaments is again possible. It with a 6-5 and What else was there to do but watch 6-6 come would be fun, as well as educational and productive, to visit Romania and learn more about the country scoots out to out of the chute. One in, two off, backgammon, and its backgammon scene. Besides that, we would like to see more synergy involving the U.S. and all the 14-point. match. Mark offered me his hand and the obligatory BEuropean, indeed worldwide, backgammon organizations. He can’t clear congratulations and promptly disappeared. I never his blot on the saw him again that weekend. That’s understandable At PrimeTime we are happy to have a Romanian writer on board. Cristian “Cristi” Frisk is the head of the RBGF 7-point because after such a brutal loss. and the author of several past articles, besides his report on the World Online Championships in this issue. –Ed.
he needs it 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 for additional To be backgammoned by two checkers on the bar Backgammon Stand at the Romanian contact if I happen to run out with a 6, which I against a prime is simply insane, something like Sports Museum promptly roll. The classic containment game was on, 2,000-to-1 against. No one believes me when I tell The Romanian Backgammon Federation will have and what a game it was. He hit me off his ace-point the tale, but it happened. And I went on to win the its own stand at the Romanian Sports Museum, an and I came in with a 6-1 bouncing right back out. tournament, my first major tournament win. Sure, I institution within the purview of the Ministry of He’d hit me on the outside and I’d enter on the ace got lucky, but when anyone complains about my dice, Youth and Sports. We would like to create a beautiful immediately. He just kept hitting and my dice had no I just smile and say, “We all have to play the dice we exhibit, and we appeal to all who love backgammon respect at all for his 5-point inner table. All tolled I get.” That’s why we love this game. That’s why we to contribute. must have thrown a dozen 6-1’s in the parlay. hate this game. That’s life. You can send plates, dice, watches, tables, photos, The first donation came from Cristian Țuțulan, who Even though Mark played it perfectly, it was as if trophies, diplomas, cups, medals, newspaper sent the most valuable trophy from his collection, I could do no wrong. Back and forth we went. My clippings, and anything else you think would be a a crystal cup that he won in Spain many years ago. dice were relentless. Mark was a perfect gentleman, fine museum piece! Donations for the museum in Bucharest will also but his patience was wearing, and his irritation was come from the Republic of Moldova, where there is a palpable. It’s not like I could take any credit for my The list of all donors will be displayed at the group of Romanian-speaking players. play. When you only have two checkers, they kind RBGF stand. It will be part of a roll-up that will of play themselves. Almost every move is forced and explain backgammon and Romanian Backgammon The National Museum of Sports is housed in those that aren’t have few options. In the end, it came Federation. The project is planned for 2021, so the foyer of the Romanian Olympic and Sports down to this position. donations can be made after the winter holidays. For Committee. It houses marvelous objects from more information, plase contact the author of this the history of Romanian sport: the gold medal of article at [email protected]. gymnast Nadia Comăneci from the 1976 Olympic Games (Montreal); trophies won by tennis player Ilie Năstase; the Olympic bronze medal of the 1924 Romanian rugby team; and many similar items from 1 https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/studies-in-swollen-heads-what- other sports, including the Romanian national sport causes-overconfidence.html of oina (which is very similar to baseball). 92 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Backgammon Around the World
At the Museum stand dedicated to Romanian Other Romanian events include a Champions backgammon, the place of honor will go to an issue Tournament, to be contested by 16 winners of of USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine. online tournaments in 2020; and a premier RBGF competition, the National Hypergammon and Balkan Championship and Other Events Nackgammon Championships online. The Romanian Backgammon Federation will hold the first Balkan Championship on Heroes, with matches up to 11 points in a quadruple elimination system. The competition will be open to players from the Balkan countries: the Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Cyprus. Players from other countries who have a proven relationship with a country in the Balkan Peninsula will also be eligible.
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6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 Math Overboard We note that when SAPC = 10, Black’s winning chances are about 22%, and since Black has no cube Three Checkers Left leverage (unless White rolls 21), it’s a 0.10 error to take the cube. When White has SAPC = 9, 10, 11, and Variations 12, and 13, then Black’s cubeless chance of winning is about 18%, 22%, 29%, 35% and 42%, respectively.
By Art Benjamin As a result, the 11-12 Rule will hold up at most 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 match scores that are not extremely lopsided. Fig. 3. Position 5321 is a double, but not a redouble; 4 checkers versus 2-roll no-miss position 4321 is a solid redouble and take; 3321 is a redouble and What if we give White one more checker so the borderline take. still remember the first time my name appeared In other words, If SAPC ≤ 10, then the cube action player on roll has 4 checkers instead of 3? Black still in a backgammon book. It was nearly thirty is Double/Pass. If SAPC = 11 or 12, it is Double/ has position 111. Unless there is at least one checker years ago, and I had sent Danny Kleinman Take. If SAPC ≥ 13, then it is No Double/Take. on the ace point, it is no double. Indeed, if doubled, Be forewarned that the 4321 position is a pass for any some formulas for cube actions in the last Every position that would be an initial double is also Black would have a proper Beaver when White has other collection of 3 checkers (except the equivalent Istages of the bearoff, which he dubbed “Benjamin’s a redouble. position 2222, as shown in Figure 2. 211) since it requires that Black have all 6 working
Benchmarks,” and published them in his book, 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 doubles. For example, 4321 versus 321 is a close pass But Only the Hogs Win Backgammons, in 1991. For practice, determine the cube action for positions with Black winning 24%. 442, 542, and 552, as shown in Figure 1. 3 or 4 checkers versus no-miss The benchmarks covered endgame cube actions 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 where one player had a no-miss position (all checkers 3-roll position on the ace point). In this article, we will explore Now let us give Black a no-miss 3 roll position, so variations on this theme. In the spirit of Chess, we Black has 5 or 6 checkers on the ace point. If White
will refer to the player on roll as White and the 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 has 3 checkers, then White should always Redouble opponent as Black. and Black should Pass unless White has unlikely Fig. 2. If White doubles from 2222 or 3331 then Black position 665 or 666. should Beaver. Over the years, I have probably applied the simplest 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 benchmark, which I call the 11-12 Rule, thousands When White has 4 checkers, then the situation of times. For a 3-checker position, let’s define the Fig. 1. What are the cube actions for these positions? is more interesting, and the doubling action can Simply Adjusted Pip Count (SAPC) as the Pip The best reference for this situation is that 4321 is a be determined by White’s Pip Count (with no Count with a 1-pip penalty if there are any stacked clear Redouble/Take with Black winning 26% of the adjustments needed). I call it the Liesl Rule from the checkers. For example, position 542 (one checker Positions 442 and 542 have SAPC = 11, so they time. Move the checker on the 4 point back to the character in The Sound of Music who sings the song apiece on the 5, 4, and 2 points) has SAPC = 11, but would be Redouble/Take. Position 552 has SAPC 5 point and position 5321 is Double/Take but not “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” position 443 has SAPC = 12. = 13, so it would not be a double. The 11-12 Rule a Redouble. Move that checker forwards and 3321 is extremely accurate, and there are no serious becomes only a borderline take (with Black winning The Liesl Rule: If White has 4 checkers left, and 3 checkers versus 2-roll no-miss position exceptions to it. Position 333 has SAPC = 10, and 24.6% of the time). Moving that checker forwards Black has 5 or 6 checkers on their ace point. The The 11-12 rule: If White has 3 checkers left, and although it is a borderline take, the error from to 3221 makes it a clear pass with Black winning Double/Take window is when White has a Pip Count of Black has 3 or 4 checkers on their ace point. dropping is only 0.01. just 21.5% of the time. White can still redouble the 16 or 17. All doubles are also redoubles. The Double/Take Window is when White has gappy positions 4221 and 3311, but dares not double SAPC = 11 or 12. with 3331 since all twos are lethal and all aces make Thus, when White has a Pip Count of 15 or less, then White an underdog who will face an immediate Black must pass. With a Pip Count of 16 or 17, it recube from Black. is Redouble/Take, and when White has 18 or more pips, then it is not a double or redouble. 96 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Math Overboard Three Checkers Left and Variations USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 97
