A company that has its own backgammon site has recently purchased Roman Greenburg’s shorts to auction them off for charity. This caught my attention for a few reasons…

1) The charity concerned aims to try and help both Arabic & Jewish youngsters who are in distressing situations. Obviously this is a long term project, and any help, be it purely financial, or promoting the cause in general, must surely be a worth aim.

2) The backgammon online company (Backgammon Masters) has taken an interesting approach in getting publicity for themselves - they are supporting an up and coming boxer, and supporting a movement to help young people in an area that everyone, whatever their political views, must agree needs help. Any cynics who see this purely as a publicity drive should ask themselves, would they have preferred the company to simply spend the same amount of money on ‘conventional’ PR methods, with no tangible benefit to those in need?

3) Although not an avid player myself, a colleague from a workplace in Britain (are you reading this Jim?) got me interested in the game of backgammon, since then I’ve often wanted to learn more about the game.

So, if you are interested in bidding on the boxer’s shorts (I keep having to correct my typing here, my fingers keep insisting that my brain must actually mean boxer shorts :>, all you need to to is click on the links above, and once Greenburg (himself a Russian-born Jew) has finished his big fight, start the bidding. Make sure your bank manager approves first, this isn’t your average e-bay auction - the bids will start at $100,000!