Backgammon Resources

Meet the Instructors!

(Photos of instructors courtesy of David Startin)

The UKBGF has a close working relationship with the UK based backgammon tuition service Backgammon Workshop (BGWS). Launched in 2017, BGWS is owned and run by two 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. He has delivered well-received seminars at most UK Open tournaments since this event began in 2014, and recordings of some of these seminars are available in the Members’ area of this website.

  

• 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. He has a natural ability to home in on the important features of a backgammon position, and makes learning fun as well as instructive for his students.

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.

Some instructional material will be provided free by BGWS to all UKBGF members, including 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.

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

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. GP Games 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.

The World No.2 player from Japan Michihito Kageyama (“Michy”), in collaboration with UK player Roland Herrera, is producing a series of books called ‘Backgammon Odyssey’. There are so far two books in this excellent series:
#1 Opening Concepts published in 2017 is an excellent strategy guide for the opening phase of the game. Aimed primarily at intermediate players, it also contains much valuable material for players at every level and is priced at £40.
#2 Endgame Technique published in 2019 covers (as the title implies) the latter phases of the game, including holding games and those in which the opponent is closed out or has a deep anchor in your board. Intermediates are again the main target audience, but this book is also essential reading for all serious players and is priced at £40.

Visit Michy’s website for more information, for reviews of the books, to order copies, and for announcements about possible further books in the series. A few copies of Endgame Technique 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.

WBGF/EUBGF – Formally the European Backgammon Federation – the website is still eubgf.eu – this organisation is now known as the World Backgammon Federation. It is an administrative body comprising representatives from (mainly) European backgammon federations including the UKBGF, which aims to unite all the national federations, co-ordinate international team events, and harmonise rules.

WBIF – World Backgammon Internet Federation, formerly European Backgammon Internet Federation – www.ebif.at
A 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 which are subsequently analysed by eXtremeGammon.

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. Not to be confused with the World Backgammon Federation (WBGF – see above).

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.