Try your hand at the following positions. The Adjusted Pip Count (APC) Using APC, the Liesl Rule can be given better accuracy by allowing the Table 1. The 3-checker positions, with their pip counts, APC, EPC, and the percent 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 We define the Adjusted Pip Count (APC) as the redoubling window to encapsulate all positions with pip count plus a half-pip penalty for every stacked chance of failing to bear off in two rolls. checker on the 6, 5, 4, or 3 point, a 1-pip penalty for Position PC APC EPC P(fail2) every stacked checker on the 2 point, and a 2-pip 211 4 6 15.0 0 penalty for every stacked checker on the 1 point. For example, if White 16has position ≤ APC 4443 ≤ which 18. has a Pip Count of 15, 221 5 6 15.2 0 (For those familiar with other racing formulas, the the original Liesl Rule would suggest that Black (with position 11111) 321 6 6 15.2 0 111 3 7 15.0 0 penalties applied to the ace and deuce points are the would have to drop White’s double. But that would be a mistake. The 311 5 7 15.2 0 421 7 7 15.2 0.3 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 same as those applied by the Keith Count.) Although revised Liesl rule sees that 4443 has an APC of 16 (since the second and 331 7 7.5 15.5 0.3 we are only applying the APC in this article to third checker on the 4 point each contribute 0.5) and therefore correctly 222 6 8 15.2 0 Fig. 4. Use the Liesl Rule for the following positions positions with a small number of checkers, here suggests that Black can take White’s double. Likewise, if White has 411 6 8 15.2 0 322 7 8 15.2 0.3 are the penalties that will be most relevant for this position 6522, this also has APC = 16, which allows Black to take 431 8 8 15.6 1.5 article. White’s double as well. 521 8 8 15.6 2.5 332 8 8.5 15.7 3.1 Position 6432 has a Pip Count of 15, so it would be 422 8 9 15.4 2.8 Double/Pass; Position 6532 has a Pip Count of 16, so 3-roll no miss position versus 3 or 4 checkers 511 7 9 15.5 0.3 531 9 9 15.8 4.1 it would be Double/Take, and position 6632 has a Pip What about the reverse situation? Now suppose that White, on roll, has 432 9 9 15.8 4.9 Count of 17, so it would also be Double/Take. Note 5 (or 6) checkers on the ace point, and Black has 3 or 4 checkers. What 621 9 9 15.9 5.3 that the Liesl Rule, as stated, makes no penalty for ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 2 are the correct cube actions here? 441 9 9.5 16.4 9.2 611 8 10 15.9 6.2 stacked checkers. 631 10 10 16.1 8.7 If Black has just 3 checkers, then White should double only if Black has 532 10 10 16.2 9 522 9 10 16.3 10.3 In most racing situations, prior to the last few rolls, ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 2 APC ≥ 15. (As we’ll soon see, this is precisely when Black is favored to 541 10 10 16.3 8.4 at the point of last take, the trailer’s game winning need three or more rolls to bear off.) Black can take except in the seldom 333 9 10 16.4 11.8 433 10 10.5 16.5 13 chances are somewhere between 22% and 24% ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 2 seen devilish position 666. 442 10 10.5 16.6 11.2 percent. But here, this is the range for the point of 632 11 11 17.0 19.1 542 11 11 17.0 16.4 first pass. For instance, when White has Pip Count When Black has 4 checkers, Black is much more likely to need three 622 10 11 17.0 19.2 = 15, Black’s winning chances are 23%. Within 2 rolls, and now White’s Double/Take window is 641 11 11 17.1 18.1 533 11 11.5 17.2 21.8 pips of that, each pip changes the winning chance 443 11 11.5 17.3 20.4 by about 4%. In other words, with pip counts 13, 14, 551 11 11.5 18.0 25.2 543 12 12 17.7 24.1 15, 16, 17, and 18, Black’s winning chances are 15%, 6 5 4 3 2 1 642 12 12 17.7 24.2 19%, 23%, 27%, 31% and 35%, respectively. I’ll call this the Louisa12.5 Rule, for≤ Liesl’sAPC younger ≤ 15 sibling! That is, if 651 12 12 18.0 25.8 Fig. 5. Using the APC, stacked checkers are penalized as 633 12 12.5 17.9 30.1 Black has APC ≤ 12, then White should not double. If APC > 15, then 552 12 12.5 18.5 31.3 There are some exceptions to this rule, the main one in the diagram above. Note that we will be applying APC Black should Pass. With rare exceptions (which only occur when White 643 13 13 18.4 32.8 only to positions with 4 checkers or less. 444 12 13 18.5 34.6 being that the position 6543, despite having 18 pips, has APC = 12.5 or 13), all doubles are redoubles. 652 13 13 19.0 37.6 is still a redouble. For better accuracy, we introduce 544 13 13.5 18.7 36.2 553 13 13.5 19.1 38.2 the Adjusted Pip Count in the next section. But All 56 possible 3-checker positions are presented in order of increasing 661 13 13.5 20.1 47.6 before diving into that, I recommend pausing to make For example, the positions 442, 542, and 552 (shown APC in Table 1 below. For the lowest APC values, say from 6 to 8, 653 14 14 19.4 41.3 644 14 14.5 19.6 45.9 sure that you have everything in this section solid. If earlier in Figure 1) would have APC equal to 10.5, there is hardly any difference between the positions. (For example, 554 14 14.5 19.7 45 you try to absorb too much in one sitting, you might 11, and 12.5, respectively. Using APC (instead of position 321 is in fact slightly worse than 111, despite having a lower 662 14 14.5 20.6 53.3 654 15 15 20.3 50.4 wind up retaining very little. SAPC), the 11-12 rule would instead give a Double/ APC value). We also include the Effective Pip Count (EPC) which is 663 15 15.5 21.1 56.9 Take window of 10.5 to 12, with the same results as the average number of pips needed to bear off that position. We will 555 15 16 21.2 60 655 16 16.5 21.5 61.2 before. We note that when White has APC = 12.5, have much more to say about EPC in future articles, but for 3-checker 664 16 16.5 21.8 62.7 White has an optional double, but not a redouble. positions with 10 or more pips, a good approximation is to add 6 to the 665 17 17.5 22.5 67 pip count. 666 18 19 23.8 76.6 98 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Math Overboard Three Checkers Left and Variations USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 99
The last column indicates how often the position If X = 11 or 11.5, then White Redoubles and Black In the first example, X = 11 and Y = 11, since Black is Be forewarned that this rule is not as accurate as the fails to remove all three checkers in two rolls. For can take if their APC is better. That is, Black can not strictly better than White, this would be a Pass. previous ones, and serious errors are possible. For example, position 632, with APC = 11, fails about take if Y < X. In the second example, both players have APC = example, if we tweak the third position so Black has 19% of the time. Notice that positions with APC 12, so Black can take White’s Redouble. In the last position 4321, then even though White is a small, below 9 rarely fail, positions with APC = 10 fail If X = 12 or 12.5, then White Redoubles and Black position X = 13 and Y = 10.5. Since Black is within cubeless favorite, doubling would be a 0.15 error and about 10% of the time, and the position with APC = can take if their position is at least as good. That is, 3 adjusted pips of Black, White can Redouble and Black should beaver! 15 fails about 50% of the time. Interpolating between Black can take if Y ≤ X. (Exception: If X = 12.5, Black has an easy Take. these last two data points gives us a surprisingly then White can double, but not redouble when Y ≤ 8. 