Personal

I am an avid backgammon player. Backgammon is the oldest board game known to humanity: it dates back 5000 years. It represents a perfect balance (in my mind) of skill and luck. While players use two dice to dictate how many pips to move the checkers, finding the best move involves considerable skill. Moreover, the invention of the doubling cube in 1930s provided an extra layer of complexity to the game. Now in addition to studying checker play, one must also master the proper use of the doubling cube. While even a complete novice can beat the best player in the world in a single game due to inherent luck element in backgammon, the better player will always win in the long run.

Modern competitive backgammon is played in matches. A player who first reaches a prescribed number of points, wins the match. It is customary to play matches to 9–25 points in serious backgammon tournaments. The longer the match, the higher chance the stronger player has to win. Playing matches rather than a series of isolated single games presents yet another layer of complexity. Proper doubling cube action (and often checker play) heavily depends on the current match score. So players need to understand the complex dynamics of different match scores and learn to adjust their play accordingly.

I compete in many online USBGF-sponsored tournaments and occasional live ones. American Backgammon Tour (ABT) comprises some 20 live annual tournaments, and the player who amasses the most points during any given year is awarded the ABT Player of the Year title. A simple justification of the claim that modern competitive backgammon is a game of skill rather than luck is the following fact: Neil Kazaross (Grandmaster Class 2) won the ABT Player of the Year title six times! (In 1994, 1999, 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2013.) Another world-class player, Ray Fogerlund, won the ABT player of the Year title four times (in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2014). Between the years 2005–2014, the ABT Player of the Year title was won by someone other than these two players only twice!

In 2014 I participated in Carolina Invitational, which was one of the ABT tournaments held over the Labor Day weekend in Charlotte.

I use backgammon software eXtreme Gammon to study and improve my game. This is the current bot of choice of all top players. It is also used by BMAB to calculate error rate performance (PR) for the purpose of awarding mastership titles. If you are not willing to commit to purchasing a license for XG after its trial period ends, then an excellent free alternative is GNU Backgammon.

Articles

I have co-authored several analytical articles with David Presser. David is a world-class player holding the title of Grandmaster from BMAB. When I joined USBGF, David was assigned as my mentor. He went above and beyond standard expectations of a mentor. As a result of this, David had tremendous influence on my progress as a player, and we formed a long-lasting relationship of mutual respect and collaboration.

The articles appeared in the PrimeTime Backgammon magazine published by USBGF. The magazine publishes analytical articles, analyses of matches of top-level players, photos and news from major US and international backgammon tournaments, and player profiles.

Since only members of USBGF can access the magazine, these articles are premium content. USBGF kindly granted me permission to post the articles on my webpage, but please do not share/distribute these files. I am providing the articles as a preview of what kind of premium content USBGF members enjoy, and I hope that this may encourage someone to sign up for USBGF membership.

The target audience for these articles is intermediate level players, but even experts may benefit from our analysis.

• D. Presser and I. Erovenko, Opening cubes. PrimeTime Backgammon, Summer 2016 issue. PDF

• D. Presser and I. Erovenko, A–B approach to opening cubes. PrimeTime Backgammon, Fall 2016 issue. PDF

• D. Presser and I. Erovenko, Checker play after an opening cube. PrimeTime Backgammon, Spring 2017 issue. PDF

• D. Presser and I. Erovenko, [A simple rule for] Adjusting opening cube action to match play. PrimeTime Backgammon, Spring 2018 issue. PDF

Documents

I created a document containing reference tables for backgammon opening replies (second roll of the game) at four different match scores:

• Money — unlimited games;

• DMP (Double Match Point) — each player simply needs to win the game to win the match, gammons/backgammons don't count for either player;

• GG (Gammon Go) — an example would be a score of –2–1 in the Crawford game: the player on roll wins the match if he wins the gammon, while he doesn't care about losing the gammon;

• GS (Gammon Save) — this is the opposite of GG: the player on roll will lose the match if he loses the gammon, while he simply needs to win the game to win the match.

The tables use Nactation to denote the moves. Nactation is an ingenious system of backgammon notation, which uses a single symbol (typically a letter) to record any given checker move. It was invented by the backgammon legend Nack Ballard.

The document was created with intention to share with the entire backgammon community, so you may freely share it with anyone you wish.

Book Series Project

I ran a Book Series project on the BGOnline forum. The project covered select positions from classic backgammon books. Many top-level players participated in the discussions, and I provided detailed analyses of the positions with rollouts and variants. Tom Keith put together a webpage containing links to the discussion threads of these positions.

Interview

The PrimeTime Backgammon magazine usually interviews players who win one of USBGF online tournaments. When I won my first such tournament (Masters Divisional VI) the magazine published an interview with me in its standard “online tournament winner” format in the March–April 2015 issue.