The last stop of this year World Series of Backgammon is going on since Thursday, July 17 at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France. The final table is due for today and the 2007-8 WSOB final table, with 16 players – 8 of them are the highest ranked players in the series and the 8 are online qualifiers including 3 who won on Play65 tournaments - is scheduled for tomorrow.

Similar to the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship, and apparently any other international backgammon tournament, the Dane people stood out above the jumble of nations and languages with backgammon stars such as Lars Trabolt (straight from Monte Carlo where he was crowned World Champion) and Gus Hansen (who arrived from a poker tourney in Las Vegas directly to the quarter finals), Pia Jeppesen (who beat her American counterparts in a row and dropped out of the competition at the quarter finals, following her loss to Gus Hansen, whom she had to pleasure to face, for the first time in her career) and Kenny Nissen (head of the Dansk Backgammon Forbund, the Denish Backgammon Federation). However, despite the Danish superiority, the Danish team did not win the annual Nations Cup. Germany team, headed by Gots, took the trophy to their homeland.

Today, the semi-finals are about to take place. Unfortunately, Falafel Natanzon is out of the competition. After losing to Jakob Holdt-Simonsen on the first round and moving to the Consolation, our man at the Riviera Cup was defeated, again by Holdt-Simonsen, at the 7th round. Yet, he left us with pictures of him playing against Gus Hansen and wearing Play65 cup.

Gus Hansen vs. Falafel Natanzon at the WSOB Riviera Cup

As for now, the competition lies between Robert Lindbom of Sweden who will battle against American Robert Koca and Gus Hansen who will be playing English Nicky Check.

The 33rd annual World Backgammon Championship ended up yesterday at the Fairmount Hotel in Monaco, Monte Carlo. The new World Backgammon Championship is Lars Trabolt of Denmark, who beat Portuguese Mario Sequieira 25-12 in the 25-point final match.

Full details, including personal experience of Falafel, Play65 blog correspondent (and number 4 at the Super Jackpot!) at the prestigious backgammon event, will be published soon. In the meantime, some pictures:

 Lars Trabolt, the 2008 World Backgammon Champion lifts the trophy and his 1 year old daughter

 The Japanese players leaving the trophies ceremony wearing traditional customs

 Play65 protects players from the blazing Monte Carlo sun

Here is a story that happened in a live backgammon tournament that cannot take place when playing online: 

A backgammon player named Badri Tsertsvadze got caught last week at the final day of the Partouche Gammon Tour in France with a crooked dice. The dice was found missing the number 2 but with extra pair of 5s. Needless to mention how this supposedly slight modification changes the player’s possibilities and opens him an entirely new world of good rolls. So the alleged crook was taken to the police by the Partouche Casino Security where he was charged with attempted fraud and another court discussion in his case was set to December. 

This attempt fraud story raises more questions: is it possible that the guy was playing with the wonder dice in other tournaments (including ones where he made some respectable achievements such as the 1st place at the French Open Masters, Last Chance winning at the 19th City Of Venice International Backgammon Tournament, among others)? And if so, which backgammon association can deal with this and protect the players from this kind of abuse? 

Therefore, Eric Guedj, the director of the PartoucheGammon Tour, decided to take advantage of this unpleasant circumstance and to invite his colleagues to form a new, stronger backgammon body, who will keep up his promise of fair and honest play in all backgammon tournaments. 

When playing backgammon online, things are not always quite so clean. Online players can do terrible things to one another, from calling out names to disconnecting right before losing, but at least you can be certain that the dice won’t be manipulated by your opponent.

crooked dice cooked rice

The 7th backgammon quiz in Play65 series of quizzes is online since yesterday and dozens of eager backgammon players are pressing submit madly. This week’s question is rather easy: who had organized the first major European backgammon tournament in 1973 in Monte Carlo?   

The answer to last week’s backgammon question is Greece. Greece is the country where the backgammon variation Fevga is played. Fevga is one of the three board games belong to the Tavli family of games (the other two are Portes and Plakoto). Fevga is considered the most challenging game of all Tavli games. Fevga is played on a standard backgammon board with regular checkers and dice (yet without the doubling cube). Click here to learn how to play Fevga.

And a special bonus: "Nude backgammon with swimsuit models"

Think you’re good enough to play at the World Series of Backgammon?

If your answer is yes…

1. Go to Play65 Backgammon Site

2. Download the software: Free Backgammon Download

3. Play on Play65 WSOB qualifiers

and…
win it to get a free entrance to the WSOB Championship Final in Cannes.
and get a chance to win €100.000. That’s right:

 €100.000 in CASH!!!

* Play65 WSOB package includes: 
- A flight to Cannes, France.
- 5 Days accomodation.
- A FREE entrance to the world series of backgammon finale
(WSOB final in Cannes is schedueled to July 22nd, flight is on July 17th).            

And in this guest post Phil Simborg is reporting from 14th Annual Ohio State Backgammon Championship:

I was pleased not only to attend this very fine ABT event, but I was also happy to be the Auctioneer for the Calcutta. I guess I got carried away doing the auction, as I ended up buying 4 teams with my partner. The good news is that someone came into the money on 3 of the 4 teams, so we made a few bucks on the deal in addition to our fun.

