Play65 gives away two full prize packages to the 2nd Meribel Backgammon Tournament, to be held on 8-12 December in the French Alps’ ski resort. The prize packages include €500 entry to the Meribel Masters Flight Meribel (where 100% of the fees return to the players as prizes), 4 nights luxury hotel accommodations, and €70 entry to "The Highest Little Tournament In The World", which will be held on Friday, 10 December, 2739 meters height above sea level at the Pierres Plates Restaurant.

Play65 Meribel Backgammon Satellites will take place on Sunday, 14 November and the following Sunday, 21 November. Entry fees are €150. The winners will be granted the Meribel prize packages and the three finalists would each get VIP Club Gold status for one month, where every dollar worth 2.5 Shop Points on Play65 gift store.

Geneva Backgammon Tournaments Reminder

And if you are already packed for Meribel, you might want to pop to Geneva on your way, where the local backgammon association (GBA) and Play65 are throwing a backgammon tournament that will be held on 27 November at the Oli bar-restaurant. This live tournament is following an online backgammon tournament that will be held on Play65 platform on Saturday, 13 November, and the best player on both tournaments would also win a month Gold VIP status.

Play65 and the Geneva Backgammon Association collaborate for two special backgammon events: an online backgammon tournament to be held on Saturday, 13 November at 18:00 GMT on Play65 game lobby, and a live event, on Saturday 27 November on 14:00 Swiss time (registration begins at 10:00) at the Oli bar-restaurant on Carrefour de Rive 1, Geneva.

The champions of the two events will be awarded cash prizes: €40 (or more, depending on the number of participants) at Play65 tournament, and 40% of all entry fees at the Geneva club event. Entry fees are only €6 for the online backgammon tournament and 60 Switzerland Francs (about €44.5) for the live event, which includes a Main and Consolation events and a ladies tournament. In addition, the player who would gain the highest score in both tournaments - online and face2face – will be automatically upgraded to a Gold status on Play65 VIP Club.

Backgammon in Geneva

"Geneva Backgammon Association is young", said 2010 Swiss Backgammon Open champion and 2009 Geneva Open champion Denis Etienne in a recent interview to Play65 Blog, "Today, there are 60 regular members, some of them are excellent players and, as it is an international city, players come from all the parts of the world. Traditionally, the best backgammon players in Switzerland came from the German-speaking part of the country, but it is maybe changing as Geneva is in the French-speaking part…"

Play65 invites you to celebrate the 10/10/2010 and the upcoming winter in a special $15,000 online backgammon tournament at 9:00 PM GMT (or 10/10/2010 at 10:00 PM in Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Vienna, Copenhagen and others). Fifteen thousand dollars will be shared between the 16 top finishers; the winner of the 11-point final will be awarded with a $4,000 prize.

Entry fees are priced at $200, but there is more than one way you can earn a free entry into the biggest backgammon tournament of October:

- Online satellite tournaments everyday at 19:00 and 21:30 GMT. Entry fees: $14
- Free online qualifiers exclusively for VIP members on 2/10/2010 for Silver and Gold players at 19:30 GMT and 9/10/2010 at 19:30 for Gold players.
- Members of Play65 VIP Club can also purchase the $200 tournament entry fees using their Shop Points.

Play65 hosts exclusive online qualifiers for the World Backgammon Tour Grand Finale, which is scheduled to 1-2 November 2010 in Enghien-les-Bains near Paris and guaranteeing a €32,000 prize pool. Only 16 players will compete at the Grand Finale: six of them are winners of the 2010 WBGT stops, another six are the top ranked in the WBGT Point Race standing; three more seats will be taken by winners of live satellites organized by various backgammon federations worldwide. The last qualifier can be you.

Play65 WBGT Grand Finale qualifier will take place on Saturday, 2 October 2010 at 18:00 GMT, where a €2000 seat will be awarded to the winner; entry fees: €250. Satellites to the Grand Finale qualifier take place everyday between 13 and 30 of September at 18:30 GMT. Entry fees are only €25.

World Backgammon Tour Stops & Point Race

The Grand Finale will close the first season of the World Backgammon Tour, an international tour that was opened early this year with the Nordic Open, continued with the US Open and the Swedish Open and will go on with the London Open on 24-26 September, the Japan Open in October and the French Open that precedes the Grand Finale.

Backgammon players who compete at the Championship Division of the WBGT stops gather points that are used to rank them in the Point Race. The top six ranked players (currently with Backgammon Giants Michihito "Michi" Kageyama of Japan and Matvey "Falafel" Natanzon of Israel) will play at the Grand Finale along with the WBGT stop winners.

Denis Etienne of Geneva, Switzerland is the winner of the 2010 Swiss Open, held last weekend at the Casino Barriere in Montreux, Switzerland and was partially sponsored by Play65. Etienne had played the very tense final against the famous German backgammon player Tobias Hellwag; first he was led 10-0, then 12-2, and finally winning 15-14.  Play65 Swiss Open qualifiers champion, Gian-Reto Iseppi, has championed the second consolation tournament.

Denis Etienne, 54, deputy editor in chief at the Tribune de Genève, and a veteran GammonEmpire player, did not win Play65 Swiss qualifiers, but he has won several online qualifiers in the past: "thanks to Play65, I could go to the Portuguese Open in Estoril (2008) and the Nordic Open in Copenhagen (2010)." He said when switching the interviewer seat with Play65.

"I play backgammon for 30 years, but seriously for 5-6 years. In Estoril, my first big tournament, I was the Consolation finalist. Otherwise, I played mainly in Switzerland, where the best players traditionally came from the German-speaking part, but it is maybe changing (Geneva is in the French-speaking part ;-). Here, I was Swiss Clubs Champion (with Geneva in 2007), and last year I won the Geneva Open."

