The 4th High Stakes Backgammon Championship took place recently at Strawberry Hills in Jamaica and Chiva Tafazzoli, the head of the World Backgammon Association, played in the completion to try and keep his title as the champion. While there, Tafazzoli saw the advancement of Jamaican players in the game of backgammon and he is encouraging them to continue to compete to get even better.

Tafazzoli stated he finished outside of the top positions in the tournament because local players played very well. He commented: “This year’s competition was definitely harder than last year…because I did not roll as well as I did last year and the others have been having a better time with the dice. Also the level of gaming has improved in Jamaica; the guys have been playing a lot over the past year so that has contributed and they are doing better.”

Although Tafazzoli stated the locals are playing much better he also commented that they have a long way to go before they will be able to compete at a global level. Tafazzoli is also trying to get more people to play the game.






- 2009-05-20