Backgammon Photographs by Douglas Ljungkvist

February 4th, 2010

Backgammon is the subject of a new series of works by New Yorker photographer Douglas Ljungkvist. He is not interested in documenting the backgammon match itself, thus in his photos you will not see the current position of the game, not the two players facing each other and nor the group of spectators surrounding them.

backgammon photo

Typical backgammon photo from 2009 Monte Carlo championship

What you will get is a close look at the formal elements that assemble the backgammon game, tangible sense of the board’s material; nuanced glance at the players’ hands, as they roll the dice, move the checkers or record the score, and the appearance of the playing surface at the end of the game. 

backgammon photo by Douglas Ljungkvist

backgammon photo by Douglas Ljungkvist© (as all the photos below)

 How do backgammon players stack the checkers while bearing off?

"Photographing a backgammon match per se is visually not very interesting." Ljungkvist told Play65 blog. "Backgammon does, however, offer color combinations, texture and variety of surface materials. I am also interested in studying how a board looks after a match is over. How do people stack the checkers while bearing off? Sometimes chaotic patterns are created by hands at the end of a match by a player expressing his disgust at losing. The result is like the calm after the storm. Who is left standing, how and where?"

backgammon photo by Douglas Ljungkvist

 Eric Steiner’s old beat up backgammon board

Although Ljungkvist’s endeavors in backgammon photography are still at the beginning, his backgammon connection goes back to his childhood, through the vivacious Stockholm scene of the 1980s, and includes winning the Swedish Team Championships and a special heritage backgammon board.

"I started playing backgammon around the age of nine thanks to Swedish poker/backgammon player and gambling legend, Eric Steiner", he recalls, "We visited Marbella, Spain from Sweden often and became friends with Eric, staying at Eric’s beach house on a vacation. At night, Eric would go out to play high stakes money games with rich but not so good players in the upscale Puerto Banus marina. I remember vividly that Eric’s favorite opening move was a 6-1." 

playing backgammon

"My first backgammon board was one that Eric gave to me during one of those visits. It was a large but pretty beat up board that I used for the next ten years or so playing mostly against my sister and mom. Some years later we had moved from Gothenburg to Stockholm and I learned there was a backgammon scene with tournaments and weekly league games. People would make fun of my beat up old board until I told them who had given it to me. I wish I still had that board. I eventually invested in a Dal Negro board that I purchased in Rome, Italy and still use to this day." 

Swedish backgammon days

"In Stockholm my interest in backgammon grew and I attended tournaments regularly and played in a weekly league with ten teams each in two divisions. Though I would play the Swedish Open and some other tournaments around Scandinavia, I was never a star player. I was on the team that won the Swedish Team Championships that, the weakest among formidable players like Robert Lindbom, Johan Moazed, and Ulf Ring. My biggest contribution to the team was probably when I clinched the deciding semi-final and final matches to claim the championships in the late 80’s. The legendary two time World Champion Jorgen Granstedt was on the very first league team that I played on. 

Backgammon and Ping Pong

Ljungkvist interest in backgammon started fading upon his move to New York in 1990, and came alive again in recent times, while working on his ping pong project, "partly a formalist still life study of space, design, color, space, and form. I realized there were certain visual similarities between backgammon and ping pong that interested me, the limited boarded playing surfaces, colors, space, and shapes; the rectangular board, triangular pips, round checkers, and square dice." 

backgammon ping pong

"The backgammon board does not have enough scale to make the venue or combination of the board and its environment interesting in the same way a ping pong table can do in the urban landscape or in an interesting inside venue. Backgammon offers more color combinations, texture, and variety of surface materials compared to ping pong."

Backgammon future plans and alternative rule

"Once I complete my ping pong project I hope to find more time to photograph backgammon, both on locations where people gather and play, as well as creating conceptual scenes in my studio. I might explore some tightly composed player portraits during matches representing various states of emotion; the poker face, disappointment, exhilaration, disgust, fear, intimidation, counting, analyzing, and more." 

backgammon image

"I’m excited to play backgammon again. I definitely have as a goal to play the World Backgammon Championships in Monaco at some point. Backgammon is a good fit for my personality. It is faster than chess and good for someone who likes variety and can get bored easily. I am a feel player evaluating situations more by position, experience, and objectives than equity or pip counts. This is probably also my biggest weakness. Generally, I am a better match than money game player. Now, if only I could get in from the bar on two and three point boards. My dream is that they would change the rules so that each player would roll for the other."