4 checkers versus 3 checkers accurate approximation. Specifically, for positions Also, When X = 12.5, Black can take if Y = 13.) Again, these rules have some exceptions, but most of Earlier we saw what to do when White has 4 checkers with APC ≥ 9, the errors are not too serious. A calculation of Black’s and Black has 3 checkers on the ace point. Specifically, If 13 ≤ X ≤ 14.5, then the redoubling window is when exact winning chances of winning indicates that the Black could take when White has position 4321 or threshold for taking is about 23.7%. 3321, but must pass any stronger position. (In such –3 ≤ Y – X ≤ 1. Note that since White is on roll, positions, White has APC ≤ 9.) If Black has any other 3 checkers versus 4 checkers ForP(2-Roll example, positions Fail) with ≈ APC8 x =(APC) 11 fail about – 7018% White is a slight favorite, even when trailing by 3 3 checker position, then Black must pass any White of the time, and positions with APC = 12 fail about (adjusted) pips. As the game is so close to conclusion, When Black has a fourth checker, that worsens their position with APC ≤ 10. (Exception: The position 26% of the time. This formula is almost always within the rule above says that White can redouble when situation considerably, not just from the added pips, 2222 should be treated as APC = 10.5.) But once 2% of the true probability. This sheds light on why a slight favorite. Black can take up to 1 pip worse. but from the increased chance of failing to bear off White has APC > 10, then we apply the previous trick the 11-12 Rule (or the APC 10.5-12 version) works so (Exception: 643 can double, but not redouble, when Y in two rolls. Consequently, we adjust Black’s APC of penalizing White 1.5 pips for the extra checker, well. When White has an APC of 10.5 or higher, the = 9.) by applying a penalty of 1.5 pips, then following and applying the 3 vs 3 rules. In other words, if White table shows that White fails at least 11% of the time. the rules in the 3 vs 3 situation. See the examples in has APC = X > 10, then Black’s Point of Last Take is When this is added to the roughly 14% chance that If X ≥ 15, the redoubling window is –2 ≤ Y – X ≤ Figure 7. X + 2.5, and White’s Doubling Point is X – 0.5, and
Black rolls doubles (after White fails to roll doubles 1. As indicated by the 8X – 70 formula, when X ≥ 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 Redoubling point is at X. As before, be aware that this on the first roll) we see that Black has a comfortable 15, White is an underdog to bear off in two rolls, so rule is not foolproof. take. When White has an APC of 13 or higher, then White needs to be a slightly better favorite to double White fails at least 33% of the time, so combined or redouble. Black can still take up to 1 pip worse. 3 checkers versus 2 checkers with Black’s chance of rolling doubles, White does Now suppose that White has 3 checkers left, and not have a double. Indeed, Black could have a beaver! Let’s practice the extended 11-12 Rule with some Black has just two checkers left. Should White ever examples. double in those situations? Surely, White should Any 3 checkers versus any 3 checkers 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 never double if Black has more than 19 winning So now let us apply APC to determine the proper numbers, since if White does not take all 3 checkers cube action when both players have 3 checkers Fig. 7. Determine the cube actions for the above positions off on the first roll, then Black will redouble White remaining, anywhere in the inner board. Let White with a strong advantage. But if Black has 19 winning (on roll) have APC = X and Black have APC = Y. numbers or less, then White can consider doubling. The following extension of the 11-12 Rule is highly In the first position X = 11 and Y = 10, but adding accurate. 1.5 penalty for the fourth checker, brings it to 11.5, For example, suppose White has 3 checkers on the ace
6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 so Black has to pass White’s redouble. In the second point (Position 111) and Black has position 52 with 19 If X < 11, then White redoubles and Black passes. position, X = 12, so Black can take. In the third winning numbers, as shown in Figure 8. Here, White White essentially has a no-miss 2-roll position, so Fig. 6. Determine the cube actions for the above positions position, X = 14.5, Y = 11, but after adding 1.5 brings is the favorite, since Black gets to roll only 5/6 of the Black must drop. it to 12.5. Since White is a small favorite, White can time, and thus has a cubeless winning chance of (5/6) Redouble and Black has a clear take. (19/36) = 44%. Even with Black’s cube leverage, it can The only serious exception (which we already know be shown that White still has a Redouble. by the 10.5-12 Rule) is that Black can take if X = 10.5 and Black has position 111 or 211. 100 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Math Overboard Three Checkers Left and Variations USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 101
6 5 4 3 2 1 But what if White’s 3 checkers are not all on the 2 checkers versus 3 checkers ace point? Or Black is an underdog on roll? The key As you might imagine, if White has 2 checkers and factors are White’s Adjusted Pip Count X and the If 11 ≤ X ≤ 12.5, Black has 3 checkers, it would be very unlikely for number of rolls that bear off both of Black’s checkers, Black to take, even if all three are on the ace point. which we will call B, as shown in Table 2. For White redoubles when For practical purposes, it is almost always Redouble/ example, if Black has position 65, then B = 6, since The aboveX + equation B + can3(X also – be 10) written ≤ as 274X + B Pass and you can leave it at that. Black bears off both checkers with rolls 66, 55, 44, 6 5 4 3 2 1 ≤ 57, but I find the above formula to be easier to 33, and 65. This position is almost the same as having remember. Let’s apply these rules to the examples in But for those of us who are impractical, the number three checkers on the ace point, which also has 6 Figure 8. With White on Roll, the cube action is Figure 9. 11 shows up again. If White has position 65 (11 Redouble/Take. working numbers, but the 65 position is a tad worse, 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 pips), then Black has a bare take (equity = 0.981) with since it is not guaranteed to bear off in two rolls. position 111, but has to drop with anything worse (like 321). If White has position 66, then White can Table 2. Two checker positions and the number of rolls B that bear off both checkers. always redouble, and Black can take with APC ≤ 11. 2 checkers versus 2 checkers B 4 6 8 10 11 13 14 15 17 19 23 25 26 29 34 36 We conclude with two checker versus two checker Posn 66 65 64 63 44 62 53 61 43 52 51 32 22 41 31 21 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 positions. Admittedly, many of these cube decisions 55 54 33 42 11 can be made over the board, especially the Take/Pass Fig. 9. Determine the cube actions for the above positions decision, so let’s start with the doubling decision with Naturally, Black will have a Take if White has When should White double? Keeping in mind the the 40% Rule. enough misses (high APC) or Black has enough restriction that we must have B ≤ 19, our decision working numbers (high B), or some combination rule again depends on the magic number 11. In our first example, White’s position 541 has X = 40% Rule: White should double if White is a favorite thereof. As seems to be the case with all 3-checker 10 and Black’s position 54 has B = 10, so since X + B to win on the first roll, or if Black has less than a 40% positions, the number 11 plays a prominent role. Let’s = 20 is between 18 and 27, this position would be a chance of winning on their first roll. call this the Rule of 11. clear Redouble and Take. In the next two examples, If X < 11, then White redoubles White has X = 11 and X = 12.5, respectively, so the For those who prefer formulae, if White has W TheRule of 11: When White has three checkers with My mnemonic for this is that Black can take when Takes are automatic. Black’s position 61 has B = 15, winning numbers (i.e., numbers that bear off both APC = X and Black has two checkers which can be born X + B ifis atand least 18only (or B if≥ 11), X and+ BWhite’s ≤ 27. doubling and since X + B + 3 = 29, White should not double. checkers) and Black has B winning numbers, then off with B rolls, then Black can Take if and only if: point is when X + B is at most 27, which is the next In the last position, Black’s position 65 has B = 6, so the 40% Rule says that White should double if W ≥ multiple of 9. X + B + 7.5 = 26 allows White to Redouble. 19 or if (36 – W)B ≤ 510 (since 510/1296 = 0.39).
