Tim Holland | Backgammon champ, 79
Tim Holland, 79, a world backgammon champion who was one of the most prominent competitors in the game's modern heyday, has died.
Tim Holland, 79, a world backgammon champion who was one of the most prominent competitors in the game's modern heyday, has died.
Mr. Holland died Wednesday of emphysema at his West Palm Beach, Fla., home, his daughter, Vanessa Holland, of San Diego, said.
Backgammon is a game of luck and strategy, played with checkers and dice on a board with a series of elongated triangles. When it enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Holland traveled the world handing defeat to opponents.
He won the World Backgammon Association championships in 1967, 1968, and 1971 (no tournament was held in 1969 or 1970) and made his living between game purses and his own wagering.
Mr. Holland wrote Beginning Backgammon, Better Backgammon, and Backgammon for People Who Hate to Lose, and created a teaching aid called Autobackgammon.
Born Simeon Harold Holland in March 1931, in Rockville Centre, N.Y., he grew up playing bridge and golf in the town about 15 miles east of New York City. - AP