XcitingGames Bright'n'Breezy Backgammon Tournament

January 12-14, 2007; Bristol, UK

OPEN (80): 1-John Hurst, 2-Stuart Mann, 3/4-Mike Heard / Rachel Rhodes; 1C-Julian Fetterlein, 2C-Uldis Lapikens, 3C/4C-George Miltiadou / Ann Pocknell; 1LC-Adrian Jones, 2LC-Fanika Petkovska.

TIDAL WAVE (64): 1-Mark Heidenfeld, 2-John Slattery, 3/4-Mike Main / Nick Valley.

FRIDAY 500 KNOCKOUT (38): 1-Mardi Ohannessian, 2-Rogier van Gemert (NL), 3/4-Matthew Franklin / Jerry Limb.

POKER (25): 1-Andy Bell, 2-Matthew Franklin, 3-Ann Pocknell, 4-Rosey Bensley, 5-Eamon Keogh.

DOUBLES (8 teams): 1-No Idea, 2-MC's Secret Lovers.

The Gammonhead is alive in Second Life!

The Gammonhead now has an even more virtual existance in the sim-world "Second Life" under the name "Player Tone". Feel free to come up and say hi if you want to talk about the blog! If you haven't joined yet - you should do it with our promotion code right here :)

Are you a non-believer? Have you checked out what goes on?

ABT - CALIFORNIA STATE BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIP

December 1-3, 2006; Los Angeles, California

OPEN (53): 1-Ken Fischer (CA), 2-Saul Meir (CA), 3-Steve Sax (CA); 1C-Azzam Masarani (CA), 2C-Bill Kennedy (CA), 3C/4C-Jeb Horton (NC) / Richard Munitz (NY).

ADVANCED (37): 1-Paul Armbruster (CA), 2-Frank Ley (CA); 1C-Justin Nunez (CA), 2C-Edward Donigian (CA), 3C/4C-Matt Armbruster (CA) / Albert Lee (CA).

LIMITED (6): 1-Jennifer Faulk (CA), 2-Denise Bonfilio (CA); 1C-Christina Cooley (CA)

CHILDREN'S EVENT: 1-Lindsay Mattig (IL).

SUPER-32 (32): 1-Zafer Yasa (CA), 2-Stepan Nuniyants (WA), 3/4-Doug Mayfield (CA) / Joe Russell (CA).

2-PT QUICKIES: 1-Ted Chee (CA).

DOUBLES (16 teams): 1-Mark Antranikian (CA) & Ted Chee (CA), 2-Niel Borden (CA) & Matthew Miner (NY).

OVERFLOW DOUBLES (4 teams): 1-Claudia Imatt (CA) & Howard Markowitz (NV).

18th CITY OF VENICE BACKGAMMON TOURNAMENT

November 30-December 3, 2006; Venice, Italy

CHAMPIONSHIP (42):
1-Massimo Moretti (Italy)
2-Maya Peycheva (Bulgaria)
3/4-Piergiorgio D'Ancona / Fabrizio Lo Surdo; 1C-Giuseppe Rigon, 2C-Philip Vischjager (Netherlands), 3C/4C-Mike Heard (England) / Richard Persson (Sweden); 1LC-Giorgio Castellano, 2LC-Giuseppe Ricciardi.

INTERMEDIATE (28):
1-Sandro Mescola
2-Filippo Vincesilao
3/4-Luca Boni / Christian Zenkner (Germany); 1C-Udo Geib (Germany), 2C-Andrea Riebler (Austria); 1LC-Dino Visentin.

AMATEUR (32):
1-Thomas Althaus (Germany)
2-Dierk Lemke (Germany)
3/4-Ricardo Bernascone / Sergio Riboldi; 1C-Stefano Battain, 2C-Marco Conte; 1LC-Michele Comerci.

UISP "NO MONEY" (28) #1: 1-Michele Comerci, 2-Angela Plebani. #2: 1-Shadi Azizian, 2-Nathalie Henry. #3: 1-Umberto Vianello, 2-Sergio Riboldi. FIDELITY: 1-Jessica Gabbai, 2-Claudia Angeletti.
"DAVIS CUP" DOUBLES (18 teams): 1-Mattia Ballarin & Sergio Fragiacomo (Italy), 2-José Salema (Portugal) & Chiva Tafazzoli (Iran/Germany), 3/4-Georgy Balkandjiisky (Bulgaria) & Dobromir Kyurkchiev (Bulgaria) / David Boldini (Switzerland) & Maya Peycheva (Bulgaria).
SWING (24): 1-Hamzar Nar (Turkey), 2-Stefano Chiosi, 3-Marc Steyvers (Spain).ITALIAN CIRCUIT PLAYOFF: 1-Giorgio Castellano, 2-Alfonso Sara, 3/4-Guido Flamigni / Francesco Mauri.

DANISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2006

November 18-19, 2006; Copenhagen, Denmark
CHAMPIONSHIP (160):
1-Allan Westermann
2-Christian Skjæran
3/4-Andreas Becher / Søren P. Olsen
5/8-Finn Bahn / Claus Elken / Marinos Hindkjær / Mark Lillelund Larsen; 1C-Steen Grønbech, 2C-Kim Valeur, 3C-4C-Pia Jeppesen / Erik Sommer.

Free backgammon software:

GNUBG - a world class computer program that lets you analyze saved online games

BackGames.org (shareware) - a great Web site for directors of money clubs to track tournament results. Automatically calculates ratings for all players.

Free backgammon playing sites:

# Daily Gammon - "postal chess meets backgammon meets the internet"
# FIBS - First Internet Backgammon Server
# NetGammon - Provides a very nice interface that can be downloaded for free.