$5,000 Backgammon Tournament Tonight

January 31st, 2010

Today, 31st of January, Independence Day is celebrated in the Republic of Nauru in the South Pacific. It is also Justin Timberlake’s birthday and International Leprosy Day. But, that’s not why Play65 is running a $5,000 backgammon tournament (though you are invited to donate your earnings to a leprosy trust of your choice).

In fact, there is no special reason for running a +5K tournament tonight at 20:30 GMT with $58 buy-in, 16 winners and $850 as first prize.

Satellite to the $5,000 tournament will begin on 18:45 GMT with only $8 buy in.

5k backgammon tournament

Backgammon in the Time Tunnel

January 25th, 2010

Backgammon Championship on C64 is one of the oldest ancestors of Play65 online backgammon. Not yet in the real-time, multi-player sense, still a primary alternative to live backgammon.

Find the differences:

Another Online Backgammon Advantage

You might not know, but when playing backgammon on Play65, you can cancel your last movement by pressing Ctrl + Z on your keyboard.

Pacific Backgammon Tournament & New Satellites

January 9th, 2010

Play65 is happy to introduce a new tournament, Pacific Time $300+, plus new and improved satellite tournaments.

Play65 Goes Pacific

The new $300+ Pacific Time tournament will take place every Saturday at 18:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time); Europeans and Middle Easterns can set the alarm clock to 02:00 (GMT) on Sunday. The entry free for the tournament is only $5 and the prize pool split between the top 16 players; the winner will go home with at least $112.

play65 goes pacific

moonjazz

New Satellite Tournaments

Play65 satellite tournaments now allow more players to win great prizes: entry fees to a bigger event or cash prizes. For example, if the number of entrants to a satellite was higher than the required minimum, then the finalist wins the rest of the prize pool (minus commission). If the number of players is twice the minimum – the winner and the finalist get free entry to the bigger tournament. If the number of players is bigger than twice the minimum, then the two finalist receive free entries and the semi-finalists share the rest of the prize pool.

Note that there are two types of satellite tournaments in Play65:

Sit & Gos - with undetermined time and limited number of participants – can be found in the game lobby by clicking on the Sit and Go tab -> Satellite tab
And Event satellites – with predetermined date and time, unlimited number of participants and a prize pool that grows according to the number of players - available on the Satellites tab in the Tournaments tab in the game lobby.

Happy New Year 2010!

December 30th, 2009

Play65 invites you to open 2010 New Year’s celebration in an online backgammon tournament:

December 31, 2009 at 19:00 GMT

€20.10 entry fees

€2010+ prize - divided between 2 players:

1st place: €2010; 2nd place: all the moneys accumulated over €2010

Happy New Year!

new year tournament 

The Happy Holidays Edition

December 20th, 2009

Special Play65 tournaments for the holidays and some surprising backgammon related gifts.

Play65 is inviting you to celebrate the upcoming holidays in two special events:

€10,000 Xmas, the first and the biggest, will take place on Christmas evening, December 25th 2009 at 20:00 GMT with €10.000 prize pool, to be divided between 128 players. Entry fees are €100, and follow Play65 tournament schedule for satellites.

xmas backgammon tournament

€2010 New Year’s Tournament is the second festive event that marks the end of the year and the beginning of the new year with a €2010 prize given to the winner, while every additional prize money will be given to the runner up. Entry fees are €20.10 and the tournament is scheduled to December 31st, at 20:10 19:00 GMT.

Backgammon Gift Ideas

What can you buy a backgammon fan who already has the best backgammon board, most precise dice and the fullest backgammon books library?

Traveling backgammon players enjoy the richest variant of backgammon accessories and gifts. From a game board bandana that serves as a head cover, body cover, towel, blanket and backgammon, chess and checkers board in one (£10.00, about €11.27 or $16.16) to a handmade knitted backgammon set vintage Bakelite and mother of pearl buttons ($5, about €3.5).

travel backgammon board

 via etsy

Backgammon nuts who want to surround themselves with triangles in alternating colors would not face a skint selection of objects either. For $15.99 (or €11.15), they can have backgammon bracelet, "the perfect accessory for game nights or days playing chess in the park" (for wrists no thicker then 8 inches or 20.32 cm).

backgammon bracelet

via Modcloth

Or a 20"x20" backgammon board pattern with cross stitched gladiolus Iris as triangles. It is so beautiful you should probably frame it and break the glass only in case of emergency. $3.50/€2.44 etsy again.

backgammon board

Dark Side of Play65

December 11th, 2009

From tomorrow night (December 12th at midnight GMT) Play65 will be revealing its dark side. On every night on this coming week, the online backgammon room will be violently slashing the rakes to a maximum of 3% or €15. All of you owls, vampires, aussies and other sleep deprived creatures are welcome to take advantage and play backgammon until the morning comes.

