Backgammon Resources

Meet the Instructors!

(Photos of instructors courtesy of David Startin)

The UKBGF is delighted to give full backing to the UK based backgammon proficiency centre called Backgammon Workshop (BGWS). Launched in 2017, this tuition service is run by some of the best backgammon players and teachers in the UK:

• Julian Fetterlein is a BMAB Grandmaster who has won numerous tournaments both in the UK and internationally over many years. He is widely regarded as the best backgammon theoretician and teacher in the UK.
• Sebastian Wilkinson is also a BMAB Grandmaster and has been a professional player and teacher since 2015, during which time he has had numerous tournament successes.

Visit the BGWS website to see the range of services on offer, including free content, private lessons, commentated matches, match reviews, video lessons and much more. Read testimonials from many students who have achieved great success following personal tuition tailored to their individual needs from BGWS instructors, enabling them to reach their full potential.

Much instructional material will be provided free by BGWS to all UKBGF members, starting with an annotated match between Julian Fetterlein and Jerry Grandell. UKBGF members will require a password to view this – email us at contact@ukbgf.com if you do not have one. For those UKBGF members who choose to take things further, a 10% discount will apply to all BGWS services (except video lessons).

If you don’t yet feel ready for formal tuition you can get a long way towards becoming a good player by reading the right backgammon books and playing against bots. Free basic tuition is often available at many of the venues listed on our Clubs page where all players, including complete beginners, are usually welcome. If you are a beginner it is a good idea to contact the club organiser in advance to make sure that there will be someone available to help you when you first visit the club.

There is a wealth of instructional backgammon material online, much of it free. Useful websites include:

UKBGF’s Newcomers Guides – ukbgf.com/newcomers-guides
A growing collection of articles aimed at players who are confident with the mechanics of the game, and are considering stepping up to club or tournament play for the first time.

Backgammon Galore! – www.bkgm.com
A comprehensive and free compendium of all things relating to backgammon and its variants, Tom Keith’s site contains a large collection of articles and answers to FAQ’s. The “Studying to Get Better” section alone contains over 150 articles including quizzes and book reviews. The comprehensive “Backgammon Glossary” is the first port of call for many backgammon queries.

Chicago Point – www.chicagopoint.com
As the strapline says, this is “A Prime Source of Backgammon Information”. Chicago Point was formally a printed newsletter edited by American Backgammon Tour creator Bill Davis. Now solely online, “The Point” includes articles, tournament results and the definitive world tournament calendar, maintained by Carol Joy Cole. The Gammon Links page by Mel Leifer is an excellent starting point to search for anything backgammon-related in the USA and worldwide.

BGOnline – www.bgonline.org
As well as the most-used backgammon forum, this site by one of the best players in the world – Stick Rice – includes useful links, book reviews and rollout data of first, second and third moves under different conditions: Unlimited, DMP, Gammon Save and Gammon Go.

PrimeTime Backgammon – http://usbgf.org/category/magazine/
A high quality quarterly magazine, PrimeTime contains tournament reports, match analyses and other technical articles and is published by the USBGF both online and in printed form. USBGF members can download a free pdf; printed copies can be purchased by mail order from the USBGF BG shop.

Backgammon Studio – www.backgammonstudio.com/
An entertaining way to improve your backgammon skills with different types of challenges for you to try.  It tracks your performance, enabling you to focus where necessary, and thereby improve your game. There is also an online database of matches (see also the entry under section 4 – Recorded Matches)

GammonVillage Magazine – http://www.gammonvillage.com/backgammon/magazine/
Established in 1999 and with new articles still appearing regularly, GammonVillage offers a huge archive of reports and technical backgammon articles. Subscription charges apply.

eXtreme Gammon Opening Book and Replies – www.extremegammon.com/openingbook.aspx
XG rollouts of 1st and 2nd rolls under different conditions: unlimited, DMP, and at different match scores
See also eXtremeGammon under section 8 below – Analysis Software

Chris Bray Backgammon – www.chrisbraybackgammon.com
Chris Bray has published a number of backgammon books for Beginners, Intermediates and Experts, and he wrote a backgammon column for the Independent newspaper every Saturday for 22 years, until that newspaper became ‘digital only’ in April 2016. Chris’s website includes a ‘Position of the Day’ and he also writes a regular analysis column for the US Backgammon Federation entitled ‘Bray’s Learning Curve.’

Mochy’s Backgammon Today – http://blog.goo.ne.jp/mochy3_8
Blog by Masayuki Mochizuki, universally known as “Mochy”, Japanese professional and world no.1 player at the time of writing.

Timothy Chow’s Backgammon Pages – http://math.mit.edu/~tchow/fun.html
Much interesting material, including quizzes and rollouts of positions from some older backgammon books.

The Dorbel Daily – http://dorbeldaily.blogspot.co.uk/
Instructive and entertaining writings by Paul Money. The last entry was in 2013.

