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2025 Texas Backgammon Championship Cancelled

Posted By: Stick
Date: Sunday, 19 January 2025, at 2:35 a.m.

While I'm sure almost all of you have heard the news from Facebook already it seems to me at least it would be nice if newsworthy news were also posted here. I'm going to try to drag a fair amount of news over in the future, feel free to do the same. Below is a straight copy and paste from Bill Riles. It sucks but no blame on anyone running that tournament. Shit happens sometimes.

We cannot believe this is happening. We were notified late Friday afternoon by the Gunter Hotel that the tournament cannot be held. As a consequence of the renovations there is a problem with the elevators that has resulted in the hotel not being able to secure the required Certificate of Occupancy permit. So, they cannot host any guests or events in the hotel. They do not expect to be able to remedy this for several weeks. This was totally unexpected and really blindsided us.

We are devastated, we are experiencing an entire spectrum of emotions – from anger, to pain, to sadness, disappointment, embarrassment, and more. But there is absolutely nothing we can do or that the Gunter Hotel can do. There is no available alternative venue, particularly at this late date, in downtown San Antonio. It highlights the uniqueness of our tournament and the location. We feel we have let everyone down, we are so sorry. Our lives totally revolve around this tournament. It is our pride, our joy, and our legacy. Over a twelve year period we have established the Texas Backgammon Championships as a tournament institution in the United States, unlike any other.

This would have been by far our largest and best tournament. We will make next year even better. I have spoken to John Pirner of the USBGF and he has assured us our 2026 dates are reserved. He has been most understanding and helpful. We so appreciate the support we have been extended by everyone in the backgammon community over the years, we hope we can be forgiven.

All directors work hard but I can assure you no one puts more of themselves, their time, and their resources into a tournament than we do, particularly Tara. We extend tremendous thanks to our incredible staff – co-director Jesper Carlsson, Jason Granstedt, Justin Nowell, Aviv Ziva, Nesh Arsenijevic, Jonathon Hardigree, and Remy Davenport.

I will try to personally contact every player this weekend to express our regret and to make any explanations. I will likely not be available until after 6 pm Central today.