Backgammon Sets

DIRECTORY

QUICK LINKS

Backgammon online.

Playing Backgammon online is one of the internets fastest growing activities with users playing for fun and/or for real money in a choice of live money games, matches, and multiplayer tournaments. Furthermore it can be played in a choice of languages, covering more than 80% of the worlds population.

To purchase a traditional Backgammon Set, click here

GammonEmpire - all about bringing the backgammon enthusiasm and excitement to people worldwide, enabling professional and amateur players to play against each other in a geographically boundless environment. Their passion for the game is reflected in the software, game-play and customer care: they try to make them as realistic as possible to maximize the gaming experience - In other words, make it more FUN. Through GammonEmpire, you can learn more about the game, improve your backgammon skills, meet new people and last but not least: Make a lot of money by beating other people in your favorite game!

GameAccount - Create your own tables, or accept others' challenges in their new user-friendly lobby. With no download required, you'll find game features and money wagers to suit your needs. Apply your skills to dominate the game and make real cash now. For help to play backgammon, read the LOBBY GUIDE and the QUICKSTART GUIDE. To learn about their new Bot players and how to challenege them try the BOTS GUIDE. Full GAME INSTRUCTIONS are also provided and if you'd like to master the game, pore over their guide to backgammon STRATEGIES.

Ladbrokes Backgammon is the most exciting addition to the ever-increased portfolio of the Ladbrokes online games. There is the choice of free or cash instant play games; all day tournaments to choose from and if you are new to the game there is a comprehensive online tutorial, a history of the game and a full glossary. Ladbrokes backgammon software is completely unique, and features rich graphics, amazing patented features, great action and ease of use. Ladbrokes.com brings you the full spectrum of the exciting world of betting and gaming in one place, using a single account. And, because these services are brought to you by Ladbrokes, the world's largest bookmaker you can be sure that your account will be handled with complete security, discretion and integrity.

PartyGammon - Enjoy all the thrills of backgammon in a safe, secure online environment. Players are online 24/7, so you'll always find someone to play with, and they offer a great variety of backgammon games. Plus, easy-to-use software lets you create an account and start playing in no time. They also host regular tournaments, events and promotions, as well as a Backgammon school to help improve your game.

Play 65 - Connecting backgammon players from around the world, Play65 uses some of the most advanced gaming software, combining sophisticated graphics with progressive gaming know how for one of the most realistic playing sessions live on the Internet. With over 450,000 players, more than 6,000 of whom log in at peak playing times, there is no doubt that Play65 is the world’s largest online backgammon community. Play65 is available in 12 different languages, catering for 80% of the world’s population, whilst offering fun and/or for real money in a choice of live money games, matches, and multiplayer tournaments. Depositing available with all major credit cards and payment methods and can be played in Pounds £,Euros or Dollars $.

If you want to learn more about the game before visiting one of the above sites we have included a brief history of the game together with rules and basic strategies below. You can also visit our Book Shop for a range of informative books on the subject.

Backgammon is a board game for two players in which pieces are moved according to the roll of dice. The winner is the first to remove all of her own pieces from the board. Many variants have developed throughout the world, but most share common elements. It is a member of the tables family, one of the oldest classes of board games in the world.

Although the game has a substantial random component, backgammon offers a significant scope for strategy. With each roll of the dice, a player must choose from numerous options for moving the checkers and plan for possible counter-moves by the opponent. Opportunities for raising the stakes of the game introduce more strategic intricacies. Players have developed a vocabulary for common tactics and occurrences.

Like chess, backgammon has been studied considerably by computer scientists. Research has resulted in backgammon software that is capable of beating world-class human players.

