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Petko Kostadinov was born in Bourgas, Bulgaria on March 6, 1961 and currently lives in the USA where he worked as a Statistical Analysis Supervisor at TriCenturion in Columbia, South Carolina. It is the first time that Kostadinov appears in the top #32 Giants of Backgammon list.

In Bulgaria, backgammon is a very popular game, and similar to Greece, children are taught the game at a very young age. Petko started playing in Bulgaria at the age of 11, but as in many countries around the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Petko says that most Bulgarians know nothing about the doubling cube.

From Online Backgammon to Live Play

Petko played online for a couple of years and at one point decided to get out and play live – the first big tournament he attended was the 50th Indiana Open in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2002. In March of 2003, he won the Intermediate flight at the Southern Backgammon Open and later that year, returned to Indianapolis for the 51st Indiana Open, where he won first place in the Advanced Division.

Then in 2004, he switches to high gear and goes for broke at the Championship level at the 52nd Indiana Open Backgammon Tournament, where he makes it to the final but is defeated by Walter Trice (current Giant #26). Petko says, “My favourite backgammon book is "Backgammon Boot Camp" by Walter Trice. I was very happy to play him in the finals of the Indiana Open Championship in 2004.”

Undaunted, Kostadinov has continued to play at the Championship level since and has faced and defeated some of the top experts, and other Giants of BG, along the way. He has won many Masters and Super Jackpot tournaments, including the Michigan Masters Jackpot at the huge 32nd Michigan Summer Backgammon Championships in 2007 where he was also a Semi-Finalist in the Championship.

In April of 2008 Petko was the Runner-Up in the Last Chance at the 24th Nevada State Backgammon Tournament & U.S. Team Championship.“I like Yamin Yamin's idea of having a ranking list with the top 32 backgammon players but I would like to see more European voters in the future though,” Petko remarks.