AND THE WINNERS ARE:
Student Champion Allister D’Lima
Women’s Champion Liz Jackson
Silver Plate Martin Sagradian
Knockout Round
Salar Ghazi New Zealand 1st Place
Hosseini Morteza New Zealand 2nd Place
Chris Forsyth New Zealand 3rd Place
The changing of the guard. Many of the top players and former winners of the NZ BG Champs failed to make it into the Knockout Round.
The level of play has really increased and everyone is playing at a very high level. There are no gimmies.
Allister is the Student Champion for the second year in a row.
Liz won the first Women’s Trophy. She almost pulled off a double by finishing 4th in the Knockout Round.
Martin from Australia scored the Silver Plate. A NZ Silver Plate will be residing in Australia.
Salar has achieved a very rare feat. He has defended his 2025 NZ Champs title by winning the 2026 NZ Champs. It is extremely difficult to win back-to-back titles in Backgammon.
Morte was throwing very aggressive cubes at Salar and quickly fell behind 6/0. Things settled down and Morte clawed his way back into the Match 9/9. In the final game of the Match Salar doubled Morte and coasted home with the victory.
Chris bested Liz in a hard-fought Match that went down to the wire. 11/10
Congrats to Salar, Morte, Chris and congrats to all the participants in the2026 New Zealand Backgammon Championship.
A good time had by one and all.
Pictures for the 2026 NZ BG Champs can be accessed with the below link. If you are having trouble opening the link highlight the link and hit Open Hyperlink. You can download the entire file or download any pictures that strike your fancy. Enjoy.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1imqhd4BXTFKfqsoEZ7q8CYYG63RKhJji?usp=sharing
Ciao
AJ & Paul
