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Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon,rec.answers,news.answers Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!MathWorks.Com!uhog.mit.edu!xn.ll.mit.edu!ll.mit.edu!damish From: damish@ll.mit.edu (Mark Damish) Subject: Backgammon --- Frequently Asked Questions. [monthly] Message-ID: <1994Apr12.132303.5649@ll.mit.edu> Followup-To: rec.games.backgammon Summary: This posting contains answers to questions about the game of backgammon. It also contains resources pertaining to the game. It should be read by anyone interested in backgammon, especially those posting to the rec.games.backgammon news group. Originator: damish@ll.mit.edu (Mark Damish) Keywords: backgammon FAQ Sender: news@ll.mit.edu Supersedes: <1994Mar14.145135.1652@ll.mit.edu> Reply-To: damish@ll.mit.edu (Mark Damish) Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory Date: Tue, 12 Apr 94 13:23:03 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Expires: Fri, 13 MAY 1994 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 2929 Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu rec.games.backgammon:1726 rec.answers:4848 news.answers:17963 Archive-name: games/backgammon-faq Posting-frequency: Monthly, around the 13th of each month. Last-modified: March 1994 Version: 9404 This is the backgammon FAQ #6 for 13 APR 1994. ============================================================================= TABLE OF CONTENTS: ============================================================================= FORE FAQ: -- Definition, Editor, Purpose, Contributions, Availability, Disclaimer, Editorial, Changes, Gratitude, and News. ESSENTIALS: A1. What is backgammon? A2. What are the basic rules of the game? A3. What is the doubling cube for? A4. What is the Crawford rule? (Why won't FIBS let me double?) A5. What is the Jacoby rule? A6. What is the Holland rule? A7. What are those critters --- Beavers, raccoons? A8. What is a Chouette? ELECTRONIC BACKGAMMON: VS. OTHER HUMANS: B1. What is FIBS? B2. What is the Internet and how do I get onto it? (From OK.FAQ) B3. Are there any GUI's for FIBS? B4. Whats about LDB? (Long Distance Backgammon. BG by Email) B5. What other ways are there to play people via nets/modems/e-mail? B6. Are there any electronic tournaments? B7. Do other game servers exist? ELECTRONIC BACKGAMMON: VS. MACHINE: C1. Are there any BG programs out there for my computer? Where are they? C2. Which programs are good? How good is good? C3. Why is it so hard to write a good backgammon program? C4. What is TD-GAMMON? RESOURCES: D1. I'm looking for a club to play in... D2. Where are the tournaments? D3. I'm looking for information about newsletters and other publications. D4. Backgammon books and book reviews. D5. A List of Backgammon Articles in Science and Business. D6. Backgammon software and software reviews. D7. Where does one purchase backgammon supplies and books? MISC: E1. What other games can be played on a backgammon board? E2. How does one become a better player? SEARCHING IN THIS DOCUMENT: If you want to search directly for the answer to a question, for example the question "A1. What is backgammon?", you can search for an occurrance of the question number "A1" at the beginning of a line. For instance, in the newsreaders "rn" and "trn", you can type g^A1<enter> and the cursor jumps to the right place in the document. ============================================================================= FORE FAQ: ============================================================================= FAQ /F-A-Q/ or /faq/ [USENET] n. 1. A Frequently Asked Question. 2. A compendium of accumulated lore, posted periodically to high-volume newsgroups in an attempt to forestall such questions. Some people prefer the term 'FAQ list' or 'FAQL' /fa'kl/, reserving 'FAQ' for sense 1. ---from: The jargon file, Version 2.9.12, 10 May 1993 Editor: Mark Damish damish@ll.mit.edu Purpose: The purpose of this FAQ is to answer commonly asked questions which come up on the rec.games.backgammon news group and to compile a set of resources which might be useful to backgammon players in general. Contributions: Contributions will be thankfully accepted. Send E-Mail to the editor of this list for inclusion and credit in future FAQs. Availability: The FAQ will be posted on or around the 13th (13: is such a nice opening roll) of each month to rec.games.backgammon, rec.answers and news.answers. The FAQ is also available for anonymous ftp on: machine: rtfm.mit.edu directory: /pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/games/backgammon filename: Backgammon_---_Frequently_Asked_Questions._[monthly] A 'FAQ pointer' will be posted to rec.games.backgammon monthly, about 2 weeks after the FAQ is posted. A diff file will created and posted to the rec.games.backgammon news group at the same time the FAQ is posted. This will contain the differences between successive FAQs. It will not be posted to the *.answers newsgroups, nor will it be archived at rtfm.mit.edu. The purpose of the diff file is to show recent changes without having to browse the entire FAQ. DO NOT use this file to update previous versions of the FAQ as it has been edited! Disclaimer: This posting is provided on an "as is" basis, NO WARRANTY whatsoever is expressed or implied, especially, NO WARRANTY that the information contained herein is correct or useful in any way, although both are intended. Editorial: Busy at work --- Real busy, for now and the forseeable future. I'd rather be priming someone. Changes: Changes may be spotted by examining the 'diff' file, which is posted at the same time as this FAQ. In the diff file, a '<' charactor preceding a line indicates that the line has been removed. Likewise, a '>' charactor indicates an addition. The diff file is edited and should not be used for updating from previous versions. Gratitude: Major and minor contributions and suggestions from the following: Jeremy Bagai Matchqiz review. Matthew Clegg The entire 'What is Internet' section. Paul Ferguson Mac PD BG info. FIBS Client info. Michael Jampel Chess Server Info. rjohnson Additional info for rules section A2. Mika Johnsson Original Backgammon article compilation. Rolf Kleef Nackgammon. Asger Kring Danish Newsletter, Book supply info. more. Andy Latto Jacoby, Holland, Beavers, Chouette, Useful advice. Peter Nickless Acey-Deucy Submission. Perry R. Ross LDB (Long Distance Backgammon) mail server info. Mark Rozer Inspired me to play this game. Gerry Tesauro Backgammon article pointers. Michael Urban Boston area playing spots. Kit Woolsey BOINQ and Hyperbackgammon Software reviews. Michael J. Zehr Book Review, Holland rule, Combinitorics answer. More. Vincent Zweije FIBS description. Narde description. Proof reader deluxe. [I apologize if I missed anybody] Thanks for ALL corrections sent! PLUS Thanks to all who have submitted material to the rec.games.backgammon news group, whether or not it has been used here. Material from rec.games.backgammon is credited where used. May you roll above average when you need it most. News: Information that may or may not be included in the current FAQ: -- The ldb 'game starter' operated by leopard@midnight.WPI.edu (Leo Gestetner) has been shut down. -- Harald Lux lux@mailer.uni-marburg.de is posting a monthly German suppliment to the backgammon-faq to the newsgroup: rec.games.backgammon. -- The copy protection scheme in Expert Backgammon 2.1 has been changed the protection. -- jrichter@aldebaran.cs.uni-sb.de (Joerg Richter) has typeset the Kit Woolsey vs. Jeremy Bagai annotated match. It is available for anonymous FTP from machine(s) ftp.netcom.com, ftp.netcom2.netcom.com .. ftp.netcom12.netcom.com in the directory: pub/pattib/backgammon. The files are postcript, typeset using LaTeX, with very nice diagrams. [I found a set of postscript tools last summer called 'pstools' from an FTP site somewhere in Britan/Europe. The commands: $ cat <file.ps> | psbook | psnup -2 | psselect -e | lpr put paper back in tray $ cat <file.ps> | psbook | psnup -2 | psselect -o | lpr will produce nice 'booklets', 4 pages to a sheet of paper, ready for two staples (saddle stich) in the center of the fold. ...Mark] -- There is a new X-client for FIBS. See 'tkfibs' under the GUI section. -- A for-profit company is producing a CD-ROM containing all of the FAQs posted to the news.answers newsgroup. The entire rec.games.* hierarchy was missed on the first release, but the backgammon-faq (9403) should be included in the next 'pressing'. ============================================================================= ESSENTIALS: ============================================================================= A1. What is backgammon? "Backgammon is an obstacle race between two armies of 15 men each, moving around a track divided into 24 dagger-like divisions known as points." -- The rules. "It's just a game." -- Many "It's a game of skill and luck. When I win I can claim it's due to my good skill. When I lose I can claim it's due to my bad luck." -- submitted by David Forthoffer davidf@lpd.sj.nec.com "There's an aesthetic to the game, a flow. People think the game consists primarily of math --- calculating odds and so forth. That's not true. It's essentially a game of patterns, a visual game, like chess. Certain patterns fit together harmoniously, make sense in a away that is nontrivial." -- Paul Magriel Answering "Why do you play backgammon": "We have become a spectator society, one that experiences excellence and creativity only by watching it on television or by reading about it in newspapers or magazines...Perhaps the best way of becoming something more than a spectator is to pursue activities that do not receive mass media coverage. We can invent our own art forms, or at least re-label existing forms as art. Backgammon, though it is very old and very common, is an excellent art form. Patterns of points and blots undergo poignant mutations. The player strains to work with them, to control them. One's identity is not entirely intrinsic, nor is it purely acquired. We can shape ourselves just as we can shape our surroundings. By playing backgammon, that is - by creating patterns of blots and points - I help to shape my identity, I set myself apart from the spectators. I become alive." -- Felix Yen (from Anchors, Jan 92) [More sought] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A2. What are the basic rules of the game? Backgammon Equipment - A Backgammon board or layout. - Thirty round stones, pr checkers, 15 each of two different colors, generally referred to as "men". - A pair of regular dice, numbered from 1 to 6. (For convenience, two pairs of dice, one for each player, are generally used.) - A dice cup, used to shake and cast the dice. (Again, it is more convenient to have two dice cups.) - A doubling cube---A six-faced die, marked with the numerals 2,4,8,16,32 & 64. This is used to keep track of the number of units at stake in each game, as well as to mark the player who last doubled. The Backgammon Board Backgammon is an obstacle race between two armies of 15 men each, moving around a track divided into 24 dagger-like divisions known as "points". The Backgammon layout is divided down the center by a partition, known as the "bar" (See Diagram 1), into an outer and inner (or home) board or table. The side nearest you is your outer and home tables; the side farther away is your opponents outer and home boards. The arrows indicate the direction of play. For purposes of convenience we have numbered the points in the diagram. Though the points are not numbered on the actual board, they are frequently referred to during play to describe a move or a position. Your (X's) 4-point or 8-point will always be on your side of the board; your opponent's (O's) will always be on his side of the board. A move from your 9-point to your 5-point is four spaces (the bar does not count as a space). A move from White's 12-point to your 12-point, though it crosses from his board to yours, is but one space, for these two points are really next to each other. Diagram 2 shows the board set up ready for play. Each side has five men on his 6-point, three men on his 8-point, five men on his opponent's 12-point, and two men, known as "runners", on his opponents' 1-point. The runners will have to travel the full length of the track, the other men have shorter distances to go. Note that play proceeds in opposite directions, so that the men can be set up in two ways. Turn the diagram upside down to see the layout if play were proceeding in the other direction. +--------------------------------------------------> | | +-----------------------------< X moves this direction | | | | | | 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | | +------------------------------------------+ | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | | | | +----+ ^ v | Outer Board |BAR| Home Board | | 64 | | | | | | | +----+ | | | P O I N T S | | . . . . . . | Doubling | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | Cube | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | | . . . . . . | | . . . . . . | | | +------------------------------------------+ | | 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 | | | +----------------------------------------------> | +---------------------------------< Y moves this direction Diagram 1 (Numbered from X's point of view) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 +------------------------------------------+ | X . . . O . | | O . . . . X | | X O | | O X | | X O | | O | | X | | O | | X | | O | +----+ | |BAR| | | 64 | | O | | X | +----+ | O | | X | | O X | | X | | O X | | X O | | O . . . X . | | X . . . . O | +------------------------------------------+ 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Diagram #2 (Numbered from X's point of view) Object of the game The object of Backgammon is for each player to bring all his men into his home board, and then to bear them off the board. The first plais men off the board is the winner. Starting the game Each player casts one die. The player with the higher number makes the first move, using the two numbers cast by his die and his opponent's. In the event that both players roll the same number, it is a standoff and each rolls another die to determine the first move. In the event of subsequent ties, this process is repeated until the dice turn up different numbers. (In some games, players double the unit stake automatically every time they cast the same number; others limit the automatic doubles to one. In tournament play, there is no such thing as an automatic double.) Moving your men Each player's turn consists of the roll of two dice. He then moves one or more men in accordance with the numbers cast. Assume he rolls 4-2. He may move one man six spaces, or one man four spaces and another man two spaces. Bear in mind that, when moving a single man for the total shown by the two dice, you are actually making two moves with the one man---each move according to the number shown on one of the dice. Doublets If the same number appears on both dice, for example, 2-2 or 3-3 (known as doublets), the caster is entitled to four moves instead of two. Thus, if he rolls 3-3, he can move up to four men, but each move must consist of three spaces. The players throw and play alternately throughout the game, except in the case where a player cannot make a legal move and therefore forfeits his turn. Making points A player makes a point by positioning two or more of his men on it. He then "owns" that point, and his opponent can neither come to rest on that point nor touch down on it when taking the combined total of his dice with one man. Prime A player who has made six consecutive points has completed a prime. An opposing man trapped behind a prime cannot move past, for it cannot be moved more than six spaces at a time---the largest number on a die. Blots A single man on a point is called a blot. If you move a man onto an opponent's blot, or touch down on it in the process of moving the combined total of your cast, the blot is hit, removed from the board and placed on the bar. A man that has been hit must re-enter in the opposing home table. A player may not make any move until such time as he has brought the man on the bar back into play. Re-entry is made on a point equivalent to the number of one of the dice cast, providing that point is not owned by the opponent. Closed board A player who has made all six points in his home board is said to have a closed board. If the opponent has any men on the bar, he will not be able to re-enter it since there is no vacant point in his adversary's home board. Therefore, he forfeits his turn, and continues to do so until such time as the player has to open up a point in his home board, thus providing a point of re-entry. Compulsory move A player is compelled to take his complete move if there is any way for him to do so. If he can take either of the numbers but not both, he must take the higher number if possable, the lower if not. [Another way of saying this...] 1) If both parts of the roll can be played legally, then this must be done. Note that you may play the roll in such a way as to move fewer pips than the larger die indicates by playing the smaller die first -- this is common in bearoff situations, and legal as long as each part of the roll is played legally at the moment you play it. 2) If only one part of the roll can be played legally, then you must play the higher die if possible; if not, play the lower die. --kw Bearing off Once a player has brought all his men into his home board, he can commence bearing off. Men borne off the board are not re-entered into play. The player who bears off all his men first is the winner. A player may not bear off men while he has a man on the bar, or outside his home board. Thus if, in the process of bearing off, a player leaves a blot and it is hit by his opponent, he must first re-enter the man in his opponents home board, and bring it round the board into his own home board before he can continue the bearing off process. In bearing off, you remove men from the points corresponding to the numbers on the dice cast. However, you are not compelled to remove a man. You may, if you can, move a man inside your home board a number of spaces equivalent to the number of a die. If you roll a number higher than the highest point on which you have a man, you may apply that number to your highest occupied point. Thus, if you roll 6-3 and your 6-point has already been cleared but you have men on your 5-point, you may use your 6 to remove a man from your 5-point. In some cases it may be advantagous to play the smaller die first before applying the higher die to your highest point (See Compulsory Move). For example, suppose you have one checker on your 5 point, and two checkers on your 2 point. Your opponent has a checker on the ace (one point) and on the bar. You roll 6-3. You may play the 3 to the 2 point then the 6 to bear a checker off the 2 point leaving your opponent no shots (no blots for the opponent to hit). The alternative, using the 6-3 to bear checkers off both the 5 and 2 points, would leave your opponent 20 out of 36 ways to hit your remaining blot. Gammon and Backgammon If you bear off all 15 of your men before your opponent has borne off a single man, you win a gammon, or double game. If you bear off all 15 of your men before your opponent has borne off a single man, and he still has one or more men in your home board or on the bar, you win a backgammon, or a triple game. Cocked dice It is customary to cast your dice in your right-hand board. Both dice must come to rest completely flat in that board. If one die crosses the bar into the other table, or jumps off the board, or does not come to rest flat, or ends up resting on one of the men, the dice are "cocked" and the whole throw, using both dice, must be retaken. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A3. What is the doubling cube for? The doubling cube The introduction of the doubling cube into the game is largely responsible for the leap in popularity of modern backgammon. Each face of the doubling cube bears a number to record progressive doubles and redoubles, starting with 2 and going on to 4, 8, 16, 32 & 64. At the commencement of play, the doubling cube rests on the bar, between the two players, or at the side of the board. At any point during the game, a player who thinks he is sufficiently ahead may, when it is his turn to play and before he casts his dice, propose to double the stake by turning the cube to 2. His opponent may decline to accept the double, in which case he forfeits the game and loses 1 unit, or accept the double, in which case the game continues with the stake at 2 units. The player who accepts the double now "owns" the cube---which means that he has the option to redouble at any point during the rest of the game, but his opponent (the original doubler) may not. If, at a later stage he exercises this option, his opponent is now faced with a similar choice. He may either decline the redouble and so lose 2 units, or accept and play for 4, and he now "owns" the cube. A player may double when he is on the bar even if his opponent has a closed board and he cannot enter. Though he does not roll the dice, for he cannot make a move, he still has the right to double. Note that gammon doubles or backgammon triples the stake of the cube. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A4. What is the Crawford rule? (Why won't FIBS let me double?) If you are playing an n-point match and your opponent is ahead of you and he gets to n-1 points you are not allowed to use the doubling cube in the next game to come. EXAMPLE: 5 point match score game # You opponent 1 0 3 2 0 4 3 1 4 (you were not allowed to double in this game) 4 3 4 (you were allowed to double again) ... ... ... ----- The Crawford rule is universally used in backgammon match play. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A5. What is the Jacoby rule? The Jacoby rule is used in money games. It states, that a gammon or backgammon may not be scored as such unless the cube has been passed and accepted. The purpose is to speed up play by eliminating long undoubled games. The Jacoby rule is never used in match play. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A6. What is the Holland rule? This rule applies to match games and states that in post-Crawford games the trailer can only double after both sides have played two rolls. It makes the free drop more valuable to the leader but generally just confuses the issue. Unlike the Crawford rule, the Holland rule has not proved popular, and is rarely used today. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A7. What are those critters --- Beavers, raccoons? In money play, if player A doubles, and player B believes that he is a favorite holding the cube, he may turn the cube an extra notch as he takes, and keep the cube on his own side. For example, if A makes an initial double to 2, B may, instead of taking the double and holding a 2 cube, say "beaver", turn the cube an extra notch to 4, and continue the game holding a 4 cube. If A believes that B's beaver was in error, some play that he may then "raccoon", turning the cube yet another notch (to 8 in the example). Cube ownership remains with B. B may then if he wishes turn the cube yet another notch, saying "aardvark", or "otter" or whatever silly animal name he prefers (the correct animal is a matter of controversy), and so forth. Beavers and the rest of the animals may be played or not in money play, as the players wish. Beavers and other animals are never used in match play. -- Andy Latto It should be noted that the original cube turner can drop a beaver. For example, suppose I miscount a bearoff and double, you accept and say you want to beaver. I realize something is wrong and recount. If I am horribly behind, I can drop the beaver, paying you the value on the cube before you beavered. -michael j zehr ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A8. What is a Chouette? A Chouette is a social backgammon variant for more than 2 players. One player is "the box", and plays against all other players on a single board. One other player is the captain, and rolls the dice and makes the plays for the team that opposes the box. If the box wins, the captain goes to the back of the line, and the next player becomes captain. If the captain wins, the box goes to the back of the line, and the captain becomes the new box. Customs vary as to the rights of the captain's partners: In some Chouettes, they may consult freely as to the way rolls should be played. In others, consultation is prohibited. A compromise, where consultation is allowed only after the cube has been turned, is popular. Originally, Chouettes were played with a single cube. The only decisions that players other than the captain were allowed to make independently concerned takes: If the box doubled, each player on the team could take or drop independently. Today, multiple-cube Chouettes are more popular; each player on the team has his own cube, and all doubling, dropping, and taking decisions are made independently by all players. -- Andy Latto ============================================================================= ELECTRONIC BACKGAMMON: VS. OTHER HUMANS: ============================================================================= B1. What is FIBS? [Addresses edited to reflect FIBS move to Sweden] From: zweije@wi.leidenuniv.nl (Vincent Zweije) FIBS stands for First Internet Backgammon Server. It is a telnet server you can use to play backgammon. You can reach it by telnetting to fraggel65.mdstud.chalmers.se 4321 (129.16.235.153, port 4321). Sometimes tournaments are organized on this server. It is a good idea to read the help screens on-line. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- B2. What is the Internet and how do I get onto it? (From OK.FAQ) [This is copied verbatim, with permission, from OK.FAQ. References to 'OK' are referring to the bridge server.] [Permission from mclegg@cs.ucsd.edu (Matthew Clegg) for use here.] In addition to having access to a Unix system, you must also be connected to the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide computer network which was founded for the sake of promoting research and education. Recently, the Internet has been broadening its mission and it's likely that soon the Internet will be open for commercial as well as educational uses. Already it is possible for the general public to obtain access to the Internet for a modest fee in many metropolitan areas of the US. A few representative Internet providers include: Area Served Voice No. Email Organization ----------- -------- ----- ------------ West Coast 408-554-UNIX info@netcom.com Netcom Online Comm. Svcs Boston 617-739-0202 office@world.std.com The World New York City 212-877-4854 alexis@panix.com PANIX Public Access Unix Many OKbridgers play from home using a PC or Mac and a modem. Frequently, these people have obtained access to the Internet by purchasing an account from a "public access Unix system connected to the Internet," which is the jargon describing the service provided by the above companies. Having obtained such an account, it is usually a simple matter to obtain OKbridge and begin playing (see below). If you will be searching for a means to use OKbridge, it is important to remember the wording, "public access Unix system (directly) connected to the Internet." There are a number of BBS operators who have Email connections to the Internet, but this is not sufficient. Also, there are several network services which provide access to the Internet but which are not Unix based (Delphi is a notable example). For more information about the Internet, which is an amazing and wonderful resource, see the books: Krol, Ed, The Whole Internet: User's Guide & Catalog, O'Reilly & Associates, 1992. Kehoe, Brendan P., Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, 1993. LaQuey, Tracy, with Jeanne C. Ryer, The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking, Addison-Wesley, 1993. These books are filled with useful information about Unix and the Internet, including how to send electronic mail, how to download free software, and how to access some of the many information services which are available on the Internet. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- B3. Are there any GUI's for FIBS? Tinyfugue Tinyfugue is a telnet client program which breaks the screen into separate 'panes' for input and output. A specialized version exists where a non scrolling backgammon board is displayed in a third pane. The specialized version is available for anonymous ftp from figment.csee.usf.edu in the directory /pub/misc/FIBS_client. I believe that backgammon version was modified by Snoopy and or marvin[?]. ----- xfibs [Note: The current version of xfibs is xfibs07] Article: 2440 of rec.games.backgammon From: torstein@itekiris.kjemi.unit.no (torstein hansen) Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon Subject: Motif-based client for FIBS available Date: 6 Jan 1994 13:03:58 GMT As some of you fibsters already know, I have been strugling with a Motif-based client to the FIBS-server for some time now. As I'll be moving away from my beloved X-terminal at the end of this month, and thus won't be able to do much more work on the client, I hereby declare xfibs as released... (include standing ovation here... :) At present, and at least for a few months the code can be fetched by anonymous ftp from itekiris.kjemi.unit.no (129.241.12.40) in the /pub-directory. The last version last time I looked was xfibs05-02. Description of the program: xfibs uses several seperated windows for its output. (3 to be excact.) At the top there is the graphical view of the backgammon board with dices, doubling cube etc. Below is two more windows, one for text coming from the server and the other acting like a command window. Nice features: The pieces may be moved by moving them with the mouse. Depending on what is happening, the right mouse button brings up different popup-menues with choices like roll,double,resign; accept double, reject double; accept move, reject move etc. To see what is available, just try it... User configurable menues. By editing a .xfibsrc file you may configure the menubar according to your personal taste. Look at the accompaning xfibsrc-example file for ideas. Also, look into the example app-defaults file for what resources that may be specified. \gag and \hilite commands: It seems like these commands are quite useful. Check out the new_in_05-02 file for an explenation for its use. (This file is living by itself at the ftp-site) Not so nice features: There are probably bugs... If the mouse stops working, try issuing the move command from the input window. That should do the trick. I hope it doesn't happen, though. Input window is limited in size. If you experience that your commands doesn't get through, try deleting some lines in the window. (Or try to reduce your shouting :)) Athena widgets are not supported. Help needed: There is no man-page at present. If anyone out there with some knowledge on nroff, troff or whatever it's called could jot down something I would be more than happy. If you experience bugs, and actually manage to track them down, put patches on the ftp-server in the directory pub/patches. Put wishes for new or improved feautures in the /pub/wishes directory. I won't be able to do anything about them though, but there might be some kind soul out there that wants a programming challenge :) Conditions for use: If you actually use the program, could you send me an e-mail message stating so? It would be nice to know if the program is useful for anyone else but me... Final comment: HAVE FUN, AND A HAPPY NEW FIBS-YEAR TO EVERYONE! Torstein Hansen torstein@itekiris.kjemi.unit.no [pick up any patches/bugfixes as well] ----- MacFIBS (Beta) Article: 2455 of rec.games.backgammon From: Paul Ferguson <pferguson@kaleida.com> Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon Subject: MacFIBS is coming, folks, seriously... Date: 10 Jan 1994 17:16:40 GMT Seeing the announcement about an X FIBS client, I thought it was a good time to update people about MacFIBS, a Macintosh FIBS client. I've been working on MacFIBS for the past several months; some of you may have seen me on FIBS testing the program. However, due to work committments (ah, work...) and personal committments (ah, wife...), I have had very little time to work on it. I apologize for all those Mac users who have been waiting patiently. The wait should be over soon. Like xfibs, MacFIBS provides multiple windows: a board window for dragging pieces and dice, a terminal window for debugging or directly typing FIBS commands, a score card/statistics window, a user list window, and a chat window (complete with "gag"). MacFIBS requires a MacTCP connection to the internet (direct, SLIP, or PPP). I may do a dumb terminal (serial) connection later, if demand (and time) warrants it. MacFIBS also requires a color Mac and at least a 68020 system (sorry, Plus/SE/Classic users; life sucks...) If you are interested in participating in beta testing MacFIBS, please send me a note. You must have the required stuff mentioned above, as well as the ability to receive large binary attachments via the internet. See you on FIBS! --fergy ----- tkfibs From: keithv@chiwaukum.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Vetter) Subject: TkFibs - an X interface to FIBS available Date: 4 Apr 1994 19:31:41 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Announcing TkFibs, an X based, graphical user interface to Fibs. TkFibs is a tcl/tk client that provides a better interface to Fibs. It displays two windows: one a graphical depiction of the board, the other session window with Fibs ala the bottom two windows in tinyfugue. I've been using the program for over 5 months now so it should be very solid. I've run it on DecStations, SparcStations, HP 735 and Alphas. The biggest caveat is that it requires TCL/TK to run. TCL/TK is a very nice scripting / user interface package for X. It is available from ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/tcl. TkFibs is located at shuksan.cs.berkeley.edu in /pub/tkfibs. Send comments, suggestions, bugs, etc to: tkfibs@shuksan.cs.berkeley.edu Enjoy keith vetter ----- A windows based fibs client has also been mentioned. ----- [Just a reminder to client writers. Some of us live behind 'firewalls', or can only obtain phone access. Please remember us!] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- B4. Whats about LDB? (Long Distance Backgammon. BG by Email) - ldb - Long Distance Backgammon. Play backgammon by E-mail. Program written by Perry R. Ross (perry@aap.com) From the ldb man page: Ldb allows two people to play backgammon over a network using electronic mail. It runs on character-oriented terminals, or emulators thereof, using the curses screen package. It will run on most UNIX dialects, as well as VAX-C under VMS 5.0 and above. Ldb handles all aspects of starting, playing, checking, and scoring games. It enforces all normal game rules, as well as several optional rules, and will not let you make an illegal move. When you have made your moves, ldb will automatically package your move and send them to your opponent. ----- The latest version is 1.3.2. Version 1.3 can be found in directory volume36. Patches can be found in subsequent volumes at your favorite comp.sources.misc archive site. Patch 1 is in volume 39. Patch 2 is in volume ??. Use: 'unix_prompt$ archie ldb' to locate the sources. [from Perry] I mentioned in that patch that, for people who can't figure out how to get ldb or how to apply patches, I'd be happy to send them a complete copy of the latest version. You might want to put the same offer into the faq. [Has anybody written a PC/Mac version using CC-mail via a Novell network?] [from Perry...] Well, I'd always intended to do a PC port, but just never got around to it. I was a bad boy, 32-bit wise, so there would be a little effort involved making it 16-bit clean. There's a package that simulates curses on a PC, I've heard. As far as the particular mail transport, ldb doesn't really care. It puts outgoing messages into a text file and executes a user-defined command to send the message. Incoming mail can be read pattern, to read multiple files), which ought to be pretty transport-independent. It wouldn't be that hard to port, I don't think. [Anybody have a little ambition?] The ldb 'game starter' operated by leopard@midnight.WPI.edu (Leo Gestetner) has been shut down. [ Are there others? ...Mark] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- B5. What other ways are there to play people via nets/modems/e-mail? - There is now a second backgammon server on-line, running on a 486 UNIX box. 'Netgammon' can be reached 24 hours at balder.novalink.com 3200 (IP address 192.233.90.2 3200) [Thanks Garrett] - Genie - An electronic service which includes multi-player games including backgammon. Pay by the hour for use. [Who has information for getting started on Genie?] [Who has opinions about backgammon on Genie (Mine were quite negative) ] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- B6. Are there any electronic tournaments? There are tournaments on FIBS and Genie. Tournaments on FIBS have been organized by David Eggert. They are particularly fun, as they seem to be designed to try and equalize playing skill levels! Contact: -- 'Snoopy' on FIBS -- eggert@mozart.ms.uky.edu ---- Genie has a quarterly single elimination tournament. $25 entry fee. Cash and credit prizes for first-fourth place. Hourly fee in effect while you play. The draw is non random, in that previous winners are placed such that they do not play each other in the first several rounds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- B7. Do other game servers exist? Backgammon: There is now a second backgammon server on-line, running on a 486 UNIX box. 'Netgammon' can be reached 24 hours at balder.novalink.com 3200 (IP address 192.233.90.2 3200) [Thanks Garrett] Bridge: Get 'OK.FAQ' from rec.games.bridge or rtfm.mit.edu for info on an Internet bridge server. Scrabble: telnet 134.53.14.112 7777 Chinese Chess: USA: telnet coolidge.harvard.edu 5555 or 128.103.28.15 5555 Sweden: telnet hippolytos.ud.chalmers.se 5555 or 129.16.79.39 5555 Othello(tm)/Reversi: telnet faust.uni-paderborn.de 5000 Chess: (one line split into two lines) unix_prompt$ xterm -sb -sl 500 -geometry 82x60+0+100 -T 'ICS - Denmark' -e /usr/local/bin/xboard -ics -icshost bentley.daimi.aau.dk -mono Presumably, if you just telnet to bentley.daimi.aau.dk and try loggining on as ics or something, you should find out more. ============================================================================= ELECTRONIC BACKGAMMON: VS. MACHINE: ============================================================================= C1. Are there any BG programs out there for my computer? Where are they? Most PD/Shareware backgammon programs are currently weak. The strongest that I have played has been bg06.zip for windows. This _looks_ an awful lot like the commercial program "BG by George". I've also seen the Spinnaker program sold as public domain, even though it is still being sold commercially. bg06 is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.cica.indiana.edu in the directory /pub/win3/games/ ---- There is a backgammon game for the Macintosh by Stephen Young, Debra Willrett, and David Young. The 1.0 version is fairly widespread, although there is a 2.0 version (dated May 25, 1989) available on America Online. The play is pretty weak, and the graphics are designed for the original small B&W Mac screen, but if you're really bored and can't find a human opponent, it works. The game is freeware, and you get what you pay for. -- Paul Ferguson ---- If you are serious about playing, Expert BG 2.1 can be bought for US$50, with the rollout features disabled, or for US$150, with them included. A 'Pro' version with enhanced rollout features is also available. See the 'What Programs Are Good...' section. A new Mac version has been mentioned for early 1994. There is a review in the software section of the FAQ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- C2. Which programs are good? How good is good? Program Name Source Type Score ----------------- ------ ------ ------ *TD-GAMMON 2.1 N/A N/A -0.05 Expert BG 2.1 Weaver IBM-PC -0.20 Expert BG 1.61 Weaver IBM-PC -0.35 Championship BG Spinnaker IBM-PC -0.66 Expert BG Komodo Macintosh -0.82 Sensory BG 2 Scitek Portable -0.94 Backgammon Odesta IBM-PC -1.20 BG by George GS Labs IBM-PC/Win -1.52 Video Gammon Baudville IBM-PC -1.61 PC-Gammon Repsted IBM-PC -3.67 Gammon Gakken Portable -12.40 Windows BG Baudville IBM-PC/Win -13.83 Gammon Pal Fidelity Portable -15.63 Micro BG Fidelity Portable -15.53 Games People Play Toolworks IBM-PC -26.60 [ From the 1994 GAMMON PRESS catalog. ] * Not available commercially, but may sometimes be played on FIBS. Score is the number of points won per game, on average, against a top flight human player. Very large numbers are caused by bad doubling algorithms which cause a program to double when behind (typically when primed but ahead in the race), causing the computer to lose some very large cubes. TD-Gammon, a neural network backgammon program by Gerry Tesauro, plays at the level of human experts. It is not, alas, available commercially. See 'What Is TD-Gammon' for more details. The most recent version, 2.1, has been estimated to play at -0.05 points per game against a top flight human expert, making the program the best anywhere, and one of the strongest players in the world; period! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- C3. Why is it so hard to write a good backgammon program? There are two basic ways that a computer can play a game as well as or better than humans. One is to be really smart, the other is to do an awful lot of work. The general strategy most game-playing programs use is to use an evaluation function that isn't very smart, but to make up for it by looking ahead a lot of moves (doing a lot of work). With chess, there are typically 20-30 moves by each player per turn. With backgammon, there are 21 unique rolls and often 4-6 ways to play each one (not counting doubles with could have 10 or more ways of playing). This makes it very difficult to look ahead very many levels. Looking ahead 3 moves by both players examining all possibilities when there are 25 choices at each play requires evaluating "only" 244 million positions. If there are 90 ways to play each move, there are 530,000 million, positions. With a game like chess, one can discard all but the best 5 or 10 plays per person. With backgammon, there are always 21 different choices of best plays, depending on the dice. This makes it crucial to have an excellent evaluation function. The difficulty in doing this is that factors such as the race have a different effect on the value of the position depending on what stage the game is in. Consider the concept of timing -- hard enough for people to grasp, extremely difficult for computers. Another example of the difficulty of evaluating plays: It's almost always beneficial to close out your opponents checkers. But if you've hit one checker and you almost have to hit a second to be able to win, closing out your opponent is very bad. -michael j zehr ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- C4. What is TD-GAMMON? Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon Fson.ibm.com (Gerry Tesauro) Subject: TD-Gammon paper available by FTP Sender: Gerald Tesauro (tesauro@watson.ibm.com) Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993 18:06:35 GMT Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM. The following paper, which has been accepted for publication in Neural Computation, has been placed in the neuroprose archive at Ohio State. Instructions for retrieving the paper by anonymous ftp are appended below. --------------------------------------------------------------- TD-Gammon, A Self-Teaching Backgammon Program, Achieves Master-Level Play Gerald Tesauro IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center P. O. Box 704 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 (tesauro@watson.ibm.com) Abstract: TD-Gammon is a neural network that is able to teach itself to play backgammon solely by playing against itself and learning from the results, based on the TD(lambda) reinforcement learning algorithm (Sutton, 1988). Despite starting from random initial weights (and hence random initial strategy), TD-Gammon achieves a surprisingly strong level of play. With zero knowledge built in at the start of learning (i.e. given only a ``raw'' description of the board state), the network learns to play at a strong intermediate level. Furthermore, when a set of hand-crafted features is added to the network's input representation, the result is a truly staggering level of performance: the latest version of TD-Gammon is now estimated to play at a strong master level that is extremely close to the world's best human players. --------------------------------------------------------------- FTP INSTRUCTIONS unix% ftp archive.cis.ohio-state.edu (or 128.146.8.52) Name: anonymous Password: (use your e-mail address) ftp> cd pub/neuroprose ftp> binary ftp> get tesauro.tdgammon.ps.Z ftp> bye unix% uncompress tesauro.tdgammon.ps unix% lpr tesauro.tdgammon.ps [ In the November/December 93 issue of Inside Backgammon, there is an article by Kit Woolsey, which rates ALL of the moves made by 3 programs for an entire 31 game series. TD-GAMMON was the strongest! I think that this is enough to officially call it the strongest backgammon program currently in existence!!!! ...Mark ] ============================================================================= RESOURCES: ============================================================================= D1. I'm looking for a club to play in... Below is a list of backgammon clubs in North America. It was taken from the January/Febrary 1994 issue of the Chicago Point newsletter. It may be copied for noncommercial purposes as long as you give full credit to "CHICAGO POINT, 2726 West Lunt Avenue, Chicago, IL 60645-3039." (FORMAT) CLUB NAME....................... LOCATION.................. CITY & STATE........ MEETING ON................ TIME... CONTACT............. TELEPHONE... MAIL INQUIRIES TO................................... (WEST) Gammon Associates Bombay Bicycle Club Burbank, CA Tuesday 7:00 PM Patrick Gibson 818/901-0464 7641 Orion Avenue; Van Nuys, CA 91406 Gammon Associates Bombay Bicycle Club Burbank, CA Sunday 2:00 PM Patrick Gibson 818/901-0464 * Backgammon Club of San Diego Kopper Kettle El Cajon, CA Wednesday 6:30 PM Mike Fujita 619/294-2007 P.O. Box 178119; San Diego, CA 92117 San Francisco Backgammon Golden Gate Grill San Francisco, CA Tuesday 7:45 PM Doug Adsit 415/931-4600 3200 Fillmore Street; San Francisco, CA 94123 San Francisco Bridge & BG Club Clubroom San Francisco, CA Mon., Wed., Fri. 9:00 PM Augie Hunt 415/776-6949 777 Jones Street; San Francisco, CA 94109 Colorado Backgammon J.L.'s Cheers Denver, CO Tuesday 7:30 PM Earl Earp 303/778-1105 102 W. 4th Avenue; Denver, CO 80223 No. Nevada Backgammon Assn. Rapscallion Seafood House Reno, NV Thursday 7:30 PM Jim Allen 702/329-1227 449 W. Plumb Lane; Reno, NV 89509 Pacific NW Backgammon Assn. Shakey's Pizza Bellevue, WA Monday 7:00 PM Chuck Breckenridge 206/778-8181 18204 Olympic View Drive; Edmonds, WA 98020 Puget Sound Backgammon Assn. European Connecktion Seattle, WA Tuesday 7:30 PM Guy Thurber 206/244-6737 428 SW 127th Street; Seattle, WA 98146 (CENTRAL) Bloomington-Normal BG Club Ride The Nine Bloomington, IL 1st/3rd/5th Tues. 6:15 PM Lane O'Connor 309/454-1947 108 Riss Drive; Normal, IL 61761 North Club Office Building Chicago, IL Daily except Sun. 12:30PM Greg Defotis 312/286-6719 4747 W. Peterson Ave. 402; Chicago, IL 60646 Chicago Bar Point Club Golden Flame Chicago, IL Tuesday 6:30 PM Bill Davis 312/338-6380 2726 W. Lunt Avenue; Chicago, IL 60645 Chicago Bar Point Club Braxton Seafood Grill Oak Brook, IL Sunday bimonthly 12:30 PM Peter Kalba 312/252-7755 2510 W. Iowa Street; Chicago, IL 60622 Pub Club Cricket's Pub & Gdll Glendale Hts., IL Most Sundays 1:30 PM V.W. Zimnicki 708/924-8632 P.O. Box 72216; Roselle, IL 60172 Pub Club Fiddler's Restaurant Villa Park, IL Monday 7:30 PM V.W. Zimnicki 708/924-8632 * Prime BG Club of Chicago TJ's Lounge/Radisson Hotel Lincolnwood, IL Friday 7:00 PM Joann Feinstein 708/674-0120 8149 Kenton; Skokie, IL 60076 Central Illinois Backgammon Club Chi-Chi's Peoria, IL Thursday 6:30 PM Ed Zell 309/673-7622 1920 W. Sherman Avenue; Peoria, IL 61604 Sangamon Valley BG Assn. Parker's Sports Bar Springfield, IL Tuesday 6:00 PM Mark Kaye 217/789-6275 2602 Peoria Road A; Springfield, IL 62702 Sangamon Valley BG Assn. Parker's Sports Bar Springfield, IL 1st Sat./Nov.-Apr. 11:30 AM Mark Kaye 217/789-6275 * Winnetka Backgammon Club Winnetka Community House Winnetka, IL Wednesday 7:00 PM Trudie Stern 708/446-0537 4200 W. Lake 302C; Glenview, IL 60025 Hoosier Backgammon Club Spats Indianapolis, IN Thursday 7:00 PM Butch Meese 317/845-8435 7620 Kilmer Lane; Indianapolis, IN 46256 Flint Area Backgammon Club Ramada Inn Flint, Ml Thursday 7:00 PM Carol Joy Cole 810/232-9731 3003 Ridgecliffe Drive; Flint, MI 48532 Plymouth Backgammon Club Box Bar & Grill Plymouth, MI Wednesday 7:30 PM Dean Adamian 313/981-5706 42954 Barchester; Canton, MI 48187 Cavendish North BG Club Clubhouse Southfield, MI Daily except Sun. 1:00 PM Joe Sylvester 810/642-9616 30065 Greenfield Road; Southfield, MI 48076 Minneapolis Backgammon Minneapolis Athletic Club Minneapolis, MN Monday 5:00 PM Fred Kalantari 612/339-4971 4701 Valley View Road; Edina, MN 55424 Cleveland Area Backgammon Boulevard Sports Tavem Cuyahoga Falls, OH Tuesday, Alt. Sat. 6:30 PM -7332 P.O. Box 28515; Cleveland, OH 44128 Austin Backgammon Assn. Bombay Bicycle Club Austin, TX Monday 7:30 PM Jackie Seiders-Smart 512/280-5945 7715 Copano Drive, Austin, TX 78749 American Backgammon Club Vickery Feed Store Dallas, TX Sunday 6:00 PM Kati Pratt 214/827-8402 5631 Ellsworth; Dallas, TX 75206 Dallas Backgammon League Humperdink's Dallas, TX Wednesday 7:45 PM Rich Weaver 214/620-7462 2682 Hearthstone; Dallas, TX 75234 Houston Backgammon Club Sidney's Houston, TX Tuesday 8:00 PM Jack Butler 713/774-9439 5931 Reamer Street; Houston, TX 77074 San Antonio Backgammon Dad's San Antonio, TX Mon., Wed., Fri. 8:00 PM Marcel Mommers 512/620/5210 3812 Greenridge Drive; Cilbo, TX 78108 Milwaukee Backgammon Club Gas Lite North Milwaukee, WI Wednesday 7:00 PM Marv Amol 414/355-8805 9031 N. 70th Street; Milwaukee, WI 53223 Milwaukee Backgammon Univ. of Wis.-Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI Occasional Fridays 7:00 PM Bob Holyon 414/672-8359 911 South 11th Street; Milwaukee, WI 53204 (NORTHEAST) College Park Backgammon Club Promenade Cardroom Bethesda, MD 2nd & 4th Sunday 12:00 N Barry Steinberg 301/530-0604 6100 Westchester Pk. Dr. T2; College Park, MD 20740 Cavendish Club of Boston Clubroom Brookline, MA Daily 12:00 N Cad Saldinger 617/734-2230 111 Cypress Street; Brookline, MA 02146 New England Backgammon Club Sheraton Commander Hotel Cambridge, MA Sunday monthly 12:30 PM Seth Towle 617/643-8154 975 Massachusetts Avenue 501; Arlington, MA 02174 New England Backgammon Club Sheraton Commander Hotel Cambridge, MA Monday 7:30 PM Seth Towle 617/643-8154 * Granite State Backgammon Club Folkway Restaurant Peterborough, NH Occasional Wed. 7:00 PM Lincoln Bedell 603/863-4711 South Road; East Lempster, NH 03605 New Jersey Backgammon Assn. Best Western Oritani Hotel Hackensack,NJ Tues. & Fri. 7:45 PM Ron Whitney 201/833-2915 279 Glen Court; Teaneck, NJ 07666 Ace Point Backgammon Club Clubroom New York, NY Daily 3:00 PM Michael Valentine 212/753-0842 41 E. 60th Street; New York, NY 10022 Backgammon & Chess Express Clubroom Now York, NY Daily; Tour. Sun. monthly 1:00 PM Nick Rabchenok 212/587-8038 64 Fulton Street 606; New York, NY 10038 Coterie Clubroom New York, NY Daily 1:00 PM Louise Goldsmith 212/371-5151 Private club. Telephone for information. New York Chess & Backgammon Office Building New York, NY Daily, Tour. Sunday 12:00 N Steve Manning 212/302-5874 120 W. 41st Street 3; New York, NY 10036 Saratoga Backgammon Club Spa City Diner Saratoga Springs, NY Tuesday 7:00 PM Lee Hoge 518/584-1714 P.O. Box 563; Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Greater New York BG Club Woodbury Ramada Inn Woodbury, NY Friday 8:00 PM Dr. Bob Hill 718/341-3779 194-22 115th Road; Jamaica, NY 11412 Cavendish Club of Philadelphia Clubroom Philadelphia, PA Daily except Sunday 1:00 PM Ken Relver 215/473-9564 3801 Conshohocken Avenue; Philadelphia, PA 19131 Pittsburgh Backgammon Assn. Murphy's Tap Room Pittsburgh, PA Tuesday 8:30 PM Steve Hast 412/823-7500 3560 Ridgewood Road; Pittsburgh, PA 15235 (SOUTH) Suncoast Backgammon Assn. New York, New York Lounge Clearwater, FL Mon. & Wed. 7:00 PM Drew Giovanis 813/726-1398 25350 U.S. Hwy 19 N. 67; Clearwater, FL 34623 South Florida Backgammon Popfinger's Ft. Lauderdale, FL Sunday 1:00 PM Elayne Feinstein 305/785-1282 2621 NE 7th Terrace; Pompano Beach, FL 33064 Backgammon Club of N.W. Florida Olde English Pub Lynn Haven, FL Thursday 7:30 PM Rick Bieniak 904/773-2013 P.O. Box 416; Wausau, FL 32463 Odando Backgammon Coach's Locker Room Odando, FL Tuesday 7:30 PM David Thomas 904/736-2844 P.O. Box 803, Deland, FL 32721 Backgammon Society of Sarasota Crazy Fox Tavem Sarasota, FL Tuesday 7:30 PM Cal Kendall 813/486-9119 824 Capri Isle Blvd. 207; Venice, FL 34292 Atlanta Backgammon Tony's Grill & Tap Roswell, GA Wednesday 7:00 PM Dave Cardwell 404/682-1969 P.O. Box 956547; Duluth, GA 30136 Backgammon In Louisville Delta Lounge Louisville, KY 2nd & 4th Tuesday 6:30 PM Quint McTyeire 502/896-9783 4906 Crofton Road; Louisville, KY 40207 (CANADA) Calgary Backgammon Buckingham Pub Calgary, AB Occasional Mondays 7:00 PM Hal Heinrich 403/229-2024 402-1122 15th Ave. SW; Calgary, AB T2R 1K5; CANADA Toronto Backgammon Le Spot Scarborough, ON Thursday 8:00 PM Charles Morrison 416/841-3523 135 Timpson Drive; Aurora, ON L4G 5N2; CANADA Jackhammer's Backgammon Jackhammers Scarborough, ON Friday, Saturday 7:00 PM Al Jones 416/434-8113 414 Century Street; Oshawa, ON LlK 1C6; CANADA Nat'l Capital Backgammon Club Lunergan's Pub Vanier, ON lst Sun./Sep.