GG Bianchi

Marco Bianchi ran an elegant private club in central Milan for twenty years, with three national titles on its mantelpiece, all of them his, before selling up to devote himself to the game, the table and the argument afterwards. Not long after, he backed Bianchi Backgammon, a line of tournament boards built for the kind of major events and serious match rooms he had spent most of his life around. He no longer owns the club. His name still turns up on the tables.

His strategy column quotes opera more often than equity and is somehow usually right.

The match is the shorter half of the evening. What he actually wants is the two hours after it, the grappa, and a full account of every blunder, ideally yours. He will not remember your name next season. He will remember, precisely, the move you made on the fourth game and what you said when he asked about it.