Phil Simborg is the world’s first “Professor of Backgammon” teaching backgammon in an accredited college course he helped establish and teach. Phil has been teaching over 20 years, has published over 200 articles, lectures at many US tournaments, and leads seminars to groups all over the world via the internet. No one in the history of the game has given more private lessons than Phil, and many of his students have won major tournaments around the world. He is a full-time backgammon playing and teaching professional and volunteers much of his time to bringing new, young players into the game. Phil is co-founder and co-director, with Mochy, of the International Collegiate Backgammon Championships. In 2015 Phil finished the American Backgammon Tour as No. 5.

Perry Gartner, President Emeritus of the US Backgammon Federation is a co-founder of the BLC. Perry has won many tournaments in the US and overseas. He was a semi-finalist in the World Championships two times, won the World Championships Consolation, and was ranked as high as No. 2 on the US Tour. He is a noted author, lecturer and teacher.

Grant Hoffman lives in New Zealand. He has won the New Zealand backgammon champs 7 times (including 2024), and made the final 6 other times. He is the only non-Australian to win the Australian backgammon champs, having won it twice. In 2017 he travelled to Chicago and came second equal in the Open, and won the After Tournament event. In 2019 he travelled to San Antonio and won the Speed Gammon tournament, beating 120 players from all over the world. He also came second in the Mixed Blitz event. In 2022 he won the 7-point Speed Gammon Championships in Australia.

Grant invented the "Rule of Four", a technique for determining when to double in holding games. He gave weekly seminars to three students who, with him, took out the top four places in the 2015 New Zealand Backgammon champs.

For years Grant received lessons from Jacob "Stick" Rice. Stick’s clarity of thinking has shaped how Grant plays and thinks about backgammon. Looking at how teachers were teaching backgammon, Grant realized that a lot of mathematically-orientated teachers taught only with a mathematically-orientated approach. He decided that all his lessons would be offered with two orientations - the same lesson must be able to be taught both in a mathematical and a non-mathematical way. This process was greatly helpful in him succeeding at Speed Gammon, which does not allow time to do match equity calculations.

Grant’s lessons are very much about the combination of teaching concepts and having fun while you are learning. He is happy to review students’ matches when they want to, but the emphasis is on understanding what is going on, concepts, and breaking down the various parts of the game into understandable chunks.

Players may be interested in following Grant’s weekly blog “Position of the Week” (now in its seventh year) in which he presents a checker play and detailed analysis. https://bgpow.blogspot.com/
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​Jeb Horton is an accomplished backgammon player and director. He has directed or staffed dozens of ABT tournaments, and is an Accredited Tournament Director for Backgammon Masters Awarding Body (BMAB). He has been playing on the ABT for over 20 years, and has finished in the top 20 five times. His best finish was 4th in 2005, and he is currently ranked 33rd on the all-time ABT points leaderboard. He has won five ABT main events, as well as three Masters titles and numerous side events.  He serves on the USBGF Board of Directors as Chief Financial Officer.

Gary Koscielny began playing backgammon in 2014 with the Connecticut Backgammon Club and immediately became enthralled with the game. He began taking lessons with the BLC team and rose from a novice in 2014 to an open level player in 2018 winning three intermediate ABT tournaments (among others) along the way and finishing in the top 20 ABT in 2017. Gary graduated from Princeton University in 1984 magna cum laude.

In his civil life Michael Krakus has been working as a teacher for more than 20 years. He believes improving backgammon is a process reached through reading and integrating theory, playing, analyzing games played using XG and on-line tools and sparring ideas and problems with a competent partner.
Michael Krakus is captaining a Danish backgammon team that has won promotion to the Danish Elite
Division and has recently reached the semi-final of the Super Jackpot in the 2022 Monte Carlo World Cup.
 

From playing for points in the walking street in the 1990s, playing local and championship level
tournaments for more than 30 years, he has a wide experience in both matches, chouette and heads up
play and also has strong opinions on how to become a better backgammon player.. Michael is frequently posting positions on-line and participating in debates concerning backgammon and backgammon positions.

Morten Holm Lassen was a full-time professional backgammon player in the 90’s and 2000’s while living mostly in New York. Morten is a native of Copenhagen. He became well-known around the world as one of the best players in the game and was ranked in the Top 10 on the Giants of Backgammon list. Morten moved to Portugal where he heads a sports trading company and has now found time to become active in Backgammon once again. Watch out world! Morten has kept up with the game over the years continuing to hone his skills on line and with eXtremeGammon, and has offered to share his knowledge with students and is available to offer lessons on line in both English and Danish.

Ido Levi, from Israel, is known for his world class ability to analyze tough and complicated positions over the board. He is a passionate and dedicated student of the game and, as a result, continues to improve and grow as a player. As a teacher, Ido is able to break down complicated positions and provide very educated yet easy-to-understand explanations of various aspects of the game to players of all skill levels.