-Jun. 12:00 N Eden Windish 613/741-2530 396 Talbot Street; Offawa, ON KlK 2N6; CANADA Le Gammon Clubroom Montreal, QB Daily, Tour. Thur. & Sun. 2:00 PM Michel Medifti 514/845-8370 552 St. Catherine East, Montreal, OB H2L 2E1; CANADA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Playing Backgammon in the Boston area: From: mau@world.std.com (Michael A Urban) Date: 19 Oct 1993 Frequently, membership fees are waived for initial participants. For complete details, contact the club of interest. Cavendish Club 617-734-2230 111 Cypress St. Brookline, MA 02146 USA Fee: $150/year The Cavendish runs chouettes on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. The club also has duplicate and rubber bridge. New England Backgammon Club 617-643-8154 c/o Sheraton Commander Hotel President: Seth Towle 16 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138-3609 USA Fee: $35/year The NEBC runs weekly Monday tournaments starting at 7pm and monthly Sunday tournaments beginning at 1pm. No smoking is permitted in the tournament room. The NEBC publishes, "Anchors", a monthly newsletter. [Note: Some Sunday tournaments start at noon. Nov and May in 93/94 season] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D2. Where are the tournaments? -- Look for ads in backgammon newsletters. -- Check backgammon clubs. -- Sometimes announcements are posted to the news group rec.games.backgammon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D3. I'm looking for information about newsletters and other publications... Here is a list of Backgammon newsletters, with descriptions, originally posted to the newsgroup rec.games.backgammon by Butch Meese: Anchors: Newsletter of the New England Backgammon Club Monthly except July, usually 8 pages, two devoted to local news with remaining to analytical material and backgammon related stories with minimal advertising. Subscription: USA/Canada/Mexico: $15/year. Overseas: $25/year (check drawn on U.S. bank). Contact: NEBC c/o Sheraton-Commander Hotel 16 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138-3609 BLITZ Bi-monthly, 24 A5 sized pages. in Danish. It is a newsletter/magazine for a BG club in Copenhagen. 4-6 pages are directed towrds the members of the club, the rest is general analysis, commentated matches, articles, problems etc. There is a quiz a la Inside BG's quiz. 4 problems each issue, with the answers taking 4-6 pages. Subscription: Scandinavia Danish kr. 120 Europe Dkr. 140 Overseas (USA/Canada) Dkr. 160 Contact: Asger Kring (proj13@srv.imsor.dth.dk) Lykkesholms Alle 4B,3 th. 1902 Frederiksberg C. Denmark tlf: 3131 1439 Chicago Point Newsletter - A Prime Source of Backgammon Information Monthly newsletter, 10 pages: Subscription: USA/Canada/Mexico: $25/year. Overseas: $35/year airmail in USD check drawn on U.S. bank. Contact: ChicagoPoint Bill Davis, Editor 2726 West Lunt Avenue Chicago, IL 60645 Flint Area BackgammoNews Monthly newsletter, 10 pages: Problem analysis, book and software reviews, tournament schedules and complete results, local, national and international backgammon news and views. Full page catalog of backgammon merchandise. Subscription: USA/Canada/Mexico: $20/year or $200 lifetime. Overseas: $25/year or $250 lifetime subscription. Contact: Carol Joy Cole, Editor 3003 Ridgecliffe Drive Flint, Michigan 48532-3730 USA Phone/Fax: 810-232-9731. Hoosier Backgammon Club Newsletter Bi-monthly, 8 pages: Articles/problems plus very issue non-annotated matches of todays best players. Subscription: USA: $10/years Canada/Mexico: $12/year. Overseas: $14/year (cash or check drawn on US bank.) Contact: Butch & Mary Ann Meese Hoosier Backgammon Club 7620 Kilmer Lane Indianapolis, IN 46256 USA Inside Backgammon Bi-monthly, 24 pages: Technical magazine with quizzes, articles and annotated matches by the best backgammon player today. Subscription: USA: $40/years Canada/Mexico and oversea ground: $45/year. Overseas airmail: $60/year (US funds). Contact: INSIDE BACKGAMMON P. O. Box 294 Arlington, MA 02174 USA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D4. Backgammon books and book reviews. (From rec.games.backgammon) From: hunter@work.nlm.nih.gov (Larry Hunter) Subject: Bibliography Date: 21 May 92 20:11:35 GMT Sender: usenet@nlm.nih.gov (usenet news poster) One more for the FAQ. Before Marty Storer left the list, I pestered him for an annotated bibliography. He came through in grand style. Here it is: Must have: _Backgammon_, Paul Magriel, NY Times/Quadrangle Press, New York 1976. The best introduction to the game. Covers basic checker play very well. If you read and thoroughly understand this book, you'll play a decent game. Weaknesses--skimpy treatment of the doubling cube. _Genud_vs_Dwek:_The_1981_World_Backgammon_Championship_ (or similar title), Bill Robertie, The Gammon Press, Arlington, Mass. 1982. Very thorough coverage of the 25-point finals of the 1981 Monte Carlo tournament. Goes into quite a bit of detail about ins and outs of match play. Excellent section on backgames. I've referred to this as Robertie(red) since it has a red cover 8-). _Backgammon_With_The_Champions_, Kent Goulding, ~1980-82. Series of annotated matches between good players. Forget how many in all. Excellent material, giving very good insight into how top players think. Commentary by Goulding, often in collaboration with Kit Woolsey; both of these guys are very, very strong players. Let's see, the matches are Seidel vs. Hodis; Magriel vs. Sconyers; Genud vs. Posner; Pasko vs. Motakhasses; two (?) 5-point matches in one volume: Lester vs. Horan and Woolsey vs. Pasko; Robertie vs. Senkiewicz; Goulding vs. Maxakuli; Dwek vs. Chafetz; Ballard vs. Lubetkin; Eisenberg vs. Magriel(?); and more I can't remember. I can't recommend this series too highly (though Genud vs. Posner was a lousy match). _Advanced_Backgammon_ (2nd edition; two volumes), Bill Robertie, Gammon Press, Arlington, Mass. '91. I haven't seen this yet--only the first edition of one volume. Series of problems, giving very good introduction to truly advanced concepts. Errors in first edition are supposedly corrected. The first edition is what I call Robertie(blue); the second is Robertie(white). _Backgammon_Times_, all back editions. This was a very good backgammon newspaper that was around in about '82-'83. A lot of interesting articles by top players and analysts. Probably hard to get these days. _Reno_1986_, Bill Robertie, The Gammon Press, Arlington, Mass. 1987. Two annotated matches from the very strong Reno tournament of '86. Semifinal match is between Nack Ballard and Mike Senkiewicz; an excellent match, well annotated. Finals between Ballard and Howard Markowitz. The book is in quiz format, so you can test your skill against Ballard's (well, kind of: Ballard had to find his moves over-the-board under great pressure--nothing like the finals of a big tournament to get the adrenalin flowing!). I've only found a couple of mistakes in the annotations. This book is referred to as Robertie(yellow). _World_Class_Backgammon_,_Move_By_Move_, Roy Friedman, 1989 or 90; forget other publication info. Annotated matches between Robertie and "international star" Rick Barabino (Barabino is strong, but "international star"--I dunno...). Three 9-point matches with some excellent games (check out the second game of the first match particularly). Annotations are very good; Friedman put a lot of work into rolling out many of the diagrammed positions. The annotation style is terse; Friedman takes a very scientific approach. _Vision_Laughs_at_Counting_ (two volumes), Danny Kleinman, ~1978. -all other material by Kleinman is "must have"--write to him at 5312-1/2 Village Green, Los Angeles, CA 90016 and tell him I sent ya. Seminal work on match play, money play, doubling cube, races, and more. Kleinman is very prolific. His analyses are often more mathematical than the average reader can handle, but Real Mathematicians [tm] and even the layperson with math aptitude shouldn't be fazed. A Real Mathematician wouldn't call Kleinman's math "deep", but it sure is accurate, and you won't find anything similar anywhere else. He does the important work of formulating the right problems the right way, where many others couldn't. Drawbacks: his books are self-published with lousy layout and graphics. He's supposedly not that great a player (I've never seen him play), so his analyses often lack the world-class insight into the thought processes of the strong practical player that you could get from a Goulding or a Robertie. In particular, his middle-game intuition seems less than world-class. But these drawbacks are more than made up for by mpletely soaked up after many years. Kleinman is a subtle thinker and a meticulous analyst of the countable, and he does a lot to develop backgammon "vision." His stuff is often uproariously funny, but sometimes one gets impatient trying to filter out what's relevant to the practical player from the humor. I repeat--all his books are "must have's" for the serious player. They're a bit expensive since I think he bears all the production costs himself, but for the serious player they're worth every cent. Pretty Good Books But Not "Must Have's": _Backgammon_For_Profit_, Joe Dwek, Stein and Day, New York 1975 (out of print) Problems that would now be considered fairly basic. Almost all solutions are right. Tables of replies to opening moves show how badly people played in 1975. _Paradoxes_and_Probabilities_, Barclay Cooke, Random House, New York 1978. This is almost a "must have." 168 problems, most of which are very interesting. Current thinking is that solutions to about a third of them are wrong, but the analysis gives very good insight into how Cooke, a first-generation world class player, thought about backgammon. _The_Doubling_Cube_In_Backgammon_, Jeff Ward, Aquarian Enterprises, San Diego 1982. Goes into basic doubling-cube concepts and gives some benchmark positions with equities derived from rollouts. Gives some bearoff tables, etc. Analysis of benchmark positions is pretty good but sometimes skimpy; Ward only admits to having done 100-200 rollouts to derive his equities. Worth having. _Backgammon_Master_Games_, Bill Kennedy and Chuck Papazian, 1982 (forget other publication info). Annotated games and positions from master match play. Analysis is largely based on intuitive concepts, and isn't well grounded in match-equity considerations etc. Not well supported by rollouts; a fair amount of errors, but the analysis overall is pretty sound. Other books that I've read aren't worth much, including _Competitive_Backgammon_ Vol._II_, Mike Labins, Marty Storer, and Bill Tallmadge, Competitive Backgammon Publications, Syracuse 1981. (It was good for the time but would be considered lousy now.) As I mentioned before, you can reach Gammon Press at (617)641-2091, fax: (617)641-2660 or PO Box 294 Arlington, MA 02174 USA Larry -- Lawrence Hunter, PhD. National Library of Medicine Bldg. 38A, MS-54 Bethesda. MD 20894 (301) 496-9300 (301) 496-0673 (fax) hunter@nlm.nih.gov (internet) [Note: Fax number edited to reflect the current number.] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article: 1666 of rec.games.backgammon Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon From: johnsson@sara.cc.utu.fi (MIKA JOHNSSON) Subject: BG BOOKS INFO Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1993 10:20:19 GMT HI ! Many people (last Snoopy) have asked about good BG books, well here is and answer that i got from John Bazigos (Doc), when I asked him about books -Mika BG BOOKS BY JOHN BAZIGOS The two best introductory books are Paul Magriel's "Backgammon" (New York Times Quadrangle Press; New York, NY; USA; 1976) and Enno Heyken's and Martin B. Fischer's "The Backgammon Handbook" (The Crowood Press; Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 2HE; Great Britain; 1990). The advantages of Magriel's "Backgammon" are, first, Magriel was a clear-minded, distinguished mathematician at the top of the backgammon world when he wrote it; second, it was the only truly analytic book on backgammon since Oswald Jacoby's and John R. Crawford's "The Backgammon Book"; third, it rendered all backgammon texts preceding it (including "The Backgammon Book"), and even some subsequent backgammon texts, obsolete as introductory texts; fourth, it systematically elucidates backgammon strategy, from fundamental to intermediate to advanced; fifth, it does great justice to its topics in its well-diagrammed over-400 pages; and sixth, it has passed the test of time as an introductory text, having been commonly referred to as "The Bible" of backgammon. Its disadvantages are, first, some important details of some advanced topics (e.g., desirable back-game points), and even some major points of some beginning/intermediate topics (e.g., tradeoffs between positional and racing equity) are obsolete; second, the prose, though very readable, is structurally and stylistically weak; third, the text has been out-of-print since some time last year, though is well worth a search of *all* your local used/out-of-print bookstores; and fourth, though the publication price was $24.95, the only mail-order list on which I have found it prices it at $80, which makes a used/out-of-print bookstore an even better source -- since it is typically discounted to about $15 there, in my experience (here in the San Francisco Bay Area). The advantages of "The Backgammon Handbook" are, first, like "Backgammon", it systematically elucidates backgammon strategy; second, it contains the complete score, with some annotations, of the very illuminating, 26-game match between two-time World Backgammon Champion and leading bg theorist Bill Robertie and now-inactive international master Nack Ballard (Reno, 1987) that the former described as "...perhaps the most interesting one I've ever played in my life!"; and third, it is still in print with a publication price of about $35. Its disadvantages are, first, Heyken --though an International Master in chess-- does not have an international backgammon rating, and Fischer does not have a master rating in backgammon; second, it contains only about 60% as much text as "Backgammon", while not being significantly terser; and third, the authors' lack of qualifications is evidenced in some of their misleading and/or naive analyses. I think that you should search your local, or even not quite local, used/out-of-print bookstores for "Backgammon", and pay up to about $50 for it -- though if you find it in such a store, it is likely to be discounted to about $15; and then, if you cannot find it at a reasonable price, buy and read "The Backgammon Handbook" -- after which your time won't be best spent reading Magriel soon thereafter. > are you familiar with Kleinmans books, I have read most of his "magnum opus" "Vision Laughs at Counting", which contains much sound advice on the practical aspects of bg play (e.g., sections on bg hustlers, bg cheaters, chouette money management), seminal advice on handling the doubler, and even a few unprecedented mathematical characterizations of certain aspects of certain positions (e.g., how many pips to penalize a player for having one or more checkers on the bar). > are they good ? "Vision Laughs at Counting" is generally insightful and often very amusingly written, but not suitable as an introductory text, sometimes obsolete, and sometimes simply wrong; and though it is the only text by Kleinman that I have read, I have good reason to believe that that judgment applies to Kleinman's other texts, as well. Ok; then after finishing "Backgammon" or "The Backgammon Handbook", study Jeff Ward's "The Doubling Cube in Backgammon" -- which has long been offered through Carol Cole. Magriel's "Backgammon" routinely used to be, and sometimes still is, referred to as "the Bible (of backgammon)"; but since the publication of Robertie's three books on backgammon --i.e., "Lee Genud vs. Joe Dwek" (1982), "Advanced Backgammon" (1984 and 1991, the latter edition in two volumes), and "Reno, 1986" (1987)-- I think that it's more appropriate to refer to "Backgammon" and collectively those three as the Old and New Testaments of backgammon, respectively. Given that you have already finished studying "The Backgammon Handbook" and "The Doubling Cube in Backgammon", I think that you should read one or more books of Robertie's "New Testament" fairly soon after finishing Roy Friedman's "World Class Backgammon, Move-By-Move" -- which I, also, recently received a copy of from Carol Cole, and is the backgammon book that I intend to read next. Well, from the quality perspective, I was significantly more impressed with it when perhaps the only bg literature I had read was typical junk from the 1970s (i.e., Bruce Becker's monumentally horrible "Backgammon for Blood", and Barclay Cooke's often-misleading "The Cruelest Game" and slightly-better "Championship Backgammon"), "The Backgammon Book", and Magriel's "Backgammon"; and from the price perspective, the decision is strictly yours, though I hereby make the following three interrelated claims: 1. If you read enough backgammon books, there will quite possibly come a time when "Vision Laughs at Counting" will be the best book for to read next to improve your technique maximally. 2. You are probably at least seven books from that point: "World Class Backgammon, Move-By-Move", the four volumes of backgammon's New Testament, and both volumes of Kent Goulding's "Backgammon With The Champions" are presently better for that purpose (and you can perhaps most profitably read them in that order). 3. "Vision Laughs at Counting" is the most entertaining instructional backgammon book that has been published to date. > BTW are there other good bg newspapers or magazines ? Last year was an unprecedentedly good one for backgammon periodicals, in that it saw the first issues of what I strongly believe were and still are the two best periodicals for backgammon theory ever --i.e., Bill Robertie' and Kent Goulding's bi-monthly "Inside Backgammon", and Roy Friedman's almost bi-monthly "Leading Edge Backgammon". The former is still being published (I recently received my copy of the fourth issue of its second volume), and publication of the latter was suspended at the end of last year (due to some personal problems that Roy was having); but it was possible to order either or both of them from Carol the last time I checked (Please inform me if you need ordering information on either or both of them). Those are the only three backgammon periodicals to which I (have ever) subscribe(d), though that may change soon; more on that in a forthcoming e-mail message from me. > Do you know any technical papers about BG, One of the best features of both "Inside Backgammon" and "Leading Edge Backgammon" is they consist mostly of (what I would consider) technical papers on backgammon. >I have read Keelers and Spencers "optimal doubling in BG" So have I, but I have also read a paper co-authored by Zadeh, titled "On Optimal Doubling in Backgammon", that explicitly rendered that paper obsolete. I'll provide you with more information on both that and other technical papers from the 1970s in a forthcoming e-mail message. > and in one AI-magazine was an article about Tesauros TD-gammon (about 20 p) The second volume of "Inside Backgammon" contains about one article per issue on TD-Gammon, two of which document (recent) sessions that Robertie, Magriel, and at least one other bg master had against it; more on that, also, in an forthcoming e-mail message from me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "How to play tournament BG" by Kit Woolsey This is an excellent introduction to how play and particularly cube handling varies in games. It shows how to compute push and cash points, recube equity, how to figure gammon costs, etc. It gives Kit's latest match equity chart and gives a method for remembering most of it fairly well. If you play matches games and don't immediately recognize any of these terms, I strongly suggest reading it. -michael j zehr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Backgammon by Robin Clay $7.95 NTC Publishing Group I was surprised to see this book for sale recently at a local book shop. This book was 'skimmed' by two intermediate players, and both immediately found that the some of the concepts and advice given were grossly incorrect. One of these 'reviewers', went as far as to say: "If your opponent says that he has just read this book, immediately raise the stakes!". ...Mark -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In The Game Until The End: Winning In Ace-Point Endgames by Bob Watchel You've played an ace-point game; Your opponent is down to his last few checkers. Should you run? Should you stay? If your opponent wants to settle, what's the game worth? How aggressively should you try to pick up a second checker? If you don't know the answers to these critical questions, you need this book. In Chapter 4 alone you'll discover the secrets of the famous "Tino Road Position," an endgame so complicated that - once you know how to play it - you can take the position from either side and win. Olympiad Champion Bob Watchel has thoroughly analyzed hundreds of ace-point game positions to generate a complete picture of what's really going on in these common yet widely-misplayed situations. Soft bound, 112 Pages. Level: Advanced and Serious Intermediate. Available from the GAMMON PRESS. US$25 + Shipping [From a flyer from the GAMMON PRESS] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Learning from the Machine: Robertie vs. TD-GAMMON by Bill Robertie For years, computer backgammon was a languishing sideshow, with the best computer programs barely able to rise to the intermediate level. This all changed in 1991 with the emergence of TD-Gammon, an experimental neural network program developed at IBM's research labs. TD-Gammon taught itself to play, starting with a knowledge of the rules of the game. After playing thousands of games against itself, the program reached strong Open player level; within months, it became world-class. TD-Gammon plays like a strong human player in many parts of the game. In some areas, it plays quite unlike what has generally been accepted as "correct strategy" leading increasing numbers of top players to begin to experiment with some of TD-Gammon's unconventional plays. Here is your chance to see for yourself. Bill Robertie played two long matches against TD-Gammon as part of its evaluation process. "Learning from the Machine" is the complete account of the 31 games of the first match, with annotations by Robertie. Soft bound, 56 Pages. Level: All. Available from the GAMMON PRESS. US$20 + Shipping [From a flyer from the GAMMON PRESS] [Note: This is TD-GAMMON Version 1.?] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other books seeking write-ups: -- Fascinating Backgammon by Antonio Ortega, Edited by Danny Klienman, forwarded by Carol Joy Cole and Neil Kazaross (English Version) -- Backgammon For Winners by Bill Robertie. $6.95 Cardoza Publishing -- Backgammon With The Champions will be re-released by the GAMMON PRESS over the course of the next several years with modern commentary, presumably by Kent Goulding and/or Bill Robertie. The first match book is to be released around December 93. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A list of Danny Kleinman books (Backgammon) Pages Price (US$) ----- ----------- VISION LAUGHS AT COUNTING with ADVICE TO THE DICELORN 438 $64 WONDERFUL WORLD OF BACKGAMMON 132 $18 MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE CHOUETTE 142 $29 D IS THERE LIFE AFTER BACKGAMMON? 148 $21 HOW CAN I KEEP FROM DANCING? 134 $19 THE DICE CONQUER ALL 228 $33 HOW LITTLE WE KNOW ABOUT BACKGAMMON 168 $25 THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT 142 $20 ... BUT ONLY THE HOGS WIN BACKGAMMONS 244 $37 A Backgammon Book For Gabriel. ??? $?? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D5. A List of Backgammon Articles in Science and Business. [Original list submited by Mika Johnsson] E.B. Keeler, J. Spencer: "Optimal doubling in Backgammon", Operations research Vol. 23 No. 6, November-December 1975 David Levner: "is Brute Force Backgammon Possible ?", SIGART newsletter No. 58, June 1976 N. Zadeh and G.Kobliska: "On optimal doubling in backgammon" , Management science 23, 853-858 (1977) Hans Berliner: "Backgammon computer program beats world champion", Artificial intelligence 14 (1980), 205-220 Hans Berliner: "Computer Backgammon", Scientific American 243:1, 64-72 (1980) G. Tesauro: "Neurogammon wins Computer Olympiad.", Neural computation 1, 321-323 (1989) G.Tesauro, T.J.Sejnowski: "A parallel network that learns to play Backgammon", Artificial intelligence 39 (1989) 357-390 G. Tesauro, ``Neurogammon: a neural network backgammon program.'' IJCNN Proceedings vol. III, 33-40 (1990). G. Tesauro, ``Practical issues in temporal difference learning.'' Machine Learning vol. 8, 257-277 (1992). G. Tesauro, ``TD-Gammon, a self-teaching backgammon program, achieves master-level play.'' Neural Computation, vol. 6, 215-219 (1994). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D6. Backgammon software and software reviews. -- BackgammonBase 2.3 by Johannes Schmitt -- Backgammon Position Analyzer 4.01 by Larry Strommen -- Bearoff Equities & Backgames Vol. 1 & 2 CD-ROM by Hugh Sconyers -- Hyper Backgammon PC CD-ROM game by Hugh Sconyers -- BOINQ by Hal Heinrich -- MATCHQIZ Vol. 1-3 by Hal Heinrich and Kit Woolsey -- Bearoff Quizmaster by Walter Trice (Demo available) -- BG Scribe by Walter Trice [Does anybody reading this FAQ own any of these programs? Would you write a paragraph description, or a full blown review please?] