Masayuki Mochizuki - Japan

Backgammon World Champion for 2009

20/07/2009

Japan's top backgammon master, Masayuki Mochizuki, has won the 34th Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship, held between July 12th and July 19th 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Monte Carlo, Monaco. 30 years old Mochizuki, also known as "Mochy" had won honorable title and the accompanying €62,160 prize after a long 25-point battle with last year's world champion, Dane Lars Trabolt (no. 16 in our giants of backgammon list).

Despite his young age, Mochy has been active in the international backgammon scene for over a decade. Mochizuki belongs to the new generation of backgammon players, who did not have to study backgammon without the help of assisting aids such as Snowie, GNU and other backgammon programs. Thus his winning the world title did not surprise his colleagues in the backgammon circuit, but rather filled the expectations.

In the closing ceremony of the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship, Masayuki Mochizuki had took advantage of the public platform and proposed to his long time girlfriend, an active backgammon player herself, in what becomes a tradition, as last year's world champion, Lars Trabolt referred the same question to his girlfriend in the ceremonial occasion of receiving the World Backgammon Championship trophy.