The Nightmare
A Chilling Tale of Late-night Backgammon
It was three o'clock in the morning at the Double Five Club, just after the £100 Summer Jackpot, when the door bell rang. "Who can that be at this time", asked George, the proprietor, as he went to the answerphone. After a few minutes we found out as the swarthy figure of Prince Ben Ahmed Farooq arrived in the smoke-filled room, puffing on one of his large Havana cigars.
Prince Farooq, a distant cousin of King Fahd, was an occasional but welcome visitor to the Double Five, because of his penchant for beavering positions that were passes and redoubling positions that were beavers. He regularly shipped between five and ten thousand pounds on his appearances but this time he had only a couple of hours before he had to leave for his 7.30 flight from Heathrow to Qatar. He was quickly admitted to a chouette comprising Rick, Dale, Jim, Mark, Derek and myself and we allowed him to have the box, as an honoured guest. In the first game the following position was reached:
 Money Game
White to play
White redoubles to 8
Prince Farooq, whose knowledge of bear-off positions was always shaky, redoubled to 8 and, after a brief consultation, the team beavered. Prince Farooq threw 5-3, but our reply of 5-5 ended the game and netted a useful 16 points. "That was a lucky roll", said the Prince; "I was a big favourite there."
"Would you care to play it as a proposition?", I asked greedily, sensing that this would be the quickest way to make money as the Prince would have to leave for the airport by 5 a.m.
"Sure", he replied, "we'll have the same position for £30 a point and I'll redouble to 8 in every game."
The six of us eagerly accepted his offer and beavered to 16 every time. But the losses started to mount as the Prince redoubled and beavered at every opportunity. He always seemed to bear off the last two men just in time. Soon we were several hundred points in arrears when this game happened. The prince rolled 2-1, his worst first roll and we sent back a 32 cube in this position:
 Money Game
Black to play
Black redoubles to 32
The Prince beavered to 64 and we threw 5-2 which we played 5/0, 4/2. This seemed like a poor roll to the Prince so he asked for the 128 cube, which George obtained from the equipment cupboard and placed it on our side of the board. We beavered to 256, fully expecting to recover most of our losses. The Prince rolled a 5-2 as well and played it the same way, 5/0, 4/2.
"I think it's a double and pass now", said Jim and we all agreed to send the cube over. But the Prince beavered again to 1024. This was now the position:
 Money Game
Black to play
Black redoubles to 512
We now rolled a 4-1 and I played 4/0, 2/1 but Romolo, a spectator who had bought part of the action, chipped in with the comment: "Isn't 5/4 better with the ace?".
"It's the same", said Mark, and everybody agreed and I picked up the dice.
The Prince was getting excited now and was clearly enjoying the high cube immensely. After a little thought he sent it back to us on 2048.
Everybody lit a cigarette - even those who had never smoked before.
"It's still a beaver", said Rick.
"Isn't the cube getting a bit high?", asked Derek nervously.
"The size of the cube is irrelevant", Dale commented. "If it's a beaver, it's a beaver."
I turned it slowly and carefully to 4096. The Prince gave his dice a great shake and threw 6-6 , but one six landed on our checker on the ace point. We breathed a sigh of relief but Prince Farooq seemed unconcerned and rolled again. 3-1. He took a man off the four point.
"Now we've got him!", I thought and over went the cube on 8192.
"Well, I'm not giving up this game now," said the Prince. "I'm taking the sucker", and he moved the cube to his side of the board.
Everybody winced - I'm sure we would have all preferred him to pass, although we knew the take was technically wrong. I rolled and one die landed on a 2 but the other die seemed to spin for eternity before coming to rest on a 4. There was a deathly hush. If only we had followed Romolo's advice last turn.
The Prince could hardly wait before sending back the cube on 16384.
"Let's settle", I suggested. "We can work out the expectancy here. You have 17 rolls that miss and 19 rolls that get off. I'll offer you 910 points."
Everybody agreed except the Prince. "No, I always lose at this place", he said. "Now's my big chance. I'd like to roll."
Sadly we took the cube and Prince Farooq rolled 5-3 and wrote down +16384 on his scoresheet.
"That was some game", he said with just a hint of understatement, but we were too shell-shocked to even hear him. We continued the proposition in a daze but the Prince's luck continued and at 5 am, when the Prince received a call on his mobile phone that his car had arrived to take him to the airport, he was up by over 20,000 points. He gave a card to George with his bank account details in the Bank of Dubai in Lothbury.
"Just pay the money into my account when you have a chance", he said. - "I don't mind waiting a few weeks for you to get it together." He left the stunned room and Diana helpfully commented that the Prince had won 80 out of 83 games. Nobody replied.
The phone rang again. I answered it. It was my bridge partner. "I thought we were playing a bridge match this afternoon at 2 pm", he said. "I've been waiting here for you."
"What's the time", I replied rhetorically, looking at my watch. "Uh, 2.30 ... sorry", I mumbled. "I must have slept through the alarm. I had a late night at the Double Five Club..."
Mind Sports Worldwide & the British Isles Backgammon Association are pleased to announce that Paul Lamford is to give a series of backgammon seminars at Biba tournaments starting on 10 February 2001 at the Jarvis Trophy in Coventry. The first seminar will deal with cube decisions and is entitled, "Take It Or Leave It." The entire series are sponsored by the MSW and Biba and are free to Biba members. For further details contact Michael Crane.
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