Luigi Villa

Luigi Villa is a backgammon player from Milan, Italy.[1] In 1979, he was the winner of the World Championship held in Monte Carlo.[2]

The very next day after winning the World Championship,[3] he was defeated in a 7-point match by Hans Berliner's computer program BKG 9.8,[4] becoming the first world champion in any board game to be defeated by a software program.[2][5] Although Villa's play in the match was stronger, the computer received more favorable dice rolls, winning the match 7–1.[2][4] The match was played for US$5,000, and drew an audience of 200 people.[1]

In 2006, Villa placed second at the World Championship following a six-hour, 25-point final[6] round against Philip Vischjager.[7]

  1. ^ a b Allen, Henry. "Gammonoid the Conqueror," The Washington Post. 17 July 1979, p. B1
  2. ^ a b c Bray, Chris. "Man vs. Machine", The Independent (London). 11 December 2004, p. 75.
  3. ^ Walsh, Toby (2018). Machines That Think : The Future of Artificial Intelligence. Amherst, New York. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-63388-375-8. OCLC 987428559.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ a b Berliner, Hans, et al. "Backgammon program beats world champ", ACM SIGART Bulletin, Issue 69. January 1980. pp. 6–9.
  5. ^ Berliner, Hans J. (1980). "Backgammon Computer Program Beats World Champion". bkgm.com. Archived from the original on 2021-03-30. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  6. ^ "Interactive replay of Villa's final against Philip Vischjager".
  7. ^ Bray, Chris. "Monte Carlo 2006", The Independent (London). 29 July 2006, p. 61