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 has added two new speed game modes to its online backgammon platform including a fast game (up to 15 seconds a move) and a lightning blitz backgammon games with only 10 seconds a move and no more than 30 seconds a game.

Backgammon blitz games (not to be confused with the blitz game plan, when a player hits the opponent’s blots in his homeboard in order to make it difficult for the opponent to re-enter from the bar) is commonly played as a side event in many tournaments worldwide, where it is limited to 1-2 point matches. One of the benefits of playing blitz backgammon online is that its speedy time limitation can prevents anyone from using bots.

BGblitz is also the name of the backgammon software used by Play65 when one of the players disconnects in real money backgammon games, or when the time ends before the game, to decide who is the predicted winner and how the stake should be divided between the two players. As you may recall, the software has been recently updated and adjusted to better suit Play65 needs and provide more accurate predictions.

Three Play65 members won backgammon vacations at the beautiful Cyprus capital, Nikosia. The three, David Bar of Israel, aka agaso741, Juergen R. Orlowski (orlowski) and Sven Rumcker (honeydripper), both of Germany, have overcame a field of 16-23 players to win the €500 seats at the upcoming Cyprus Backgammon Open tournament, plus fight and accommodation there. All three winners are 1800+ rated players, and at least one of them - orlowski - is an active tournament player, who had recently finished fourth at the WSOB events in Cannes and Prague, and was the runner up at the WBA French Open consolation.

The 1st Cyprus Backgammon Open is organized by the World Backgammon Association, one of the leading governing bodies of the game, as a replacement for the City of Venice International Backgammon Tournament that closed its shop last year, after about 20 years of activity. Cyprus Backgammon Open is the fourth stop in the European Backgammon Tour 2009, preceded by the Portuguese Open, Georgian Open and the French Open and to be followed by at least one more stop, yet in an unknown location and date.

The Cyprus Open tournament will be divided to two divisions, Masters and Intermediate, with every division consists of consolation and last chance events. The winners of each event will get a set share of the prize pool (including the €5000 added money) and the Masters champion will be granted free entry to the next EBGT event. On top of the main tournaments, the Cyprus tournament will include several side events such as a Sassan-Gammon challenge (a backgammon variation played with 3 dice instead of 2) and jackpots for various amounts.

A quick reminder:

The first online qualifier for the 1st Cyprus Backgammon Open is due today at 20:00 GMT on Play65 game lobby, while the second and third qualifiers will take place tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, same time same place.

Entry fees are €55 and the winner gets a €500 free entry to the real-life backgammon tournament, flight and accommodation in Nikosia, Cyprus. The Cyprus Open backgammon tournament is organized by the World Backgammon Association guaranteeing €2,500 + 50% of the prize pool to the main winner, plus free entry to the following stop of European Backgammon Tour, and offering generous prizes to the consolation and last chance winners, as well as other jackpots and side events.

Or, if you don’t want to go to Cyprus:

At the same time with the first Cyprus online qualifier, the second Lucky Strike tournament, out of a marathon of three consecutive tournaments will take place. Entry fees to all three events is $1 and the 1st prizes to the 19:00, 20:00 and 21:00 tournaments are $75, $112.5 or $150 correspondingly; 2nd prizes - $25, $37, and $50.

To the thousand things you can do with a $1,000 you can add playing backgammon online: Play65 has recently raised the maximum stake in its backgammon games to $1,000 (or € or ₤) and at the same time lowered the rake to 2.45%. I bet you can do the math…

That means, that if, for example, you and your opponent play on $800 and you win a gammon, then your opponent pays $1,600 and you will earn a sum of $1560.8, regardless to the rating difference between you and your partner.

Following the enormous success of the Knockout Weekend tournaments (formerly known as the Supernatural Weekend), Play65 has added some new midweek tournaments:

Ladies First – €500 tournament on Tuesday nights (20:00 GMT) where ladies enter for free and the gentlemen pay €6 entry fees.

Lucky Wednesday – a series of three successive tournaments on 19:00, 20:00 and 21:00 GMT with $100, $150 and $200 prize, correspondingly.
Entry Fees: $1
1st prize: 75% of the prize pool
2nd prize: 25%

Cyprus Backgammon Open Qualifiers

Play65 is hosting online qualifiers for the 1st Cyprus Backgammon Open to be held on November 26th-29th at the Golden Tulip Hotel & Casino in Nikosia, Cyprus courtesy of the World Backgammon Association (WBA) with $5,000 added prize money.

Play65 qualifiers will take place on November 11th, 12th, and 13th at 20:00 GMT.
Entry fees: $55
1st prize: €500 seat at the Cyprus Open, flight to Nikosia and hotel accommodation
2nd prize: every euro over the €1,080 first prize will be awarded to the runner up