Born in Cambridge UK in 1990, Sebastian Wilkinson started playing backgammon in Las Islas Baleares, Mallorca while studying at the University in Palma.
His first international backgammon tournament was the World Championships in Monte Carlo 2014 where he won the Doubles World title with Jacek Wojciechowski.
He has represented the UK live and online and been a part of every team success, winning tournaments all over the world from Tblisi, Georgia (World Cup) to Coppenhagen, Denmark. (Nations Cup)
Sebastian together with UK Grandmaster legend Julian Fetterlein launched “Backgammon Workshop” (bgws.co.uk). This partnership provides a tuition service for players looking to improve their game to a high level. Its students have had great success and big tournament wins.
Sebastian officially became a Grandmaster after averaging a PR of 2.71 at BMAB in December of 2017, at the time it was the best ever performance at an international 2-day BMAB event by a very clear margin.
He was voted #30 on the Backgammon Giants list for 2017.
In 2019, after winning the Aldo Fava Memorial Open in Turin, Italy and the Mochy Quiz in Montenegro he flew to Tokyo, Japan to take on the young prodigy Kazuki in the Mochy Challenge during the Golden week of celebrations in Japan as the emperor abdicated. Needing to win both matches and PR on the final day Sebastian averaged 2.3 PR and won the challenge.
He also won the online UK National Championships along with New York, Gibraltar and Blackpool Super Jackpot final appearances that same year.
In 2019 Sebastian was voted #18 on the Backgammon giants list.
2020 saw a great start to the year winning the Doubles event with partner Chris Rogers at the World team backgammon championships in Forges-les-eaux, France.
Two weeks later after travelling through Thailand he made the final of the 64 player 1k event in Melbourne Australia.
Just a few days after arriving back from Melbourne it was time for the UBC in Gibraltar.
Sebastian finished with the equal 3rd best average PR of 2.68 (BMAB) out of the 25 Grandmasters, he had the lowest average checker play PR of 1.97, the only Grandmaster under 2 PR.
Sebastian feels incredibly grateful for being introduced to the wonderful game and the opportunities it has provided. It has been an incredible experience travelling the world and getting to know so many truly magical people.
He is hoping to run tournaments in Ibiza, his home for the past few years, when things get back up and running.
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