When X ≥ 11, we know that Black is guaranteed When X = 13 or 14, White can only double position With rare exceptions (particularly when W = 17 or 19 TheX ≥ only 11 serious or Bexception ≥ 11 is theor rare X +situation B ≥ where18 to have a Take. When X = 11 or 12, the doubling 66, which may not even be worth remembering. Just and Black has a very efficient recube), all doubles are Black’s has position 66 (where B = 4). Here, Black can points are when B ≤ 13 or B ≤ 9, respectively. This don’t double with 13 or more pips, just like White redoubles too. take if and only if X ≥ 12. (mnemonic: 6 + 6 = 12). is equivalent to saying X + B ≤ 24 or X + B ≤ 21, would never double with 13 pips in the original 11-12 respectively. Since the upper bound for X + B drops Rule. The first two parts of this rule make sense, since if X from 27 to 24 to 21, we can combine these rules ≥ 11, we know from the 11-12 Rule, that Black has a (and handle the cases where X = 11.5 or 12.5) by take with three checkers on the ace point, and all of modifying the previous rule as follows. the two checker positions (except for 66) are at least as good as that. Likewise, if B ≥ 11, then Black wins at least (5/6)(11/36) = 55/216 > 25% of the time, so it must be a take. 102 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Math Overboard Three Checkers Left and Variations USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 103
As for the take decision, you could probably just work 3 checkers versus 2-roll no-miss position: 3 checkers vs 4 checkers or 4 checkers vs 2 checkers versus 2 checkers: 40% Rule: it out over the board, but the following rule (shown to 11-12 Rule: 3 checkers: White doubles if W ≥ 19 or (36 – W)B ≤ 510. me by Chuck Bower) is easy. DTW: 10.5 ≤ X ≤ 12 Apply 1.5 pip penalty to the 4 checkers then apply If W ≥ 27, then Black Passes. (Alternatively, SAPC = 11 or 12) 3-v-3 Rules. If W < 27, then Black Takes if B > W 1. If W ≥ 27, then Black should pass. or if 17 ≤ B = W < 27. 2. If W < 27 and B < W, then Black should Pass. 4 checkers versus 2-roll no-miss position: 2 checkers versus 3 checkers: 3. If W < 27 and B > W, then Black should Take. 4-3-2-1 Rule: Redouble/Pass References 4. If W < 27 and B = W, then Black should Take 3321 is borderline Take; 5321 is Double but Danny Kleinman, “Benjamin’s Benchmarks”, But if B ≥ 17. no Redouble. For 2-checker positions, let Black have B rolls that Only the Hogs Win Backgammons, self-published, Los (2222 or 3331 is a Beaver) bear off both checkers and White have W rolls that Angeles, 1991, p. 70. To summarize, if it’s not an automatic pass (where bear off both checkers. W ≥ 27), then Black should take if their position is 3 checkers versus 3-roll better than White, and should drop if their position no-miss position on ace: 3 checkers versus 2 checkers (with B ≤ 19): is worse. The only exceptions to this rule are 54 versus Redouble/Pass. 11 Rule 44, and 55 versus 64 (which are drops) have error less Black takes when X ≥ 11 or B ≥ 11 or X + B ≥ 18. than 0.015. If the positions are the same, Black takes 3-roll no-miss position versus 3 checkers. For X < 11, DTW: 18 ≤ X + B ≤ 27 when B ≥ 17. By this rule, the mirrored positions that DTW: Y ≥ 15. For 11 ≤ X ≤ 12.5, White doubles when are takes are 22, 32, 42, 51, 52, 43, and 33 (although X + B + 3(X – 10) ≤ 27 33 is a very thin pass). 4 checkers versus 3-roll no-miss: For X ≥ 13, No Double/Take. The Liesl Rule: Acknowledgement: I wish to thank Ilia Guzei, David DTW: 16 ≤ X ≤ 18. Presser, and Chuck Bower for valuable feedback and (almost as accurate: Pip Count = 16 or 17) my student Mathus Leungpathomaram for invaluable programming assistance. 3-roll no-miss position versus 4 checkers: The Louisa Rule: Professional Backgammon Scoreboard Summary DTW: 12.5 ≤ Y ≤ 15. Let’s compactly summarize the results of this paper. Imported from Finland We leave out rare exceptions for ease of reference. 2-Roll Fail Probability. If White has 3 This top-of-the-line professional checkers, then for X ≥ 9, backgammon scoreboard is a must-have item for any Let White be on Roll with APC = X, and Black has P(2-roll Fail) ≈ 8X – 70. tournament or chouette player! APC = Y. Extra-heavy coated cardboard Any 3 checkers vs any 3 checkers (not construction ensures enhanced no-miss): 3-v-3 Rules: stability and long-term durability. (APC has penalties ½, ½, ½, ½, 1, 2 for each stacked Match scores from 0 to 25 points checker on 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, respectively.) Unless If X < 11, Redouble/Pass are visible from either side, and explicitly mentioned, all Doubles are Redoubles. Let If X = 11 or 11.5, DTW: Y < X. are easy to read from a distance. DTW denote the Double/Take Window. If X = 12 or 12.5, DTW: Y ≤ X (rounded up). This is the finest and highest quality backgammon scoreboard If 13 ≤ X ≤ 14.5, DTW: X – 3 ≤ Y ≤ X + 1. available for purchase. Imported If X ≥ 15, DTW: X – 2 ≤ Y ≤ X + 1. from Finland.
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usbgf.org/shop Professional Scoreboard USBGF BG SHOP 104 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 105
USBGF News The OTS will be phased in over the first few months The major goals and features of the new system are as of 2021. All tournaments that were created as part follows: Introducing the USBGF Online of the legacy Online Circuit, along with the stats derived from them, will be visible within the OTS. • Improved usability and organization. Tournament Series (OTS) However, any OC tournaments in progress will – Tabbed views are used to organize different continue to be managed by the old system; this categories of information. By Richard Munitz means that players in any tournament created in – Tournament events are organized by status and 2020 must continue to use the old system to register, are easier to find. schedule matches, and report results. Because those – Events are listed rather than brackets; all tournaments will not be completed for several brackets that comprise a single event are months, the Online Circuit will remain accessible contained within that event, rather than listed he USBGF Online Circuit (OC), along with I am pleased to introduce the USBGF Online on the USBGF website during that transition. New separately. the website software that manages it and gives Tournament Series (OTS), which begins in 2021. tournaments in 2021 will be created within the new – Player information and actions are organized by players access to their ratings, statistics, and The OTS will fully replace the Online Circuit and all Online Tournament Series system; players must use type. master points, has been a top-tier benefit of of its related software. It utilizes a new tournament the new OTS to participate in those tournaments, – A player’s current events dashboard with easy-to- TUSBGF membership since September 2012. During management system that I have developed for the which will not be visible from within the Online understand status and required actions all in one the system’s 8+ years of operation, 663 tournament USBGF. It presents an entirely new set of web pages, Circuit. place. events have been created, comprised of 879 brackets. offering a new and improved user experience, a richer – Mobile-friendly display. We thank Tara Mendicino for having developed the offering of player stats and other features, and an As with any major new software product, the OTS Online Circuit system and for her years of tireless extensible platform on which to build in the future. system may have unforeseen problems. Thus we • Richer player stats and reporting. service creating and managing its many tournaments. will proceed cautiously. The recurring monthly and – Individual player and leaderboard stats are divisional tournaments will be the first tournaments available back to the beginning of time, with the introduced in the OTS during January 2021. Other ability to easily view them based on periods of Figure 1. Online Tournament Series (OTS): Main view tournament types will follow later in the year. your choice – all-time; yearly; quarterly; monthly. – Real-time master points. Master points are Many features of the OTS are available now. Some awarded as match results are reported and when of the planned features are almost fully developed, or events are completed. need further testing before being introduced. These – A report showing the history of every event will be added over time. entered, including final place in the event and rank master points awarded. – A report showing the history of every match played, including match master points awarded and Elo rating progress. – Elo ratings are calculated by event skill division. Who are the top players in the Advanced Division? You’ll be able to see what the Elo ratings would be if we only consider matches from events having the skill division of your choice – or if you prefer, only those events having no skill division (open to all players). 106 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF News Introducing the USBGF Online Tournament Series USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 107
• Larger and multi-loss event formats. • Club support Let’s take a tour! action you might want to take. For example, if you’d – Support individual brackets of unlimited size – Club tournaments. Any club will be able to like to enter an event, you’d look at the Accepting (Online Circuit had a 128 player limit). create and run tournaments through this system, Tournaments Entries tab, and would see only those events that are – Support multi-loss event formats like double with most of the same features available as with The OTS has two main navigation buttons: currently accepting entries; no other events clutter elimination or progressive consolation and last the OTS. Every tournament has an owning club. Tournaments and Players, which take you to the your view. Some events might continue to accept chance. – Club view. The web view will be on a per-club main views. As you might expect, Tournaments entries after play has started; these will appear in – Support any custom bracket design such as those basis, so the tournaments and players that appear shows you information about tournaments and both places. Once an event has finished, it moves to used on the American Backgammon Tour. are filtered by the selected club. Players shows you information about players. In the the Completed tab. • Capability for fully automated tournament – The USBGF Online Tournament Series is just upper right corner is the My Info button, which – management. a single club within this larger framework. you guessed it – takes you to your own player page. Event Details – Recurring tournaments. Most OTS events Initially, it is the only club. Each event has its own details page (see Figure 3 will be regularly recurring, such as monthly, – Super-clubs. It will be possible to group multiple When first arriving at the OTS from usbgf.org, you’ll below), which you can access by clicking that event, seasonally or annually. These tournaments regular clubs, into a super-club with aggregated land on the Tournaments page, as shown on the for example USBGF Advanced Divisional CVIII will be automatically generated according to a stats. first page of this article. Clicking Tournaments will shown above in Figure 2. Normally, you’ll wind up on schedule. • Director / Administrative tools always bring you back to this page. You’ll see a listing the Actions tab, where you can do things like register – Automated entry management. Where possible, – Ability to manually design and manage an event. of tournament events that are currently accepting for the event or report a match result. The actions event registration will be opened and closed – Ability to register and report results on behalf of entries, as indicated by the highlighted Accepting you are allowed to take will be based on your current automatically. any player Entries button/tab. If you click In Progress, you’ll status in the event. Because these actions are disabled – Automated qualifier brackets. For events using a – Ability to undo incorrect reporting of results as see the very similar view shown below. These are the for events from the legacy Online Circuit, I cannot qualifier/playoff format, a new qualifier bracket is far back as necessary. events for which play has started. As you can see, present an example of Actions content. If you click created and can begin accepting entries as soon – Ability to grant staff individualized permissions the events are organized according to their current Players, you will see all of the players that are entered as the previous qualifier bracket is filled. to assist with tournament management. status, making it easy to find events relevant to the in the selected event, along with their current status. – Automated bracket and draw generation. – Retroactive event entry. Old events can be Where applicable, brackets will be generated entered as back-dated; all stats sensitive to automatically based upon the number of players chronological sequence (such as Elo) will Figure 3. Players (Circuit Monthly for December) entered. Players will automatically be assigned properly adjust. to random positions in brackets once a bracket is ready to be started.
