Backgammon

What's New Mexico?

Backgammon.

Really?

Backgammon.

That's too sophisticated for New

Mexico.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Over the Board, the Backgammon podcast.

My name's Ed Hall.

It is lovely to have you here, as always.

Something a little bit different for you today.

In this episode that I have titled The Creatives, you'll be hearing three stories from creative people doing interesting and unusual things in the world of Backgammon.

Let's jump straight into it and meet our first guest.

My name is John Druska.

I write essay, non-fiction essay, some of my own philosophy on the game.

Most of life is lived right in the muddy middle of this index.

And that is exactly where a game like Backgammon sits.

Silver calculates Backgammon at exactly 0.0 on the index.

It is perfectly mathematically balanced between skill and luck.

The architecture of Backgammon explains why.

In a standard game, you have roughly 15 chance nodes per turn.

That is the rolling of the dice, which introduces significant luck leverage.

If you are losing in chess, your win probability slowly, predictably grinds down to zero.

We have a Phoenix team.

So, you know, the Phoenix team did come out of Backgammon FC.

And Backgammon FC is now split into the gods of Backgammon and the Phoenix team.

Let's just say the gods of Backgammon are very angry.

Look, we're now clearly nothing to do with anything to do with dice and phoenix teams and therefore we have two gardening gloves.

what we are looking for is gardening instruments with several prongs so we have a rake and we have a fork and then we have many spades oh there's another fork down there so we have a three prongs and that is Stoke three instruments with three with more than three prongs three prongs or more that is three goals to Stoke and two to Watford so that is a 3-2 loss

So Watford,

this has been a Gods of Backgammon FC production.

we go.

It's What's the Theme? Number one, according to the second chapter of Genesis, Eve was created from what part of Adam's body? Number one, according to the second chapter of Genesis, Eve was created from what part of Adam's body? Number two, what type of man was comic book character Clark Kent? What type of man was comic book character Clark Kent? Number three, in Backgammon, a special cube allows a player to propose doing what to the current stakes of the game? Number four.

Nikola Jokic became the first player to win the MVP award for what team when he took home the honor for the 2020-2021 season? Nikola Jokic became the first player to win the MVP award for which team when he took home the honor for the 2020-2021 season? Number five, what weather term does the National Weather Service define as intermittent snowfall that produces no measurable precipitation? No measurable precipitation, intermittent snowfall, number five.

Number six, what's another name for a curved structure on the bottom of your foot made of bones, ligaments, and tendons that absorbs shock and supports your body weight? Number seven, what unique flavor of Oreos came a la mode in 2025? 8.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Over the Board, the Backgammon podcast.

My name's Ed Hall, thanks for joining me.

And speaking of thanks, I'd like to start today's episode by saying how grateful I am for the donations I've received to the Season 3 fundraiser.

So as well as saying hello to my friends in the Japanese team, a big well done to Denise, John, Keith, Terry and Shane for showcasing Australian backgammon and coming so close to making it out of a tough group.

Fantastic also to see my new friends from South Africa participating for the first time.

If you'd like to hear more about Backgammon in South Africa, check out the previous episode.

Ultimately, it was the Netherlands who triumphed over Belgium to take out the national team event, and USA who defeated Iran to become the women's team champions.

The final match of that, by the way, where Melissa Shin beat Catherine Tomei in what was a heart-stopping and heartbreaking for the Iranians, final flurry played at breakneck speed, saw Melissa eventually get home 15-14.

Backgammon.

Known for being a game.

Famous for being a game with checkers and triangle points.

Nobody thinks much about it, so let's have some fun.

Let's find out why Backgammon is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Hey there, folks.

Hey there, Ciphalopods.

I'm joined by my co-host, Katie Golden.

Yes.

Backgammon? That is.

[bell dings]

Wow.

Valerie loves her Backgammon.

I like it.

Backgammon is good.

I do play, I, I'll play Backgammon with Valerie.