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Nicolas Barré created a living room designed for everyday family life which included backgammon. - Reference Hollywood rooftop backgammon board has players in the air! - Reference Gregg Wallace, television presenter and restaurateur - backgammon player - Reference Blind man wins backgammon championship title. Eric Westbrook interviewed by the Coventry Telegraph. Reference Who will get Lucille Ball's three backgamon boards in this family row? Reference
27/05: Chop! Chop! Backgammon in the kitchen, and it's only $125! Reference 23/05: "Hasn’t the generation that liked backgammon long since died off?" Reference 27/05: Following on, "Oh, last week I got told off by a backgammon player for insinuating that they’d probably all died out by now." Reference
29/04: Do you play backgammon? Fancy a date? Reference 29/04: ArtDeco Backgammon 3D for the iPhone Reference 27/04: Michael Stoop, friend and confidant of Lord Lucan dies aged 87. Reference 26/04: Dice and backgammon set and an artificial eyeball have been found in the Burnt City! Reference / Reference 26/04: Wealthy philanthropic backgammon player dies aged 94. Reference
Backgammon behind bars . . . and not a beer in sight! Reference
Place your bids . . . starting at $200,000! Reference
Possible murder in the US involving , Rod Covlin, the chairman of the US Backgammon Federation. Reference - Reference ". . ..that'll be about as riveting as watching old people play backgammon." Cheeky bugger! Reference
Neil Kazaross, Biba member and British Open winner, 1999, interviewed on U.S. TV about backgammon. Reference
Backgamon legend, Tim Holland dies aged 79. Reference Dr Who and Kublai Khan played backgammon. Kahn lost a load of elephants! Reference World's oldest person at 129 plays backgammon and drinks loads of vodka! Reference Backgammon tournaments where women were allowed to entertain gentlemen callers. Reference Backgammon for sex! How a game can change all the rules. Reference
. An update to 29 September 2009: Backgammon Board Art - Colourful boards to make you happy. Reference 98 years old backgammon player kills roommate! Reference
Former Playboy Backgammon Bunny wants to be a millionaire. Reference
"At the time of his suicide officers were also involved in a game of backgammon." Reference Witzig's Games has been making traditional board games like snakes and ladders, ludo, draughts, chess and backgammon since the 1940s Reference "They play chess, while the US and Israel are playing backgammon," Reference "We saw row upon row of young and old sipping tea or beer and playing backgammon" Reference A further look at Backgammon, and how it relates to Lost. Reference 'Eco bag' as a give away to everyone taking part in the Golden Dice Backgammon event. Reference 2009 New Zealand Backgammon Championship. Reference
Mozart beats Beethoven at backgammon! Reference
Backgammon and chess foster "discipline, memory, coolness under pressure". Reference Backgammon and croquet will be offered in this nex luxury resort. Reference The new Underwater Backgammon World Champion champion is Ilya Petrou. Reference Anybody interested in playing backgammon in Hong Kong? Reference Psst. Wanna but a diamond-studded backgammon board? Reference In the 1970s, it was estimated that nearly every American household owned a copy of the common backgammon board. Reference
Was this the oldest backgammon table in the world being used to play on? Reference "The piece looks like a regular console table, until its layers are folded out, revealing a surface for playing cards, one for chess and backgammon, ...." Reference Girls, check out the Chippendales and backgammon in one article! Reference
Is this the longest ever backgammon match? " . . and we're in the middle of a five-year, fight to the death . . " Reference The world's smallest backgammon board - it's on a keychain! Reference Backgammon on the Nokia E51. Reference War crimes suspects from opposite sides of the Balkans conflict mix freely during socialising hours, playing chess, backgammon and table football. Reference
On a humid afternoon in a dim stone room, young Israeli-Arab men puff on shisha pipes and shuffle backgammon pieces. "It's nothing but shooting and drugs, shooting and drugs - it's true, but it will ruin our reputation," says one youth. Reference Self-confessed swindler fights back the tears and spoke of making money gambling - particularly poker and backgammon sessions with members of east London's Turkish communit. Reference
. Backgammon Board Art - Colourful boards to make you happy. Reference
. The late Alan Clark - Mum and Dad bailed him out! Reference Bernie Eccleston - Playing a back game? Reference The Real Hustle - Lose your cool and your money! Reference
John Steele Gordon - 06.29.2009 - 9:33 AM In the many thoughtful, and enlightening comments to my previous post there is much discussion about whether there is a consensus among climate scientists as to the existence of, and threat posed by, global warming. It seems to me that the evidence that the world has gotten warmer in the last two centuries is pretty solid. But how much of that warming is due to the natural causes that ended the “Little Ice Age,” which began about 1300 and ended in the mid-19th century? And how much is anthropogenic, due to recent industrialization? The Little Ice Age was itself preceded by the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from around 1000 to 1300 and was certainly not anthropogenic in origin. In his column this morning, Paul Krugman is at great pains to keep the lid on this debate, accusing global warming “deniers” of treason against the planet–as though they give their true allegiance to some other planet and can always slip away to it when things get too hot here. There is, of course, no dispassionate discussion of the actual science in Krugman’s column. He simply declares, ex cathedra, that the threat is real and embodies the opposition in an obscure Georgia Congressman shouting “Hoax!” on the House floor. Even by Krugman standards, this morning’s column is a pretty shoddy piece of work. But why is the Nobel-Prize-winning economist so exercised about global warming as to be reduced to name calling instead of examining the data? Why are so many climate scientists and liberal politicians so certain of the data on global warming that they think the debate is over? I think it is a case of the “backgammon effect.” In backgammon, the players move their pieces according to the dictates of a pair of dice. A single bad throw of the dice can convert a near-certain winner into a near-certain loser. Being human, players sometimes misread the dice and misplay accordingly. They get a six-four, for instance, but play a six-three. The opponent, if he is paying attention, points out the error, it’s corrected, and the game goes on. Interestingly, the player who misreads the dice and thus misplays almost always does so to his own advantage. Is he cheating? Not at all. He is simply misperceiving the real world because his self-interest leads him to do so. He wants a six-three and so he sees one in a six-four. It’s as simple as that.
