Let's have some discussion about the World Championship of Backgammon, past and present. This year's event begins this coming Sunday in Monte Carlo. I wish one day we would get coverage like how PokerNews covers the WSOP and WPT events. I would like to see videos about the tournament, such as the location, the game of backgammon, the history of the event, interviews with the players, live updates, even live streaming.

Schedule: http://www.backgammon-tournaments.co.../schedule.html
Giants: http://www.flintbg.com/giants.html

Event: The 34th (?) World Championship of Backgammon
Location: The Fairmont, Monte Carlo
Dates: Sunday July 12 to Sunday July 19
Entry Fees: Championship €1000, Intermediate €400, Beginner: €200
Format: two progressive Consolations and Last Chance
Registration: Sunday July 12th 1pm-7pm and Monday July 13th 10am-7pm

Jackpots:
- Super Jackpot: €1000, starting at 1pm on Mon 13th, continuous entries throughout the week, 95% return. 11-pt matches
- Jackpots: 8-Player knockouts starting at 1pm on Sun 12th, going throughout the week. 90% return. 5- & 7-pt matches

Side Events:
- Seniors (50+): €100, starting at 1pm on Sun 12th, continuous entries throughout the week, 85% return. 7-pt matches
- Doubles: €400 per team, starting at 1pm on Sun 12th, single elimination, 7-pt matches, 90% return: 1st 70%; 2nd 30%
- Ladies: €100, starting at 2pm on Fri 17th, single elimination, 5-pt matches, 85% return: 1st 70%; 2nd 30%
- Fortis World Team Championship: free entry per 3-person team, starting at 2pm on Sun 19th, watches donated by FORTIS
- After Tournament-Tournament: €2000, starting at 2pm on Mon 20th, 15-pt matches, 94% return: 8 players - 1st 100%. 16 players - 1st 70%; 2nd 30%

Recent Winners:

I can confirm that this is indeed the 34th World Championship in Monte Carlo.

Where did you get the statistics? I would really like to see the complete table of finals and especially the number of entrants.

Last time I had the money to go was back in 2006 and I can tell you that I miss it big time. One of my friends are doing a blog from there this year. Maybe I can ask him to write it in English and make him post it here.

He agreed to write in English. When he posts his first blog I'll do a presentation of him.

Peter, I have compiled arguably the most complete history of international backgammon tournaments, right back to the days of Alexis Obolensky in the early 1960s. It became a bit of a hobby of mine a couple of years ago when I started playing backgammon. I was wondering how come I could go back 30-35 years on HendonMob and find out who cashed in every WSOP event, how much they won and what country they were from, but I couldn't do the same for the World Championship of Backgammon?

The reason for the (?) in my initial post depends on your interpretation of which events have been World Championships and which haven't. Indeed, this year is the 34th World Championship in Monte Carlo, but it is actually the 41st World Championship if you include the "Unofficial" World Championships held in Las Vegas between 1967 and 1975. My research indicates that while the tournaments did not have any official status, the winners were generally considered to be official world champions. Then between 1976 and 1978, the official World Championships were considered to be those held in the Bahamas rather than those held in Monte Carlo. But yes, next week's event will be the 34th in Monte Carlo, whether they have all been considered official World Championships or not.

I'll send you the document within the next couple days. Maybe you can pass it on to someone in Monte Carlo who might be able to source some information. I met up with Howard Markowitz in Las Vegas last year but I didn't ask him for any assistance at the time.

I'll leave you with one piece of trivia: 1995 was the last time the Backgammon World Championship (Championship Flight - 280) attracted more players than the World Series of Poker (Main Event - 273).

Nice! Thank you.

For a long time I have been wondring why we don't have any statistics or player databases as you pointed out. For a three year periode I collected high quallity photos of players from all around the world and had them on my old website. Unfortunately the server died and took all the pictures with it to the unknown regions of cyberspace. There existed no backup.

GammonVillage have some tournament sheets and I'm sure it's possible to recreate the Nordic Open sheets from the Danish Backgammon Federations database.

I also have photos of some WC sheets in an archive somewhere.

I'm currently in Las Vegas for the WSOP, so I don't have access to my files at home. But here's what I can remember off the top of my head.

