As the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship ended, the first event in the third season of the World Series of Backgammon began with the WSOB Cannes, held at the Palm Beach Casino from July 23 until yesterday, when anonymous Najibulla Salamzy of Afghanistan/Germany has surprisingly defeated the favorite, backgammon giant and WSOB team member Falafel […]

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Play65 is happy to congratulate Masayuki "Mochy" Mochizuki for winning the 2009 World Backgammon Championship final, held yesterday at the Fairmont Hotel in Monte Carlo, after defeating reigning champion, Lars Trabolt of Denmark in a 25-points match. Mochy, who is also one of Play65’s backgammon bot busters, is the first Japanese champion in the history […]

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A rare session of blindfold backgammon was played last night during the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship between Falafel and Sander Lylloff, two backgammon masters (no. 1 and 4 in the latest Giants of Backgammon list) who never reject an offer to make things interesting. The backgammon game was physically performed by two other players, […]

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After IBM has developed the first backgammon computer to compete with a championship level player (TD-Gammon, mentioned here in our second chapter in the history of backgammon bots), and a chess computer that beat then World Chess Champion (in the famous 1997 Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov match, ended in 3.5-2.5 result), IBM research center […]

Continue reading " Backgammon, Chess, Jeopardy* "

Summer time is travel season, thus there is not a better time to learn how to prepare your very own miniature backgammon board you can carry around to wherever you plan to spend summer vacation (that unless you plan to drag an ultralight laptop and play backgammon online while swinging on a hammock in some […]

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With the battle against the misuse of backgammon bots, we almost forgot that these programs were originally purposed to help us become better players. I thought about it after reading an interview with Martin Smith, GameAccount bots buster and the creator of ProBot, not the heavy metal side project of Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters […]

Continue reading " The Good Backgammon Bots "

The Naumburg Bandshell area in Central Park, New York City was covered yesterday with authentic Mediterranean sand to disguise itself to Tel Aviv beach. To complete the costume, Israeli DJ, reggae and rock bands performed and the usual attributes of a beach in Tel Aviv covered the sand including tanning beds, sunshades, games of beach […]

Continue reading " Backgammon on the Tel Aviv Beach in Manhattan "

Sponsoring live backgammon events is one of the things online backgammon rooms do in order to broaden their target audience and access the pros. But what is in it for the tournament organizers and, of course, the players?

Play65 Nordic Open 2009
Over the past five years, Play65 has been sponsoring, promoting several live backgammon tournaments including […]

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Ishai Shotten, Play65’s long time affiliate, won the wii game console in the first ever Affilicon backgammon tournament held last week during the affiliate marketing convention and exhibition in Airport City, Israel. To win the wii, Mr. Shotten bested 6 of the toughest rivals out of the 30 enthusiastic backgammon affiliates who attended the backgammon […]

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So backgammon made a brief yet notable appearance in Lost, thickening the plot by adding extra layers of cosmic meanings, but backgammon as a game is hardly a spectator’s sports. Though several attempts have been made to televise backgammon championships (from the forgotten experiment of The Crowns Cup to the World Series of Backgammon, now […]

Continue reading " The Unbelievable Future of Backgammon on TV "