Backgammon was the first game in which an experimental computer defeated the world champion (though in that case, the winner was simply luckier); later it was chess, and now even trivia experts are not immunes. IBM’s AI creation, Watson, has defeated two Jeopardy! record breakers in a special exhibition match of the TV game show.

Despite failing to locate Toronto on the map, the supercomputer won the $1,000,000 first prize in the two-part show aired yesterday, while his strong opponents, 74-time Jeopardy! champion, Ken Jennings, and the biggest all-time money winner in Jeopardy!, Brad Rutter, took only $300,000 and $200,000 each. Watson’s prize will be obviously donated by IBM to selected charities.

Watson’s knowingness of Paris Hilton filmography

As long as the World Cup 2010 goes on, Play65 continues to give away the special backgammon bonus – 40% on up to $150 deposit, using the bonus code "wc2010" - we will keep on trying to find connections between backgammon and soccer (or football).

A recent finding is the fact that soccer, like backgammon, has bots. Watch them play:

While backgammon bots constantly beat world-class players (and a primitive one even defeated the just crowned world champion Luigi Villa in 1979), in fact, no backgammon champ can do without them, the soccer playing robots still cannot fill the real players shoes, literally. Their developers, however, set their hopes high for winning the 2050 World Cup, reports the Guardian from the ongoing RoboCup in Singapore.

So gamblers, which has bigger odds: humanoids winning the World Cup or backgammon played at the Olympic Games?

Bob Wachtel Interview

Backgammon giant and Play65 bots buster Robert (Bob) Wachtel has been interviewed on Phil Simborg site, and shared additional information on top of those shared in his 2009 Play65 interview; his dream backgammon tournament (one match a day, a simple consolation tournament, both single-elimination, in a warm and exotic location), his view of today’s backgammon comparing to the pre-bots era (“like the difference between reading a story that that you know the ending to and one that you don’t, or perhaps like reading a novel and reading the Cliff’s Notes to it.”), his unique philosophical beliefs (a dogmatic atheist and anti-tribalist) and his strange fascination with Doris Duke death.

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.

The backgammon boards exhibition "Art of Reconciliation", sponsored by Play65, was opened last week in Israel, at the municipal art gallery in Givatayim in the presence of the participating artists, the mayor of Givatayim and other respectable guests.

Originally raised for Israel’s 60th anniversary, the backgammon boards that served as the platform for the art pieces mostly did not ignore the exhibition title, nor the symbols attributed to the game, especially here in the Middle East, where backgammon was first introduced to the world.

For many of the 60 artists who gave their personal interpretation to the backgammon board, it was the first opportunity to see the exhibition live, since for the last year and a half, the Art of Reconciliation was exhibited in Washington DC and other locations in the US.

Here are some pictures from the opening night:

1.

Rhode Island based artist/designer Ara Peterson isexhibiting a collection of very colorful backgammon boards he created with his father, Jack Peterson, at the Ratio 3 gallery in San Francisco.

As it looks, the Petersons took standard sized wooden backgammon board and decorated it with the young Paterson trademark multicolored graphic patterns. The result is amazingly beautiful, as in the example given above, and in other times, almost eye dazzling, and unpractical at any rate, like in the following example:

And if your head doesn’t hurt by now, you should check this guy’s website, it looks like that:

2.

Of course, it is not the first time a backgammon board was taken away from its original purpose and instead served as a platform for a work of art. In 2008, Play65 has sponsored an exhibition that consisted of 62 artistic backgammon boards called "The Art of Reconciliation". It was first exhibited at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC and continued to tour the world, and now it lands in Israel, where it will be exhibited at the Municipal Gallery in Giv’atayim from the 14th of October, 2009.

Backgammon board by Anat Strul

Backgammon board by Hagit Kazinitz

Play65 backgammon quiz begins its third week. Dozens of players gave the right answer on last week’s question, but only one of them - Lampashu of Romania – knew that when you have two checkers on the bar and there are three points open in your opponent’s home board, you have only 9/36 possible rolls to get both checkers in with. Lampashu got an immediate $20 bonus, plus his name might be drawn at the $200 quarterly draw. 

For Play65 3rd backgammon quiz all you need is a short term memory (or a handy internet search engine): who won the Doubles Consulting World Backgammon Championship in Switzerland 2000 together with Paul Magriel (the legendary backgammon player and the author of the classic backgammon book known as the "bible of backgammon")? Hint: it was a female player. So if you think you know the answer, simply check it, enter your username and email address and click on submit. If you won the $20 bonus, you will be notified by next Sunday, when the 4th backgammon quiz will be up.

The standard backgammon board is made of wood, but if you are interested in something less typical, check out this unique set of backgammon board and checkers: The Californian product designer Sol Mesz has made an entire backgammon set from clear recycled glass. The fragile backgammon set includes a backgammon board and checkers. The checkers are composed of recycled windows (including remains of the windshields) looks more like glass beads. You’ll have to watch out with those aggressive dice rolls when you are playing on this board! For more details on the recycled glass backgammon set, check out Tree Hugger website.

Giuseppe Ricciardi, aka Gandalf, is the newest winner in Play65 "Italy" tournament. Gandalf will be playing at the 19th City of Venice International Backgammon Tournament against some of the best backgammon players in the world including three members of Play65 backgammon community. Mr. Ricciardi will arrive to this achievement after winning the special backgammon tournament that took place last Saturday. The last tournament in this series, and your last chance to fly to Italy on Play65 expense and get the once in a lifetime chance to compete against pro backgammon players and win larger cash prizes, will take place this Saturday, November 10th. I wouldn’t miss it If I were you!

Recently so much has happened in Play65 (new community feature, huge tournaments, revolutionary football teams and so much more…), that we almost forgot to keep you posted on the latest happenings outside our tiny 3M members online backgammon room. Therefore, this festive post will be dedicated to our colleagues, top backgammon and online gaming bloggers.

Blot Blog analyzes a different position in backgammon almost every week for over year and a half. Currently, there are almost 150 illustrated positions on top of a short backgammon glossary, and dozens of posts on almost every aspect in backgammon including cube decisions, checker play and so on. Backgammon beginners might get lost inside Blot Blog but intermediate to advanced player will probably find it useful. At least I do. The blog is also available in German.

Winning Backgammon is more suitable for backgammon beginners. It includes a crash course in playing online backgammon, plus an extensive introduction to backgammon rules and backgammon notation. Winning backgammon also covers backgammon variants such as Nackgammon and Hypergammon. I hope to write about them too someday.

Real Reviews is, surprisingly, not a review blog, at least not real reviews. Instead, real reviews provides the latest online gaming news with emphasizes on online backgammon.

Enter the Dragon is not all about backgammon; internet backgammon is one of the topics brought up in this blog among Auckland Hotels, Jewish dating, and tummy tucks. So, if you always wanted to find the best backgammon software and the most effective hair loss remedy in one resource, who am I to stop you?

I’ll end this review with a very new backgammon blog Backgammon Gambling, which on its first post offers online backgammon players an opportunity to win a trip to Australia…