History

Brädspel set recovered from the Vasa, sunk in 1628

Medieval players, from the 14th century Codex Manesse

The ancient Egyptians played a game called senet, which resembled backgammon,^[1] with moves controlled by the roll of dice. The Royal Game of Ur, played in ancient Mesopotamia, however, is a more likely ancestor of modern tables games. Excavations at the "Burnt City" in Iran showed that a similar game existed there around 3000 BC. The artifacts include two dice and 60 pieces, and the set is believed to be 100 to 200 years older than the sets found in Ur.^[2]

The ancient Romans played a number of games of remarkable similarity to backgammon. Ludus duodecim scriptorum ("game of twelve lines") used a board with three rows of 12 points each, and the pieces were moved across all three rows according to the roll of dice. Little specific text about the gameplay has survived.^[3] Tabula, meaning "table" or "board", was a game mentioned in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476–481). It was similar to modern backgammon, using a board with 24 points, and the object of the game was to be the first to bear off all of one's checkers. Players threw three dice and moved their checkers in opposing directions.^[4][5]

In the 11th century Shahnameh, the Persian poet Ferdowsi credits Burzoe with the invention of the tables game nard in the 6th century. He describes an encounter between Burzoe and a Raja visiting from India. The Raja introduces the game of chess, and Burzoe demonstrates nard, played with dice made from ivory and teak.^[6][7]

The jeux de tables, predecessors of modern backgammon, first appeared in France during the 11th century and became a favorite pastime of gamblers. In 1254, Louis IX issued a decree prohibiting his court officials and subjects from playing.^[7][8] Tables games were played in Germany in the 12th century, and had reached Iceland by the 13th century. While it is mostly known for its extensive discussion of chess, the Alfonso X manuscript Libro de los juegos, completed in 1283, describes rules for a number of dice and tables games.^[9] By the 17th century, tables games had spread to Sweden. A wooden board and checkers were recovered from the wreck of the Vasa among the belongings of the ship's officers.^[10]

In the 16th century, Elizabethan laws and church regulations prohibited playing tables, but by the 18th century backgammon was popular among the English clergy.^[7] Edmund Hoyle published A Short Treatise on the Game of Backgammon in 1743; this described rules and strategy for the game and was bound together with a similar text on whist.^[11]

In English, the word "backgammon" is most likely derived from "back" and Middle English "gamen", meaning "game" or "play". The earliest use documented by the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1650.^[12]

The most recent major development in backgammon was the addition of the doubling cube. It was first introduced in 1926 or 1927 in New York City among members of gaming clubs in the Lower East Side.^[13] The cube required players not only to select the best move in a given position, but also to estimate the probability of winning from that position, transforming backgammon into the expected value-driven game played in the 20th and 21st centuries.^[13]

Rules

The objective of backgammon is to move all of one's own checkers past those of one's opponent and then remove them from the board. The pieces are scattered at first and may be blocked or hit by the opponent. Because the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches, where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points.

Setup

Paths of movement for blue and green, with checkers in the starting position

Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points. The points are considered to be connected across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24. Each player begins with two checkers on her 24-point, three checkers on her 8-point, and five checkers each on her 13-point and her 6-point. The two players move their checkers in opposing directions, each from her own 24-point toward her 1-point.^[14]

Points 1 to 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 to 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the mid point.^[14][15]

Movement

At the start of the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first. The players then alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn.^[14][15]

After rolling the dice a player must, if possible, move checkers according to the number of pips shown on each die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (noted as "6-3"), she must move one checker six points forward, and another checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six, but not all nine at once. If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, she must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5-5 she must move four checkers forward five spaces each.^[14][15]

A checker may land on any point that is either unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker; such a lone piece is called a blot. In the latter case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar, the divider between the home boards and the outer boards. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players at the same time.^[14][15]

Checkers placed on the bar re-enter the game through the hitting player's home board. A roll of 2 allows the checker to enter on the 23-point, a roll of 3 on the 22-point, and so forth. A player may not move any other checkers until all of her checkers on the bar have first re-entered the opponent's home board.^[14][15]

When all a player's checkers are in her home board, she may start removing them from the board. This is called bearing off. A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so on. A die may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on any higher points.^[14][15]

If one player has not borne off any checkers by the time her opponent has borne off all fifteen, she has lost a gammon, which counts for double a normal loss. If the losing player still has checkers on the bar or in her opponent's home board, she has lost a backgammon, which counts for triple a normal loss.^[14][15]

Doubling cube

Doubling cube

To speed up match play and to provide an added dimension for strategy, a doubling cube is normally used. The doubling cube is a six-sided die marked with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. Before rolling the dice on her turn, a player may demand that the game be played for twice the current stakes. Her opponent must either accept the new stakes or resign the game immediately. Thereafter, the right to redouble belongs exclusively to the player who last accepted a double. Whenever a player accepts doubled stakes, the cube is placed with the corresponding power of two facing upward.^[14][15]

The game is rarely redoubled beyond four times the original stake, but there is no theoretical limit on the number of doubles. Although 64 is the highest number depicted on the doubling cube, the stakes may rise to 128, 256, and so on. In money games, a player is often permitted to "beaver" when offered a double, doubling the value of the game again, while retaining possession of the cube.

