Monthly Backgammon Expertise Learning Series on Zoom with Chris Bray & Safiya Tracy

Safiya Tracy has been playing backgammon since 2016 but it wasn’t until she joined the Bristol Backgammon Club in 2020 that she discovered how much there is to the game. She says, "I’ve learned a lot from playing regularly at Bristol, which is a strong club, and over the last year I’ve also been coached by Tim Cross which has improved my game massively." In late 2021 Safiya was selected for the UK Women’s Team. Most of Safiya's tournament experience has been online, along with two live tournaments. In September, Safiya will be attending university to study math, where she hopes there will be lots of opportunities to develop her backgammon skills.

Chris Bray is a renowned columnist and author known for his insightful analysis and cogent explanations. He authors a weekly column, Bray’s Learning Curve, for the U.S. Backgammon Federation, and is the backgammon columnist for The Times of London. For 23 years he was the backgammon correspondent of The Independent newspaper in the United Kingdom.

He has been playing backgammon for forty years after moving to the game from chess and bridge in the late 1970s, at the time of the last great backgammon boom. The 1970s was a heady time for the backgammon community but while others only tarried a while Chris became fascinated with the game and its history. As well as developing his own game to the point where he can compete with the best players in the world on an equal footing, he began to take an interest in educating others and promoting the game.

Chris is the author of multiple backgammon books, including two for beginner and intermediate players: Backgammon to Win and Backgammon for Dummies, Seven of Chris’s books drew on material developed in his columns and articles, the most recent one being Backgammon – The Final Wind, which was published in May 2019.

As well as writing Chris also provides backgammon tuition for individuals, groups and corporations and often gives seminars at backgammon tournaments.

Chris worked in telecommunications and IT for much of his working life, latterly for IBM. The fact that computer technology has played such a large part in the development of the theory of the game in the last twenty years has meant that Chris was in the right place at the right time to combine his day job with his passion for the game of backgammon. He has worked with the developers of JellyFish, Snowie and Extreme Gammon (XG) – now the leading backgammon software program in the world – to enhance their products and help bring them to market.

Chris lives in East Sheen, close to Richmond Park in south-west London, with his wife Gill (also a keen backgammon player). He has one daughter, Kate, who has recently married. He is a member of the Roehampton Club and captains their team in the London Backgammon League. He is a life-long supporter of Manchester United and a keen but very average golfer!

For more information about Chris or to purchase one of his books, please visit chrisbraybackgammon.com