"* Tabli…a fascinating game to play but one which as a spectator sport is up there with watching paint dry."
That's how Lucky of Azogires-The Alpha Kafenion sums up the experience of watching the first backgammon tournament of the summer in Alpha Kafenion, a small(?) village near a town named Paleochora in the Greek island of Crete, in a post published last April. I arrived at the this post and this thought provoking insight after running into Lucky's recent review of the 2nd and 3rd International Winter Backgammon Competition, held one after another to the players' request in Azogires, another nearby village, and immediately started browsing through the blog's archive.
The first thing that caught my attention was the photographs. Although it is a winter tournament, some of the games are played outdoors, surrounded by fruit trees (?) among cats and dogs. So much nicer than playing backgammon tournament in neon lighted casino! Wildly spontaneous as it may sound, the concept of throwing another competition right after the first one, which, attended by people of 8 different countries, was probably prescheduled (?), seemed right after looking at the photos. By the way, the same players who topped the three top positions of the first event, have reached the top 3 of the second event. Or in Lucky's words, some people are unbeatable…
Back to the opening sentence - do you all agree that watching a backgammon match is so boring? Aren't you excited to see who's going to win? Even when it is the second successive backgammon championship in a day?