The Jacoby rule allows gammons and backgammons to count for their respective double and triple values only if there has been at least one use of the doubling cube. This encourages a player with a large lead in a game to double, possibly ending the game, rather than to play the game to its conclusion in hopes of a gammon or backgammon. The Jacoby rule is widely used in money play but is not used in match play.^[16]

The Crawford rule is designed to make match play more equitable for the player in the lead. If a player is only one point away from winning a match, her opponent will always want to double as early as possible in each following game, in order to catch up as quickly as possible. Whether the game is worth one point or two, the trailing player must win to continue the match. To balance the situation, the Crawford rule requires that when a player first reaches a score one point short of winning the match, neither player may use the doubling cube for the following game, called the Crawford game. After the Crawford game, normal use of the doubling cube resumes. The Crawford rule is used in tournament match play.^[16]

Variants

Seis, dos, y as from the Libro de los juegos

Main article: Tables (board game)

There are many variants of standard backgammon rules. Some are played primarily throughout one geographic region, and others add new tactical elements to the game, by altering the starting position, restricting certain moves, or assigning special value to certain dice rolls.

Acey-deucey is a variant of backgammon in which players start with no checkers on the board, and must bear them on at the beginning of the game. The roll of 1-2 is given special consideration, allowing the player to select doubles of her choice. A player also receives an extra turn after a roll of 1-2 or of doubles.

Hypergammon is a variant of backgammon in which players have only three checkers on the board, starting with one each on the 24-, 23- and 22-points. The game has been strongly solved, meaning that exact equities are available for all 32 million positions possible in the game.

Strategy

Backgammon set, 19th century

Backgammon has an established opening theory, although it is less detailed than that of games like chess. The tree of checker positions expands rapidly because of the number of possible dice rolls and the moves available on each turn. Recent computer analysis has offered more insight on opening plays, but the midgame is reached quickly. After the opening, backgammon players frequently rely on some established general strategies, combining and switching among them to adapt to the changing conditions of a game.

The most direct strategy is simply to avoid being hit, trapped, or held in a stand-off. The running game describes a strategy of moving as quickly as possible around the board, and is most successful when a player is already ahead in the race.^[17]

A holding game is a strategy wherein a player controls a point on her opponent's side of the board, called an anchor. As the game progresses, this player may gain an advantage by hitting an opponent's blot from the anchor, or by rolling large doubles that allow the checkers to escape into a running game.^[17]

The priming game involves building a wall of checkers, called a prime, covering a number of consecutive points. This obstructs opposing checkers that are behind the blockade. A checker trapped behind a six-point prime may not escape until the prime is broken.^[17]

A blitz describes a strategy of covering the entire home board as quickly as possible while keeping one's opponent on the bar. Because the opponent has difficulty re-entering from the bar or escaping, a player can quickly gain a running advantage and win the game.^[14]

A backgame is a strategy of placing two or more anchors in an opponent's home board, while building a prime in one's own board. The anchors obstruct the opponent's checkers and create opportunities to hit them as they move home. The backgame is generally used only to salvage a game wherein a player is already significantly behind; using a backgame as an initial strategy is usually unsuccessful.^[14][17]

Duplication refers to the placement of checkers such that one's opponent needs the same dice rolls to achieve different goals. For example, a player may position all of her blots in such a way that her opponent must roll a 2 in order to hit any of them, reducing the probability of being hit.^[14][17]

Diversification refers to a complementary tactic of placing one's own checkers in such a way that more numbers are useful.^[17]

