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BMAB NEWS: Grandmaster Title awarded to Neil Kazaross (USA)
Posted By: Rick Janowski
Date: Monday, 5 October 2015, at 8:00 p.m.
BMAB NEWS: Grandmaster Title awarded to Neil Kazaross (USA)
Further to the recent announcements regarding Steve Sax, Victor Ashkenazi, and Marty Storer, I have great pleasure in announcing the award of the title of Grandmaster (Class 3) to Neil Kazaross, renown as an outstanding backgammon player and analyst. Neil is now the eight American player to achieve this prestigious title. He earned this title by virtue of excellent performances on the American Backgammon Tour (ABT) this year, achieving an average PR of 2.95 from 116 experience points (12 matches). His application is based on his streamed matches on the ABT this year, where he has won 50% of matches played against a group of players with average strength of 5.36 PR (edge of 2.42 PR). He is also awarded a provisional title of Grand Master (Class 1), which he could achieve when his experience reaches 150 experience points, assuming he maintains a similar level of play. Many thanks to “the Stream Team”, Michelle Steinberg and her helpers Bill Patterson and Bruce Farquhar, for managing and documenting the streaming and transcribing process.
Congratulations to Neil for this fantastic achievement! Here is his mini biography:
Neil Kazaross, who resides near Chicago, has been at the forefront of backgammon achievement over most of the four decades since he first started playing competitively in the later 1970s. He is justifiably famous as both an outstanding player and leading analyst.
Neil has won countless trophies both in and outside the USA. Perhaps his most notable achievement has been winning the prestigious ABT first place prize on six occasions (1994 - the inaugural event w, 1999, 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2013). He has won 17 ABT tournaments overall, an astonishing record.
Neil has made major contributions to the science of backgammon, particularly in relation to Opening Theory and Match Equities most notably through his formulation of “Neil’s Numbers” and his seminal collaborative work with David Rockwell, using the power of modern bots to construct a modern Match Equity Table. He has co-authored a couple of backgammon books and has been contributor on several others.
Neil has been voted to the Giant 32 List every time since its inception in 1993, reaching #2 (currently he is ranked #4 and has been in the top 10 since 1995). In 2005 he was inducted into the USBGF Hall of Fame. His online nickname is “neilkaz”.
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