GammonU (previously GammOnLine) – www.gammonu.com/
An online magazine which was published by US expert Kit Woolsey for over three years until December 2003. Each monthly issue contains instructive articles, and all can be accessed for a one-off payment of $36. An online match is still played between Kit and the subscribers, with daily moves commented upon by Kit. The GammOnLine Discussion Board is mainly to debate moves in this match.

For guidance in matters of backgammon etiquette, see: http://www.bkgm.com/articles/Simborg/SportsmanlikeConduct/index.html, and also www.ukbgf.com/breaking-the-enigma

For an introduction to match play, see: http://www.bkgm.com/faq/Matches.html#introduction

Tournament Rules – A new set of tournament rules was developed by the UKBGF soon after it was founded. These rules are used for most backgammon tournaments in the UK, including all those which are part of the UKBGF Tour, as well as at most backgammon clubs throughout the British Isles.

You can download version 1.3 of the current UKBGF tournament rules, revised in September 2015, here: (Word) (PDF). A summary of the changes is here and a full comparison with the previous version of the rules is here.

There are additional rules for online tournaments, which was last revised in September 2017, which you can download here: (Word)

The rules are managed by a subcommittee of the UKBGF Board. The five members of this subcommittee serve a two year term, being re-chosen after each new Board election. If you have any queries regarding the rules please email raj@ukbgf.com. Any request for a change in the rules is rigorously debated and individual responses will be sent by email. Revised versions of the rules will be published when needed but, to avoid unnecessary confusion, this will be no more frequent than on an annual basis. Proposed changes are also put forward for consideration with the EUBGF.

The UKBGF has its own twitch tv channel where streamed matches can be viewed live. Matches going back to the 2015 UK Open, including those streamed and recorded at UKBGF affiliated tournaments, are publicly available and can be viewed again on the UKBGF YouTube channel.

2014 UK Open
XG files are available for download here for the following matches:
UK v Japan Individual Challenge matches
UK v Japan Team Consulting match
Championship Final, Jason Pack v Martin Birkhahn
Intermediate Final, Yan Kit Chan v Andreas Sophocleous
Intermediate Semi-final, Yan Kit Chan v Donna Sherred

Other Match Files
XG files of many matches played at UK Open tournaments from 2015 onwards, as well as many others from the UK and overseas are available for UKBGF members to download from the members area.

Featured Matches
Raj Jansari v Michael Nielsen, Munkebjerg Championships, February 2015.
Blog Post | XG Match File

Backgammon Studio – www.backgammonstudio.com/
An online database of thousands of recorded matches and millions of positions which are searchable (see also Section 2 – Learning and Reference)

Masanori Itikawa’s Database of BG Matches – http://itikawa.com/kifdb/herodb.cgi?table=bg
A freely available online database of recorded matches from live backgammon tournaments

A number of active forums exist where players can discuss the game and ask questions. Some of these sites also offer online play.

BGOnline – www.bgonline.org/forums
This site includes the forum where many of the world’s best backgammon players discuss the game. Many of these players are happy to answer questions and share their knowledge.

DailyGammon – www.dailygammon.com
Once you are a member and have logged in, the ‘Discussion’ tab on the Top Page takes you to two lively forums: ‘General’ and ‘Politics’. The General forum is mostly backgammon related.

FIBS Board – www.fibsboard.com
Claims to be “the biggest free backgammon community forum (now from well over 165 countries)”

Rec.Games.Backgammon – groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/rec.games.backgammon
A forum with much detailed discussion of backgammon problems and positions

Backgammon Forum Archive – http://www.bkgm.com/archive.html
A good place to look before posting your question to see if it has been asked before

For live play at clubs and tournaments in the UK and Ireland, see the Clubs and Calendar pages.

There are many online backgammon servers. The following are popular within the backgammon community. Of these only Money Gaming is a money site – the others are free to play:

GridGammon – www.gridgammon.com
GridGammon is the home of the international online backgammon community. All serious online tournaments are hosted here, and you can watch and save matches between top players. Referral is required in order to join. Players have a site rating which changes as matches are won and lost.
Email: support@Gridgammon.com

DailyGammon – www.dailygammon.com
A free, and fun, online turn-based site with some top players and a discussion forum (see ‘Forums’ above). Play is not live so you can make your moves whenever convenient. All players have a rating which is determined by matches won and lost in the numerous site tournaments.

FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Server) – www.fibs.com/guide.html
As the name implies, this was the first online backgammon server and is still used by many players. Matches are rated. See also ‘FIBS Board’ under Forums (above).

SafeHarbor Games – www.safeharborgames.net/
Play backgammon and other games for free using downloadable software for MS Windows or Mac OS X.

Backgammon Ace – http://pr.heroz.jp/backgammon
A fun free App for mobiles and tablets

Note: The following is a money site – only play with money you can afford to lose
Money Gaming – www.moneygaming.com/games/skill.shtml
A reputable site offering regular added money tournaments and cash games with a low rake

Geoffrey Parker Games Ltd – www.geoffreyparker.com
This British manufacturer of high quality backgammon boards (and other games) sponsors the UK Open as well as other tournaments both in the UK and overseas. Parkers make the boards used in the finals of The World Championships, The Nordic, The US Open and our own UK Open amongst others.

