GG Kozlov

Dmitry Kozlov is finishing a PhD in combinatorics in Minsk and moves between chess and backgammon with the comfortable air of a man who considers dice a solvable inconvenience. Between every single game, without exception, he checks his Career Points, a habit that has become so automatic his supervisor claims he can time it from the next room. He plays backgammon in the department common room, where a decade-long ladder hangs on the wall and Kozlov's ascent up it is documented in his own precise handwriting. He calculates deeply, turns the cube with cold accuracy, and treats each game as a proof to be worked cleanly. His supervisor calls the Career Points habit applied procrastination and keeps losing to him at lunch regardless.