For all the online games enthusiasts and business opportunity seekers alike, here is an exciting opportunity which allows you to make money while having fun. Yes, online skill games are witnessing a dramatic rise in the market. Even as you read this, one in ten people are playing games online and it is predicted that in the coming 36 months, that figure will increase to six in ten!
Click the Roll Dice button to roll the dice at the start of each time to know how many spots you may move during that turn. Doubles act as four dice! Dice will gray out as you use them. Use the highlights as your guide to which checkers you can move and where. If you think this makes the game too easy, turn them off in the options menu before your next game! Move all your fall backgammon checkers around the board before the computer or your opponent does to win!
It’s possible that Snowie’s is a playing ply while GnuBg’s is a position evaluation ply. When playing at 1-ply Snowie will make each possible move for the player’s roll (that’s 1 ply) and analyse the resulting positions. Playing at 2-ply it will take each of those positions and make all the opponent moves for all possible rolls (the 2nd ply) and then analyse the resulting positions. In GnuBg the initial set of possible moves is taken for granted, ie. not counted as a ply, because GnuBg’s plies are position evaluation plies. Thus, for each of those possible moves a 0-ply analysis is done. GnuBg’s discounting of the first set of moves perhaps makes the counting seem funny.
In December 2014 a consultation panel was formed with 21 leading backgammon players, promoters and organisers from around the world to discuss and agree on fundamental policy for the Backgammon Mastership Awards Body (BMAB) and the affiliated tournament organising bodies. The work of this panel (see About Us ) culminated in the finalisation of the Backgammon Masters Organisational and Structural Plan 2014”, whose main subject matter is covered on this page, but which may be also be downloaded Note that this document is updated periodically (Last update: Dec 2014).
A single awarding and moderating body, Backgammon Masters Awarding Body” (BMAB) which receives videos and transcribed matches from the various affiliated tournament organising bodies, then analyses, checks and moderates where necessary. BMAB will provide results for all participating players, awarding mastership titles and certifying proficiency levels. In addition to the primary role of reporting BMS tournament results, the body will also accept and process individual applications for awards.
The Tournament Director (TD) must also be notified of which matches apply in the submission, by use of a standard pro-forma, before the start of the tournament. On completion of the matches listed on the pro-forma, the TD should sign to confirm that these matches were played against the opponents listed and were recorded. The pro-forma should then be sent to BMAB by scanning and emailing.
Placement of one’s checkers can be essential to actually winning a game, as leaving yourself open to hits isn’t very smart. But moving around the board to your home area can take some thinking and good dice rolls. It may sound contradictory, but in the beginning of a game it’s must better to leave a checker open to a hit, rather than later. That is because it’s much easier to get back on the board and through your opponents home board in the beginning when they won’t have many checkers there to block you in as later in the game. This can be determined by odd dice rolls early on and help you later in the game to win by getting past your opponent with those individual checkers.
Backgammon is a game for two players, played on a board consisting of twenty-four narrow triangles called points. The triangles alternate in color and are grouped into four quadrants of six triangles each. The quadrants are referred to as a player’s home board and outer board, and the opponent’s home board and outer board. The home and the outer boards are separated from each other by a ridge down the center of the board called the bar.
A player must use both numbers of a roll if this is legally possible (or all four numbers of a double). When only one number can be played, the player must play that number. Or if either number can be played but not both, the player must play the larger one. When neither number can be used, the player loses his turn. In the case of doubles, when all four numbers cannot be played, the player must play as many numbers as he can.
At the end of the game, if the losing player has borne off at least one checker, he loses only the value showing on the double cube (one point, if there have been no doubles). However, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers, he is gammoned and loses twice the value of the double cube. Or, worse, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner’s home board, he is backgammoned and loses three times the value of the double cube.
Move the mouse cursor over the checker you want to move. If you now click the left mouse button, the checker will move the pips of the left die. If you have already moved one checker, clicking on a new checker will move it according to the pips of the remaining die. If you click with the right mouse button on a checker, the checker will move according to the right die.
It’s also possible to resign during a game. To resign during play press the Resign button in the toolbar. This is the button with the image of a white flag. When this button is pressed, a dialog box will appear where you can select if you want to resign a single game, gammon or backgammon. The resignation dialog may also be reached from the menu system. Click Game->Resign to offer your resignation.
Type is a description of the evaluation that was used to calculate the results. Cubeful means that it is taking into account the possibility that someone may double. Occasionally you may see several moves with the equity of -1.000, (See Equity below), despite significantly different winning percentiles. This is because it thinks that if any of these moves are played then the opponent will double and you should pass. The n-ply is the depth to which GNU Backgammon analyzed the move.
In Tutor Mode, GNU Backgammon will analyze your moves and/or cube decisions and compare them with its choices. You set the threshold for its alerts, for example, if you set it for bad then it will only warn you when you make a bad mistake. It will then allow you to re-examine your choice, go right ahead with it, or provide a ‘hint’ – essentially, showing you its analysis.
Think about the Friday night chouette where there was this tough choice between two move candidates. Which move was the best? Or what about that match score cube decision from the weekend tournament. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to set up the position in GNU Backgammon and ask for it’s opinion? This is possible in GNU Backgammon, and it’s one of the features that really can give you the answer to a lot of questions, and in that way give you a better understanding of the game.
There is also a different way of editing the checker positions. You can drag and drop checkers around the board while you’re holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard. Press the Ctrl key and hold it down. Then left-click the checker you want to drag to another point and drag it with the mouse, (while holding down the Ctrl key and the left mouse button), to the destination point. You can drag checkers to open points or to points where you have checkers of the same color. You can also ‘hit’ opponent blots with the drag and drop edit method.
Since version 0.16 the GUI recognizes all importable files automatically (with the exception of the FIBS format). To open or import a file choose File->Open. A file dialog box will appear where you can select the file and the dialog will inform you of the recognized format, if the file is importable. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-, or the tool bar button labeled Open, to open the file dialog box directly.
The output from the HTML export can be customized. For example, it’s possible to leave out the analysis or parts of the analysis. Also, you may enter a specific URL to the pictures used to compose the board which is useful for posting positions on web-based discussion groups such as Kit Woolsey’s GammOnLine, the Danish Backgammon Federation’s Debat Forum, or you may opt to use a default set of images available from the web site.
In addition you can have the analysis to analyze just one of the players, or both. There is also possible to set a limit of how many moves to be analyzed at each position. When you’re reviewing your match, the number of analyzed moves will be limited to number in this field. However, if you want to analyze further moves in a particular position, it’s not a problem to do that later. The move that was actually done in the match will be analyzed even if it is ranked below the number of moves limit.
When a match is analyzed in GNU Backgammon you should open the game record window. Open this by checking Window->Game record on from the main menu. The game record window can also be docked into the right side panel. If you want it docked into the right side panel you should check on Window->Dock panels. The game record window shows a list of all the moves in the game. You can also navigate between the games and moves.