Backgammon Proficiency Test & International Team Challenge at UK Open – UKBGF

#1 Giant of Backgammon Masayuki “Mochy” Mochizuki will be presenting his Backgammon Proficiency Test starting at 6pm on Friday 19th September – the first day of the UK Open Championship, at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

An in-depth seminar reviewing all the answers to this test will follow on Sunday morning, 21st September at 9.45am.

This is a very enjoyable challenge for all players from Intermediate level upwards; not just super-strong world class players. Everyone who is able to get to the Ricoh Arena by 6pm on Friday 19th is strongly encouraged to participate.

Over the past year, 140 players have taken the Proficiency Test, which has been presented at major tournaments all over the world, including the Nordic Open in Copenhagen, and the Texas Backgammon Championships in San Antonio. This latest (4th) version, which was taken by some players at last month’s World Championships in Monte Carlo, was devised by Mochy and Michy and contains 50 high quality and well-balanced questions in multiple choice format.

Current rankings for the 4th (and previous) tests are here: https://blog.backgammonexam.com/en/score/#4

Ten players under the age of 25 had a four-day backgammon training camp supervised by Mochy, on the 16th through the 19th.

On the third day, six promising youths took the 4th Backgammon Proficiency Test to check their own level of expertise.

Yoshiyuki Nakamura, who remained as our test giver until just a years ago, got a good score and currently stand in the second place only after Falafel.

While it might depend to a large extent on the outcomes of the camp, they all looked to achieve good results on the test.

順位	正答数	エラー合計	氏名
1	36	1301	Yoshiyuki Nakamura
2	33	1539	Kanade Kubota
3	32	2734	Takayuki Hino
4	25	3262	Yuri Nakamura
5	20	3698	Takuto Yamashita
6	16	4391	Kazuma Kinoshita
合計 6人	平均 27.0	平均 2821

On Thursday, August 7th, the 4th Backgammon Proficiency Test was held during the 39th Backgammon World Championship in Monte Carlo with #1 Giant of Backgammon Masayuki “Mochy” Mochizuki.

39th Backgammon World Championship – Blog – Mochy’s Backgammon Proficiency Exam
(Announcement by official site)

Despite little advance publicity, 18 players took time to challenge our exam.
Surprisingly, a professional shogi player, Daisuke Katagami got the highest score. Toshiyuki Moriuchi, who is also a professional shogi player and won 4th prize in the Championship tournament, made a good record.

The event promoter, Patti was satisfied with our proficiency exam and wants to have it again if there is a next time.
It’s a great news!

On the next day Mochy gave an in-depth lecture with review of all answers to the test-takers.

The result is as follows.

Rank	Total score	Total errors	Name
1	35	1369	Daisuke Katagami
2	33	1897	Martin Birkhahn
3	31	2709	Alain Babillon
4	29	2665	Toshiyuki Moriuchi
5	28	2340	Mitrelis Konstantinos
6	27	2862	R. R.
7	26	3525	(Anonymous)
8	25	2640	Sean Williams
9	22	3588	Jan Jacobowitz
9	22	3617	M. F.
11	17	4553	M. G.
12	15	4169	Leslie Lockett
12	15	4238	Antoinette-Marie Wms
12	15	4344	L. H.
12	15	5520	(Anonymous)
16	13	4788	(Anonymous)
16	13	5484	Molly Anderson
16	13	5512	E. B.
Total 18	Ave. 21.9	Ave. 3657

The whole result as of now is here.

We are proud to announce that the 4th backgammon proficiency test will take place in the 39th Backgammon World Championship (Monaco).

39th Backgammon World Championship – Blog – Mochy’s Backgammon Proficiency Exam

This is the fourth version of our test, and over 140 players took it in just the past year.
Mochizuki Masayuki (Mochy) and Kageyama Michihito (Michy) devised 50 high-quality and well-balanced questions for the test. Thus, the test is a worthy challenge for players at the intermediate and advanced levels.
(Details at About Backgammon Proficiency Test)

As you know, the 39th World Championship is one of the most famous and prestigious backgammon events in the world, and it is scheduled to be held from Tuesday, August 5th thru Sunday, August 10th at the Fairmont Hotel in Monte Carlo.
(Details at 39th Backgammon World Championship – Schedule)

The 4th Backgammon Proficiency Test is scheduled as follows:
Date: Thursday, August 7th, 2014
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

The next day, you can take Mochy’s lecture and review for this test.
Date: Friday, August 8th, 2014
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

It gives you a wonderful opportunity that is hard to come by, since it is the first time that you can sit for our backgammon proficiency test in Monte Carlo.
It would be an honor if you would attend.