Play65 dark week

Play65 Dark Week – from December 12th to 19th, 00:00 – 06:00 GMT

 

Play65 Team Tops Danish Backgammon League

December 9th, 2009

Play65 Team is currently topping the elite division of the Danish Backgammon League, one of the strongest backgammon leagues in the world and the habitat of many world champions. The Play65 Team have outplayed the very strong Nemo team, consists of backgammon champions such as Mads Andersen, Morten Lassen, Katja Spillum and random guests like Bob Wachtel and Gustav Hansen.

Play65 team

Mama Boy in action

The Play65 Team, also known as the Mama Boyz, were gathered about two years ago, consists of Steen Grønbech, Karsten Bredahl, Michael K. Larsen and others, and it has been representing our online backgammon room in several local and international tournaments including the two recent Nordic Open events, and in one of them even won two team events.

Backgammon Kingdom of Denmark

 

The Danish Backgammon Federation is one of the most well-organized and devoted backgammon associations worldwide. Its established leagues system is probably the main reasons for the plenitude of Dane players in backgammon tournaments. The DBgF, started out in 1987 as a small backgammon club in Copenhagen, now has more than 100 branches in the small Nordic country, many of them holding weekly tournaments on top of special annual events.

The Danish Backgammon Federation leagues system includes three hierarchical regional divisions and one elite division, with 12 teams of 8-16 players each. Every team gets to play against all other teams in its division twice a year. The winning teams climb up the ladder and the less successful ones drop to a lower division.

Play65 in Cyprus & Meribel

December 6th, 2009

After sending three winning contestants to the Cyprus Backgammon Open (see pictures below), Play65 is now sponsoring the 1st Meribel Backgammon Tournament and giving a special $50 bonus to the Meribel participants with an account on Play65.

The Meribel International Backgammon Tournament will be inaugurated this weekend, from the 10th to the 13th in December, in Meribel, an Alpine village in France with the biggest ski area in the world. The new international backgammon tournament is directed and organized by Backgammon in London team, Mike Main and Clive Kaye, and the French backgammon player Scarlett Serrero will serve as the tournament assistant. Among the players who ensured their participations are the 2009 World Backgammon Champion, Mochy, Chris Ternel, Raj Jansari and many others.

Play65 is happy to sponsor the backgammon event, which collects no registration fees, and gives 100% of the entry fees as prizes (on top of $5000 added money). Play65 is also happy to encourage its players to open ski season with a backgammon tournament and offer them free $50 bonus if they will take part in the Meribel Backgammon Tournament.

As promised, some pictures from the Cyprus Backgammon Open:

cyprus backgammon open

Fuat Erdag vs. Play65 member Jürgen Orlowski at the Cyprus Open final

cyprus backgammon open

Orlowski lifting his runner-up trophy

Cyprus Backgammon Open Winners from Play65

November 30th, 2009

The three players sent by Play65 to the Cyprus Backgammon Open, which ended yesterday, had a great success at the reputable tournament. Jürgen Orlowski of Germany; finished second at the Masters and Sven Rümcker, also of Germany, won the Main Consolation, and even tournaments’ newbie Israeli David Bar made it to the semifinals of the Consolation, but losing to Rümcker dropped him off the competition.

Play65 at the Cyprus Backgammon Open

Play65 team - David Bar vs. Sven Rümcker

Over 80 backgammon players, mostly from neighboring Turkey, have inaugurated the Cyprus Backgammon Open, the fourth stop of the WBA’s European Backgammon Tour for 2009. Other winners include Oguz User of Turkey and Ali Vahabi of Iran, at the Pro/Am Doubles. Haluk Oral of Turkey won the Sassan Gammon event. Special prizes were given to Michihito Kageyama "Michy" of Japan (long distance award), Cemalettin Yüksel and Hilmi Göchan, both of Turkey (presidents’ award).