Figure 2. Events In Progress 108 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF News Introducing the USBGF Online Tournament Series USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 109
The top control selects the period type: All-time, • High (Elo Rating) – The player’s all-time high Elo Year, Quarter, or Month. The bottom control selects rating as of the last day of the selected period. It is the particular period (such as the year 2019) that you not the highest rating achieved during the period. wish to display. Use the arrows to select the previous • # Events / Won / Placed / Rank Master Points – or the next time period. All event-level stats are considered to take effect on the event’s end date (i.e. the date when the last A few clarifications about player stats: match in the event was finished). Therefore, all of these stats are reflected only for the single period • Dates – The official time zone used for all periods containing the event’s completion date. This might is UTC/GMT. This means that the year 2020 be particularly confusing for the # Events count, begins at 00:00 UTC on January 1, 2020, and where your participation in an event will likely be ends at 24:00 UTC on December 31. UTC is 5(4) counted in a period months after you originally hours ahead of Eastern Standard(Daylight) Time. entered the event. • (Elo) Rating – This is the player’s Elo rating as it Figure 4. Event Drawsheeet (Circuit Monthly was on the last day of the selected period (unlike Individual Player / My Info for October) the OC, which always displays the current rating, To view detailed information about a particular even when reporting on previous years). Note: player, click their name in the Leaderboard. You can view the event’s drawsheets in the Drawsheet Players / Leaderboard Elo ratings for the OTS have been recomputed Alternatively, you can search for a particular tab. An event can have a complex multi-flight format Clicking the main Players button (next to from scratch, with each player starting at 1500. player using the Find Player search box above the that includes qualifier brackets, main brackets, Tournaments) brings you to the fountain of player This differs from the OC where new players were Leaderboard. You can view your own information by consolation brackets, etc. All of them will appear ratings, stats and status information. You see the allowed to choose their initial rating. Therefore, clicking the My Info button at the top right corner here in full. You’ll see the brackets, one after another, Leaderboard for the current calendar year. The list OTS Elo ratings will not match those from the of the page. If we click Roberto Litzenberger’s name, rendered in a fixed-width font (clear and functional is sorted by Master Points. Eventually, the ability to Online Circuit! this is what we see: enough for now, but eventually to be improved). They sort by other categories (columns) will be added. show details for each round, such as match length, deadline, and which rounds are considered to be Note the selector controls (labeled “Year” and “ranked.” Players reaching a ranked round have placed “2020”) near the top right of Figure 5. These appear in the event and receive “rank master points.” throughout the Players pages. Use them to change the time period for which player stats are displayed. Figure 5. Leaderboard 2020
Figure 6. Player Info (Roberto Litzenberger) 110 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF News Introducing the USBGF Online Tournament Series USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 111
The Info tab shows the All-time stats for the player The Current Entries tab shows the player’s current as well as stats for all periods of the chosen period entries in all events, grouped by status. The top group type. It shows yearly stats, but you can choose to shows the entries that are currently awaiting a match view quarterly or monthly stats. Finally, it shows the result (which you could report from here, for your player’s online nicknames. own My Info page). The next group shows the entries that require the next opponent to be determined. The last group shows the entries for which a bracket draw needs to be done. Figure 7. Current Entries for a player
Figure 9. Event History for a player
Finally, the Match History and Event History tabs to evolve. I appreciate your patience during this contain lists of past matches and events and their transition, and I would welcome your assistance in associated stats. These lists are selectable by period. reporting and troubleshooting any issues that you may find. I’d also appreciate if you’d tell me what Parting Words you like about OTS, what you don’t like, and what I am very excited to announce the imminent improvements you’d like to see. If you are a software availability of this new system. I am enthusiastic developer and might be interested in contributing to about the possibilities it creates for tournament this ongoing project, let me know that too. Contact backgammon. This effort has been a monstrous [email protected]. There’s a long to-do list and and challenging undertaking with lofty goals. I work must necessarily be prioritized. But, ultimately have worked on it in my spare time for the past five you, our members, are our customer, and we want years, and more recently in my not-so-spare time. you to be a happy one! Here’s to 2020 hindsight. Figure 8. Match History for a player I’ve learned a lot. I hope that everyone enjoys this Happy New Year to all! new OTS system, as it comes online and continues 112 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 113
USBGF News 2020 USBGF Local Club Awards
By Karen Davis
John Issac David Vakil Charlie Raichle Al Cantito Gammon Associates Orange County Denver Backgammon Brass City State Club Director 2020 Player of Year/Club Champion Player of the Year Player of the Year Club Player of the Year Player of the Year CA Gammon Associates Patrick Gibson John Issac CA Orange County Mario Savan David Vakil CO Denver Dan Minardi Charlie Raichle CT Brass City Jim Sisti Al Cantito DC DC Metro Vinson Blanton Vinson Blanton FL Sunny Florida Online Karen Davis Peter Wisniewski FL Sunny Florida Karen Davis Alec Izzo GA Atlanta Northside Jeff Proctor Garrett Brown IL Chicago Bar Point Amy Trudeau Craig Anderson Vinson Blanton Peter Wisniewski Alec Izzo Garrett Brown IL Pub Club Tim Mabee Steve Hairgrove DC Metro Sunny Florida Online Sunny Florida Atlanta Northside IL Prime Time Chicago Steve Klesker Larry Goldstein Player of the Year Club Champion Player of the Year Player of the Year IN Hoosier IN Sean Garber Chuck Bower KS Kansas City Eric Barr Eric Barr LA Gammon Underground Brian Lonergan Brian Lonergan MA New England Albert Steg Alex Zamanian MI Flint Carol Joy Cole Dmitriy Obukhov, Champion MI Flint Carol Joy Cole Paul Farah, Player of the Year MN Tw in Cities April and Michael Mesich Michael Mesich MN US Backgammon April and Michael Mesich Kara Schultz NC Charlotte Jeb Horton Jeb Horton Craig Anderson Larry Goldstein Steve Hairgrove Chuck Bower NV Las Vegas Tony Anton Tony Anton, Champion Chicago Bar Point Prime Time Chicago Chicago Pub Club Hoosier IN NV Las Vegas Tony Anton Al Hodis, Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year NY Long Island John Barrett Ralph D'Onofrio OH Ohio State Joe Miller Michael Hendrickson OH Columbus Chris Yep Jon Stephens OK Tu lsa Joanna Mabee Lein Vintor Knarr SC Hilton Head George Kops Welles Murphey TX Austin Scott Butki David Kettler TX Houston Bill Riles Bruce Finstad VA Beltway Backgammon Larry Brown Donald Gabbai VA Northern Virginia Frank Raposa Frank Raposa Eric Barr Brian Lonergan Alex Zamanian Dmitriy Obukhov Kansas City Gammon Underground New England Flint Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year Club Champion 114 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine P i c k - A - P r o
Play in 8-player Pick-a-Pro Jackpots and win Paul Farah Kara Schultz Michael Mesich Jeb Horton Flint US Backgammon Twin Cities Charlotte a free one-hour lesson with one of Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year backgammon’s masters!