On Saturday morning, I gave a lecture to Intermediate and Beginner players on the basics of tournament play. There were 43 people in attendance, and I am told it was well-received. Many of the players there are friends and acquaintances from Play65 and other on-line play.

Then the actual play began, and for me, it was very exciting as I won my first three matches, beating some very fine Championship Level players. A good friend of mine, Greg Merriman, said he had an amazing place to go for dinner, and we ended up spending a lovely 2-hour dinner break with Scott Casty at one of the finest gourmet restaurants in the country by the name of Johnny’s. What a great surprise. It truly was one of the finer gourmet meals I’ve ever had.

The problem is, however, you cannot have a really fine meal like that without some really fine wine, and at $120 a bottle, we did indulge ourselves. Normally, I make it a rule never to drink alcohol when I am still alive in the main, but this meal demanded an exception, and the wine was as unbelievable as the food. I am sure I was not tipsy after the meal, but the results were sure tipsy, as I proceeded to lose my next three matches. I can’t blame it on the wine, however, as Scott drank and ate as much as I, and he won all of his matches but one and took the award for First Consolation.

It was a great event, well-attended, and I was also thrilled to see an old, great friend win the Championships.

See results below:

Championship: 1-Antoinette-Marie Williams (NY) 2-Robert Lessard (Canada) 1st Consolation: Steve Hast (PA)

Advanced: 1-Rose Sheedy (IN) 2-Chris Knapp (Canada) 1st Consolation: Scott Casty

Novice: 1-Ryan Hast (PA)

Masters: Thomas Meyer (IL)

Doubles: Peggy Jackson (OH) & Alan Martin (FL)

The players sponsored by Play65 at the WSOB 2008 Nordic Open Backgammon Championship gained impressive achievements individually and as a team. The four Danish backgammon players - Henrik Løber, Karsten Bredahl, Jakob Holdt-Simonsen and Michael Kjærgaard Larsen - have all made Play65 very proud of its protégés at the Nordic Open held in March 20-24 at the Marienlyst Hotel and Casino in frozen Helsingør, Denmark.

Details right after the photographic proof:

 Play65 team at the Nordic Open says cheese

The 20^th Nordic Open Backgammon Championship was the second event in the series of prestigious World Series of Backgammon (WSOB). Took place in Helsingør, Denmark from March 20 until March 24, the backgammon tournament featured about 200 of the world’s top backgammon players including 4 players who were sponsored by Play65 backgammon site, that from now on and back will be known as "Play65 Team". 

The Play65 Team has revealed its championship potential in the various events that consisted the WSOB 2008 Nordic Open. Together, as Play65 Team, they have topped their contestants twice: first on the Nations’ Cup event that featured 12 teams and second at the Team Event in which they beat the Japanese Backgammon League. As individuals, the foursome didn’t embarrass their Play65 shirts but the other way around: Karsten Bredahl is the runner up at the Championship Consolation Division while Michael Larsen & Jakob Simonsen together semi finalized the Consultation Doubles event!

 One more smile to the camera and you’re free to go

The online backgammon magazine GammonLine has published a new article, the first in almost 8 years. Formed by Kit Woolsey one of the top 5 backgammon players in the world, and the author of the "Woosley’s doubling rule" (which says, that whenever you are not certain about accepting or passing a doubling offer - double), Gammonline features database of backgammon articles in variety of topics.

The new GammonLine article, titled "Conversations with Backgammon Software" was written by Mike Corbett, another American backgammon giant and the author of a new book called "Backgammon Problems", discusses the differences between the backgammon play of a computer and a human player including examples and illustrations.

Posh backgammon players might be happy to learn that another rare and extremly expensive backgammon board is up for sale. Designed by Tomasso Barbi the brass and burled wood backgammon table is available through Casa bella Showroom for those of you who are brave enough to ask for the price.
(thanks to Mike Boudet from Universe of Luxury for the info)

As promised, the updates from Play65 final four at the 19th City of Venice International Backgammon Tournament is on its way…It turns out that if you win on play65 online backgammon tournament, you have better chances to win in one of the top backgammon tournaments in the world…

In other words, two of our representatives in the Venice International Backgammon Tournament Italian Giuseppe Ricciardi and Michael Schmidt of Germany took the championship and the finalist titles (respectively) in the Double “Davis” European Championship.

The Double “Davis” European Championship is based on the same formula applied in tennis “Davis Cup” championship: two single matches, a consultation and then two more single matches. In the last match, Giuseppe Ricciardi coupled up with Italian player Piero Gallo, whom together took the victory from Michael Schmidt and his German fellow Uli Koch. Simple arithmetics shows you that half of the winners in the Davis European backgammon championship was taken by Play65 winners. Doesn’t it make you feel proud?

If you were looking for a special Christmas present, you might be delighted to read that Braroe Chess is throwing a special 12-days sale.

Braroe Chess is an online shop that specializes in board gaming equipment, especially chess and backgammon boards, checkers and sets. Starting on Monday, December 3rd and until December 15,  each day one item of the online shop’s board game supplies (including chess and backgammon) will be offered in special discount.
In the meantime, a $199.95 chess board was offered for $109.95. You should check it out, it could be worthwhile.