Malcolm Davis - USA

    Malcolm Davis is the friendly Giant of Backgammon. Cool, calm and collective, you can always have a very interesting conversation about the game with this veteran player and gentleman. Davis is a tall Texan who was the 2003 American Backgammon Tour Player of the Year and has been voted as a top player in the Giants list for all but one of the polls since 1993. His highest ranking was #12 in 1999.

    Davis takes care of vineyards in Texas but has travelled to world events everywhere. He usually brings along his video camera which he learnt to expertly set up on a small tripod next to the board to tape his matches – he later reviews the video and transcribes the dice rolls and moves to a bot on his computer so he can analyze how he played live.

    Davis can be seen in a series of videos on ExpertVillage.com and on YouTube.com designed for newcomers to backgammon. In a few basic lessons, Davis explains the rules of the game and demonstrates how to set up the board. He also provides some tips on the basic strategy of backgammon.

    Notable Backgammon Achievements

    In 2007, Malcolm won the 1st Southeast Backgammon Championships organized by Gregg Cattanach in Atlanta, Georgia. At the Eric Guedj's Riviera Challenge Backgammon Festival, held in Cannes, France in 2004, Davis partnered with Jose Farca to represent Mexico and beat the other 23 participating countries to capture the Nations Challenge title (now called Nations Cup).

    Davis won the 26th Annual Pittsburgh Backgammon Championships in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2004, and in 2003, the year he won the ABT, Davis took first place in the Championship flights at both the Florida State Backgammon Championship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the 20th Midwest Backgammon Championships in Lisle, Illinois. He also won the International Cup at the International Twin Championships in Las Vegas in 1999, as well as many other side events in his long career.

    In Monte Carlo, Monaco in 2006, being the gentleman that he is, Malcolm was awarded the prestigious Courtesy Trophy by the organizing committee of the World Backgammon Championship.