Richard Munitz - USA
Richard Munitz of New York won the title of 2006 American Backgammon Tour (ABT) Player of the Year, and although he has played in many U.S. events over the years, this is the first time that Munitz appears in the top #32 Giants of Backgammon ranking list.
His three first-place victories at U.S. tournament in 2006 are what put him atop of the ABT standings - those were won at the 13th Annual Georgia Backgammon Championships in Atlanta, Georgia, the Thousand Islands Backgammon Tournament at Alexandria Bay, New York and the 31st Michigan Summer Backgammon Championships Novi, Michigan.
Another factor of his ABT title was that he was a Semi-Finalist in the Championship flights at both the 28th Annual Pittsburgh Backgammon Championships in Moon Township, Pennsylvania and the California State Backgammon Championship in Los Angeles, California.
Due to other commitments, Munitz could not come to play in the Atlantis Million event in The Bahamas in 2007 but he did venture later that year to 32nd World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where he played some of the longest matches in his life and reached the semi-finals to face Alvaro Savio of Brazil. But it was not to be Munitz's day, the long hours of plays, over several days must have taken their toll.
The 23-point semi-final match against Savio went on for more than four hours with Savio eventually winning it by a score of 23-18.Subsequent analysis of the recorded match by the Snowie program showed that Savio played at an Expert level with an overall 5.5 error rate while Munitz played Advanced at a 6.1 overall error rate. By the way, in the very exciting World Championship final on the following day, Savio was defeated at DMP by Jorge Alberto Pan of Argentina, who became the 2007 World Champion.
