World champions Joe Russell (winner of Backgammon World Championship in 1989) and Antoinette-Marie Williams (winner of the Ladies event at the 2019 Backgammon World Championship) were victorious in the 2023 Women in Backgammon Online Mixed Doubles. The 24 entering teams included many of the world’s finest players including Grandmasters, Giants of Backgammon, and American Backgammon Hall of Famers as well as women on the U.S. Women’s Team that won the Genud Cup in 2022 and 2020 against the UK women’s team. 

 

Second place went to Kent Goulding and Karen Davis, both members of the American Backgammon Hall of Fame. Antoinette and Karen were on the 2022 and 2020 winning U.S. Women’s Backgammon Team in the Genud Cup against the U.K. women’s team. Third place was claimed by Lynda Clay and Jacob Atie from Panama who have scored important wins in American Backgammon Tour tournaments. 

 

The Intermediate division winning team was Christine Merser and Mary Morse, with second place going to Phyllis Shapiro and Steven Waller in a field of six Intermediate teams. Christine is the co-founder of Women in Backgammon; her game has made a giant leap forward with coaching from Grandmaster Zdenek Zizka. Mary was the 2022 U.S. Online Women’s Champion and 2023 winner of the Texas Championship division Last Chance event.

 

The tournament was sponsored by Women in Backgammon which provided beautiful backgammon boards to winners of the Championship and Open divisions. The authors of The Backgammon Gourmet donated copies of the book to Intermediate division winners. The tournament was directed by Nano Cabrera.