Backgammon 1979

[Bradley K. Sherman]

I was cleaning up my office and came across a copy of _The Prime_
which was the irregular journal of the Pacific Backgammon Association,
which ran tournaments all around the S.F. Bay Area in the 1970's.
(I ran one at Spat's, a bar in Berkeley.)

Here's a picture of the association standings as of 24 November 1979:

http://panix.com/~bks/Pix/prime.jpg

Keep in mind that the master points were awarded cumulatively,
so the fact that I was well above U.S. chess champion Walter
Browne and backgammon guru Nack Ballard is mostly due to the
fact that I played in more PBA tournaments than they did.

--bks

[Timothy Chow]

On 9/28/2023 5:10 PM, Bradley K. Sherman wrote:
> I was cleaning up my office and came across a copy of _The Prime_
> which was the irregular journal of the Pacific Backgammon Association,
> which ran tournaments all around the S.F. Bay Area in the 1970's.
> (I ran one at Spat's, a bar in Berkeley.)
>
> Here's a picture of the association standings as of 24 November 1979:
>
> http://panix.com/~bks/Pix/prime.jpg

Interesting to see that Elliott Winslow, who is better known as a chess
player, is also on the list. In the early days of BGOnline, Winslow was
a fairly active participant.

---
Tim Chow

[Bradley K. Sherman]

I know Elliott pretty well. We were in the same entering class
at CWRU (1969). He was still focussed on chess in those days.
He was already a better BG player than I was at that time, which
really pissed me off. In between matches at Spats (note correct
typography) he would take out a mini-chess set and make notes with
an extremely fine rapidograph in the margin of whatever game
he was studying. I have other observations too wild and crazy for
public exposition.

--bks

[Bradley K. Sherman]

>>> Here's a picture of the association standings as of 24 November 1979:
>>>
>>> http://panix.com/~bks/Pix/prime.jpg

BTW, Zafer Yasa (13.25 master points) was the first (or among
the first) to produce femtosecond laser pulses. He founded
this company:
<https://www.femtochrome.com/>

I mention this because of today's Nobel Prize in Physics:
<https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/03/europe/nobel-prize-physics-electrons-flashes-light-intl-scn/index.html>

--bks