Watch the 2024 Online Mixed Doubles Event

After starting with 23 championship teams, the 3rd Women's World of Backgammon Mixed Doubles Tournament is down to the final four. Join us on Tuesday, June 11, at 2 PM Eastern Standard Time to watch the semi-final match between Steve Bibby/Jay Hayter from the UK and Kent Goulding/Karen Davis from the US. Grandmaster Tim Cross from the UK will provide commentary.

Tim Cross

Tim Cross is a BMAB Grandmaster (G2) and Giant of Backgammon (#45). He is a multiple tournament winner whose proudest moment in backgammon was being the UK Backgammon Captain from 2015 to 2019, a particularly successful time for UK teams. Still an active player, he now spends more time teaching and coaching backgammon. Of himself, Tim says, “I just try to be kind with varying degrees of success.”

Steve Bibby

Steve has been playing backgammon competitively for over 35 years, winning the UK Championships as far back as the 1990s and the Nordic Open Doubles in 2002. After a long break, he returned to backgammon in 2016, amassing a further two UKBGF UK Open titles in 2017 and 2021, and also becoming UKBGF Tour Champion in 2017. Steve has represented the UK in various online and live team events.

Jay Hayter

Jay is a newcomer to tournament backgammon, only arriving on the scene in early 2023. In a very competitive UK arena, her first year of live backgammon included three finals with a hugely impressive two wins (Brighton and Manchester). The very popular UKBGF online league has also produced four consecutive promotions for Jay since joining. She is a founding member of the UKBGF Women’s sub-committee and treasurer of the East Kent BG club. Jay and Steve have been playing doubles together for just about a year and are current Newcastle Open Doubles joint winners.

Kent Goulding

Kent was inducted into the American Backgammon Hall of Fame in the inaugural cohort in 2015. His citation sums it up best, noting that he “is esteemed as a backgammon player, publisher, director/organizer, witty auctioneer, and raconteur extraordinaire. He introduced the first U.S. backgammon ratings system, and as director of the World Cup, he instituted the use of clocks and recorded matches. He was voted to the Giants of Backgammon six consecutive times from its inception. He was organizer/director with Bill Robertie of the World Cup (known as the U.S. Invitational in early years) from 1984 through 1998.

With Karen Davis, he won the 2023 Cherry Blossom Doubles tournament; they were 3rd/4th in the 2022 Cherry Blossom Capital Doubles; and won the Doubles in the February 2022 Big Freeze Out ABT Online tournament. They finished second in the 2023 WWB Mixed Doubles event.

Karen Davis, Ph.D.,

Karen was a member of the U.S. Backgammon Federation Board of Directors from 2009 to 2022, serving as Board Chair from 2010 to 2017, and as the Federation’s President and Executive Director from 2017 to 2020. She is the Chairman of the U.S. Backgammon Foundation, the 501(c)(3) counterpart of the USBGF. Her backgammon accomplishments include: member of the American Backgammon Hall of Fame; Giant of Backgammon (#62); BMAB (Backgammon Masters Awarding Body) rank of Master Class 2; winner of the USBGF Women’s National Championship, 2022; captain of the U.S. Women’s Team in the Genud Cup, 2020; member, winning U.S. Team, Magriel Cup, 2020; member, U.S. Team, World Backgammon Federation World Team Championship, 2021 and 2019; winner, Super Jackpot, NY Metro, 2019.