PGM Will See The Strongest-Ever Field in Tournament History of BG

by GammonLife Staff - 9 January 2007

However when asked if they have ever heard of players such as Nack Ballard, Paul Magriel and François Tardieu, the answer is usually no. And that’s mostly because backgammon is rarely seen on the medium of communication found in just about every household… television. That’s about to change!

The PartyGammon Million tournament organized by Player International of London will see the strongest-ever field of players assembled under one roof in the history of backgammon tournaments. And since the event will be filmed for television and distributed to many countries, finally, our game and its greatest players will become known and respected to the general public, and we would expect, begin to acquire a following and audience, similar to what has been witnessed in the game of Poker in recent times.

Here are some of the TV channels that will broadcast the series that will be filmed at PartyGammon Million:

UK - Five

Canada - CGTV

Malta - One TV

Cyprus - Lumiere

Greece - Alpha TV

Middle East - Showtime

South Africa - SuperSport

Australia - Fox Sport

Germany - DSF

Turkey - Show TV

(Confirmation is pending on a few of these and others will be added.)

This tournament will be very exciting. It will take place later this month (Jan. 21-25) at the magnificent Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas and will payout a guaranteed minimum $1,000,000 with $500,000 of that going to the first place winner.

GammonLife readers will be treated to exclusive coverage by our News Team and will be able to follow the progress of the players round by round in reports we will publish in our Tournaments section. There will be lots of photos and other news on the tournament published daily.

So far more than 90 seats in the 128-player event have been bought or won online.

GammonLife hails the Player International Team, who should be very proud for their hard work and perseverance in achieving the tremendous feat of organizing such a fantastic tournament. What began as an idea and vision for Stephen Pearson, Managing Director of Player International, is becoming a dream come true, and with more than two years in the making, it just shows what strong will and determination can accomplish. We tip our hat to Stephen, this event will be his legacy and only the first of many other amazing backgammon tournaments planned for the future.

Special recognition also goes to the great team of people behind sponsor PartyGammon diligently working on all the logistics for a perfect event and Tournament Director Howard Markowitz and his fine staff - Carol Joy Cole, Patrick Gibson, Sam Pottle and Troy Longman – who will ensure everything runs smoothly.

Twenty-seven of the current top 32 Giants of Backgammon are already registered and it is quite likely that several other Giants will register soon. In total some 10 World Champions will attend this event.

The following is a list of the current 32 Giants of Backgammon with those as confirmed players in PartyGammon Million marked in blue:

32 Giants of Backgammon – 2005 Poll

Seven or eight of the above list have won a World Championship title and all have won one or more other major titles – examples, Champion of Europe, American Backgammon Tour Player of the Year, Las Vegas Open, Las Vegas Pro Am, Paris Masters & Open, World Championship Super Jackpot, World Cup, etc.

Other World Champions registered for PartyGammon Million but who are not on the latest Giants list are current World Champion Philip Vischjager and 1994 World Champion Frank Frigo, a GammonLife Columnist.

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