We offer our congratulations to Jason Pack for equalling the best-ever British result at the World Championships of Backgammon in Monaco. Another Anglo-American, Joe Dwek, also placed 2nd in 1981.
Born in New York City and a lifelong Anglophile, during his graduate school days at Cambridge, Jason won the inaugural UK Open in 2014. After a few years back in the States, Jason then settled in England after being awarded a UK Global Talent Visa in 2020, and became a life member of the UKBGF. Receiving his Indefinite Leave to Remain in 2025, he elected to compete as a British player in international backgammon competitions. Jason finished second in both the 2024 and 2025 Speedgammon World Championships, having already won the Doubles World Championships in 2018. In 2025 and 2026, he entered the UKBGF online satellites, intended to promote British participation in the World Championships. There he posted impressive PRs and a formidable win rate. He then carried forward those impressive PRs and winning ways into this year’s main tournament in Monte Carlo. In his run of six victories to reach the final, he defeated and out-PRed G1 and G3 Grandmasters, and also bested another former World Champion.
The semi-final match against Naoki Iketani is particularly noteworthy – under high pressure and playing for a minimum of 41,000 euros, Jason posted a 2.5 PR in a complex 17 point match. His median PR across all the events at the tournament was 3.9. You can watch both the semi-final and final matches with commentary on YouTube.
Jason Pack is a member in good standing with the UKBGF, USBGF, and the WBIF. We’re grateful that Jason has chosen to play under the UK flag, and is helping to raise the international profile of the British backgammon community.
I met Dr John Simon for the first and only time in Hong Kong in 1996. I’m pretty sure he told me he was originally from Wales and specialised in tropical diseases. P.S. Well done, Jason!
Just for completeness, Jason forgets to mention John Simon, an English Doctor, still living in Hong Kong who got to the final in 1992. Also no individual wins a doubles tournament so i would edit “having already won the Doubles World Championships, with Lars Trabolt, in 2018”.
60 years of hurt for footy and backgammon continues!