World Class Backgammon Players Survey

Every two years, a survey is conducted among backgammon players as to who the best in the world are. The 2005 survey results are listed at http://www.flintbg.com/giants.html.

The top 5 are:

1. Nack Ballard
2. Neil Kazaross
3. Francios Tardieu
4. "Falafel" Natanzon
5. Kit Woolsey

Nack is the only backgammon player to have been listed in the top 10 every time the survey has been taken since the first one in 1991.

The survey is somewhat subjective. The voting depends somewhat on the split between North American and European voters, as each group is more familiar with players on their own continent. The balance has been improving, with about 55% U.S. voters and 45% elsewhere.

The survey also has another component that is difficult to evaluate. Some very very fine backgammon players rarely play backgammon anymore. (A lot of them play poker.) Voters are free to make their own decisions how to evaluate these players.

This survey is not as important as it once was. When it started in 1991, there was no objective way to evaluate player abilities. Now, with tools like the backgammon software Snowie, we can objectively assess the quality of different players. Of course, the ratings in the poll are highly correlated with players' Snowie error rates, and many voters take that into account when voting.

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