Tony Anton Ralph D'Onofrio Jon Stephens Michael Hendrickson Las Vegas Long Island Columbus Ohio State Art Benjamin Bob Wachtel Cary Hoarty John O’Hagan Club Champion Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year
Jonah Seewald Roberto Litzenberger Steve Sax Victor Ashkenazi Welles Murphey David Kettler Bruce Finstad Donald Gabbaio Hilton Head Austin Houston Beltway Backgammon • Continuous Entry Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year Player of the Year • Venmo your $20 entry to [email protected] (in the Venmo note field, include Pick-a-Pro Jackpot, e-mail address and GridGammon user name) • Each jackpot will last just over a week with individual rounds completed within 72 hours • Winner also receives a Belair Wristwatch donated by the
Frank Raposa Grunwald Backgammon Fund Northern Virginia Player of the Year • For additional details, contact [email protected] or visit http://usbgf.org/trny/pick-a-pro-jackpots/ 116 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 117
ABT Online! - Sunny Florida Backgammon Championship (continued) ABT Online! Tournament Results WOMEN'S EVENT (8): 1-Karen Davis (FL), 2-Loretta Bernards (CA).
October 2020 SUNDAY GRAND FINALE (14): 1-Michael Neagu (Canada); 1C-Long Nguyen (CA), 2C-Odis Chenault (CA). USBGF Women's National Championship & Team Qualifier October 3-4, 2020; GridGammon.com THURSDAY $50 WARM-UP (11): 1-Ronald Loero (Venezuela), 2-Michael Neagu (Canada).
WOMEN'S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (28): 1-Kara Schultz (CA) [5-0], 2/5-Rain Ackerman THURSDAY $20 WARM-UP (6): 1-Matt Brown (MD), 2-Janet Phoenix (VA). (Canada/USA) [4-1] / Karen Davis (FL) [4-1] / Laura Granger Hoarty (FL) [4-1] / Patty Johnson (CA) [4-1]. Kate Elmore (GA) [3-2] & Antoinette Williams (NY) [3-2] join the US Team based on PR scores. THURSDAY ROOKIE FREEROLL (6): 1-Ted Cetola (FL).
ABT Online! - Sunny Florida Backgammon Championship FTH SUNNY FLORIDA BOARD EVENT: (16): 1-Sam Mizutani (Japan), 2-Steve Peck (MD). October 8-11, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com, GridGammon.com, Heroes.BackgammonStudio.com ABT Online! - St. Louis Gateway Backgammon Tournament ABT ONLINE! CHAMPIONSHIP (32): 1-Tim Cross (England), 2-Boris Dekhtyar (NY); October 16-25, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com 1C-Roberto Litzenberger (VA), 2C-David Klausa (CO); 1LC-Art Benjamin (CA). CHAMPIONSHIP (44): 1-David Klausa (CO), 2-Dorn Bishop (CA), 3/6-Herman Arzuman (NY) / ABT ONLINE! ADVANCED (32): 1-Kate Elmore (GA), 2-Larry Brown (VA); 1C-Rick Wolf (FL), Jeremy Bagai (CA) / Art Benjamin (CA) / Brian Lonergan (LA). 2C-Laura Granger (FL); 1LC-Scott Salisbury (CT). INTERMEDIATE (26): 1-James Fleming (NV), 2/4-Avi Cohen (FL) / Kate Elmore (GA) / ABT ONLINE! ROOKIE (8): 1-Steve Peck (MD); 1C-James Ross (NY); 1LC-Lisa Speer (FL). Vlad Eydelman (IL).
MIAMI MASTERS (16): 1-Joe Russell (CA), 2-Alex Toth (WA), 3/4-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ) / CARDINAL CLASSIC OPEN (20): 1-Bob Zavoral (IL), 2-Gary Koscielny (FL), 3-Michael Neagu (Canada). Stuart Hosen (TX). MASTERS JACKPOT (32): 1-Michael Neagu (Canada), 2-Bruce Finsted (TX), 3/4-Sean Garber (IN) / ORLANDO OPEN JACKPOT (8): 1-Patrick Enright (WA), 2-David Klausa (CO). Gary Koscielny (FL).
LAUDERDALE LIMITED JACKPOT (12): 1-Ted Cetola (FL), 2-Juan Rospigliosi (FL), INTERMEDIATE JACKPOT (12): 1-Avi Cohen (FL), 2-Kurt Peterson (MN), 3-Gary Schachtschneider (AZ). 3-Anthony White (OH). WEDNESDAY NIGHT SPEEDGAMMON (24): 1-Michael Neagu (Canada), 2-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ), ROOKIE JACKPOT (8): 1-James Ross (NY), 2-Steve Peck (MD). 3-Steve Nelson (Hong Kong).
DOUBLES (13 teams): 1-Marc Emrich (CO) & Pat Fusco (TN), 2-Boris Dekhtyar (NY) & THURSDAY NIGHT DELIGHT (16): 1-Long Nguyen (CA), 2-Ronald Loero (Venezuela). Felix Goykhman (NJ). FRIDAY NIGHT FREE ROLL (38): 1-Brian Lonergan (LA), 2-Joe Urso (NY). FRIDAY BASH (12): 1-Michael Neagu (Canada), 2-Edward Onny (CO). SATURDAY NIGHT SPEEDGAMMON (16): 1-John Gamalielson (WA), 2-Steve Nelson (Hong Kong). SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (25): 1-Kate Elmore (GA), 2-Odis Chenault (CA), 3-Michael Neagu (Canada), 4-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ). LAST TRAIN HOME AFTER TOURNEY (16): 1-David Klausa (CO), 2-Mario Savan (CA).
SENIORS EVENT (4): 1-Rick Wolf (FL). 118 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Tournament Results ABT Online! Tournament Results USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 119
November 2020 ABT Online! - Las Vegas Backgammon Open (continued) SATURDAY NIGHT SPEEDGAMMON (16): 1-Ryan Rebelo (Canada), 2-Maeis Petrosian (CA). ABT Online! - Beale Street Blues Backgammon Tournament November 4-8, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com SATURDAY NIGHT SENIORS (16): 1-Marc Emrich (CO), 2-Boris Dekhtyar (NY).
CHAMPIONSHIP (42): 1-Bob Glass (CA), 2-Irina Litzenberger (VA), 3/7-Bruce Finstad (TX) / AFTER TOURNEY (32): 1-Marc Emrich (CO), 2-Allen Hodis (NV), 3/4-Steve Reichelt (MN) / Steve Sax (CA). Ronald Loero (Venezuela) / Brian Lonergan (LA) / Andrew Selby (England) / Ronald Wertheim (NV).
