Tag: intermediate

WBGF Team SABGA Fundraiser + Africa Open Satellite

📆 15 August 2026
🕒 9am Calcutta Auction, 10am play begins
📍Protea Fire and Ice! Cape Town by Marriot

Tickets are now LIVE on SnapScan, our new payment partner, use the links below 🎟️🤝🎫

We got TWO events running concurrently, both in the big hall 🛕 .

It’ll be great to have representatives from Hout Bay, Tokai, Claremont, Helderberg, Nish Nush, Arthur’s and regulars of the SABGA leagues!

🤸 🎊 🤼 🫯 ⛹️ ✨🍻

All participants will enjoy at least 3 matches, but also, what a great chance to experience a ‘proper’ backgammon event alongside other enthusiasts?!

  • Matches played with Crawford Rule, Clock mandatory for Advanced players, No Jacoby.
  • WBGF Rules apply: https://www.wbfturkey.com/doc/Tournament_Rules_WBGF.pdf
  • Prizes include seats for Africa Open AND cash prizes. Prize allocation based on number of entries, to be announced at tournament start.
  • Players sorted by WINS, Wins vs Tied Participants, Median-Buchholz system (sum of players’ opponents’ scores, with best and worse discarded)

Tournament Directors: Nick Groll, Mike Hagglund, Doron Claxton, Max Urban

⚔️ ‘ADVANCED’ EVENT⚔️ :🗡️ INTERMEDIATE EVENT:🗡️
The Advanced event will be played in a Swiss Format with all matches to 7pts, and played with a clock. Everyone will get at least 3 matches; multiple winners will get a seat to the Africa Open Master division worth $500! 🤯
Entry is R1000 with a R250 donation on top to help Team SABGA pay for their entry to the WBGF Team Champs in London! 🙏

Tickets via SnapScan:
https://pos.snapscan.io/open/ticket_event_new/22e18a84-d644-413b-ad8d-8bd797c2865d		The Intermediate event will be played in a Swiss Format, with all matches to 3pts.
Everyone gets (at least) 3 matches, and multiple winners will get seats to the Africa Open Intermediate division worth $250 💵
Entry is just R200 with a R50 donation on top to help Team SABGA pay for their entry to the WBGF Team Champs in London 🙏

Grab a seat here 🪑🎟️ 📲 :
https://pos.snapscan.io/open/ticket_event_new/0b4c4beb-c896-48b6-a53a-3d49b55ae88e

Questions? Ask Nick 0711217022

Video Recommendations

Some YouTube links (they’ll open in a new window), courtesy of Matt Ryder:

What do you think of the list? Anything you’d add? Let us know in the comment below, or get in touch via the contact page.

Book Recommendations

Looking to improve your backgammon game? Review this comprehensive list of backgammon reading material and get ready for greater success with better understanding (hopefully!) This list comes courtesy of SABGA’s Matt Ryder:

For beginners, I’d recommend Michihito “Michy” Kageyama’s book “Opening Concepts” and Marc Olsen’s “From Basics to Badass”.

For intermediates, Walter Trice’s “Backgammon Bootcamp”, Bill Robertie’s “Modern Backgammon” and “501 Backgammon Positions” (get the 3rd edition, where the whole thing has been rewritten in the light of recent bot rollouts).

For experts, Nack Ballard and Paul Weaver’s “Backgammon Openings Book A”, Kit Woolsey’s “Backgammon Encyclopedia Vols 1 and 2”, Kit Woolsey & Hal Heinrich’s “New Ideas in Backgammon” and Marc Olsen’s latest, “Cube Like a Boss”.

Of course, I should not leave out our very own backgammon author, Clyde Wolpe! His book on the game, “Priority Thinking”, is well worth a read, especially for the excellent chapter on backgames. It’s currently a steal on Amazon Kindle for only $3!

This list was last updated 08 June 2020.