Overview

"The Backgammon Chronicles: A Pro's Adventures on Tour is a lush, two-volume, full-color cornucopia of gambling stories, character sketches, historical essays and tournament drama that takes the reader on an insider's odyssey through backgammon's last whirlwind decade--with its author, one of the game's elite competitors, as guide. Introducing you to the game's stars even as he narrates his clashes with them in a score of exotic venues, Robert Wachtel frames the action against an overview of the events and crises that have defined contemporary backgammon: the advent of the artificial-intelligence programs and their virtual extinction of the game's traditional role as a gambling recreation; the ecstatic birth and untimely death of online play; the burst of investment and enthusiasm brought to the game by the poker boom; and current trends: the outreach of Western backgammon culture back towards the game's birthplace, the Middle East; and the efforts of the federations of the major nations to establish a viable global community. Volume 1 begins in 2008, when the formulas that had fueled a worldwide poker boom were being tested in Europe and the Middle East on the internationally more popular and beloved game of backgammon. The scene was intoxicating: games for every stake, from pennies to thousands of dollars, were available 24/7 online, with live tournaments held year-round in lavish resorts, their prize pools fortified by great dollops of money added by casinos, hotels, and assorted gambling platforms. Entrepreneurs--their eyes starry with visions of the sort of high-stakes tours, galas, books, films and TV series that had reaped easy profits for media and gaming concerns in promoting poker--were taking meetings and arranging financing. The author is both a peer and a friend of backgammon's best and brightest. The reader will meet those brilliant, quirky characters up close in these pages as Robert faces off against them in tournament play and engages them in a special entertainment of his own device, dubbed by ex-world #1 Mike Natanzon (trade name: Falafel) ""The Chronicles."" Chronicles are histories; and so these volumes are aptly named, for they are indeed episodes of the author's backgammon adventures. But the title has a double meaning: the books are chronicles in Falafel's sense as well, for the special entertainment mentioned above figures prominently in many of their tales. At a major tournament the author would gather together as many top players as possible and ask them to solve backgammon dilemmas he'd encountered over the board--and often gotten wrong. The format always aroused the experts' competitive instincts, provoking them to argue, bluster, and challenge one another as they backed their opinions with hefty side bets. A lover of the game could hardly hope for a more exciting experience than watching these sparks fly. This volume is a travelog as well, for the tournament trail the players followed was well worth photographing: Stockholm; Prague; Copenhagen; Paris; Velden (Austria); Montreux (Switzerland); Oulu (Finland); Oslo; Majorca; North Cyprus; and finally as the volume ends, to a freezing outdoor tournament at an altitude of almost 3000 meters in the French Alps amidst the peaks overlooking the ski village of Meribel!"

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9780989549639

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Reviews

In my 50+ years of experience in the gaming world, I have met many brilliant thinkers, mathematicians, and naturally-gifted players; but few of them, even those who have written books, are able to express themselves in a way that most mortals, like me, can relate to and learn from. Bob Wachtel is a rare and amazing exception, as you will see for yourself when you read this vivid, engaging chronicle of the cut and thrust of life at the very top of the game. Bob is a fierce but self-critical competitor: and you will revel, as I did, in his jousts with the best and brightest, but likewise feel the pain when the Dice Gods--the diabolical rulers of this unique and exciting game--make him their victim. Phil Simborg: Co-founder, TheBackgammonLearningCenter.com; accredited US Backgammon Federation teaching professional. One of the world's top backgammon players, Bob Wachtel is also a master storyteller, a talented photographer, and a brilliant analyst. This dazzling first-hand account of his journey as the mind sport of backgammon evolved over the last two decades is a must-read for anyone curious about or already in love with the game. Karen Davis: President/Executive Director, U.S. Backgammon Federation. As a millennial-generation backgammon player, I've always been aware that I was born too late to experience some of the fascinating chapters in the game's recent history. But now that I've had the opportunity to read Bob Wachtel's delightful memoir, I feel like I'd lived through that era myself! What a storyteller Bob is! Every page was a joy to read. This book is one-of-a-kind, a unique contribution to backgammon literature. Marc B. Olsen, founder and CEO of BackgammonGalaxy.com

Author Information

"Currently ranked world #11 on the peer-rated survey ""The Giants of Backgammon"" and Grandmaster 2nd class by the Backgammon Masters Awarding Body (BMAB), Robert Wachtel has been one of the game's elite players for the last 40 years. A chess master, Doctor of Philosophy and an ex-options trader, he is the author of two prior backgammon books, In the Game until the End (1993) and In the Game until the End Vol. II (2014), and more than 40 journal articles. Robert was the editor of the US Backgammon Federation's flagship magazine, PrimeTime Backgammon, from 2011 to 2019. He is the author of The Language of Backgammon: A Player's Dictionary, a companion volume to The Backgammon Chronicles."

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