2012 NM State Championship
Published: September 8th, 2011 by alexEd Bennett and our club are proud to announce the 4th annual New Mexico State Championship. January 26-29, 2012 at La Posada Hotel in Santa Fe.
Backgammon Club of Santa Fe
Published: January 4th, 2010 by alexEvery Tuesday of the month we play a slightly different style of play. Please refer to the calendar for more information about what’s in store this Tuesday. We will be updating this site regularly and you can subscribe to updates using your favorite email client or RSS feed reader.
Tournament Report – 2011 New Mexico State Backgammon Championships
Published: January 2nd, 2012 by DamianThis article first appeared on the GammonVillage Magazine website on February 22, 2011.It is re-printed here with permission from GammonVillage.
by Adam Bennett 22 February 2011
Bob Koca
Adam Bennett reports on the 2011 New Mexico State Backgammon Championships held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on January 27 through January 30, 2011.
If you’re looking for a fair and balanced account of the 3rd New Mexico State Championship tournament, you won’t find it here. I’m biased in favor of this event for various reasons: Santa Fe is my hometown; I was the founder of this event in 2007 and the Associate Director this year; and my father has been the promoter and sponsor of the tournament since it joined the American Backgammon Tour last year. Readers looking for unexpurgated truth should look elsewhere; but if you would like to join me for a warm look back at this year’s New Mexico event, by all means read on.
The tournament weekend kicked off on Wednesday evening with a nice reception at my dad’s house, which he gave to thank the many volunteers from the Backgammon Club of Santa Fe that have helped with the organization, planning and running of the tournament. Out-of-town players also were invited. Here are some scenes from that soiree:
Barbara McIntyre and Mark Little
Barbara is the founder and leader of the Backgammon Club of Santa Fe, and did a great deal of behind-the-scenes organization for the tournament. Mark Little is a relative newcomer to backgammon, an enthusiastic advanced player who also helped out on the tournament weekend.
Willy Cox, Ed Rosenblum, Sara Piazza
Willy is a high-school friend of my father’s, who drove down for the festivities; Ed Rosenblum was the director of this year’s event (and, in an exemplary display of multitasking, the winner of the two-point quickies event); and Sara Piazza is a newly-minted advanced player who competed and also worked on staff part of the weekend. Although Sara had some rough knocks in the advanced flight, she was glad she moved up from novice competition, and she says she’s not going back. That’s the spirit!
Bill and Connie Riles
Most tournament regulars will recognize Bill Riles, one of the most active players on the U.S. backgammon scene and a strong supporter of the New Mexico event. I’ve known Bill for years, but this was the first chance I had to meet his lovely wife, Connie.
And finally, we have our tournament host along with two-time ABT champ Ray Fogerlund, one of only a handful of people who have competed in every NM State Championship:
Ed and Ray
The social festivities continued the next evening with a dinner and friendly doubles tournament at Mucho Gusto, a local restaurant serving New Mexico fare. About 50 players came for dinner and 22 teams competed in the tourney, which was won by Mark Antranikian and Carl Blumenstein.
The tournament proper got underway on Friday. Although attendance was down a little bit from last year, owing in large part to a winter storm in the Northeast that kept several players on the sidelines, we had a nice even draw of 32 in the Championship division, 24 players in the Advanced flight, and 19 players in the Novice draw. It was very gratifying to have such a big novice field—and I would guess ours will end up being one of the largest of the year. Today’s beginners are tomorrow’s open players!
In the Open flight we drew a very strong field indeed. Top players in the open draw included former World Champion Joe Russell, many former ABT champs, like Steve Sax, Frank Talbot, Ray Fogerlund, Malcolm Davis, and the inimitable Neil Kazaross, and other top players like Ed O’Laughlin, Stepan Nuniyants, and the unflappable Bob Koca as well as a number of other formidable contestants.
The conditions were absolutely perfect for a great event: we had a fabulous site, a comfortable playing room, and gorgeous weather—we had the ballroom doors open the whole weekend to let in the nice breeze, and a few intrepid souls even played out on the patio.
Here’s a shot of the playing room:
Playing Room
We also had an amazing amount of candy. One of the regulars at the Santa Fe Club owns a string of movie theaters, and was able to supply the tournament with gigantic movie-size containers of Milk Duds, Starburst, Reese’s Pieces and other goodies at wholesale cost. I had forgotten how difficult it can be to have a conversation with a Milk Dud in your mouth.
Movie-Size Candy
As play drew to a close on Saturday night, we crowned champions In the Advanced and Novice events. Jonathan Luesdens of Colorado Springs, playing in his first over-the-board tournament, won the Advanced flight over seasoned veteran Kathleen Davis, who traveled to the tournament from Kansas City with friend Eric Barr. Here’s a picture of the finalists.
Jonathan and Kathleen
The Advanced Consolation was won by Santa Fe’s Bob Goldstein:
Bob Goldstein
And the Advanced Last Chance prize was taken by Josh Racko, a California player who has steadily amassed an enviable tournament record over the last few years:
Josh Racko
The Novice finals saw a New Mexico grudge match: Erik Sawyer of the local club gamely seized the victory over Albuquerque’s Early Gardner. It was the first over-the-board tournament for both finalists. Here Erik poses with his trophy.
Erik Sawyer
The Novice Consolation winner was Janet Genter
Janet Genter
The Novice Last Chance event was taken by Joe Fitzpatrick of New Mexico.
