Backgammon
FAQ A large document intended to answer Frequently Asked
Questions from the newsgroup rec.games.backgammon. When was the last time
it was updated? Answer: December 1995. The mini-FAQ has slightly more recent information.
Mark Your
Calendar Carol Joy Cole's lively listing of upcoming backgammon
tournaments around the world and on the Internet. Also see the
calendars at Backgammonmagazin
and Playmaker
World. Gammonitis runs tournaments around the U.K. and Europe.
Backgammon
In Australia Where to play in the land Down Under and online copies
of the Canberra club newsletter Prime.
There are also Web sites for the clubs in Melbourne
and Sydney.
In New Zealand, Kaponga
Backgammon Club always has live music during its tournaments.
Study Recorded
Matches Torsten Schoop has recorded matches between expert players
in both Snowie and JellyFish file formats, including Snowie
vs. JellyFish. Tony Lezard has used his Dueller program
to record many matches with Snowie, Jellyfish and GNU playing each other.
Also see the Expert Matches at Gammoned.com with each move analyzed
by Snowie. Analyze your own tournament matches with
help from the Matchrecording.com
service.
Blowfish & Snowfish Free software which uses the GNU Backgammon
engine to replay and analyze recorded matches. Snowfish is a
backgammon playing program. Download a free Snowfish board. The fibs2html
program displays and analyzes matches played on FIBS.
Hugh Sconyers'
Backgammon Software Download free databases for 4-checker bearoffs and simple
races. Also ordering information for CD-ROMs with calculated
bearoff equities and backgame probabilities. For bearoffs with
up to nine checkers per side, the free Exact
Bearoff program by MDG Software calculates the percentages.
Gamer Cafe has an online position
evaluator.
Backgammon
Tally Track the improvement in your game with this free Windows
database program which lets you maintain a record of the results
of all the games you play.
JellyFish An expert-level player/tutor/analyzer neural network program
for Windows. Also
see the A & K Spiele JellyFish
3.5 site. The Player 3.0 and Light 3.5 versions have freeware downloads. There is also an optional external dice
generator to download.
GNU Backgammon Download free open source neural net software for championship-level play and analysis.
There are versions for Windows and MacOS X . Also runs on Linux and Sun Solaris. For help read the F.A.Q. and tutorial
All About GNU. There is also software to download for game
analysis. A GNU backgammon game for the Pocket PC is BgLightCE. So what is GNU?
BGBlitz Neural net backgammon player (TachiAI) which won the Gold Medal at the 2002 Computer
Olympiad. Replay saved games and calculate cube strategy for matches
with this versatile Java application which runs on Windows, Macintosh OS 9/X
and Linux. “ The Swiss-Army knife for backgammon.”
HC-Gammon Play on the Web against an evolved neural network computer.
Also playable on WebTV. The training of HC-Gammon is discussed
in the Wired magazine article “In
Search of the Electronic Brain”.
Motif Backgammon You can challenge the Motif computer player to a game on
the Web, if your browser supports Java. Other Java-based Web
computer players are Inertron and
David's
JavaGammon.
Serious
Backgammon Shareware game program with dice analysis which also
plays the variations nackgammon, hypergammon, longgammon, snake
and domino backgammon. Also see BGmrv
and Quick
Backgammon, a small freeware computer player by Geert Verkade.
David's
Backgammon Download the Windows or Macintosh version of David Byrum's shareware game program with speech recognition capability. David's Absolute Backgammon is designed for OSX but works with OS8 and 9 with CarbonLib. Another game for the Mac OS is Backgammon
2k.
Electronic Games
Excalibur has sensory board table top and handheld LCD electronic games with built-in computer opponents. Saitek has
Champion Backgammon in table
top and handheld
versions. Shop online for electronic backgammon games at planetBig.
3DFiBs
Free Windows graphical client for play on FIBS. Others are RealFIBS,
C4FIBS ,
WinFIBS and the original Windows graphical client,
FIBS/W, which is still free to download. The shareware Beggar's
Backgammon Terminal (BBGT) is a Windows-based graphical client by Gamer Cafe for play on FIBS or NOBS. For handheld computers with the Windows CE operating
system there is the free FibsCE
client.
JavaFIBS Multi-platform Java-powered graphical interface for FIBS
or NOBS.
Works with Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, AIX and OS/2. The free
ParlorPlay browser-based client interface works with Windows, Mac and Linux and requires no download or Java. The update to KFIBS
for Linux workstations is bacKgammon. Also see KBackgammon
for KDE. A free client program for mobile phones with Java/MIDP support is MobileFIBS.
GamesGrid Multiplayer backgammon for Windows or Macintosh OS X with free guest memberships.