Sincerely,

On Sunday, May 25th, the 4th Backgammon Proficiency Test took place with acceptance in 34th Chicago Open Backgammon Tournament.
The next day’s lecture by Masayuki “Mochy” Mochizuki for the test was also received well.

Schedule of Events – 34th Chicago Open –

We are very privileged to welcome many world-leading players like Matvey “Falafel” Natanzon, John O’Hagan, Matt Cohn-Geier, Mary Hickey, Stepan Nuniyants, Phil Simborg and Tobias Hellwag.

(Photo by Mochizuki Masayuki)

Falafel came in a slamming 1st place in terms of the number of correct answers as of today. David Pressar, who had gotten the highest score out of 17 testees on the 3rd test this January, took 2nd place.

In spite of the tight schedule, we had 28 testees in total during 34th Chicago Open.
Thank you all for joining us!

The result is as follows.

Rank	Total score	Total errors	Name
1	38	1567	Falafel
2	35	1600	David Presser
3	34	1761	John O’Hagan
4	33	1669	G. T.
5	32	1624	Matt Cohn-Geier
6	30	2058	Dennis Culpepper
7	29	2616	Mary Hickey
8	26	2267	Tobias Hellwag
9	25	2625	A. M.
9	25	2648	Saba Bejanishvili
9	25	3086	Stepan Nuniyants
9	25	4043	Karen Davis
13	24	2706	Chuck Bower
14	23	3102	Roberto Litzenberger
14	23	3507	Phil Simborg
16	21	3018	Herb Roman
16	21	3481	G. A.
16	21	4090	Ronald Loero
19	20	4521	David Hanold
20	19	4605	Vadim Nuniyants
21	18	4339	(Anonymous)
22	17	4579	Allen Tish
23	16	4404	J. P.
23	16	5083	Rose Sheedy
23	16	5407	Bruce J. Farquhar
26	14	5048	Harry Glinos
27	13	6118	Frank Dama
Total 28	Ave. 23.2	Ave. 3489

今年も、王位戦で「バックギャモン検定」がスタートしました。
4年前の王位戦からスタートした「バックギャモン検定」は今回で4年目を迎え、今や日本を飛び出して、世界中に認知されつつあります。

今回の受検者は計15名。
毎年参加していただいている常連の方も数名いらっしゃいました。
いつもありがとうございます！

参加者15名の成績はこちらです。
現時点で、久保田（聡）さん・磯部さんの両名が正答数で同率トップとなっています。

順位	正答数	エラー合計	氏名
1	27	2314	Satoshi Kubota
1	27	3158	Masaaki Isobe
3	26	2654	Shigeru Fukazawa
4	23	3605	(Anonymous)
4	23	3739	Takashi Otani
6	19	5855	(Anonymous)
7	18	4730	S. T.
8	17	4212	Akiharu Okazaki
9	16	3963	K. T.
9	16	3978	K. N.
9	16	4397	Syohei Noguchi
9	16	5113	H. K.
13	13	5779	T. I.
14	12	5017	H. K.
15	10	4972	Y. O.
合計 15人	平均 18.6	平均 4232

皆さま、お疲れ様でした。

「第4回 バックギャモン検定」はこの後、34th Chicago Open （U.S.A.）、5th Dubrovnik Backgammon Open （クロアチア） で開催予定です。

なお、初級検定の受検者は2名となりました（2名とも合格でした）。
スケジュールの都合で参加できなかった方、次の機会に挑戦してみてください！

【お詫び】

5/6 午前開始分の中上級検定につきまして、事前に告知していたスケジュールでは 11：00 開始となっていたところを、進行のミスで 10:50 に開始してしまいました。この場を借りてお詫び申し上げます。
大変申し訳ありませんでした。

Sorry, this entry is only available in Japanese.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Japanese.

