Backgammon at American Backgammon Tour

Member of WBGF

Bob Wachtel was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. He became a chess master at 16 and twice placed second in the United States Junior Championships. Bob received a B.S. in chemistry from Rutgers University in 1969 and a PhD in the philosophy of science from the University of Toronto in 1977.

Bob has won major tournaments in the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Austria, France, Norway, and Switzerland. Among the highlights were wins at the 1st Backgammon Olympiad in Venice, 1992; both singles and doubles titles at the Worldwide Twin Championships, Las Vegas, 2001; and the "Dual Duel" title at the Texas Championships in San Antonio in 2016. Bob was runner-up in Monte Carlo, 2004 and in the Crown's Cup, Berlin, 2007.

Bob published "In the Game Until the End", a monograph on late-contact bearoffs, in 1993, and has authored more than 50 articles for online backgammon sites and journals since then. He has served as the senior editor of the US Backgammon Federation's flagship magazine, "PrimeTime Backgammon", since 2009. In 2014 he published "In the Game Until the End, Vol II", updating and expanding his earlier work.