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOINQ Boinq is a program which analyzes bearoffs. It can handle any position where both sides have all their men in the inner board. All results are cubeless. For any position you enter, you can get the probabality of each side winning, equity on a 1-cube, proper way to play any roll of the dice, and a distribution of probabality of bearing off in any number of rolls. The results are displayed virtually instantaneously, since they are read directly from a data file rather than done by simulation. Very user friendly and easy to use -- I use it a lot for a quick check on bearoff problems. Program takes about 4 meg, so have some room on your hard disk. Produced by Hal Heinrich -- cost is $100 I think. Can contact Hal at: 1122 15 Ave. SW apt 402 Calgary, AB Canada T2R 1K5 Phone: 416-229-2024 E-mail address: heinrich@cuug.ab.ca Kit [Note: Also available from Carol Joy Cole] [Note: As far as I know, this is a PC program ...Mark] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hyperbackgammon Hypergammon is a short version of backgammon where each side has three checkers. In initial position, these checkers start on opponent's ace, two and three points. From then on normal backgammon rules apply. Cube is in play, Jacoby rule, gammons and backgammons count (and are quite frequent). Proper play is much more subtle than might be imagined. The program produced by Hugh Sconyers plays the game perfectly, since Hugh has established a full data base which has the equities for all possible positions, and the program will tell you if you make an error. It can be a lot of fun to play, the games go quickly, and by playing the program you learn pretty quickly the correct strategies. Kit [Note: Also available from Carol Joy Cole and THE GAMMON PRESS] [Note: As far as I know, the distribution is a CD-ROM for the PC ...Mark] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matchqiz With the MatchQiz software, Kit Woolsey (long time contributer to Inside Backgammon and Backgammon with the Champions, author of How to Play Tournament Backgammon, and currently ranked #9 in the world) has added his name to the short list of backgammon indispensables. The very short list. Magriel, Robertie, Woolsey. I think that's all you really need. MatchQiz is more than very good; it is the single best tool I know of for transforming your game from intermediate to expert. First let me describe the format: You choose a match from a menu, and the computer shows you the starting position and opening roll. *Then you choose your play.* Now you get to see the actual play, plus Kit Woolsey's commentary. This happens for every play, every cube decision. It is an improvement over printed annotated matches in several ways: Convenience and speed. How many times have you followed a match on your own board only to find that the moves and commentary have stopped making sense? Perhaps you moved the wrong piece two rolls ago? Or was it three rolls ago? Maybe you should just start this game over. Never again with MQ. How many hints do you receive when going over printed matches? You can see that the player drops the cube because a new game begins next page. Or did the index card you use to cover the bottom of the page slip, denying you the chance to come up with your play without seeing Svobodny's? Not with MQ. Perfect use of default options. Do you have a tendency to forget the cube in complex positions? MQ will let you make that mistake -- but will chide you for it. Of course the format wouldn't mean much if the annotations weren't up to par. But they are exquisite. Woolsey is complete, concise, and entertaining. He covers all aspects of play, from the most elementary opening moves to the most subtle match equity considerations. Here is one small sample: "This is an expert play which many players would not find. If Magriel quietly plays 13/5, O'Laughlin will be free to make any point that his dice dictate, and Magriel will be poorly placed in the upcoming prime vs. prime battle since he will have two men back will O'Laughlin will have only one man back. Magriel's play forces O'Laughlin to attack on the bar point whether he wants to or not, thus preventing him from making optimal use of such point making numbers as 42 or 51. It is thematic when you have the better board and your opponent has one man back to split your runners to make it difficult for your opponent to catch up in the board-building battle." You get this level of analysis after every nearly every play. One final benefit that might go unnoticed is volume. Woolsey has 18 matches available now, and volume four is due soon. That is quite a library. Often an annotater will mention some general theme or principle and show how it applies it to a specific position. But would that principle apply if the position were slightly different? With the MQ library, you will be able to compare similar positions and examine if the same principles apply. Thising phase of the game, where the same sorts of decisions come up all the time. Woolsey sells one match for $20, or a set of 6 for $100. This is a fantastic deal considering that most printed annotated matches go for $20 or so, and I guarantee that you'll get more use out of these. Write to Hal Heinrich, 402, 1122 15th Ave. SW., Calgary, Alberta, CANADA T2R-1K5. Or call (403) 229-2024. Jeremy Bagai [Note: Also available from Carol Joy Cole and THE GAMMON PRESS] [Note: This program is written for the IBM-PC, but it 'should' run under "Soft-PC" for the Macintosh, any level, as the graphics are CGA (640x200x2) ...Mark] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Expert Backgammon 2.1 for PC: List of features. Mark Damish E-Mail: damish@ll.mit.edu Here is some initial information on Expert Backgammon version 2.1 for the IBM PC. Intro: I remember November 92, the first time I walked into a backgammon club to participate in a tourney. After playing on FIBS for a month, I thought that I was already a decent player. Wrong. I won a match, and lost a match. Afterwards, I played a few games for $1/point. I reached a simple and common holding game position where I was doubled, and thought surely it was worth 25%, and took. My opponent, being helpful to a newcomer, pointed out that the position was only worth about 15%. Later, I was able to verify his claim using Expert Backgammon, and had my first 'benchmark' position. I have since used Expert Backgammon to benchmark many other simple positions, as well as to play hundreds of games against it. What it is: Expert Backgammon, (EXBG), is a program which allows you to play backgammon against the computer either in a 'money' or 'tournament' format. It also allows you enter a position, and let the computer 'roll it out' --- that is, to let it play both sides many times, and show you the results. Expert Backgammon is currently the strongest computer program available commercially, and the game version is quite affordable! Only TD-GAMMON might lay claim to being the strongest program in the world, but alas, it is not available commercially. Brief Description of EXBG versions: Expert Backgammon is currently available in two releases: 1.61, and 2.1. Release 2.1 has 3 different versions, with different features EXBG 2.1 GAME VERSION $50. Plays the game of backgammon. EXBG 2.1 EXPERT VERSION $150. Plays BG, and Rolls out positions. EXBG 2.1 PRO VERSION $300. Plays BG, and Rolls out positions. Has some advanced rollout features. EXBG 1.61 EXPERT VERSION $100 Plays BG, and Rolls out positions. Upgrades from EXBG 1.61[expert] to EXBG 2.1[expert] $60 Upgrades from EXBG 1.61[expert] to EXBG 2.1[pro] $200 There are other upgrades available for the other versions as well. Some Random Features (pro version): -- Fast non mouse interface for moving the checkers. -- Match or Money play options. -- Optional Jacoby rule. -- Cube profile statistics. -- Save positions for future evaluation. -- Save games to be played back later. -- Computer can suggest a move. -- Shot counter. -- Computer can finish game, when it becomes routine. -- Woolsey or 35% (Friedman?) match equity table for matches. -- Pip count. -- Quick or Extended cube searches. Speed vs. accuracy. -- Rollouts: -- Random dice. -- Sequenced dice for one or two sides. That is all 36 possible starting combinations for one or two sides. -- Rollout multiple positions simultaneously in batch mode. -- Duplicate dice when rolling out multiple positions. Performance: Speed: Less than 5 seconds per game to play a game from the starting position on a 486DX2-66 processer. Strength: Seems stronger than 1.61. Strength is also a somewhat controversial subject. Can the machine play a complex prop as well as a human who is familiar with the position? Does the machine have any 'blind spots' in early game play? Can it 'work a prime' to get a second checker when needed? Does it blitz too often, not enough? 'Seems stronger' is as far as I'll venture until I learn more about how to play the game myself! Copy Protection: The program is copy protected. The distribution disks will allow you to install the program to two hard disks, as well as allowing you to run the program from the floppy. You may 'uninstall' the program from the hard disk, back to the floppy for installation on another disk/machine if required. It is best to uninstall the program before using backup programs, or reformatting your hard disk/partition, as you can loose your installation. Early versions of 1.61 used a differant scheme. They simply stopped running after a certain date. The authur supplies free updates to those with the early protection scheme. Sample Cube Analysis Screen: B L A C K C U B I N G A N A L Y S I S C U B E Game won by - lost by Gammons Backgammons Equity location size cube play cube play won lost won lost /Game Center 1 47 3 22 8 4 9 0 0 0.108 Black 2 8 0 0 11 0 0 0 1 -0.600 Red 2 0 21 2 2 4 0 2 0 2.000 Black 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.000 Red 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Black 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 -8.000 01-21-1994 The Jacoby Rule was NOT USED Only Money Play with Extended Cube Search MARK won 61.074% of the games played Equity for MARK = 0.349 per game for 149 games Cubeless equity for MARK = 0.228 Net equity when Black took a 2 cube = -0.870 per game Net equity when Red took a 2 cube = 1.879 per game [An above average performance in this set.] Help Screen: F1 = MENU OF AVAILABLE OPTIONS - Professional Edition A - Automatic Double Ctrl+A - Automatic Concession B - Beaver Ctrl+B - Clear Board C - Checker Setup Ctrl+C - Cube Setup D - Double the Cube Ctrl+D - Manual Dice Entry E - Extended Cube Search Ctrl+E - Match Equity F - New Player Name Ctrl+F - File - Alternate Path G - Game - Money or Match Play Ctrl+G - Delete Game H - On-Line Help Service Ctrl+H - Using Option Defaults I - Invert Position Ctrl+I - Alter the Starting Position J - Jacoby Rule Ctrl+J - Title for Rollout K - Monitor Type Ctrl+K - Player Cube Profile L - Level of Difficulty Ctrl+L - Listing of Game M - Take Back Move N - Sound Ctrl+N - Start New Game O - Options Currently Selected Ctrl+O - Open Position P - Player on Roll Ctrl+P - Print Position Q - Show PiP Count Ctrl+Q - Black Shotcounter R - Replay Game Ctrl+R - Rollout Position S - Speed of Checker Movement Ctrl+S - Save Position T - Suggest Move for Black Ctrl+T - Match Win % Table U - Skip Save Game/Position Ctrl+U - Delete Position V - Black Detailed Shotcounter W - Expert to Finish the Game Ctrl+W - Write Rollout to Disk X - Cancel Move and Reroll Dice Ctrl+X - Print Disk Rollout Z - Zero the Score Escape - Leave EXBG Rollout summary printout: EXPERT BACKGAMMON ROLLOUT SUMMARY Date: 12-12-1993 Games viewed = 0 File: 65_21_A Summary only = 1296 Version: 2.1 1296 games rolled out at Used Hrs:Min:Sec 1:37:41 4.522 seconds per game. Batched Duplicate Rollout of 1296 games. No doubling allowed - Cube at 1 level [ Diagram of board position was cut from here...] O on roll. O won 45.83% games 594 11.42% gammons 148 0.46% backgammons 6 --------------------------- 57.72% of the games 748 +0.170 points per game. X won 32.18% games 417 9.41% gammons 122 0.69% backgammons 9 --------------------------- 42.28% of the games. 