The World Championship of Backgammon started in Las Vegas in 1968 (won by Tim Holland) and continued through 1974. There was one year the tournament wasn't held, which I think was 1969 or 1970. So from 1968-1971 there were three tournaments, all won by Tim Holland. (Pretty impressive run, since the fields were 64+, and all the biggies of the day participated.)

The next three tournaments, 1972-1974, were won by Billy Eisenberg, Claude Beer, and Carol Crawford, but I don't remember in what order. Eisenberg and Beer were considered world-class players. Carol Crawford was John Crawford's wife, and she beat Lewis Deyong in a final, which was the first really big upset in one of these things.

For 1975, the tournament moved from Las Vegas to the Bahamas for four years, 1975-1978. Paul Magriel won the last of these, in 1978. Lewis Deyong was by now the director and organizer, and decided for 1979 to move the tournament from the Bahamas to Monte Carlo. At this time the date was changed, from January to July.

If you look up the old magazines of the period, it's clear that all these events were considered the World Championship of Backgammon. That's how they were advertised, and that's what the participants thought they were playing in. So the first "World Championship in Monte Carlo" took place in July 1979 (I was there) and actually set an attendance record which has never been equaled: about 350 players in the Main Event, and about 650 in all events combined.

Some of the numbering confusion results from the fact that from 1976 to 1978, there was an event called the "European Championship" held in Monte Carlo in July. It was the success of this event that led Deyong to think that moving the World Championship to Monte Carlo and combining it with the European Championship would be a good business move.

The confusion about the number of World Championships in Monte Carlo was actually caused by the organizers in the 1990s, who at one point started claiming the 1976-78 events as "Monte Carlo World Championships" when in fact they weren't. To be accurate, this year's event is the 31st World Championship in Monte Carlo.

Mike Main in London plans to provide regular updates on the event:

http://www.backgammoninlondon.com/montecarlo/000.html

As a fan of the game, I find it frustrating that a Google News search for Monte Carlo backgammon returns no hits for the past month.

http://news.google.com.au/news?ned=a..._drrb=q&cf=all

The arguably biggest backgammon tournament of the year starts in a couple days, and no one has written a news piece about it. I can appreciate that Gammon Village will probably cover the event, and Mike Main and some others will write some blogs, but why hasn't a major American or English newspaper written about it?

What is needed to raise the profile of backgammon? I was excited when PokerNews started a backgammon section (http://backgammon.pokernews.com/) but that hasn't taken off. I would love to see someone interview all of the well-known players, then those less well-known that get deep in any of the tournaments. I have enjoyed what little coverage there has been of backgammon in the recent past. I like Jesse May, Kara Scott and John Clark, although let's not use Paul Magriel to raise the profile of backgammon, he is more likely to scare people away.

I agree with the first post - its still a shame that the World Championships event does not attract the press it should do. I put in a huge effort to improve the profile of backgammon with the Million Dollar event. I am still keen to see backgammon succeed and hope that it gets the profile it deserves

Martin “Guerre” Jensen has started his blog from Monte Carlo where he and some of his team mates (unfortunately me excluded) are having a good time playing the World Backgammon Championship. Guerre is playing the championship division for the first time which he is very exited about.

For some years Guerre has been a recreational player but this year he decided to dig deep and did some training leading up to this WBC. When playing well Guerre can beat anyone and he has an outspoken winner mentality.

Last month at the final of the Danish Team Backgammon CUP out team lost in the semifinal to another team called Nemesis having among others Martin Foldager on the team. They beat us and bought beer for everybody just to be able to celebrate the win and of course rub it in. We decided to get a little extra equity by drinking a lot of beers.

Later that evening a stupid bet was made. I got 100 times my money from Foldager if I could beat Guerre in a 100 meter dash. Let’s be honest and say that Guerre and I aren’t the smallest people around and we defiantly don’t look like people who can run 100 meters at all (in one go of course). I decided to put up $10 for a chance to win $1000 and the beer must have been taken control of us because we agreed on doing the race immediately out on the street!

We measured what seemed to be 100 meters and we agreed upon having a 100% fair run with the bet on the line. A bunch of our friends and other backgammon players all came out on the street to see what was going on. We blocked the cycling portion of the street and Guerre and I got ready at the starting line. Everybody else was waiting at the finish line. They had put up some chairs for our comfort when we crossed the finish line.