INTERMEDIATE (32): 1-James Fleming (NV), 2/5-Brion Brooks (IL) / Barry Gittleman (UT) / December 2020 Igor Moraes (Brazil) / Richard Stubbe (TX). ABT Online! - California State Backgammon Championship THURSDAY NIGHT ROCK N' ROLL OFF (32): 1/2-Maeis Petrosian (CA) / Joe Russell (CA), December 3-6, 2020; GridGammon.com 3/4-Bruce Finstad (TX) / John Gamalielson (WA). CHAMPIONSHIP (42): 1-Charlie Raichle (CO), 2-Ary Nogueira (Brazil), 3-Christopher Rogers ELVIS & B.B.'S BATTLE OF THE KINGS (34): 1-Lynda Clay (CO), 2-Ergin Bayrak (CA), (England), 4-Art Benjamin (CA), 5/6-Jeremy Bagai (CA) / Bob Glass (CA); 1LC-Karen Davis (FL), 3-Bob Zavoral (IL), 4-Maeis Petrosian (CA). 2LC-Rune Færevåg (Norway).
MASTERS JACKPOT (16): 1-Joe Russell (CA), 2-Marc Emrich (CO), 3/4-Eli Karp (LA) / Mario Savan (CA). ADVANCED (28): 1-Joseph Guichebarou (NV), 2-David Gillett (CA), 3-Patty Johnson (CA); 1LC-Michael Kay (MA), 2LC-Ali Shamsian (AZ). INTERMEDIATE JACKPOT (12): 1-Maeis Petrosian (CA), 2-Barry Gittleman (UT), 3-Zachary Fusco (TN). MASTERS JACKPOT (32): 1-Michael Neagu (Canada), 2-Alex Toth (WA), 3/4-Ergin Bayrak (CA) / SUNDAY NIGHT SPEEDGAMMON (16): 1-Ronald Loero (Venezuela), 2-Ergin Bayrak (CA). Zdenek Zizka (Czech Republic).
ABT Online! - Las Vegas Backgammon Open AMATEUR JACKPOT (16): 1-Bill Arkin (CA), 2-Richard Stubbe (TX). November 18-22, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com WARM-UP JACKPOT (8): 1-Ergin Bayrak (CA), 2-Dan Minardi (CO). CHAMPIONSHIP (42): 1-Eduardo Maciel Costa (Brazil), 2-Jonah Seewald (CO), 3-Ronald Wertheim (NV); 1C-Thomas Rebelo (Canada), 2C-Steve Sax (CA), 3C/4C-Armin Soltani (Canada) / Richard Stubbe (TX); CRAFT SERVICE DINNER JACKPOT (16): 1-Frank Ley (CA), 2-Long Nguyen (CA). 1LC-Bob Stringer (CA), 2LC-Gus Contos (CA). IT'S A WRAP JACKPOT (8): 1-Nick Maffeo (CA), 2-Jacques Stambouli (CA). INTERMEDIATE (30+16): 1-Marcy Kossar (MD), 2-Michael Mesich (MN), 3-Steve Douglas (MA); 1C-Tom Christner (CO), 2C-Howard Linnemann-Schmidt (NY); 1LC-Mark Malueg (IL). FREE ROLL #1 (24): 1-Frank Talbot (MI).
SENIORS (32): 1-Sam Mizutani (Japan), 2-Rich Sweetman (NH), 3/4-Gus Contos (CA) / Marc Emrich (CO). FREE ROLL #2 (50): 1-Stephen Hassman (MA).
SUPER JACKPOT (32): 1-Dorn Bishop (CA), 2-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ), 3/4-Gary Koscielny (FL) / Joe Russell (CA).
LIMITED JACKPOT (32): 1-Mark Danburg-Wyld (OR), 2-Ronald Loero (Venezuela), 3/4-Larry Brown (VA) / Steve Reichelt (MN).
SPEEDGAMMON (32): 1-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ), 2-Ergin Bayrak (CA), 3/4-Jeremy Bagai (CA) / Eli Karp (LA). 120 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine Tournament Results USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 121
ABT Online! - Chicago Classic ABT Online December 17-20, 2020; BackgammonGalaxy.com ABT Online! Points Race
CHAMPIONSHIP (42): 1-Kate Elmore (GA), 2/5-Kristian Mills (England) / Kara Schultz (CA) / 2020 ABT Online! Standings Top 20 Michael Showkati (CA), Ronald Wertheim (NV). Updated 12/31/2020
INTERMEDIATE (27): 1-Michael Mesich (MN), 2/4-Michael Clapsadle (MI) / Mark Malueg (IL) / # Name Points # Name Points Franco Tosin (Italy). 1 Art Benjamin 70.28 11 Fabio Sallusto 19.55 GREAT CHICAGO FIRE OPEN JACKPOT (24): 1-Bob Zavoral (NV), 2-Ray Fogerlund (NV), 2 Brian Lonergan 61.14 12 David Klausa 19.38 3-Ergin Bayrak (CA). 3 Ray Fogerlund 39.35 13 Marcy Kossar 19.27 4 Tim Cross 39.29 14 Tom Rebelo 18.96 WINDY CITY SENIORS (16): 1-Howard Markowitz (NV), 2-Ronald Wertheim (NV). 5 Kate Elmore 32 15 Charles Raichle 18.91 6 Ryan Rebelo 24.99 16 Irina Litzenberger 18.09 CHICAGO STYLE SPEEDGAMMON (16): 1-Ary Nogueira (Brazil), 2-Ergin Bayrak (CA). 7 Rich Sweetman 22.5 17 Jonah Seewald 17.23 8 James Fleming 22.16 18 David Staggs 16.4 CHICAGO STYLE SPEEDGAMMON OVERFLOW (4): 1-Dorn Bishop (CA). 9 Eduardo Maciel 21.74 19 Ronald Wertheim 16.22 10 Kara Schultz 21.3 20 Karen Davis 16.02 DEEP DISH SUPER JACKPOT (32): 1-Steve Sax (CA), 2-Victor Ashkenazi (NJ), 3/4-Frank DiMaggio (NY) / Alex Toth (WA).
THIN CRUST LIMITED JACKPOT (16): 1-Joseph Guichebarou (NV), 2-Adrian Nedelcu (Austria/IL). eXtreme Gammon is now available on your Android device, iPhone and iPad AL CAPONE AFTER TOURNAMENT (8): 1-Craig Anderson (IL), 2-Long Nguyen (CA).
