Frank Charney's Sunday Postcard

August 28, 2005   

As an advocate of the game of backgammon, I again feel obligated to report the outcome of the 2005 World Championship held every year in Monte Carlo. Lately, attendance at backgammon tournaments has waned in favor of poker, but there will always be the hard-core backgammon enthusiasts. Surprisingly, the 2005 winner was a Californian, Dennis Carlston, who won over his challenger, John O'Hagan, from the Hoosier State. Previous winners for the past several years were always from European countries, like Denmark and Germany.

Using backgammon jargon, Carlston and O'Hagan reached double match point (DMP) at the score of 24-24, a situation in their 25-point match in which either needed one point for victory and the cube is not used. Carlston was victorious by the score of 25-24.

Shortly after the match, the players moves were fed to a computer for analysis by a software program called Snowie in order to flag any significant errors made by the players. Snowie can run a simulation on the best move and doubling decision for a particular position on the backgammon board. Who would ever think that a game, insignificant to many people, would be subject to mathematical analysis, like blackjack or sports betting?

I subscribe to a web site that monitors the latest happenings in backgammon tournaments around the world. Here I can view the background of a backgammon board with its 24 triangular points with the checkers or pieces positioned after each player makes his move. A statistics table is shown beneath the board and assigns numerical values to the players' moves versus Snowie's results. The 2005 World Championship is shown in this manner. If all this is too abstract for the viewer, the best ways to acquire more knowledge about the game is to google backgammon at the bottom of this page or attend a backgammon club in a nearby city. For example, a Pittsburgh Backgammon Club meets several times a month. It has a major tournament every February, and players from the entire United States attend in an effort to win substantial money prizes.

After acquiring confidence and sufficient skill in the game, any enthusiast can enter a tournament as an Open Division player. All you have to do is ante up the entry fee of several hundred dollars. Unlike chess or golf, where you know you don't stand a chance against Gary Kasporov or Tiger Woods, backgammon is more democratic. You may find yourself up against a player who has the top 2005 American Backgammon Touring record.

Shown above is an old picture of three past masters of sedentary sports who were, at one time or other, world champions in backgammon, bridge, chess and all sorts of card games. One has to marvel at their ability to carry over their mastery from one game to the other.

latest additions  to the Nanty Glo Home Page

Vintondale Homecoming September 3-4
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Looking for a 1943 Nanty Glo High School yearbook

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Today's chuckle

Understanding women (a man's perspective)

I know I'm not going to understand women. I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax, pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the root, and still be afraid of a spider.

—Sent by Trudy Myers

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Thought for today

Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.

— Anton Chekov (1860-1904)

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