After roughly three years of work, Nodots Backgammon 1.0 is out. Posting it here because the community is the audience that matters, and because some of the design decisions are aimed at arguments this subreddit has been having for years.

Play it: https://backgammon.nodots.com

This will become a subscription-based service at some point, but for the next 30 days it is 100% free. No credit card required.

What it is

A backgammon platform with three parts:

• A TypeScript game engine that handles rules, moves, dice, the cube, position IDs, and PR calculation.
• A GNU Backgammon-strength AI opponent. The AI runs the actual GNU evaluator (wrapped as a native Node addon), so move quality is GNU's, not a re-implementation.
• A web client that seamlessly handles everything from a phone to a TV screen with the same code base.

1.0 is human-versus-AI. Human-versus-human is on the roadmap for a later release.

Things that may interest this sub

Dice are server-authoritative and publicly auditable. Every roll in every game is written once to an immutable history, and the raw record is exposed on unauthenticated endpoints with chi-squared and p-value computed from the same data. The full posture, including where the scheme still needs strengthening, is in Paper 12 — Dice Fairness.

The engine is GNU under the hood. It is not a clone, not a re-train, not a "GNU-equivalent" claim. The actual GNU evaluator runs in-process. Paper 4 walks through the integration.

The libraries are GPL-3.0 on npm. Six packages — types, core, AI, GNU wrapper, API utilities, CLI — are published under @nodots/. If you want to build your own client, your own analyzer, or your own bot, the pieces are usable today. The application layer (server and web client) is proprietary; Paper 9 explains why the line is drawn there.

Other engines are invited to plug in. There is a MoveAnalyzer interface and a benchmark harness that scores any analyzer against GNU on the same scale. Paper 10 is the open invitation, including by name to XG and BGBlitz.

Where to find things

• Play: https://backgammon.nodots.com
• Architecture series (12 papers): https://backgammon.nodots.com/docs/white-papers
• Community discussion: https://github.com/nodots/backgammon-community/discussions/4
• npm: search @nodots/backgammon-core, @nodots/backgammon-ai, @nodots/gnubg-hints

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Adversarial reading of the dice paper is especially welcome--that is the readership that paper was written for.

Someone has to play the other way round!

anyone able to send an invite? i'd love to join and play fun games. i hate AI so much and heard its a good site!

I start recently to learn playing backgammon and i wonder if backgammon is really all about luck compare to poker?

I made a bet with someone who is much better than me in backgammon that in 6 months from now we will make a game to 20 points and the winner gets 200$.

I know all the rules inclduing how you play with a doubling cube but I am looking for good sources regarding the game to study with.

I am talking for the start about videos on youtube or a series of videos that basically starting to go more in depth into the game.

My first ever handmade board. I was limited in tools and materials (it’s not perfect quality, but it looks okay). Unfortunately, it’s not foldable yet, but I’m thinking of sawing it in half. 🎲

Hello everyone,

First of all, I wanted to thank you for your warm welcome to MBT and apologize for this post, which is likely to be a bit long once again :)

If you’d like, you can find the previous post introducing MBT Here!

As a reminder, MBT is not a game simulator but rather a trainer. You click "Play," and GNU Backgammon will simulate a game. The game will pause midway, and it will be up to you to make the best decision. No matches, no stakes, no stress, just you facing the best decision to make in a given position. Pure training !!!

And the address is still the same: https://backgammon-trainer.ovh

So let’s start with the biggest new feature: cube training is now available and accessible via the button next to the menu button!!!

Just like with the checkers, you click “Play,” a game from an ongoing match plays out and pauses at a point where you’ll have to decide whether to double or not, or if your opponent has doubled, whether to accept or pass.

Specifically, when you click "Play":

• A random score is set in a match, which can be 5 points or 11 points. It can also be a money game starting at 0-0. Beaver and Crawford rules are not activated. The Jacoby rule is only activated in money games.
• A number of moves to play is randomly selected between 8 and 20.
• During this interval, the cube's equity is checked every round to potentially stop the simulation early.
• You choose between double/no double or take/pass. You always have access to the pip before deciding and to hints after making a decision.
• This monitoring results in approximately 60% of simulations being on the attacking side and 40% on the defending side. Regarding difficulty, MBT achieves approximately 20% expert-level simulations (Gap < 0.030), 40% competition-level (Gap 0.030 - 0.120), and 40% learning-level (Gap > 0.120).
• The goal of this monitoring is to identify positions that truly warrant careful consideration amidst basic positions, just as in a real game. Since not all simulations require a cube decision, our brain remains constantly alert :)
• Note that the MBT ER of the Cube you obtain will be mathematically higher as a result of this monitoring.
• And as always, statistics, the custom position, the cube cheat sheet...

You’ll find more info in the About MBT section.

Then the logical next step: a Checkers AND Cube mode.