Erhan 869BG Backgammon Boards – www.869bg-backgammon-boards.co.uk
These are good value boards made in Turkey and supplied via the UK agent, Tim Line.

Bone Club – www.boneclub.co.uk/
This British producer offers a range of inexpensive boards in a variety of colours and designs.

P-40 Backgammon – https://p40bg.com/
Good quality and durable boards in an anodised aluminium case, from the USA

Backgammon and Board Games Shop – www.bgshop.com
Chris Ternel’s UK based company supplies all things relating to backgammon, including boards, dice, clocks and books.

Backgammon a la Carte – www.flintbg.com
Based in Flint, Michigan and run by Carol Joy Cole (CJC) for many years, Backgammon a la Carte is the major supplier of backgammon merchandise in the USA. Goods are also shipped to the UK.

Comprehensive book reviews can be found on several sites, including Backgammon Galore, BG online, and Hardy’s Backgammon Pages.

Several new backgammon books appear every year. There are also numerous older books still in print or available second hand through specialist suppliers or on eBay. Some are excellent, many are mediocre, and some are very bad. Most books published in the pre-bot era (prior to the late 90s) contain many errors, and in general should be avoided by beginners and intermediates. One notable exception is ‘Backgammon’ by Paul Magriel, originally published in 1976. Essential backgammon concepts are explained with such clarity and simplicity that the work is often referred to as the ‘Backgammon Bible’. It does, nevertheless, contain many errors.

A recently published book entitled “Opening Concepts” by World No.2 player Michihito Kageyama (“Michy”) in collaboration with Roland Herrera is an excellent strategy guide for the opening phase of the game. Aimed primarily at intermediates, it also contains much valuable material for open-level players and is priced at £40. Visit Michy’s website for more information and reviews of the book. A limited number of copies are available for purchase – preferably by arrangement at a tournament. Email contact@ukbgf.com for details.

Universally referred to as ‘Bots’ – an abbreviation of ‘robots’ – the following are the most commonly used backgammon-playing computer programs.

eXtreme Gammon – www.extremegammon.com
eXtreme Gammon (or XG) Version 2 is acknowledged to be the strongest commercially available backgammon program which is indispensible for serious students of the game. One permanent activation normally costs $60 but UKBGF members can purchase their first XG activation at a 20% discount, or for the GBP equivalent of $48. Please email contact@ukbgf.com for details. If you need a further XG activation to use on a different computer these are already discounted by 50% and must be purchased direct from eXtreme Gammon.

XG Mobile – www.xg-mobile.com
Portable version of eXtreme Gammon for mobiles and tablets. The standard App is free; the Premium version with better features costs $9.95.

GNU Backgammon – gnubg.org
Probably the strongest free program

Backgammon Snowie – www.bgsnowie.com
Once the world leader, Snowie has not been upgraded for several years and can no longer be recommended.

There are a huge number of backgammon videos on the web, many of them freely available, including instructional material, documentaries and, of course, backgammon matches recorded in real time. A YouTube search will yield numerous results. The UKBGF has its own YouTube channel containing recordings of streamed matches.
Many entertaining and instructional videos were produced by World Series of Backgammon (WSOB) which can be found at vimeo.com/channels/wsob

For UK Backgammon Clubs and Societies see the Clubs page on this website.
The following list is by no means exhaustive: many other countries have national backgammon organisations. Please email us if you wish to be listed: contact@ukbgf.com.

UKBGF – The United Kingdom Backgammon Federation which owns and operates this website, as well as maintaining a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

BIBA – The British Isles Backgammon Association – backgammon-biba.co.uk
See Clubs page, National Tournament Series.

EUBGF – European Backgammon Federation – eubgf.eu
A European body which aims to unite national federations

EBIF – European Backgammon Internet Federation – www.ebif.at
A European body which organises online tournaments for individuals and national teams

BMAB – Backgammon Masters Awarding Body – http://bgmastersab.com/Resources.html
An International Body which awards Mastership titles to players who achieve the required level of play in a series of recorded matches

CNB – The Italian Backgammon Circuit – www.cnbackgammon.eu
The CNB organises tournaments around Italy.

DBgF – The Danish Backgammon Federation – www.dbgf.dk
The DBgF hosts the Nordic Open – probably the largest backgammon tournament in the world – every Easter, usually in Copenhagen.

USBGF – The US Backgammon Federation – usbgf.org
A membership based community of players not just in the US, but worldwide. The USBGF produces the high quality online and printed magazine, PrimeTime, and has a presence on Facebook.

JBL – The Japanese Backgammon Association – backgammon.gr.jp

ABF – The Australian Backgammon Federation – ausbgf.org.au
Also on Facebook.

WBF – The Worldwide Backgammon Federation – http://www.wbf.net
Founded in 1986, the WBF under Marco Fornasir organises tournaments in European countries including Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Georgia and Austria.

WBA – The World Backgammon Association – http://www.world-backgammon-association.com/
Founded in 2001 by Chiva Tafazzoli. Tournament venues are currently in Germany, Austria and Portugal.