Ten minutes with Philip Vischjager

The backgammon World Championship in Monte Carlo was the main backgammon event of the year. Philip Vischjager from the Netherlands won the tournament and became the 31st Backgammon World Champion. WinningBackgammon.info decided to go to Philip and ask a few questions about the past, present and future.

WinningBackgammon.info: Philip, it is a real pleasure to have this interview with you. First of all, again congratulations for the World Championship! You are the 31st backgammon World Champion – how do you feel now more than a month after you won the World Championship?

Philip Vischjager: It is a great feeling to be World Champion. After the tournament I did not understand fully what had happened, just like in any other tournament. But after all the reactions you get more and more excited.

WB: Please tell a little about your background. When did you start playing backgammon and what gave you the spark for the game?

PV: I first started to watch Backgammon at 15 years of age. Later I bought books from Magriel, Dwek and replayed matches of Goulding - Magriel against Eisenberg for example. From 1975 to 1985 Backgammon was very popular in the Netherlands and I played twice a week. During the years between 1985 and 2001 I had very little time to play - my work simply kept me too busy.

In 2001 I started to work on my backgammon with the help of computer softwares Snowie and GNU. I also started to play in local and domestic tournaments with good success, winning the Dutch Open and Amsterdam Open twice and reaching the Dutch Open finals three times between 2001 and 2005. There were other good tournament successes as well, such as the Consolation winner in both the Rotterdam Beach and Antwerp Open tournaments in 2003 and 2004 respectively. This year I started to play in international tournaments, reaching the semifinals e.g. in Paris in March.

WB: In addition to backgammon, is there something else you play? Boardgames for example?

PV: I am interested in Chess but don’t play very often.

WB: Let’s talk a little about the World Championship in Monte Carlo. How is it different playing in the World Championship compared to other international tournaments?

PV: It is not so different from other international tournaments. The big difference was that when I reached the last four, people with cameras alongside the media suddenly got interested in me, especially for interviews. I then also had to play in a separate room closed from spectators, with TV cameras, make up, referee, etc. and people were following the match on screens or on the Internet.

WB: You have said previously that you felt very relaxed throughout the whole tournament and that you were also very fit both physically and mentally. What was in your view the most difficult moment in the tournament?

PV: In the last 16 and in the quarter-finals I won 21-20 but since I wasn’t a real favorite I felt little pressure then. In the finals, however, I started to get worried when my opponent came back from 17-12 to take a 19-21 lead.

WB: The next major tournament backgammon world will be following closely is of course the PartyGammon Million in the Bahamas. In comparison with Monte Carlo it’s a whole different situation: you are now the new backgammon World Champion and everyone is expecting you to succeed. Of course the tournament is still months away but how do you feel about going there as one of the prime winner candidates and about the additional pressure?

PV: Now that I am the World Champion I will be preparing myself good and spending a lot more hours on studying backgammon and training myself. Before Monte Carlo I was doing that maybe 1-2 hours a day. But yes, my advantage in Monte Carlo was that I wasn’t considered to be one of the favourites and therefore there was no real pressure for me.

During the coming months I will be participating in more tournaments and hope to get enough training for the PartyGammon Million.

WB: We are now living in an era where backgammon is making a comeback after years of silence. New serious online backgammon sites are coming out each month and the public interest is again growing towards the game. Where do you see backgammon in 5 years from now?

PV: I believe that Poker being very popular Backgammon benefits slightly from Poker’s success. But Backgammon’s main problem is that it is a difficult game to watch especially in comparison with Poker. Poker is fast and even big audiences understand it easily. I hope that there will be some changes in the next couple of years that will help make Backgammon more appealing for the masses. Perhaps things like chess clock type timers or certain adjustements that would make the game a bit shorter would do the trick and really get sponsors and the public interested.

WB: Do you play backgammon online?

PV: I play online but not very often. I miss the social contact online and it feels as if I would be playing against the computer and not against real people.

WB: As you also told you are known to train yourself with backgammon software such as Snowie. What is your view on the influence of such sophisticated software on backgammon? Do you think it makes backgammon between humans more boring now that more players will become closer to perfection through computer assisted training and analysis of their games?

PV: Everybody can learn from Snowie and we, backgammon players that is, find it very important not to make too many mistakes. I believe that the availability of backgammon software will bring many more stonger backgammon players and therefore to me this is a positive impact.

WB: We understand you will be promoting backgammon in The Netherlands by e.g. giving free lessons to beginner players. That’s something we here at Winning Backgammon certainly value high - after all, one of our main goals is also to help new backgammon players to make their way in the world of backgammon. Tell us Philip, what makes a good backgammon player and are there a couple of tips or advice you can share with our readers that would help and motivate them further on their backgammon careers?

PV: It takes time to become a good backgammon player. There are some things, though, you can do that will help you along the way:

• Play often
• Try to remember the difficult situations, both checker plays and cubes. If and when possible, write these situations on a piece of paper so that you can use it later in analyzing them with e.g. Snowie or by discussing with other players.
• After some time you will learn from your mistakes and become stronger.
• Replaying games and matches from other players is a good way to learn.
• Try to remain positive at all times; the game is not finished until all checkers have been born off.
• Try to concentrate during every backgammon game - this will help in the future.
• Be as relaxed as possible and try to find all the possibilities for each move. Sometimes I still make mistakes and don’t even consider the “best” move!
• Remain fit. Good physical condition helps being mentally fit!

WinningBackgammon.info: Philip, many thanks for this interview and heel veel success!

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This interview or any part of it may not be published elsewhere without permission from WinningBackgammon.info.