Serving the Backgammon Community
Noteworthy items
Can you get mindful playing backgammon?
Find out and join Voice of Backgammon’s Larry Shiller and Ben Friesen as they do live doubles streaming commentary with a mindful twist at the LA Championship Friday 7:30 pm PST.
Join them on Facebook Live and twitch.tv/voiceofbackgammon. Register here for email notification when it starts.
One of the many wonderful things about backgammon is how cool the people are who play it. In this montage of players and personalities from the 2017 Las Vegas Open, how many you can recognize? Comment below.
MCG a/k/a Genius just won the Las Vegas Open Championship, defeating Leyla Zaloutskaya 19-11.
See the match action with live commentary from Phil Simborg, Akiko Yazawa, Larry Shiller and others at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/202700367Â with Ben Friesen and Jack Edelson providing the live XG transcription.
See Matt’s post-match interview on twitch.tv with Voice of Backgammon Larry Shiller or watch it here:
1) The Las Vegas Open is one of the largest backgammon tournaments in the USA. Director Howard Markowitz has been doing it for years and some of the world’s top players will be competing there.
2) The USBGF is adding $1,000 in prize money. And a hotel room is just $99/night.
3) Las Vegas is FUN! And the food is amazing.
Can’t make it? Watch the action live at twitch.tv/voiceofbackgammon with Voice of Backgammon Larry Shiller and BMAB expert co-hosts.
Contact howardmarkowitz@yahoo.com (702) 218-8238 or visit http://www.nvbg.com for all the details.
Carter Mattig defeated Lars Trabolt 17-9 in the Finals of the 5th Merit Open, the world’s largest backgammon tournament.
Would you have beaten Lars? It’s unlikely – he played at under a 2.70 PR! But Carter Mattig did.
PR stands for Performance Rating – and 0.00 is perfect, at least according to XG, a widely-used bot that analyzes backgammon positions using neural nets.
So what was Carter’s PR? If you have XG, you may download the analysis here. Otherwise, send an email to larry@voiceofbackgammon.com and I’ll share the results. Or you may watch the video here with Voice of Backgammon Larry Shiller and expert co-hosts Mochy and Bob Wachtel.