Masayuki Mochizuki (Mochy) is currently ranked the No. 1 Giant in the world, a World Champion, and winner of far too many tournaments to name. A resident of Tokyo, Mochy’s Under 25 club and Backgammon University has made great players of many your Japanese players, and through the Backgammon Learning Center Mochy will expand his teachings to people around the globe. Mochy currently holds the No. 1 Performance Rating in the Backgammon Masters International Rating List.

is famous for his ability to do difficult calculations over the board. He has won far too many tournaments to list, and he is currently ranked No. 11 on the World on the Giants list. He recently took 1st place in the Howard Ring Memorial Quiz, which was a pure test of backgammon knowledge and skill. John has retired and is now devoting his time to playing and teaching backgammon–he has placed 2nd in the World Championships and was the No. 2 player for 2010 on the US ABT Tour.

David Presser, from Israel, is a highly-respected player with many major victories under his belt over the past few years. David resides in Israel and will specialize in teaching in Hebrew, but his English is also excellent and he has students in both languages.

David "The Rock" Rockwell is respected throughout the backgammon world for his consistent world class play. He has won many tournaments including ABT events, has been the top player at the Chicago Bar Point Club over the past 7 years and is co-author of the Rockwell-Kazaross Match Equity table.

Eddie Rodriguez is a strong open level player from New York City and is a strong competitor in major competitions around the US.  Eddie currently has a BMAB M3 title rating or Master Class Three designation.   This designation marks him as among the elite players in the world.  Eddie graduated with an MS in Investment Management from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. He teaches beginners and intermediate level players and travels the ABT tournament circuit.

Daniel Rovira is the creator of Backgammon is Beautiful, which is the most popular YouTube backgammon learning channel in the world with currently over 3500 subscribers (October, 2024). Daniel is a strong player, who has several Masters wins in the UK, several Doubles Wins, and he also finished in the top 16 in Monte Carlo in 2023. He is a fully qualified teacher who has taught for over 12 years; his approach emphasizes the WHY of the play over the WHAT to enable students to become more perceptive, conscious players over the board.

Joseph (Joe) Russell has been a well known and respected backgammon player for over 30 years. He won the 1989 World Championship in Monte Carlo, and has been voted to the Giants of Backgammon seven times. He has won over 25 regional, national, and international tournaments.

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Beyond his skill as a player, Joe has been a strong promoter and international ambassador to the game. He is a founding member of the US Backgammon Federation, and has demonstrated a particular interest in programs to increase participation among youths and collegiate players.

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Joe was inducted into the American Backgammon Hall of Fame in 2017.
 

Steve Sax is one of the top rated backgammon players in the world. He has been near the top of the giants list for many years and won many tournaments in the interim. Known for his world class ability to analyze positions, Steve is a natural teacher as his understanding of backgammon enables him to explain complicated positions to all skill levels of the game. He has a long list of accomplished students and has been teaching for many years.

Dirk Schiemann was the No. 3 Backgammon Giant in the world in 2003, but like many great players, went to the "dark side" and took up poker. While quite successful in poker, Dirk missed his favorite game and is now back and you will see him on the backgammon circuit. He has developed many excellent theories and approaches to studying backgammon and we are pleased to have him as both a teacher and advisor to The Backgammon Learning Center. Dirk lives in Germany and speaks fluent German, English and Spanish and provides live and online lessons in all three languages.

Itzhak Solsky is a rather unusual figure in the backgammon landscape. 

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A concert pianist by vocation (see www.youtube.com/user/solskytz/videos), Itzhak’s interest in the game only dates back to 2017, when he ran into Paul Magriel’s masterwork (Backgammon, 1976) online. 

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From that point there was no turning back. Itzhak now has a 4.90 BMAB average, and is competing regularly in Belgium and online. He was a semifinalist in the 2020 Belgian championship, as well as board 1 for Brussels when Brussels won the Belgian "4 Cubes" cup for the first time in 2023,

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Also in 2023, Itzhak participated in the prestigious UBC challenge in Istanbul, rubbing elbows with the very best in the world, and his endorsement adorns Zdenek Zizka’s book, “Mastering Backgammon Through Storytelling” at the Backgammon Galaxy online store. His username on most online platforms is Hummus.
 

Marty Storer is a well-known player and author who is currently ranked #21 on the Giants list. He has been playing since 1975. He won his first big tournament in 1983, was the first American Backgammon Tour champion (1993), and has won many tournaments since then. Marty is the author of Backgammon Praxis (2005), a detailed two-volume analysis of three matches played by Malcolm Davis. In this book Marty breaks down the way experts think at the table. With two-time U.S. Open champion Mary Hickey, he co-authored What's Your Game Plan? (2011). Both books received rave reviews by top players and analysts. Marty serves on the USBGF Board of Directors, and regularly writes articles for the USBGF's magazine PrimeTime.

Frank Talbot has been playing competitive backgammon for almost 40 years. He is currently ranked 14th on the all time ABT points leaderboard and won U.S. player of year in 2004. He was listed on the Giants of Backgammon numerous times and was ranked as high as 21st. He has won tournaments on 4 continents and to many to count in the U.S. He is currently a USBGF director. Recently retired, he plans on devoting much more time with the game helping others enjoy this fascinating game.

David Wells has been voted to the Giants of Backgammon six times, reaching as high as #6 in 2003. In addition to being one of the top backgammon players in the world, he is a scratch golfer and a professional poker player.