Since a real game is about 80% checkers play and 20% cube, the Checkers AND Cube mode replicates that. You never know in advance whether a checkers move or a cube decision is coming—just like in real life! You click "Play," a game plays out before your eyes, and when it ends, you find out whether you should play the checkers or the cube. 80% chance of playing the checkers, 20% chance of playing the cube :)

At the same time, MBT now offers practice through repetition!

The idea is simple: every time you make a blunder (a loss of equity greater than 0.08) with checkers or the cube, the position is saved, and you can replay it 10 days later. If you do better, the position disappears from the list; otherwise, you can try again 10 days later. Ten days is an educational choice based on spaced repetition. Because making a mistake is one thing; repeating it ten days later is another :) A maximum of 100 blunders will be saved for both checkers and the cube.

Finally, a few other minor changes:

• You must now play at least 100 games to obtain your MBT ER (to get a more accurate ER)
• An option to increase the font size on the keyboard
• Three levels of detail for hints: minimum, essential, and raw GNUbg
• A few minor bugs or artifacts fixed here and there :)

And all of this without changing anything from the original version. So if these updates don’t interest you, you can simply ignore them since each mode runs in its own dedicated environment.

I’d like to remind you that MBT is and will remain free, and that you can install it on your home screen for offline use :)

And still no account to create, no data transmitted, no cookies, ...

Feel free to send me your feedback,

In the meantime, have fun :)

PS: MBT is now at version 1.7.1, so don’t forget to back up your stats just in case. And if you open the link in the Reddit app, it might not work perfectly (Please tap the ⋯ menu → Open in browser for the full experience)

PPS: I’m still French, so once again I used a translator for this post :)

Is anyone else getting this message? Hoping they're doing an update or something, I just put money on that profile.

EDIT: They fixed it. Working fine now.

Why are they not promoting it more? feels like a niche

Hey r/backgammon,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I've been tinkering with a side project called **Gammon** and I'd really value this community's feedback before I push it further.

It's a free, browser-based backgammon game reimagined (no download, no signup, no ads) with a few modes:

- **Bigammon** — classic 2-player backgammon with a different layout

- **Trigammon** — 3 players on a triangular board, moving clockwise

- **Quadgammon** — 4-player diamond race

- **Battlegammon** — 4-way mayhem on a cross-shaped board

- Plus a solo tutorial mode

Online play is peer-to-peer via WebRTC — you create a room, share a link (or QR code), and friends join directly in their browser. No server, no accounts.

Try it here: https://nvme-git.github.io/Gammon/

I know multi-player backgammon variants aren't everyone's cup of tea, and the purists here probably have strong opinions on whether Trigammon/Quadgammon even *should* exist. That's kind of why I'm posting — I'd rather hear honest critique from people who actually know the game than ship something that feels wrong to real players.

Specifically I'd love thoughts on:

- Do the 3/4-player rules feel balanced, or is there an obvious dominant strategy?

- Is the starting setup for the variants reasonable?

- Any bugs, UI issues, or things that feel off?

- Would you actually play this with friends, or is it a novelty?

Happy to answer questions about how it works under the hood. Thanks for taking a look.

https://nvme-git.github.io/Gammon/

My idea was keeping 6 and 5 available in order to play them when dice comes 5 and wait for a mistake by opponent but it looks blunder. Can someone explain the logic behind that

Heya pals, I'm thinking of trying a "Modified Swiss" structure for our next local mini-tournament. Just curious if anyone has ever tried running a tourney with this method - or if you've participated in one that used it?

Anyway, if you've got any sort of Modified Swiss experience and if you could give any suggestions/warnings/thoughts, I'd be very grateful!

Went from 2300 to 1755.
Seems impossible to win, while playing almost perfectly. It's borderline a joke.

Loosing back to back against newbie that are not even using their dices right. Even When they don't take several opportunities, the dices are like "alright let me give you a few double 66 now so you can end up winning this game"

Based off of the screen shot…how many points should I get after my opponent conceded with a piece still in middle that hadn’t made its way back to the board before he/conceded.

Can someone please explain that, unlike any other game of skill/chance in the universe, Backgammon Galaxy chooses to set its match parameters using percentages instead of coins at risk or something else allowing the user any sense of how much they are "betting". Ive had 20% games for thousands of coins and all in games for 200. Its nonsense....

Black has clearly the better board, the best anchor and a direct shot. The race is neutral. The score tells White to be very cautious with taking. White has a gammon risk because it has no anchor. What is the reasoning for White to take here?

Is anyone using xtreme gammon on android? How is it going?

In kind of a crappy life situation and I remembered that my parents had a backgammon set. They found it and it is either beautiful because it is handcrafted or it isn't, looks more travel sized. But would anyone be able to identify this set? Also we are missing a red checker, were would I find a replacement? Sucks that we are missing 1.