"The backgammon association in Geneva is young - founded in 2005 - but thanks to its president (Alexandre Ben Lassin, who is a good player too), it has grown very fast. Today, there are 60 regular members, some of them are excellent players and, as it is an international city, players come from all the parts of the world. "

"The Swiss Backgammon Championship & Open was organized by Marcel Liechti, president of the Swiss Backgammon Association and former champion of Switzerland. The championship took place perfectly: magnificent room, friendly atmosphere, cocktail receptions offered, schedule pretty well respected."

Playing Online Backgammon

"Backgammon online I began playing on Yahoo. For some years, I have been playing mostly on GammonEmpire and sometimes on TrueMoneyGames.

- How do you see the connection between online and live backgammon? Play65 sponsorship of the Swiss Open, for example.

"I find that they are excellent initiatives. It is surely well for the backgammon sites; it also helps the tournaments’ organizers, and it is excellent for the players too (who can qualify themselves at low cost)… So, it is win-win-win situation. Actually, it is an important component, now even necessary, of backgammon promotion."

Future Plans

"In December, for the first time, I will be taking part in the Meribel Backgammon International Tournament in the French Alps, everybody says it is the nicest (not including Geneva Open and Swiss Open, of course ;-)"

Play65 is happy to bring back the backgammon arena tournament, where €4000 are split between the top 32 winners and the 1st finisher walks home (in his gladiator sandals) with €1400 first prize!

The backgammon arena tournament will take place on Sunday, September 5th at 20:00. Entry fees are €46, but there is a satellite tournament today, at 18:00 GMT (entry fees: €6.60).

Don’t forget that every tournament you enroll, adds VIP points (and Shop points) to your balance; these points would magically turn into cash once you gather at least 650 of them to enter the first Bronze VIP level, and could be redeemed at our VIP gift shop and our cashier.

While Swiss Backgammon Open qualifier winner, Ginaretto Iseppi, is getting ready for the Swiss Open 2010, Play65 Japan Open qualifiers are about to take place.

Japan celebrated backgammon festival, Japan Open, is scheduled to October 9-11, 2010, but Play65 qualifiers will begin next Saturday.

To win a $575 seat to the Championship Flight – where you can win an entry to the final World Backgammon Tour stop at Enghien les Baines near Paris, France – mark your calendar on August 28 and September 4 at 11:00 GMT ($75 buy-in; 8 players minimum).

To win a $140 seat to the Intermediate Flight – where you can win a 150,000 yen (about $1750) trip to an international backgammon event paid by Japan Backgammon League – play the August 28 freeroll satellite at 11:00 GNT (free entry; 3-5 points).

Japan Open is the biggest and most important backgammon event in Asia, and this year, it became a part of the World Backgammon Tour, and has 2009 World Backgammon Champion, Masayuki Mochizuki (Mochy) as the tournament director. Besides, it is probably the only backgammon tournament opened with a special sushi party.

By Karsten Bredahl, Team Play65 Captain

The champions of The Danish Backgammon Team Tournament 2009-10, which finished in March, became (as most players are aware of) the very strong team from the Mama Boyz Club sponsored by Play65: Team Play65.

Team Play65 started the season with 2 defeats (only 2 victories of 8 possible matches) but from round 3 their name were written all over the Team Tournament and after 88 matches to 17 points they ended up with 54 victories and winner of the title as Danish Champions. None of the players on the team had a negativ score, and the topscore of the team (capt. Karsten Bredahl) also became the topscorer of the entire elitedivision with 16 wins (in 21 matches) which was 3 wins more than Mik Larsen, who ended up on 2nd place with 13 wins (in 22 matches).

But last season is long gone by now and during the Summer Lars Chr. Bentzon (aka Busti) made Denmark proud by becoming the 5th Danish World Champion.

Furthermore the next season of team backgammon begins in only 4 weeks so who can remember what happened 6 months ago?!

Now is the time to forget about vacations, work and families. Backgammon is all that matters from now on. The teams in the Danish Team Tournament can look forward to thousands of exiting 17-pointers during the next 6 month! Positions will arise and debates will take place in the Danish forum…

528 of these matches will take place in the elitedivision and the defending champions from Team Play65 will do whatever is in their power to win the title again and make Play65 proud but they are up against the strongest players in the world so it is going to be a tough call and very exciting.

Play65 is holding special qualifiers for the Swiss Backgammon Open, where you can win tickets to the Main and the Intermediate divisions of the Swiss Open 2010, that will take place along the Backgammon Swiss Championship between 27 and 29 of August 2010 at the Casino Barrière in Montreux on the French-speaking western-side of Switzerland. Play65 also sponsors the drinks served during the welcome cocktail on Friday 19:30. Organized by the Swiss Backgammon Association, the Swiss Open and Backgammon Swiss Championships are expected to be attended by some of the top players in backgammon.

Play65 Swiss Open qualifiers will start tomorrow, on August 2 at 19:00 (GMT) and continue to run daily until August 7; €9 entry fee, 6 players minimum, first prize - free entry to the final qualifier on August 8 19:30 (entry fee: €50, first prize: free €375 seat to the Swiss Open Championship). To win free €140 seat to the Swiss Open Intermediate division, you can enter Play65 freeroll on August 7, at 19:30; no entry fees, 8 players minimum.

Play65 Swiss Open Bonuses

For this special occasion, Play65 is offering special bonuses for first time depositors and frequent players alike.
First depositors can deposit minimum $50 and maximum $150, insert the bonus code GAMEON65, and have their first deposit matched back with a 100% bonus.
Play65 frequent players can enter the bonus code Swiss50 and earn 100% bonus, up to $150.