In the second quarter of 2009, the Greater Columbus Backgammon Club is still in a dormant state.

      We hope to eventually re-form the group, and if you are traveling to Columbus, you can probably find a game with one or more of the people who were part of this club in the past.  For a structured tournament, check out the links below for the Ohio State Backgammon Club (Akron, monthly tournaments and weekly informal games) and Queen City Backgammon Club (Cincinnati, check the site for details).  For backgammon in Dayton, the “Miami Valley” link below appears to be inactive, so try e-mailing the director, Roger Foster, at MVBackgammon@woh.rr.com for a current schedule of events.

So, what are the club’s regular players up to now? 

Stick Rice continues to maintain his website: www.bgonline.org .  It offers computer rollouts (by Snowie and GNU) of first and second rolls; an on-line match that is updated more or less daily; and an active forum where you can discuss backgammon and various tangential issues that may arise.  Stick’s Consolation-winning streak continues in 2009 as he won the Consolation event in at the Ohio backgammon championships and also the one in Las Vegas, both in April of this year. 

Chris Yep has been BG-inactive lately, but last year did great at the Memorial Day weekend event in Chicago.  He finished first in the main event, and then also was the finalist in the Masters.  Way to go, Chris!  Chris also attended the World Championships at Monte Carlo in July, where he finished 2nd in the 200-euro Jackpot.

Mary Hickey continues to teach backgammon at FIBS and SafeHarborGames.net (look for “mamabear”).  She is working on a CD-book based on her 44-article series “Chouette and More”, still available in the archives at GammonVillage.com. She is also writing a book on middle game strategy, and has two other book projects that are at the proposal stage.  Mary’s most recent backgammon achievement was winning the Open event at the Ohio championships, April 3-5 of this year. Mary also reported on that event and other tournaments for www.GammonVillage.com .

Howard Shirey doesn’t play much any more.  It seems he took up some goofy card game you see on TV a lot.  Talk about trading down!  But you can still sometimes get a game with him if you are in town, and at the chou at Frisch when we get around to convening it.

Mike Rezai’s condo still hasn’t sold, so you may find he’s in Florida instead of here a lot of the time.  But now that the weather is warming up, we expect to see him around a bit more often.  You can find him at the Frisch chouette and once in awhile at the monthly tourneys in Dayton. 

Trevor Dierkes, our former director, still expresses some interest in playing but has been quite busy with work.  He may eventually get something organized in a more central venue for the group than the western location we had before.  He has also taken up the Asian favorite strategy game of Go.

Have I left out anyone from the area who believes they should be considered a “regular”?  Send me an email with a couple of lines you’d like included, and I’ll likely get around to posting them sometime.

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