Play65 is keeping the Christmas spirit by adding Santa Claus to Play65 avatars:

Santa Claus avatar will be available for your (and your opponents) use throughout this holiday season.

And at the same spirit, if the holidays makes you feel particularly generous, you might want to consider this Carbofan backgammon set:

The backgammon board is made of full carbon and the checkers are composed of 24 carat gilded and silvered stainless glass and is available for only $25,250. Just hurry up, because it comes in a limited edition of only 99 sets.

Play65 is offering a special promotion for Christmas and the holiday season – 50% bonus on a $50-150 deposit with the bonus code: XMAS50. Play65 Christmas bonus is valid from now until February 1st 2011 and it can be released in 5 steps after accumulating the required number of stars. So, to get $50 bonus on your $100 deposit, you will get $10 on each step after accumulating 500 stars.

And if you want to give a backgammon related Christmas gift, here are some suggestions:

For handmade backgammon gifts you can choose between the portable floral fabric backgammon set seen above ($4 in the US or $6 elsewhere), and a round backgammon board with the old world map in the background ($20/$50, checkers are included).

Fans of Lost or those who missed the TV drama that rumored to draw backgammon back into the center of attention, might appreciate the complete collection on Blu-ray with a senet game set (backgammon game’s Ancient Egyptian ancestor that was mentioned by the Jacob character in the television series) and other relics.

If interested in different backgammon game variations or inspirations, a vintage set of the Parcheesi, a board game similar to backgammon influenced by the ancient Indian Parchisi, is available for sale on ebay for just $14.90.

Like backgammon, Parcheesi is played with a pair of dice and the players strive to move their (four) pieces home (in that case, to the center of the board); as in backgammon, there are doublets, hits and blockades.

Play65 is happy to invite you to huge $15,000 backgammon tournament next Sunday, December 12 at 21:00 GMT.

The 15K backgammon tournament has started out on 10/10/2010 is now becoming a monthly tradition. It returns on 12/12/2010 with a guaranteed $15,000 prize pool, $4,000 first prize, 11-point final and 16 winners. Entry fees are $200 (185+15), and they can be earned at the daily satellites (everyday at 19:00 and 21:00) or the special VIP free-roll (for VIP Silver and Gold members) on December 9 at 18:00. VIP Club members can purchase entry to the glorious 15K event using their (50,000) Shop Points.

Play65 Meribel promotion has ended last Sunday. Two players – Götz Hildsberg of Germany aka klarsicht8 & Serge Dahan of France aka nanisimon – had won entries to the Masters Flight of the upcoming backgammon tournament at the French Alps, four nights (each) in a luxury hotel and entries to the Highest Little Tournament in The World. Four more players - candy_88, claus_e, mjw672 & guinea_pig – had won Gold VIP statuses for a month, what gives them 2.5-point factor on every $1 real money game played, a personal account manager and other benefits.

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…"

1.

The biggest backgammon tournament of the month is tonight at 21:00 GMT and you have a chance to get a piece of the $15,000 guaranteed prize pool and be one of the 16 lucky winners who’d share between $300 and $4000 prizes. Registration is still open, hurry up and enroll.

2.

If you are more into little wins, you might be happy to know that $0.5 is no longer the lowest bet limit, as you can now play backgammon for as little as $0.1, and pay only 3cent rake. Note: only in small bets ($0.1 - $0.49) the rake is fixed on 3cent and is taken from both players.

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.

Play65 Backgammon is happy to be one of the founding sponsors of the US Backgammon Federation, along with the top presenters of the backgammon game including several Giants of Backgammon, national and world backgammon champions, tournament directors and other supporters of the game. The USBGF and Play65 share the same devotion and enthusiasm about the backgammon game and they both intend to promote its positive aspects in clubs, tournaments and in online play.

USBGF Honorary Founding Sponsor

Another surprising supporter of the backgammon game is the Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic who has received an honorary lifetime membership (and a matching doubling cube) from the US Backgammon Federation. Ivanovic, who had recently played the US Open (not the US Backgammon Open obviously), often stated that backgammon - against the computer or her previous coach – used to be her number one locker room pastime.

Potential Honorary Sponsors…

Backgammon was also a favorite pastime of the Green Bay Packers’ locker room, as several members of the American football team were occupied by it in between matches. Backgammon was played at a private jet flight by two hockey team owners - Nelson Skalbania and Peter Pocklington – and played a crucial part in the history of hockey.