Now here is what every body thought was going to happen: We would start and after 30 meters or so I would realize that I would never win and forfeit and let Guerre run slowly across the finish line.

I had other plans. What most people don’t know is that I have been in very good shape most of my life. Even though I’m still too heavy I do ride my bike a lot and can perform well over a shorter period – as a 100 meter dash!

The start went off and he got a meter ahead or so. After 50 meters he was leading like ½ a meter which he kept until the finish line. I was running for $1000 meaning I gave it all I had. He was running for his honor! We both gave 100%. Closing in on the finish line we realized that our “friends” had put the chairs for us out on the track much too close to the finish line. In the last second I avoided the “wall” of chairs but unfortunately Guerre didn’t. Instead he decided to try to jump the chairs resulting in him getting his foot caught in a chair making him land on his arm. Due to extensive pain he was driven to the hospital and they fixed his arm which was broken in two different places.

See, sacrificing himself for the doubtful honor of beating me in a 100 meter dash is one thing. What will he do to win the WBC with a bunch of backers?

Go, Guerre go!

Read his blog at http://www.hattenbgk.dk/pages/blog-fra-vm/2009.php.

The prop bet reminded me of Tony G's run at the Alpine Cup in Austria a few months back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSOtHCVDOY4&fmt=18

Thanks for the link. So numbers are down? By my records, the 140-150 I see being reported is the lowest ever for the Championship Flight in Monte Carlo. Maybe 200 will never be reached again unless some dramatic changes are made. Backgammon will never thrive while the World Championship remains in Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo should merely be one stop on the European Backgammon Tour. The World Championship should probably alternate each year between Europe (Norway, England, Germany) and the USA (New York, Las Vegas).

Stick has an article on Day 1 over at GammonVillage (requires membership):

http://www.gammonvillage.com/backgam...esourceid=5821

Morten Holm won the 1st consolation yesterday and Trabi (current world champ) is playing Mochy (highly regarded top player) in the final for the championship in 5-6 hours.

When Trabi played yesterday people were sending sms back to Denmark and people posted the score on the official danish backgammon federations forum. There were more than 10000 views during the match.

There will also be updates live today: http://www.dbgf.dk/Debat/showflat.ph...sb=5&o=&fpart=

Forget live updates, how about live streaming?

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/world-...pionship-final

It's on now!

Mochy leading Trabi 5-4 after being 0-4 behind. Trabi extremely lucky to lose just a single game at 4-2 with the cube on 2. I turned away for a second and missed a few moves. Trabi had 3 men on the bar as Mochy was bearing off and rolled boxes (I think) then another double as he was bearing in and Mochy couldn't get his men off fast enough.

Score is 11-11. At 6-5 up, Mochy took an arguable if not wrong double, and lost 4 points rather than 1. And Trabi looks to have had some luck with his dice, rolling doubles when he needs to to avoid being gammoned.

Just read all of the blogs from Martin Jensen. Very enjoyable!

I think for anyone considering backgammon as a potential career, learning Dutch is almost a must, just to read the DBgF forums

Just an update on the Championship numbers. The final tally of 173 was reached only with the aid of delaying registration as late as possible. Even still, it is the lowest turnout for 25 years, and as far as my records indicate, the 2nd lowest number in the history of the tournament. Between 2000 and 2004, Monte Carlo averaged 277 players in the Main flight. As I have said before, I don't think the future of the game lies in Monte Carlo.

My apologies, of course I meant Danish.

Masayuki Mochizuki (JPN) is the new World Champion, defeating Lars Trabolt (DNK) 25-20.

Gratz WC Mochy and gratz Trabi for making one of the best WBC runs ever.

Kazuhiro Shino (semi-finalist, MC 2006) has posted 200 pics from Monte Carlo on his Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...&id=1055676135

As I said many times, having the World Championship in Monte Carlo is holding back the game of backgammon. Championship entries decline year after year. This year registration was left open as long as possible, and numbers were still down 14% on last year (and 38% down in 5 years).

Chiva Tafazzoli and Carter Mattig have started a Facebook group "World championships of backgammon in Vegas baby!":

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/gr...d=122218819872

Personally, I don't think the US should have a mortgage on the World Championship, but moving it out of Monte Carlo and having some split between the US and various European cities would have my vote of approval.