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Last Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo?The 34th Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship held faintly early this month, with a field of 173 players who paid the €1,000 entry fees to compete for the world title. The world backgammon champion for 2009 is Masayuki Mochizuki, a 30 years old backgammon player of Japan, who is mostly known as "Mochy". Mochy defeated last year's world champion, Dane Lars Trabolt in the 25-points final, grabbing around €62,160 as first prize. As the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship celebrated its 34th anniversary, making it the longest, most stable international tournament in backgammon, most of the conversations surrounded its demise. The initiative to move the traditional event from Monte Carlo to Las Vegas has already tearing the small global backgammon community, and the facebook group dedicated to the idea, already has about 200 members, not necessarily supportive. World Backgammon Championship History The Monte Carlo Backgammon Championship started out in 1976, first as the European Open Championships, and since 1979 united with the Bahamas World Backgammon Championships, which hosted mainly American players. The backgammon event takes place every July in Monte Carlo, and although the winner is agreeably named the best backgammon player for the entire year, the world title is not exclusive to the Monte Carlo event. WSOB, WSOP and Other Rivals Over the last three years, the World Backgammon Championship dominance is threatened by the World Series of Backgammon, a year long televised tour consists of several stops, with one stop being held in Cannes, straight after the Monte Carlo event. About the same time, the stream of backgammon pros towards poker has gathered stronger, thus the final of the World Series of Poker, the unofficial world poker championship in Vegas draws more backgammon players than the World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo… Moving to Vegas – For and Against The leading promoter of the World Backgammon Championship is American backgammon player Carter Mattig, who claims that the relatively low prize pool does not compensate for the hassle and the additional (expensive) expenses of traveling to Monte Carlo, especially when the WSOP is so close and much more rewarding. Other claim that an event that boasts with the world championship title, should justify its reputation by wandering in different locations every year, even outside Europe and the United States, as in chess for example, and by increasing the prizes. Locating the World Backgammon Championship in the US, say the objectors, might even cut down the total prize money, as the main sponsors for these events come from the online backgammon industry, which prefers targeting European crowds for legal purposes. Anyhow, all agree that what backgammon is missing is one, agreed upon governing body that will take care of promoting, financing and regulating world championship and other major backgammon events as well as exposing backgammon to the masses.
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