2012 USBGF National Collegiate Team Championship

The U. S. Backgammon Federation is pleased to announce the 2012 USBGF Backgammon Collegiate Team Championship, with $600 in scholarships to the winning team to be allocated to student members of the winning team. This one-day event will be held online on Safeharborgames.net on Saturday, April 21^st, starting at Noon Central Time (1 pm Eastern). Teams will consist of three players, and each team is allowed to have one faculty member* on the team (the faculty member is not eligible for the scholarship award). Up to three teams may participate from each school.  Students must become USBGF Youth members and faculty Premium members to compete in the tournament; all full-time graduate and undergraduate students may register as Youth members regardless of age. *Faculty members who are competitive Championship level players are not eligible to compete.

2011 was the first USBGF National Backgammon Collegiate Championship event with 8 teams competing. UCLA beat Northwestern in a very close and exciting final.  UCLA was coached by Joe Russell with help from Justin Nunez and Steve Sax and included Dan Ben-Moshe, Joe Roth, and Ashim Ahuja. Northwestern was coached by David and Lyle Rubin with help from Phil Simborg and included Naveed Heydari, Uri Magaram, Kerem Taskin, and Michael Harper.  Most of the participants were beginners at the beginning of the year, but in the actual event, which was on line (and monitored), several matches were played at Personal Ratings in the “expert” range. Third and fourth place teams were: Indiana University and Princeton. Fifth through eight place went to: Clemson, Harvey Mudd, a second Northwestern team, and Yale.

Registration and Information: Any students wanting more information can contact Tournament Director, Joe Russell, joe@usbgf.org for more details. All teams should register with joe@usbgf.org no later than April 19^th. All participants should go to SafeHarborGames.net and create an account and learn to use the software, prior to the day of the event.  When registering, please put the school name first (e.g. UChicago_HalSanger; Princeton_BillG).

Teams should check in on SafeHarborGames no later than 11 a.m. Central time (Noon Eastern Time) on Saturday, April 21^st. Every effort will be made to prevent teams from the same school playing each other in early rounds.

Tournament Format: Single elimination. 3-point matches in the early rounds, 5-point matches in the finals.  Each team will have an A, B, and C seed.  This is not a skill rating.  A’s will play A’s, B’s will play B’s, and C’s will play C’s.  The team to win 2 out of three matches advances.   Each round will last one hour if 3-point matches are played, 90 minutes if 5-point matches are played.  The entire event should take 6 or 7 hours to complete.  

Assistance from USBGF: The U.S. Backgammon Federation is reaching out to college students across the U.S. to encourage them to take up the game, learning valuable mathematical, statistical, and decision analysis skills in the process. The USBGF provides webinars for participating college students, loans or sells boards at discounted prices, and provides a qualified USBGF-member coach in the local area when available. Under the leadership of Joe Russell, chair of the USBGF Education Committee and Phil Simborg, USBGF Education Adviser, new backgammon groups have formed or are in the process of forming at dozens of colleges and universities across the U.S. Over 60 colleges and universities have students and/or faculty working to establish clubs.

For those who would be interested in helping to form and/or coach a club at a college, high school, or elementary school in your local area, please contact Phil Simborg, USBGF Education Adviser at psimborg@sbcglobal.net. Phil will provide you with help and suggestions to get clubs started and will send you links to cube and checker seminars he has previously recorded for beginner students.  Phil also does individual team seminars via webex and will work with motivated, individual students at no charge.

USBGF Collegiate Singles Championship: The USBGF will also mount a collegiate singles competition that will run during the months of March and April. Scholarships will be awarded to first and second place ($300 and $100, respectively). Faculty are not eligible to compete in this event. Matches will be 3 point matches. The singles competition has been established primarily to give individual students at schools that do not yet have clubs fully established and are not able to field a team.

Request for Support: Help us meet the fantastic interest in forming backgammon clubs at colleges! Donate used boards by sending to Phil Simborg USBGF Education Adviser, 1230 N. State Parkway, apt. 6C, Chicago IL  60610 (312-543-0522) or contacting Phil at psimborg@sbcglobal.net.  Or make a tax-deductible donation to the U.S. Backgammon Foundation by sending a check in any amount, made out to the U.S. Backgammon Foundation, to Karen Davis, Treasurer, 4838 Laurel Hill Place, Toledo, Ohio 43614. Donations in 2012 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a challenge grant of up to $10,000 donated to the U.S. Backgammon Foundation.  

Since this program began in 2010, over 130 college students and 50 faculty members have been in direct contact with Phil to discuss playing backgammon or starting a club.  This is the future of backgammon, and your support is essential.  We also owe much of the success of this program to the over 30 USBGF members around the country who have volunteered their time and skill to help start clubs and coach the students.