At the close of play on Saturday, the Championship event and the Masters’ tourney had each played down to two contestants: the main event final would be contested between Ed O’Laughlin and Bob Koca, two players from the mid-Atlantic region who are very familiar on the ABT scene and to each other. Meanwhile, the Master’s final was scheduled for the next afternoon between Neil Kazaross and Stepan Nuniyants. The cream had risen to the top in the Consolation bracket as well, as Ray Fogerlund, Frank Talbot, Malcolm Davis and Stepan remained alive there.
Sunday got off to a bright and early start with a morning lecture by the great Paul Magriel. Paul had traveled to our event straight from Australia, so he was a little bit tired, but he still found a way to deliver a great talk recapping a game he played some years ago against Michael Meyburg of Germany. Here’s a shot of X22 at the demonstration board:
X22
And here’s a picture of Paul along with Joe Russell:
Two World Champs
After Magriel’s lecture, play resumed and the results began pouring in. One of my favorite tasks as a tournament staffer was to announce the winners over the PA system. People get a real kick out of hearing their names called.
The unflappable Bob Koca won the main event in closely contented match against Ed O’Laughlin. Here the two contestants posed for posterity:
Ed O and UBK
The winner of the Championship consolation flight was no stranger to a trophy presentation:
And the winner of the Open Last Chance was Gregg Cattanach. Gregg had been a last-minute entry to our event and never stopped telling everyone what a great time he was having. He kept sneaking away from the tournament room to the spa or to the nearby Indian casinos. In between, of course, Gregg got down to brass tacks and won a bunch of backgammon matches.
Gregg Cattanach
Frank Talbot also had a nice time in New Mexico. He arrived early and spent a few days skiing at Taos before the competition began. Then he won the blitz event.
Lawrence Wilson, the 2004 Colorado State Champion, won the Roadrunner Jackpot in an exciting final over Kenny Litzenberger. Here’s a picture of Lawrence:
Lawrence Wilson
The Master’s event was scheduled for 2:00 PM on Sunday, and so it was one of the last matches of the day. Neil and Stepan decided to play in the auxiliary room in front of a few devoted fans, who were treated to an excellent match that saw Stepan escape with the trophy after beating back a hairy gammon threat at 2-away, 4-away. The contestants seemed to be having fun while they were playing:
Neil and Stepan
But after it was all over, both finalists seemed unaccountably glum and morose. Maybe they both were discomfited by the wads of cash jammed in their pockets!
Masters’ Finalists with Trophy
The final event of the tournament weekend, the Pro-Am doubles, featured the team of Lowell Schulman and David Wilshin facing off against the local players Ed Bennett (in a gutsy return from hip surgery less than two weeks prior) and Jan Brennan. At DMP, the out-of-towners had to bolt for the airport, so the teams rolled high dice for the trophy. Jan and Ed emerged victorious. Here’s a picture of those two:
Jan Brennan and Ed Bennett
After the tournament concluded, a party went out to dinner at Tesuque Village Market, a local eatery owned by a friend of mine. Ray and Stepan graciously picked up the check. Josh Racko and Kenny Litzenberger seemed to be having fun:
Josh and Kenny
Many thanks to all the players that came and made this year’s NM State Championship such a resounding success. For the rest of you, I close with a few pictures of people, places and things that you might have seen if you had come to our event:
Robin and Jeb Horton
Plaza Obelisk
Bronze Cowpoke
Tia Sophia’s Breakfast Burrito
Patrick Gibson
Santa Fe Cathedral
Feedback about this article:
1.
Subject:Re: Tournament Report – 2011New MexicoState Backgammon Championships
From:Zox
Date:24 Feb 2011 06:34 EST
It is impossible to overstate the quality of the resort/hotel/spa that we stayed at and the effort of the staff, the desert beauty of central New Mexico, the fact that I ate the best Mexican food of my life, the quality of the art community in Santa Fe, and the wonderful hospitality of our backgammon hosts.
If you have any brain at all, you WILL come to Santa Fe next year and you WILL bring your significant other. This long weekend at La Posada de Santa Fe was unmatched and unparalleled. It was truly a lifetime experience.
Gregg Cattanach
Normal hours – 6:00pm start
Published: September 8th, 2011 by alexWe will resume our regular hours. Play begins promptly at 6pm.
6:30pm summer start time
Published: June 14th, 2011 by alexJust a reminder that we are starting backgammon at 6:30pm for the summer. We will decide in September if we will switch back to 6:00pm in the fall. As always try to be prompt to jump right in to play!!
Mark & B-Mac playing backgammon in Telluride!
Published: February 24th, 2011 by alex
Co-Director, Mark Little, and Club founder, Barbara McIntyre, apres-ski in Telluride!
Ray with Tiara
Published: February 24th, 2011 by alex
Some fun from the tournament – Ray wearing the Blitz tiara!
Congrats & Thanks
Published: February 9th, 2011 by alexCongratulations to everyone for a great 2011 NM State BG Championship!! And a big thanks to all the volunteers who made it possible.
Leap Gammon!
Published: December 10th, 2010 by alexThis past “5th Tuesday” Ed Bennet introduced us to a very fun Backgammon alternative called “Leap Gammon” that he learned at the Chicago tournament. Basically if you are able to leap an opponent’s 4 or 5 point prime you automatically win! Sounds strange, but its a ton of fun and forces you to consider the board set-up in a whole new way. No cubing or gammoning in Leap Gammon. Have fun!
Just for fun: video inside Crisloid
Published: December 2nd, 2010 by DamianEver wonder how backgammon sets were made? Check out this short video from Crisloid and find out:
5th Tuesday!
Published: November 13th, 2010 by alexPlease note that Tuesday November 30 is the 5th Tuesday of the month. Whoever shows up that eve can vote on a style of play for the group. There are lots of alternative ways to play – bring your ideas. But regardless plan to have fun!
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