548 -0.170 points per game. The dice rolls were generated randomly. Note: There is also a screen which shows the results of several games rolled out simultaniously. Note: Above screens were 'captured' by redirecting my printer port to a file, and have been edited slightly. Ordering Info: Tom Weaver Expert Backgammon 8063 Meadow Road, # 108 Dallas, Texas 75231 Call: Expert Backgammon (214) 692-1234 M-F 10am-10pm Central US time. An answering service answers when Tom isn't around. Also available from Carol Joy Cole and probably THE GAMMON PRESS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software Review: BG-SCRIBE, A Program By Walter Trice. Mark Damish (E-mail: damish@ll.mit.edu) BG-Scribe -- A system for editing, replaying, and printing backgammon matches for the IBM-PC by Walter Trice. This is a program which I consider essential for myself. It will: -- Allow one to enter matches from books and magazines, or from those personally recorded, to be played back and studied later. Entry is done using the numeric keypad. After a while, you end up being able to enter a match very quickly, and become quite proficient at touch-typing the keypad to boot. An `AT' style keyboard is preferable for entering matches. -- Play back matches purchased from Walter. Watching great matches between the masters is definitely enlightening. My favorite matches are the ones from annotated books. It shouldn't be hard to write a program to convert a match from one format to another, if already have a collection of matches. I've converted matches posted to Internet by Butch Meese using nothing more than simple editor macros. The matches are currently stored as plain ASCII files---one directory per match, and one file per game. -- Print out matches to disk or printer. I like to: print out to disk, annotate my comments using a simple editor, then print the resulting file to a printer. The program will also embed diagrams of positions to the printout, but it uses IBM graphics characters, which might have to be changed if your printer doesn't support them. The diagram feature is especially useful for diagramming doubling decisions. The program is run from one of two screens. The first is a text screen with options for creating a new match, loading, saving, etc. The second screen displays the backgammon board using a CGA 4 color, 40 column text mode. Trust me here---this mode, with its X's and O's, looks a lot better than backgammon boards I've seen drawn using the CGA 2 color graphics mode. Why CGA text mode? Probably because it will run on any portable or palmtop machine, and likely on most PC emulators on other platforms. It also runs fine in a window under MS Windows, without having to mess around with a .pif file. The second screen is where matches are entered or played back. When playing back a match, you may see the dice, then the players choice, and then see the move when the screen is updated. It is possible to go forwards or backwards in a game. Although you may have entered your rolls in `landing spot' format, the program can optionally display them in `from/to' format. It only prints in the format which it was entered though. You may also mark positions which you would like to have diagrammed. As stated above, the user interface consists of two screens. Unlike modern X/Windows/Mac programs which do a lot for you, this program assumes that what you tell, or don't tell the program is exactly what you want. I.E.: You can enter data, then quit the program. If you didn't save, the program won't prompt you. It is like driving a standard after getting used to cruise control. The program does a lot, you have to remember to tell it what to do though! The learning curve has a slight incline, but the program is well worth the time it takes to become familiar with it. I found the instructions clear. I want to start bringing pen and steno paper to local events to record some `master games' for later entry/playback. I also want to review some of my `bad games', searching for weakness. There is a lot to be learned! The price of the program is $50, including 11 matches. Additional matches are available from Walter. I am not affiliated with BG-SCRIBE in any way, except for being a very satisfied customer. Please mention where you saw this article if you should contact Walter. I did mention to him that I was going to write a review---Last spring! ...Mark Contact: Walter G. Trice 549 Wachusett St. Holden, MA 01520 (508) 829-3283 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D7. Where does one purchase backgammon supplies and books? Backgammon 'stuff' is available from: The GAMMON PRESS (Bill Robertie) PO Box 294 Arlington, MA 02174 U.S.A. PHONE: (617) 641-2091 FAX: (617) 641-2660 Books, software, video, backgammon sets, precision dice, ++. The GAMMON PRESS publishes Inside Backgammon, as well as books and booklets. Carol Joy Cole 3003 Ridgecliffe Dr. Flint, MI 48532 U.S.A. (810) 232-9731. Books, software, backgammon sets, precision dice, cubes, ++. Carol Joy Cole is also the editor of the Flint Area Backgammon News. Danny Kleinman 5312 1/2 Village Green Los Angeles, CA 90016 U.S.A. Books on Backgammon, Bridge, O'Hell, and life. Dansk Backgammon Forlag Gersonsvej 25 dk-2900 Hellerup Denmark phone: +45 39 40 06 07 Books, sets, dice and generel backgammon equipment. You can get all the modern books ther, plus some of the old ones from the seventies, among them 'Backgammon' (Magriel). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Backgammon sets may be purchased directly from: Crisloid INC. P.O. Box 2205 Providence, Rhode Island 02905 They require a minimum order of $100 to obtain wholesale prices. ============================================================================= MISC: ============================================================================= E1. What other games can be played on a backgammon board? - Acey-Deucy - TricTrac - Jacquet - Moultezim - Plakto (Portes) - Fevka (spelling?) - Narde - Three Checker Hyper Backgammon - Nackgammon - Cubeless, one point backgammon games. - Mammon. - On some boards, you can flip it over, and play checkers or chess. :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hyper Backgammon: Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon From: mau@world.std.com (Michael A Urban) Subject: Re: 3-Checker Hyper Backgammon Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 02:23:24 GMT Each side starts with 3 checkers on their respective 24, 23, and 22 points. The cube is in play. Jacoby rule in effect. Matches will start at 7 points and work their way up in later rounds. All other normal backgammon rules apply. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nackgammon: From: kleef@cs.utwente.nl (Rolf Kleef) at SMTP-Post-Office 10/15/93 Nackgammon: The same as backgammon, but with a different starting position: instead of five men on both your midpoint and 6-point, you just put four there. The remaining two men end up at the 23-point: 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 +------------------------------------------+ X: | O X | | X O O | | O X | | X O O | | O X | | X | | O | | X | | | | | v| |BAR| | | | | | | X | | O | | X O | | O | | X O | | O X X | | X O | | O X X | +------------------------------------------+ O: 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This was invented by Nack Ballard (hence the name), to force his bg students to practice positional play. Games tend to be much longer, since you can't easily start a race with a 65 or 66 opening-phase roll. In July this year, we hosted the first European Championship Nackgammon during our series of Kater Cup tournaments. Teun Ruardy from Groningen, The Netherlands became the first EC Nackgammon! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: zweije@wi.leidenuniv.nl (Vincent Zweije) In Kazachstan, and probably Russia too, people play a game called "Narde" on a backgammon board. It is also played with 15 checkers each, in the following starting position (point numbering is taken from backgammon). O's side 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 +------------------------------------------+ | | | OOO| | | | OOO| | | | OOO| | | | OOO| | | | OOO| v| |BAR| |^ |XXX | | | |XXX | | | |XXX | | | |XXX | | | |XXX | | | +------------------------------------------+ 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 X's side Do to language problems I never got a formal introduction to the game. I'll have to write down the rules out of my head. It is played like backgammon, with the following exceptions: 1: Both players move in the same direction. X moves from 12 down to 1, then to 24 and down to 13, and finally off; O moves from 24 down to 13, then to 12 and down to 1, and finally off. 2: A point is already made with one checker on it. There is no hitting in the game. 3: Doublets are not special. If you roll 3-3, you get to move a checker three pips twice. Possibly the same checker. Bearing off is like backgammon. Moving is mandatory when possible. I don't know whether, like in backgammon, you have to move the higher of the dice if you have to choose. It never happened during actual play. The game is almost fully one of chance. The main thing is to take care not to get blocked by a six-point prime (already made with six checkers in a row!). [ There seems to be quite a few games with this starting postion, going the same direction, where 1 blot is a blocker, and there is no hitting. The rules vary with how many may be in a row, doubles, and starting criteria. It seems to be a game where 'blocking' is the predonimant strategy. Some games have double games, triple games, quad games, depending upon what quadrant the opponent has his remaining checkers in. I've never seen this played in the USA. ...Mark ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diceless Backgammon: From: igor@krest.kharkov.ukraine.ussr (Igor) Newsgroups: rec.games.backgammon Subject: Re: Diceless Backgammon? Date: 27 Mar 92 00:48:51 GMT Organization: Society of connoiseurs of female beauty In fact, there's a version of backgammon, which is much more popular than regular bg in USSR, especially in Azerbajdzhan and Uzbekistan. Main features are following: -both players go same direction ( namely counterclockwise ) -starting position is different -you're not allowed to hit ( which changes strategy a lot). And, as far as I know, there are tournaments, where people play this version without dices, i.e. calling their rolls. Consequently, there exist time control in this tournaments. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acey-deucy: In this game all the men start off the board. They enter and move around the board in the same way as men sent home in regular backgammon. In other words, the white men enter in black's home board and move around through black's outer board and white's outer board until all are gathered in white's home board; then white can start to bear them off. Black enters his men in the white home board and moves around in the same manner. Rules are the same as for backgammon, except that you can move any man you want to at any time, whether or not you have men to bring in. In addition, the roll of 1-2 -- acey-deucy -- is an especially valuable roll. You begin by playing your ace-deuce. Then you play any number four times (in other words, you pick any double you wish). Then you get an extra roll. and if this extra roll is also 1-2 you get the same extras with it. Early game strategy in acey-deucy is to try to establish advanced points as quickly as you can, and if possible also establish adjacent points as base for a prime. If both sides develop primes right smack up against one another, the advantage lies with the prime that is farther advanced. Even if the man with the farther-advanced prime has to break his first, he will probably win the game; if he can hold his prime longer, he almost surely will win. Credit: The Backgammon Book, Oswald Jacoby/John Crawford My own comments: Acey-deucy is a fun game, with a much greater element of luck or chance than regular backgammon. 1-2 rolls are deadly. You are never out-of-it right to the end. The pace is fast and furious (at least compared to regular backgammon -- which, incidentally, I still prefer, but Acey-deucy makes a nice change of pace once in a while). One key point of strategy -- block your opponent from a play of 1 or 2 if you can. This opportunity only occasionally presents itself, but watch for it. If you can't play your lowly 1-2, you lose the bonus double and extra roll. -- Acey-Deucy typed/submitted by Peter Nickless (nickless@ccs.carleton.ca) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- E2. How does one become a better player? [Suggestions/articles from ALL levels sought for this space] ---- [Edited from a message about proper cube handling. ...Mark] Always play backgammon for affordable but meaningful stakes. This is surprisingly important. If you play "just for fun" you'll take doubles "to see how they'll turn out" and win some of those games anyway, giving yourself incorrect reinforcement. Likewise you'll drop doubles you should take because "you dont' feel like playing it out." If something is riding on the game, you're much less likely to do that. In short, it hones the senses and makes you think about the cube all the time. There is also definite penalties and rewards for correct cube action. Practice practice practice. -- michael j zehr I think the first step in becoming a good player is to realize what a game backgammon is. Many people think they're unlucky when they lose, and don't realize that it is actually also a game of skill. The first thing I learned from backgammon was to lose, even from the most incredible positions. You shouldn't spend your energy whining about your bad rolls, spend it on making good moves (and cube decitions!) instead. Other than that, it's simple to describe how to become a good backgammonplayer: Study, and read all books you can get your hand on. If you go to a club or a tournament, watch the good players. One of my friends did that a lot when he started. Also, don't be afraid to ask strong players questions about a move you made, a move HE made or something like that. Most of the strong players are very friendly when people ask them about their opinion. You can also record matches. This can be matches between two good players, or you can have ask a friend to record one of your matches. There's a big difference in what you can learn from the former compared to the latter. I played a tournament in Chicago in '92 and recorded a couple of matches, one between Rick Barabino and Dean Muench. Afterwards I went through the match myself, and noted the plays I would certairnly not have made myself. I asked Dean Muench about why he did this and that, and he explained it in a very logical way to me. He asked me which flight i played in, I answeared 'Intermediate', and he said 'You won't be that for much longer if you keep studying like that!' I was also lucky to get an extremely interesting game in that match. If you get one of your friends to record your match, you get a chance to analyse your own play. This can particularly helpfull if you do it a while after the match has played, to see how (if) your game has evolved. -- Asger Kring ============================================================================= End of rec.games.backgammon FAQ