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BGonline.org Forums
Mochy's New Concept: The Fifteen Minute Seminar
Posted By: Paul Weaver In Response To: I wish tournaments had more beginner seminars (Art Grater)
Date: Friday, 29 July 2011, at 6:53 a.m.
Backgammon seminars are great for the game. They introduce beginners and intermediates to a lot of new ideas. They give a chance for everyone to get to know and hear some of the game's top players. They allow all of us to get a glimpse of the leading edge of backgammon theory currently researched by experts.
I have given a total of 27 lectures at tournaments over the last 17 years, and I know that the reason more directors do not have seminars is that it is difficult to find a free hour in a crowded weekend schedule. Who wants to get up an hour earlier on Saturday morning before the Calcutta? Not I, and not me, either. Saturday is already too long a day at most tournaments. That is the reason I always sleep through the Calcutta.
Here is my solution: Instead of having one long seminar (45 or 60 minutes), schedule a fifteen-minute lecture each day of the tournment. For the sake of variety, have three different speakers give one talk each, instead of the same guy giving all three. I give Mochy credit for the concept of the fifteen-minute seminar.
Last year Mochy began a new project and Web site, http://back-gammon.tv/. Five of us (Mochy, Falafel, Jake, the Dane Marc Olsen and I) have made fifteen-minute backgammon videos that can be viewed for a modest price.
Last August in Bristol, England, I gave a fiften-minute seminar on Monday night before the start of the local club tournament. I did the same on Thursday evening. Both were well received.
It is a long time for someone to give or sit through a 45- or 60-minute seminar. It is also a large chunk of time from a TD's schedule, when he is understandably concerned about finishing the tournament at a reasonable time.
The tournament director should not allow play in the room while the seminar is being held. Possible times on Friday are 4:00 - 4:15, 6:00-6:15 and 8:00-8:15. Possible times on Saturday are (1) before the Calcutta, (2) between the Calcutta and the posting of the draw, and (3) during the last fifteen minutes of the two-hour dinner break. The most reasonable time on Sunday is right before the beginning of Last Chance.
I would love to go to a tournament and hear a lecture by Stick on Friday, one by MCG on Saturday and another by Falafel on Sunday. (Incidentally, we may be seeing a lot more of F at ABT events because he is moving from Tel Aviv to Vegas.)
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