GamesGrid also offers hypergammon, nackgammon and proposition play. There are many
daily and monthly
tournaments. Use E-Jackpots
for money play. See the Players' Photos.
This graph converts your GG rating
to an expected match winning percentage. Check the current Server
Status.
NetGammon Download the client software to play for free or as a
Premium member. Member
Charts is not an official NetGammon homepage. You might be
a NetGammon ADDICT
if....
Vinco Online Games (VOG) Download the Windows client software to play backgammon
and other games for free or pay a fee to add Gold
Membership benefits. The available variations include
acey-deucey, gul bara (crazy narde), hypergammon, long gammon, nackgammon,
narde (feuga) and tapa. There are tournaments
for each of the variations, including money
games.
GameSite
2000 Thirty day free trial to play backgammon and other games. You can also play the hypergammon,
long gammon and nackgammon variations. EXtremeBG
is one of the resident neural network players. The CoachBG and ProfessorBG software serve as expert
online teaching tools. For ladders, leagues and tournaments see GammonVentures
and Global
Tournaments.
Internet
Backgammon
Shareware Windows program by Rod Carty which provides a two-player game where the players can
be either sharing one computer or on a network with TCP/IP. No separate server is required.
Download the free Gaim Tjat or OnlineBandit
software to chat and play online backgammon and other games. Also see Halsoft backgammon for VP Chat. GamesPark
uses Shockwave for its free multi-player backgammon server.
Chicago Point Preview the monthly print newsletter. “A
Prime Source of Backgammon Information.” Back issues of the online version are
stored here and
here.
European
Backgammon News The independent International Newsletter published
by Martin A. De Bruin. Also see Bibafax, the bimonthly magazine of the British Isles Backgammon Association.
Backgammon
Today International magazine published by Mario Kühl
in German and English. Harald Johanni's Backgammonmagazinis an online newsletter in German and English. Dan Frank's
Backgammon
Collection features the writings in German and English of
the editor and publisher of Essential Backgammon magazine.
Backgammon
Board'O'Matic Publish your own backgammon writings with this free online
tool to generate board diagram images suitable for printing and
inserting into other documents, including Web pages. Also see
GO
Figure, Board
component images and Backgammon
Board Service. Use the Monte
Carlo font to create backgammon diagrams in either the TrueType
or PostScript format for Mac or Windows.
Taki-Boards Handcrafted sets by Tak Morioka with lightweight hardwood
cases and velvet playing surfaces. $850.
Svilo
Boards Attache case sets with the famous Svilo dice cups designed and hand made in Bulgaria
by Svilen Todorov.
A & K Backgammon
Shop Extensive online catalog of backgammon boards and accessories
from Germany. Another German Web site with boards for sale is
RCR
Terry. Also visit Columbus,
the Austrian online games shop.
Digital
Dice Kit
Build your own very random electronic dice for use at home or
in the car. Also see the Dual
Electronic Dice kit. Alea
is free software to generate dice rolls on computers using the
Palm OS. With CibroDice
you can transmit the rolls from real dice to the Internet.
Web Dice The Web's original dice server. The PBM
Dice Server provides up to one thousand impartial dice rolls
per message for players of board games by mail. Random.org
claims to have the “Web Interface to the True Random Numbers.”
Or you can just click and roll Bill's World's Virtual Dice.
Early
Backgammon
Rules for some of the more recent ancestors of modern backgammon,
as reconstructed from their descriptions in books from the seventeenth
century. Also see dublets and
ticktack. An early French version is described at the Trictrac Home Page and Le jeu de Trictrac. Soumille is the the First Trictrac Program.
Narde
Rules as played on Vinco Online Games for the variation which
is popular in Russia. You can download the Nards
or Eastern Backgammon Windows game programs or Long
Nardi shareware for the Palm OS.
Acey Deucey The rules according to Hoyle for a variation which has
been popular among sailors. Play the game online at VOG
or download the Wingames shareware version, Acey
Ducey Backgammon. You can also play online against a computer
at the Java version of Acey
Deucy.
Chouette Basic rules, common variations and a scoresheet to print for a
form of backgammon played by three or more. Other versions of
the rules appear on the pages of ABA,
ACT,
Backgammon
Galore, MSN
Gaming Zone and RedTop. Also see a set of rules for a chouette tournament.
To help you keep score for up to ten players there is the Chouette
Calculator software by Gamer Cafe.
Khajuraho New variant which uses the standard starting position and equipment, except for
the cube, but requires that the pieces on the starting six and eight-points travel an extra circuit of the board.
Quick Gammon is played with ten checkers per side on a sixteen
point board while the game Blockade
requires sixteen checkers per player and uses only half of the backgammon board. Also see the Gammon en passant variation.
LINKS
