Don’t miss the live video streams from the Chicgao Open this weekend. The video streams will be running Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. You can also catch replays, including the action from Thursday and Friday.

The best way to find the streams is to follow the links at BgOnline.org.

34th Chicago Open Backgammon Tournament Live Events
http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbb...es;read=161115

BgOnline Forums
http://www.bgonline.org/forums/

34th Chicago Open Backgammon Tournament
Official Web Site
http://www.chicagoopenbg.com/

Mike

it would be nice if backgammon had more commentary during games. Chess is awash with commentary on youtube, but backgammon is sorely lacking. From wwhat I have seen, all there is is a couple of falafel commentary's and some old Gus Hansen clips.

Thanks for the link Taper!!! Awesome content. Or maybe I should say fu because you've ruined my productivity for the week. :s

Fair enough, but my preference is an annotated match (showing equity on close decisions) with no commentary. Poker commentary tends to be interesting because the games are not solved yet. Thus, subjective opinions are relevant/entertaining. Backgammon, on the other hand, is nearly solved by bots (with the exception of Bill Robertie tricking Snowie into outer-board backgames and jacking the cube). I don't want low level pros' (e.g. Gus or John Clark) opinions when the math is there in front of everyone.

Below I give you an example of a nicely annotated match from complexbg's youtube channel. (2010 Sapporo Open featuring Mochy in the final.) It's fascinating to see the ostensible greatest player in the world make the occasional error. Furthermore, you can almost invariably see the moves being considered, because backgammon players tend to set positions multiple times to see how they look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoOaG...3149945C96238C

Equity is not calculated for every roll--only those which are deemed worthy.

As far as the Taper_Mike links, the Falafel vs. Mary Hickey rd. 4 match is a must-see. The kibitzing is way funnier than anything Gabe Kaplan ever said on HSO. Who needs announcers? All I want is equity calcs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGcq0...ature=youtu.be

Thanks again Taper. As a longtime lurker, I must say your posts in this forum are quite stupendous.

Nice youtube link. Beautiful Backgammon set in the Sapparo video!. One thing that backgammon has over other board games is the diversity and beauty of the sets!

Thanks for the links. Quite enjoyable. If I ever get around to compiling a list of the most entertaining and best produced online backgammon matches, the Sapporo Open will be among them.

FYI: My transcription of the match between Mary and Falafel can be found here (along with a few others). There are both XG and Txt files. Users of GnuBg can open the Txt files.

Mike