Social and competitive play

Medieval players, from the 13th century Carmina Burana

Club and tournament play

Enthusiasts have formed clubs for social play of backgammon. Local clubs may hold informal gatherings, with members meeting at cafés and bars in the evening to play and converse.^[18][19] A few clubs offer additional services, maintaining their own facilities or offering computer analysis of troublesome plays.^[20] Some club leaders have noticed a recent growth of interest in backgammon, and attribute it to the game's popularity on the internet.^[21]

A backgammon chouette permits three or more players to participate in a single game, often for money. One player competes against a team of all the other participants, and positions rotate after each game. Chouette play often permits the use of multiple doubling cubes.^[14]

Backgammon clubs may also organize tournaments. Large club tournaments sometimes draw competitors from other regions, with final matches viewed by hundreds of spectators.^[22] The top players at regional tournaments often compete in major national and international championships. Winners at major tournaments may receive prizes of tens of thousands of dollars.^[23]

International competition

Prior to 1979, there was no single world championship competition in backgammon, although a number of major tournaments were held in Las Vegas and the Bahamas. Since 1979, the World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo has been widely acknowledged as the top international tournament.^[24] The tournament in Monte Carlo draws thousands of players and spectators, and is played over the course of a week.^[23]

By the 21st century, the largest international tournaments had established the basis of a tour for top professional players. Major tournaments are held yearly in St. Tropez, Rio de Janiero, Dallas, and Venice.^[16] PartyGaming sponsored a tournament in the Bahamas in January 2007 with a prize pool of one million dollars, the largest for any tournament to date.^[25]

Gambling

When backgammon is played for money, the most common arrangement is to assign a monetary value to each game, and to play to a certain score, or until either player chooses to stop. The stakes are raised by gammons, backgammons, and use of the doubling cube. Backgammon is sometimes available in casinos. As with most gambling games, successful play requires a combination of luck and skill, as a single dice roll can sometimes significantly change the outcome of the game.^[17]

Software

Play and analysis

A screen shot of GNU Backgammon, showing an evaluation and rollout of possible moves

Backgammon has been studied considerably by computer scientists. Neural networks and other approaches have offered significant advances to software for gameplay and analysis.

The first strong computer opponent was BKG 9.8. It was written by Hans Berliner in the late 1970s on a DEC PDP-10 as an experiment in evaluating board game positions. Early versions of BKG played badly even against poor players, but Berliner noticed that its critical mistakes were always at transitional phases in the game. He applied principles of fuzzy logic to improve its play between phases, and by July 1979, BKG 9.8 was strong enough to play against the ruling world champion Luigi Villa. It won the match, 7–1, becoming the first computer program to defeat a world champion in any board game. Berliner states that the victory was largely a matter of luck, as the computer received more favorable dice rolls.^[26]

In the late 1980s, backgammon programmers found more success with an approach based on neural networks. TD-Gammon, developed by Gerald Tesauro of IBM, was the first of these programs to play near the expert level. Its neural network was trained using temporal difference learning applied to data generated from self-play.^[27] According to assessments by Bill Robertie and Kit Woolsey, TD-Gammon's play was at or above the level of the top human players in the world.^[27] Woolsey said of TD-Gammon that "There is no question in my mind that its positional judgment is far better than mine."^[27]

Neural network research has resulted in two modern commercial programs, Jellyfish and Snowie, as well as the shareware BGBlitz and the free software GNU Backgammon. These programs not only play the game, but offer tools for analyzing games and offering detailed comparisons of individual moves. The strength of these programs lies in their neural networks' weights tables, which are the result of months of tedious neural network training. Without them, these programs play no better than a human novice.

Internet play

Backgammon software has been developed not only to play and analyze games, but also to facilitate play between humans over the internet. Dice rolls are provided by random or pseudorandom number generators. Real-time on-line play began with the First Internet Backgammon Server in 1992.^[28] It is the longest running non-commercial backgammon server and retains an international community of backgammon players. Several commercial websites also offer on-line real-time backgammon play. Yahoo Games has offers a Java-based online backgammon room, and MSN Games offers a game based on ActiveX. Online gambling providers began to expand their offerings to include backgammon in 2006.^[29]

References

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

.....The game of kings and the king of games - Backgammon