New on MOB

• Mary Hickey Wins 2nd US Backgammon Open
• Bob Wachtel reports from Velden Open
• Notes from 2010 Nordic Open
• WSOB Prague Pictures
• New Backgammon World Champion!
• Blind Backgammon

The unofficial World Backgammon Championship takes place, every summer since 1979, in Monte Carlo, Monaco; unofficial, since backgammon does not have one, agreeable governing body that can prevent from local backgammon associations to establish additional world events and give away world titles. Nevertheless, and despite close contest with the World Series of Backgammon, the veteran Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship maintains its position as the most important event in the backgammon calendar.

The origin of the World Backgammon Championship, as the birth of modern backgammon in general, is credited to Prince Alexis Obolensky, a descendant of White Russian exiles and American socialite who initiated the first international backgammon tournament in the Bahamas in 1964, standardized backgammon tournament rules and got the high society of both continents hooked on backgammon.

Prince Obolensky has also established the Las Vegas World Championship, held between 1967 and 1974 in the gambling center of the world, drew mainly the American backgammon players of the era and granted the world title to Tim Holland (three successive times), Oswald Jacoby (of the Jacoby Rule), Carol Crawford (wife of John E. Crawford of the Crawford Rule) and few others. About the same time, the Bahamas World Backgammon Championships took place at the Bahamas and reassured Paul Magriel's position as the best backgammon player in the world, and Obolensky begun planning the European Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo.

It was Lewis Deyong, a backgammon player, promoter and author of the Playboy's Book of Backgammon who came up with the brilliant idea of uniting all three world events into one, unified World Backgammon Championship. The first couple world championships were held at the Bahamas, but the third and the thirty backgammon world championships to follow took place in Monte Carlo, entertaining international backgammon gamblers who cam afford the expensive entry fees, ranging, as for 2009, from €200 for the beginners flight to €1,000 for the main event.