In the world of backgammon John Crawford and Carol Crawford are synonymous with the game, each having achieved the highest standings in world rankings and fulfillment of their personal mission to leave a lasting legacy to the game.

But John Crawford's first ‘love' was Bridge where even as a youngster he was known as "a boy wonder" winning many significant titles at a very tender age. Such as The Chicago Trophy which he won many times and with a consummate ease that astounded the people around him. It is said, that Crawford used to tell that he only feared his opponent ‘if his name was John Crawford'. He refers to this in his book "How to be a consistent winner" regarded by many as the Bible for bridge.

When he turned his attention to Backgammon, he applied his sharp, intuitive analytically focused mind to ultimate use becoming the International Tournament Champion at Bahamas in the year 1965. At the time this was acclaimed as the best International Tournament in the world of backgammon.

John Crawford started his games career at a very early age, his invaluable experience in 60 years of game play provided the knowledge and intuition to enhance the game developing new and better ways to play backgammon; this in turn yielded not only personal honors, but also the platform on which to define new rules for the betterment of the game.

Even today the world follows the "Crawford Rule", so named after John Crawford. The rule implies that in an n-point game if either player is ahead and gets to n-1 points then none of the players is allowed to use the doubling cube in the next game to come. This game becomes "The Crawford Game". If the match becomes indecisive in the Crawford game, then again the doubling cube is back in the game. This is still universally applied in Match play and is also followed in most of the online tournaments.

The world of Backgammon remains indebt to Crawford and to his partner Oswald Jacoby for "The Backgammon Book" acknowledged as perhaps the best book for beginners and certified as "the first work on backgammon which approaches the game from an analytic point of view" by another double winner of World Championships, Bill Robertie.

Other famous books written by John Crawford are The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell, How to Be a Consistent Winner in the Most Popular Card Games, How to play and win the fascinating new card game, Contract bridge etc.

John Crawford like Jacoby created a good family life, around the game and the emergence of Carol Crawford in the world of backgammon where Carol won the world Championships title in backgammon in 1973 in Las Vegas only emphasised that fact. Carol was the first lady ever to win the world championships in the history of backgammon. Carol not only took an active part in Backgammon but also became deeply involved in her husband's first love Bridge Competitions.

John Crawford died on Valentines Day 1976, doubtless his first task upon entering the Pearly Gates was to see who he could play in the first celestial tournament and with Carol by his side Heaven never stood a chance.

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