While the passing of Matvey Mike Natanzon aka "Falafel" has got the entire backgammon community mourning, his Japanese friend and backgammon Giant Michihito Michi" Kageyama has written a wonderful tribute to the late hero.
A classy top player honoring another classy top-play!
You can read the tribute here.
 I Mourn for Falafel | [Michi´s Tribute] | 1011 kB |
GAMMONSPACE - The New Online Backgammon Platform
WBA is proud to cooperate and to endorse the latest and best online platform for backgammon.
GammonSpace.com offers everything today´s players are looking for:
Download the app, register, make a deposit, play and enjoy the games on GammonSpace.
What a great fun this was!
9 nations were represented to play this new tournament and first of its kind ever, the “sunshine & beach” event taking place at the THB EL Cid Class Hotel**** on the beach in Playa de Palma, a few minutes away from the international airport and Palma de Mallorca with restaurants, bars, beach promenade, pools and wellness.
Congratulations to all winners:
Main Event:
Winner: Jens AVERKAMP (Germany), 2nd place: Franck STEPLER (France), 3rd place: Adrian NEDELCU (Austria), Ultimate Fighter Winner: Pavel ZAORAL (Czech Republic)
Warm-up: Allen TISH (USA)
Doubles: Pavel ZAORAL (Czech Republic) & Oliver PLAEHN (Germany)
Super-Jackpot: Sven RÜMCKER (Germany)
DMP-Challenge: Winner: Adrian NEDELCU (Austria), Finalist: Scarlett SERRERO (France)
Special Awards: Victor ASHKENAZI (USA), Wolfgang HERFET (Germany)
"Ricardo Malas" Traveler´s Trophy: Allen TISH (USA)
See you all next year at the "2nd Mallorca Challenge", from 26th to 29th of September 2019. Mark your calendar and stay tuned for the details.
| Brochure Mallorca 2018 | [PDF File] | 1753 kB |
Paul Magriel, aka X-22, passed away in Las Vegas on Monday, March 5th 2018.
X will always be remembered as one of the greatest legends of the game, the godfather of modern backgammon and author of the backgammon bible called "Backgammon". His unforgotten achievements in backgammon and poker are plenty and many.
A great loss for backgammon. Rest In Peace, Paul!
The WBA tournament management software, tsystem, has stopped online operation on March 1st, 2018
In the future, WBA will be using ftbgsystem as their tournament management software, which is a further development of tsystem, offering more features and being updated regularly.
The development and frequent updates of ftbgsystem require countless hours of work and manpower. This why the software is no longer free of charge.
For more information and enquiries, please visit www.ftbgsystem.com
4th Mindsports World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
A total prize-pool exceeding $200,000 spread around various games: chess, bridge, go, scrabble, e-sports and backgammon.
Various events will be held for the backgammon part, taking place during 3 days, 25th-27th August 2017. A traditional backgammon tournament, a modern backgammon tournament, a 1-point (DMP) Challenge, a Speedgammon Challenge, and a Double Consultation in Modern Backgammon.
Minimum overall guaranteed prize-pool: $6,000 and might go up to $12,000
Additional info and registration: http://msawc2017.com/backgammon/
Hotel bookings: http://msawc2017.com/hotels/
Come and discover Qatar and enjoy your favorite games!
A huge "thank you" to all the participants of the XII. Portuguese Open for making it once again a very special one, among friends and family in a relaxed and cool atmosphere.
This tournament is outstanding in the circuit for being the most relaxed holiday and backgammon tournament with lots of time for sightseeing, relaxing, socializing, dining and drinking and fun, on top of backgammon action and competition.
See you all next year for a very special edition of this tournament for which many have already signed up.
Mark your calendar for the week after Monaco to spend a cool week (or more) in sunny Portugal...
Official Results Portugal 2017:
Link to Leisure division: http://tsystem.world-backgammon-association.com/t/1177
Link to Elite division: http://tsystem.world-backgammon-association.com/t/1176
Congratulations to all and see you next year for the "special edition".
| Borchure Portugal 2017 | [PDF File] | 6617 kB |
21st March is "World Backgammon Day" !!!
For many years, we have been encouraging the backgammon community to celebrate the World Backgammon Day by gathering, playing, organizing tournaments and enjoying the game, especially on March 21st.
In 2021, this will be no different. After the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the impossibility to run live events due to it, we encourage everyone to catch up in 2021 and to celebrate the oldest game on the planet with friends and family.
Have fun & play backgammon!
WBA Events in 2016 are in accordance with BMAB Partnership Program.
Recording is allowed. Matches of the players wanting to be rated and ranked for BMAB will be accepted as such in accordance with the BMAB rules.
The tournaments in Munich, Köln, Portugal, Frankfurt and Prague will be BMAB labelled.
In order to meet Falafel, the highest ranked backgammon player in the world, I took a Greyhound bus to Atlantic City, and then hopped a jitney to the Borgata Hotel. Falafel’s real name is Matvey Natanzon, but no one calls him that, not even his mother, who calls him Mike, the name that he adopted when they emigrated from Israel to Buffalo—one leg in a long journey that began in Soviet Russia. Now even Falafel calls himself Falafel...
Read the rest of the article, published in New York Times here.