On Sunday, April 20th, the 3rd Backgammon Proficiency Test was administered in Nordic Open 2014.
We had 41 attendees from 17 countries, and the results were actually high-level.

The next day, Mochy’s seminar on the answers and the commentaries for this exam was held.

Schedule Nordic Open 2014

Michael Nielsen (Denmark) got the highest score with 43 marks (out of 50), followed by Christian Sorensen (Netherlands).

The result in Nordic Open is as follows.
(It does not include the result of a visually-impaired player, and we will add it later.)

Rank	Total score	Total errors	Name
1	43	993	Michael Nielsen
2	40	1622	Christian Sorensen
3	39	1154	Timo Vaatainen
3	39	1281	Carlo Melzi
5	38	1509	Petko Kostadinov
6	37	1420	Thomas Tenland
7	36	1925	Sabri Buyuksoy
8	35	1875	Alain Babillon
8	35	2085	Peter Bennet
10	34	1337	Stiebler Maik
10	34	1882	Zafer Tas
12	33	1579	Klaus Evers
12	33	1597	Johan Segers
12	33	2099	Jason Pack
12	33	2269	Aref Alipour
16	32	2245	Sean Williams
17	31	2289	Simon Baget
18	29	2838	Terje Pedersen
18	29	2903	Peter Toftso
18	29	3358	Martin Barkwill
21	28	2385	Giorgio Castellano
21	28	2841	Theis K.K. Rasmussen
21	28	2973	V. G.
21	28	3196	Timur Bulekbaev
25	27	2782	Vadim Musaelyan
25	27	2803	Walter Meuwis
27	26	2530	Antonio Sgambato
28	25	3513	Michael Urban
29	24	3306	Jesper Carlsson
29	24	3450	Tommy Berggren
29	24	3516	J. L. A.
29	24	3639	Ricardo Malas
33	22	3363	Grunbaum Georges
33	22	3773	Fredrik Carlsson
35	21	3047	E. R.
35	21	4255	Simon Morecroft
35	21	4389	Christian Andresen
38	18	4845	(Anonymous)
39	15	5449	P. H. S.
39	15	5781	Sylvia Wist
Total 40	Ave. 29.0	Ave. 2752

The 3rd Backgammon Proficiency Test came to an end with this event (and we’re now preparing the next test).
Then, the number of attendees totaled 145 for the test. The whole list is here.

Finally, Matt Cohn-Geier (USA), Giorgos Kleitsas (Greece) and Michael Nielsen (Denmark) is #1 in terms of most answers right, and Falafel is #1 in terms of least error made.

Thank you all for joining us!

3月21日（金・祝）、東京の赤坂例会で「第3回 バックギャモン検定」を実施し、その後、望月プロによる解説会を開催しました。

受検者は7名で、中にはバックギャモンを始めて数ヶ月で目下猛勉強中の方もいらっしゃいました。

望月プロによる解説会の様子。
7名以外にも、過去に検定を受検した方も来られました。
ちなみに、望月プロがバックギャモン検定の解説会をするのは日本ではこれが初めてです。

3月21日当日は “World Backgammon Day” ということで、バックギャモンに関わる何かをしようという日だったそうです。少しは貢献できたかもしれません。

参加された7名の成績はこちらです。
皆さま、お疲れ様でした。

順位	正答数	エラー合計	氏名
1	38	1033	Seiichi Nagai
2	34	2269	Yuya Watanabe
3	28	2643	Yusuke Itagaki
4	25	4626	T. I.
5	22	3791	Shouhei Noguchi
6	17	4046	T. T.
7	10	5367	Yuuki Kimura
合計 7人	平均 24.9	平均 3396

なお、これまでの全参加者の成績リストは、こちら から確認できます。
（1月の Texas Backgammon Championships での検定以降、望月プロおよび我々の監督の下で公式に受検していただいた矢澤亜希子さんら4名の成績も合算しています。）

今年5月の王位戦で問題がアップデートされるため、第3回検定を日本で実施するのは今回で最後となり、4月の Nordic Open での開催を残すのみとなりました。したがって、日本人最高位は40点獲得の金子真一郎さん、次点は永井誠一さんおよび片上大輔さんでほぼ確定となりました。