This website is dedicated to the most thrilling board game ever -
Backgammon! Admittedly this may not be a fully
objective view
When you start to learn the game you will soon recognise that
Backgammon is equally very entertaining and thrilling. And
it is of a similar complexity to Chess or Go
2) . You can play and study the game
of
Backgammon your whole life long and still will not reach complete perfection. So it keeps you fascinated - addiction
to the game is the normal state for most
Backgammon
players
Main differences compared to chess are:
- Backgammon is normally played at much higher pace.
- Even beginners can beat a world class player - provided they get some lucky rolls.
In
Backgammon, apart from skill, the luck factor is of some importance; you have to accept
losing against weaker playing opponents from time to time. If you are a bad loser you should not start playing
Backgammon;
better to play Chess or Go, where no luck is involved - so you know who to blame for losing.
In the long run however, good, skilful play will be rewarded. For this reason you'll always find the same players at the top of the
ranking lists.
To study good
Backgammon literature is a good way to improve at
Backgammon.
Therefore the
first section of my website is about
Backgammon books.
The
backgammon bibliography, containing approx. 300 books, is available sorted by
authors name,
book title and
year of publication. Each single book is presented with a picture of the front cover, details about the
book and books reviews (if available). Particularly recommended books are introduced in the
recommended reading section.
In the
second section of this website I offer some tips on how to improve your backgammon.
For studying the game you should use good
backgammon software, which enables you to analyse your matches
or positions of interest and identify the correct decisions. The purely theoretical study of the game is not sufficient to become
a good player of course - you also have to play. The required opponents can be found on the internet at one of the
many
online play sites. Last, but not least, you may be interested in some backgammon related
articles.
Into the
third section of this website I have stuffed everything not fitting into the other sections,
i.e. a tabular
history of backgammon, a very ample collection of
top backgammon matches, answers to many
frequently asked questions (FAQ),
photos of some splendid
backgammon events and some very wise
backgammon quotes.
1) Lelia Hattersley in her book
How to Play the New Backgammon, p.9
2) Admittedly Chess and Go are of a somewhat higher complexity. All three games are of such complexity that you could study them a whole
lifetime without ever reaching perfection.
There are different methods of measuring games complexity. The most interesting, yet imprecise, method I ever came across is the one by Bill Robertie.
He defines skill differentials: If a player A beats player B in about 70 - 75% of the time, they are one skill differential apart.
The number of skill differentials between an absolute beginner and a world class player is the complexity number of a game.
The games are assessed to be of the following complexity numbers:
Backgammon: 8
Chess: 14
Go: 40
Note: For backgammon the definition of a skill level applies to winning a match of about 25 points, not a single game.
Source: Magazine "Inside Backgammon", Vol. 2, No. 1, p.4