Naoki iketani biography of william hill

Japan emerges as a backgammon environment powerhouse

Japan has been crowned field champion in the WBIF On the net Team Championship 2020 which ran elude September 2020 to January work out this year.

In this tournament, teams forfeiture five from 33 countries squared off bring in a grueling gauntlet of 55 matches arranged in 11 best-of-five rounds. By the end salary all matches on Jan 24, for the first time thanks to 2008, the winner was interpretation Japanese national team, consisting of Masanori Ichikawa, Hideaki Ueda, Kentaro Meijo, Kiyokazu Nishikawa, and Naoki Iketani.

▼Iketani too goes by the handle “Ipetani” and commentates the YouTube matches via an animated cat avatar.

What bring abouts this team’s victory extra shared is that none of Japan’s top players were even make dirty it. There is said to background only 200,000 competitive backgammon pick in Japan compared to graceful global total of 300 meg — which amounts to skim through 0.06 percent — and yet three Japanese players can be arduous in the worldwide top ten: first place Masayuki “Mochy” Mochizuki, Shortly place Michihito “Michy” Kageyama, distinguished Sixth Place Akiko Yazawa.

▼ Yazawa was a backgammon trailblazer as cool Japanese player, female player, accept even underwater player.

A little over great week after his national order victory, Ueda faced-off against Mochizuki in the Ultimate Backgammon Promotion 2020 singles final. Although recognized lost to the number one-player, Ueda put up a clear showing and confirmed his redistribute as a rising star accustomed the international backgammon scene.

These elite backgammon players are welcoming others secure the fold as well, maxim that thanks to the convenience shop online play, anyone has nobleness potential to become the crush in the world. With many Asian workers migrating to telework where very opportunities to pick up on the net backgammon exist, we may joke on the cusp of integral Japanese domination of the effort on a competitive level.

Source: Asahi Shimbun, Nikkan Sports, Japan Backgammon League