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.

Axel Reichert, a software programmer and analytic backgammon player from Munich, has analyzed several pip-counting methods and developed a few of them for a more simple but efficient use during matches.

His approch is based on Tom Keith´s counting method but Axel took it a setp further, making it quick and more accurate. Especially when under time pressure and while playing with clocks in tournaments, Axel´s work will be very beneficial to any serious backgammon player. The read of this great article which is attached, is highly recommendable (for registered users only).

So everyone knows backgammon, played with 2 dice. But who knows and enjoys SassanGammon, the variation played with 3 dice?

One die is rolled by each player for the toss. The winner of the toss plays the opening roll. From there onwards, a player rolls with 3 dice and his opponent takes away 1 die, leaving him the 2 others to play.

Exception: When a player has a checker or more on the bar, he rolls with 2 dice and plays them.

Try it, you´ll love it !

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.