BGiE and the WBGF take a stance - what do you think?

The balancing act

In the news here in Ealing this week and, quite by chance, all across the backgammon world as well, is the ever-present tension of whether backgammon is a game focused on high stakes or on skill and a community of players.

In the UK the gaming laws restrict what we can do when it comes to stakes anyway, but even if that was not the case, BGiE stands firmly on the side of perfecting skill and the development of a community of players, rather than purely offering a high-stakes evening of play every week.

What does that mean for us in practical terms? Well, from 1 September BGiE is going to re-emphasise everyone having the chance to play everyone else that comes to play and tighten the rules around when a higher stake Swiss tournament will be offered. And, of course, we will continue to offer great skill-enhancing problems to solve each week.

Community and skill to the fore!

So from next week, there will be just one tournament to sign up for each regular club night, with the option of a £0 or £10 stake. If, and only if, we get at least 24 players signed up will we then offer one £20 Swiss tournament limited to 8 players just before play starts, drawn randomly from those players that indicate they are interested. Attendance figures from this year so far indicate that more often than not 24 or more players do turn out to play, so the chances of a £20 Swiss being offered are high, but not guaranteed. Grand Prix nights on the second Monday of each month and the Invitational Knockout on the first Wednesday of each month will continue as before.

At the same time and on pretty much the same themes (see Marc Olsen's post in the link), a major dispute has arisen in backgammon over control of the World Championship and what it represents for the game.

How we got here is Marc Olsen (CEO of Backgammon Galaxy) and a consortium purchased the hosting rights to the World Championship in Monte Carlo a few years ago, effectively wielding control over the event. Now the WBGF (World Backgammon Federation, the non-profit governing body) which traditionally seeks to oversee such tournaments to ensure fairness, accessibility, and alignment with the broader objectives of the sport, has announced it will launch its own world championship, in direct competition with the Monte Carlo event.

This has come about because of concerns that Marc Olsen’s control makes the championship feel like a private enterprise, separate from the federation’s governance, and that it has become too money-driven, elitist and unrepresentative of the wider playing community.

Influential figures like Neil Kazaross (he of Neil's numbers fame) have suggested for some time that for a truly global and inclusive tournament, the WBGF should acquire the rights or establish a parallel championship under its oversight.

At this stage of the saga it's quite instructive to see where other mind sports have ended up in the recent past (see the table AI created for me below) and to realise that there is certainly no perfect solution.

That's also true for BGiE - it's not possible to please everyone all of the time, but we really hope we have got the balance right. We look forward to hearing your views and seeing you next week - sign up now!

Mind Sport	Governing Body Role	Private Influence	Outcome
Chess	FIDE governs officially	Private orgs (Kasparov’s PCA, Chess.com)	Historic splits, reunification
Bridge	WBF sets rules, runs world events	Private sponsors fund prestige events	Dual legitimacy
Go	National federations, weak global body	Newspapers & corporations run titles	Commercially dominant
Poker	None	Casinos & online platforms control	Fragmented prestige
Backgammon	WBGF wants oversight	Olsen/Backgammon Galaxy control key event	At risk of chess/poker-style split