Billed as the coolest tournament in the world, the fourth High Stakes Back-gammon Tournament will take place on the weekend of April 24-26 in the hills of Irish Town, St Andrew. The venue is the Strawberry Hill Hotel and Spa, with its magnificent view of Kingston and its environs. Tournament organiser, Alastair Macbeath, in announcing the dates and the format of the tournament at Strawberry Hill yesterday, said 32 competitors will battle for approximately $2 million in cash and prizes. Players will enter on a first-come, first-serve basis. Like the football World Cup, players will be divided into eight groups for round-robin play before the top 16 get down to a straight knockout competition. "Backgammon is an extremely popular social game in Jamaica and the High Stakes tournament affords those who wish to play the game to a higher level, an opportunity to pit their wits against the best in the land," Macbeath said. He added: "It will be three days of fun and two days of great competition. The victory by the Germany-based Iranian Chiva Taffazzoli in last year's tournament has driven the local players to improve their game and they are determined to regain the trophy." Taffazzoli is expected to return for this month's tournament. The backgammon competition will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, with play in the preliminary round continuing until 6 p.m. Later that same evening, patrons and players alike will be treated to musical offerings while having dinner in the Jade Courtyard. Final round action The tournament resumes the following day, also at 10 a.m., with final-round action and will culminate with a gala prize-giving on the main lawn of the hotel at 4:30 p.m. Other activities will take place during the tournament including art exhibits, fresh and dried flower stalls. Eurostars Motors will also have the latest Mercedes Benz models on display all weekend for car enthusiasts.
The long awaited, postponed Final planned for October last year, has at last been completed amid some controversy over the allowing of substitute players for a couple of the 32 pre-qualifiers. It has come to my notice (from a reliabe source) that many players were very unhappy about this. Pia Jeppesen, ranked #11, one of the 32 qualifiers, had booked a cruise last year (before the new dates were announced), which coincided with the new dates. She was allowed by the organisers to send a substitute. She sent another Danish player, Chrsitian Bladt who plays at Intermediate level - which seems to be a very fair decision on her behalf. She could have sent her 'brother-in-law' Lars Trabolt (the current world champion who lives with Pia's sister, Anne), but didn't. Lars was also at the tournament but he had not pre-qualified and had to pay €2600 to buy-in and the remaining nine others that bought in didn't get a bye but played the lowest placed of the 32 pre-qualifiers in the round of 64. Pia's substitute got a bye, as would Pia if she had played. What annoys many of the players, including those that bought in, and in particular Salamzy (he bought in, and was very vocal), as was Andreas Humke and Mario Sequeira, was that Miki Suzuki ranked #21, another of the 32 qualifiers, contacted the tournament staff a few days before and said she was ill (Mario had talked to Eric Guedj shortly after the tournament and it was Eric that said, that was what he had heard). Miki on the basis of being "ill" was allowed a substitute, who alledgedly just happened to pay her or they had some sort of deal, and the substitute was none other than Francois Tardieu, one of the strongest players in the world. What was wrong with all this, was that Miki was also present at the tournament and by all accounts she didn't appear to be that ill, in fact she was well enough to have recorded all of Francois's matches! Apparently no one (apart from the tournament staff) knew about this substitution before the start. The players present of course had all seen that Tardieu was there before the start and quite naturally assumed that he would be buying-in as he wasn't a pre-qualifier. Only after the 1st./2nd. round was completed, did someone notice that Miki was not playing and Francois was playing instead - needless to say he also had received a bye. I think that allowing Tardieu to play as a sub, was completely wrong - and as Miki was present it makes it even harder to understand why it was allowed. But even if she hadn't been present substitution should not be allowed - and if any of the pre-qualified players didn't attend, the resulting slots should be given on a random draw to those that bought in. Apparently Nathalie Guez said that because they allowed a sub for Pia, this had created a precedent. Many of the players there thought this decision was wrong. If they had known that this sort of "manipulation" was tolerated, my source could have got ‘Falafel’ Natanzon or Nack Ballard to play instead of them, and I am sure that others would have been able to make a similar deals with some of the players that bought in for €2600 and played an extra round. One word springs to mind. Scandalous! You can't blame Francois. Miki seems to be culpable in some way, but the tournament staff are to blame in the end. Some, if not all members of the International Ruling Committee were never told about this substitution before the start. I am pretty sure that if any of those on the ruling committee had known about it they would have protested strongly about the decision. Francois actually went on to split the finals with Olivier Décultot, the eventual winner. Of course, Biba allows 'substitution' in its UK Finals, but this is well known beforehand and completely above board. It is quite clear that if the qualifying player cannot take up their slot in the Finals, their losing opponent is promoted. If neither can make it, it is left vacant for non-qualifiers to fill. Although it sounds tough, I don't believe Pia should have been allowed a substitute in the first place; although I do understand why in the circumstances.
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