iOS 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 122 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine 123
USBGF Online Master Points USBGF Online Circuit Winners Online Circuit Top 20 2020 Circuit Tournament Winners Updated 12/31/2020 Updated 12/31/2020
2020 Tournament Sart Date End Date WINNER High Online Trnys Trnys USBGF Masters Divisional CXV July 12, 2020 September 3, 2020 Art Benjamin # Name Rating Rating Master Pts Win - Loss Win % Events Won Placed USBGF Advanced Divisional XCI June 28, 2020 September 3, 2020 Sol Sassoon 1 Roberto Litzenberger 1770.8 1818.87 58.62 98-50 66.20% 57 7 15 Membership Blitz #128 August 16, 2020 September 10, 2020 Bonnie Rogoff 2 William Lonergan 1668.79 1771.78 54.64 114-77 59.70% 85 10 16 Membership Blitz #125 July 26, 2020 September 10, 2020 Roberto Litzenberger 3 Ted Chee 1694.82 1786.58 54.45 69-41 62.70% 42 2 8 USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXXVI July 31, 2020 September 14, 2020 Keith Remels 4 Art Benjamin 1785.61 1809.38 46.35 59-25 70.20% 31 3 5 Membership Blitz #127 August 9, 2020 September 15, 2020 Roberto Litzenberger 5 Peter Wisniewski 1693.36 1722.91 43.97 64-47 57.70% 49 3 9 Membership Blitz #129 August 23, 2020 September 17, 2020 Ronald Loero 6 Steve Hills 1780.28 1780.28 42.54 66-36 64.70% 40 3 9 USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXXVIII August 16, 2020 September 20, 2020 Richard Casten 7 Kevin Jones 1712.83 1736.18 38.55 57-36 61.30% 40 1 6 USBGF Advanced Divisional XCIII July 26, 2020 September 22, 2020 Charles Denison 8 Andrew Selby 1634.87 1688.88 34.62 76-67 53.10% 70 4 11 2020 Tournament of Champions July 8, 2020 September 24, 2020 Art Benjamin 9 Irina Litzenberger 1667.62 1745.47 34.34 56-45 55.40% 42 1 3 USBGF Womens Monthly for August #1 July 31, 2020 September 26, 2020 Marcela Pelagatti 10 Rich Sweetman 1625.81 1746.05 32.59 48-46 51.10% 44 1 6 Membership Blitz #130 September 1, 2020 September 29, 2020 Kristian Mills 11 Jiri Vala 1689.58 1764.54 32.2 43-30 58.90% 28 2 6 USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXXIX September 1, 2020 October 1, 2020 Curt Wilhelmsen 12 Gary Oleson 1648.42 1676.11 32.1 41-22 65.10% 23 2 4 USBGF Advanced Divisional XCIV July 31, 2020 October 2, 2020 Jeff Spencer 13 Martin Stemberka 1620.41 1693.89 31.89 44-40 52.40% 41 2 2 USBGF Womens Monthly for August #2 August 16, 2020 October 2, 2020 Christa Solovey 14 John Gamalielson 1691.14 1796 31.41 47-34 58.00% 35 2 4 USBGF Masters Divisional CXVI July 26, 2020 October 2, 2020 Narvey Goldman 15 Ruben Siñeriz 1666.22 1702.99 31.25 47-44 51.60% 42 1 6 USBGF Masters Divisional CXVIII August 9, 2020 October 8, 2020 John Gamalielson 16 Lynda Clay 1615.58 1628.14 30.98 45-28 61.60% 30 1 6 USBGF Masters Divisional CXIX August 16, 2020 October 17, 2020 Roberto Litzenberger 17 Karen Davis 1678.05 1740.28 30.76 43-36 54.40% 40 1 4 USBGF Intermediate Divisional LXXXVII July 31, 2020 October 17, 2020 Bob Young 18 Scott Ward 1671.62 1740.68 30.44 43-36 54.40% 34 1 3 USBGF Advanced Divisional XCV August 9, 2020 October 18, 2020 Jorge Cano 19 Matthew Brown 1636.22 1670.38 29.79 50-31 61.70% 30 0 5 USBGF Intermediate Divisional XCI September 20, 2020 October 19, 2020 Joao Almeida 20 Kara Schultz 1560.88 1595.43 26.93 55-44 55.60% 45 1 4 USBGF Masters Divisional CXVII July 31, 2020 October 19, 2020 Kevin Jones Membership Blitz #132 September 23, 2020 October 20, 2020 Jacques Stambouli Up-to-date ratings may be found at: usbgf.org/trny/leaderboard/ USBGF Womens Monthly for September September 13, 2020 October 21, 2020 Lynda Clay Circuit Monthly for July July 1, 2020 October 22, 2020 Gary Oleson Qualifications for inclusion in USBGF Online Circuit Events Circuit Monthly for August August 1, 2020 October 24, 2020 Manny Olszynko The numbers following the player names show their Elo ratings, cumulative since September 2012 in the USBGF Advanced Divisional XCVI August 23, 2020 October 25, 2020 Steven Waller USBGF Online Tournament Circuit. To be listed, a player must be a current or past member of the USBGF. USBGF Intermediate Divisional XC September 13, 2020 October 27, 2020 Curt Wilhelmsen USBGF Advanced Divisional XCVII August 30, 2020 October 27, 2020 Cristian Frisk USBGF Masters Divisional CXXI September 1, 2020 October 28, 2020 Ruben Siñeriz USBGF Advanced Divisional XCVIII August 30, 2020 October 29, 2020 Sol Sassoon Membership Blitz #133 October 1, 2020 October 30, 2020 Richard Griggs Jr USBGF Masters Divisional CXX August 23, 2020 October 30, 2020 Karen Davis USBGF Advanced Divisional C September 20, 2020 November 5, 2020 Dennis Lutz Membership Blitz #131 September 15, 2020 November 6, 2020 Roberto Litzenberger 124 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine USBGF Online Circuit Winners
Tournament Sart Date End Date WINNER Membership Blitz #134 October 6, 2020 November 10, 2020 Kristian Mills ADVERTISE USBGF Intermediate Divisional XCIII October 18, 2020 November 14, 2020 David Bowen IN PRIMETIME USBGF Advanced Divisional CI October 1, 2020 November 17, 2020 Jim Wallace F P ½ P Membership Blitz #137 October 27, 2020 November 18, 2020 Steve Hills ¼ P USBGF Masters Divisional CXXIII September 20, 2020 November 20, 2020 Jan Cerny USBGF Masters Divisional CXXII September 13, 2020 November 22, 2020 Jasper Watertor USBGF Advanced Divisional XCIX September 13, 2020 November 22, 2020 Max Levenstein Membership Blitz #136 October 18, 2020 November 27, 2020 Roberto Litzenberger FTH Board Blitz #12 September 23, 2020 November 29, 2020 Richard Stubbe Membership Blitz #135 October 18, 2020 November 30, 2020 Andrew Selby Circuit Monthly for September September 1, 2020 November 30, 2020 Gary Oleson Membership Blitz #138 November 8, 2020 December 2, 2020 Phil Perelmuter USBGF Intermediate Divisional XCII October 11, 2020 December 5, 2020 Attila Felsen USBGF Masters Divisional CXXIV October 1, 2020 December 7, 2020 Frank Dimaggio USBGF Masters Divisional CXXV October 11, 2020 December 11, 2020 Peter Wisniewski USBGF Advanced Divisional CII October 11, 2020 December 11, 2020 Dennis Lutz Membership Blitz #139 November 28, 2020 December 16, 2020 Peter Wisniewski Gammon Guys Jackpot #3 October 6, 2020 December 16, 2020 Roberto Litzenberger USBGF Advanced Divisional CIII October 18, 2020 December 18, 2020 Barry Gittleman USBGF Womens Monthly for October October 18, 2020 December 19, 2020 Mary Morse USBGF Intermediate Divisional XCIV October 27, 2020 December 22, 2020 Nestor Avila USBGF Intermediate Divisional XCV November 8, 2020 December 24, 2020 David Gillett USBGF Masters Divisional CXXVII October 27, 2020 December 27, 2020 Steve Hills USBGF Masters Divisional CXXVI October 18, 2020 December 27, 2020 Eusebio Blasco
PrimeTime in Print Subscribe for $72 annually, not including shipping. 4 issues for $18 each. Email [email protected] for details. 126 USBGF PrimeTime Backgammon Magazine
Upcoming USBGF and ABT Online! Events Upcoming Tournaments
Be sure to mark your calendar and attend these exciting ABT Online! tournaments & USBGF events. For complete tournament listings, see http://usbgf.org/abtonline-calendar/ ABT Online! New York Metro Open Dates: January 13-17, 2021 Details: Rory Pascar ([email protected]) Phone: (617) 699-9100 • Boards ABT Online! The Big Freeze-out Dates: January 28–31, 2021 Details: Ben Friesen ([email protected]) Phone: (810) 348-1695 • Checkers ABT Online! Boston Open Dates: February 25–28, 2021 Details: Rory Pascar ([email protected]) Phone: (617) 699-9100 • Doubling Cubes ABT Online! Minnesota Open Dates: March 12–14, 2021 • Precision Dice Details: April and Michael Mesich ([email protected]) Phone: (612) 703-3211 ABT Online! Beale Street Blues Open Dates: March 25–28, 2021 Details: Joe Russell ([email protected]) Phone: (310) 749-8274 ABT Online! U.S. Open Dates: April 7–12, 2021 What’s your point? Details: Rory Pascar ([email protected]) Phone: (617) 699-9100 ABT Online! Cherry Blossom Championship
CHERRY BLOSSOM Dates: April 21-25, 2021 BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIP Details: Karen Davis ([email protected]) Phone: (917) 488-5364 APRIL 21-25, 2021 ABT ONLINE! ABT Online! LA Open
LEARN MORE AT CHERRYBLOSSOMBACKGAMMON.COM Dates: June 10–13, 2021 Details: Candace Mayeron ([email protected]) Phone: (310) 822-3557 LIVE STREAM ARCHIVE Watch championship backgammon & learn from the Giants! View over 1000 recorded matches of the world’s leading backgammon players filmed at American Backgammon Tour events across the nation. ANDREAS HUMKE; BILL RILES BILL HUMKE; ANDREAS
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