Backgammon Champions: The World Championship in Monte Carlo
Every serious game has a title that players dream of, and in backgammon it is the World Championship held in Monte Carlo. The event has run there since 1979 and is the most widely known tournament in the game. This page explains how the championship came about, how it is played and why winning it is so hard.
Before Monte Carlo
Backgammon tournaments grew quickly during the boom of the 1960s and 1970s. Events billed as world championships were held in the United States and the Bahamas, and they helped turn a popular pastime into a competitive game with a recognized circuit of top players. You can read about that period in That's History.
The championship moves to Monte Carlo
In 1979 the World Championship was held in Monte Carlo for the first time, and Monte Carlo has remained its home ever since. The first champion there was Luigi Villa of Italy. The same year, Villa also played a famous exhibition match against the computer program BKG, an early sign of how computers would later shape the game. The story of that match is told in computer backgammon.
How the event works
The World Championship is a large knockout tournament played as matches to a set number of points, using the doubling cube with the Crawford rule. Players are paired in a bracket, and each round removes the losers from the main draw. Matches are played to many points, so a single match can take hours and tests stamina as much as skill. Side events and consolation brackets give players knocked out early more chances to play.
Because many players start and only one wins, the champion must win match after match in a row. Each match has an element of luck, but over a long match the better player wins more often, and over many matches in a row skill becomes decisive. The balance between the two is discussed in luck or skill.
Two-time champion Bill Robertie
Winning the title once is a major achievement. Bill Robertie of the United States won it twice, in 1983 and in 1987. He was also known as an author: his books include Backgammon for Winners and 501 Essential Backgammon Problems, and he co-published the magazine Inside Backgammon. His double win made him one of the most respected names in the game. More about him is on our Bill Robertie page.
What it takes to win
- Accurate checker play. Small errors add up over long matches, and strong opponents punish them.
- Good cube decisions. In match play, the right double or take depends on the score, and getting it wrong can swing a whole match.
- Stamina. A deep run means several long matches over many days.
- Composure. Bad luck in a single game is part of backgammon; champions keep making good decisions after it.
Champions in the computer age
Today's top players train with analysis programs such as GNU Backgammon and eXtreme Gammon, review their matches move by move and study positions that earlier champions could only guess at. The level of play at the top has risen as a result. The format, however, is the same as ever: match after match, until one player is left.