Marcus Reinhard

Marcus is known under the nickname Hirnakrobat at Galaxy, Gridgammon, and Studio Heroes.

He grew up in the nice city named, Bonn. After some years in Freiburg he came to Aachen where he lives and works now.

He started playing chess and some card games (Bridge and Doppelkopf, a German game). When he was 17, a club mate in my chess club told him about the rules of backgammon. They had regular night sessions after their weekly club meetings and played for half a German Mark at that time. Other friends joined them, and soon they played every day.

A friend gave him books by Bill Robertie and Danny Kleinman, and he learned the theory and tried new strategies, even before the first program Jellyfish appeared. His first tournament was in Düsseldorf, and he had the impression that the 100 players made up for at least 200 years of jail on parole.

The second tournament was hold in the gambling casino at Aachen, with suit and tie, noble flair. Some international events followed, Venezia, Monte Carlo, Nice, Marianske Lazne.

In Germany the tournaments at Kaiserbrunnen Hotel in Brakel were the paradise on earth for backgammon players. Here, he won two times the highly estimated Kaiserbrunnen Cup.

In the French town Enghien-les Bains he had his first international highlight in 2005, when he met his countryman, Jürgen Orlowski in the semifinal, but he lost the match very clearly. A consolation final at Innsbruck followed. But then he took a time out for some years.

In 2015 he came back into the lion’s cave. The BG scene had changed a lot. Everyone has a cam and analyses the game like little super computers. Being asked for the best friend, they would mention XG. Its like a quantum leap for backgammon. And he considered himself still one of the old fashioned guys.

Some successes in recent times:

2015 Winner WBA Open Köln
2016 Finalist WBA Open Berlin
2016 Winner Consulting Double WBA Open Köln
2016 Finalist Consulting Double German Championship

2017 Winner Speedgammon German Championship

2018 Winner End of year event Berlin

2018 Finalist Lion’s Cup Bad Dürkheim

2019 Winner Qualification tournament for the German national team

2020 Winner Consulting Double Lion’s Cup Bad Dürkheim