lol - yep! Both still over 200 pips to go! :-)

Except there's no easy way to check how long a game has been going without going into it to find the start date... :-)

Walter: Yep, I have that problem too. If you try to move a piece that isn't on the bar that is legal and it won't let you chances are pretty good one just got sent to the bar.

That usually only happens when an excessively long word is entered - ie, a word longer than the width of the posts on your screen. Then it will push the right column off the screen.

It can be over as quickly as 40 or 50 moves (or even sooner) if one player is far better than the other. It really only lasts hundreds of moves with fairly evenly matched opponents.

Well with 635 moves completed in about 15 months - that's a move about every 17 hours (more than one a day). With evenly matched opponents, this game can take literally years and several hundreds of moves to complete.

E-cards are sending cards via email from anyone to anyone. An electronic (greeting) card.

I think an E-card is like a card that you send via e-mail. For example, http://www.bluemountain.com handles e-cards.

I'm assuming you mean your rating (BKR). Very generally: If you win a game, your rating will go up. If you lose a game, your rating will go down.
No, you do not have to win a tournament, although winning the games in the tournament (which is required to win the tournament) will almost for sure increase your rating. However, you do not get points simply for winning the tournament.

Yes, that has been mentioned numerous times, and Fencer is aware of it. Be patient, please!

You can swap the dice...the link right below the board that says "swap dice"? lol

Here is a very good post by alanback regarding the doubling cube.


A doubling cube is an object used to record the current value of a game that has been doubled one or more times. It's shaped like a die and has the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 on its six faces. A player who wishes to double the value of the game picks up the doubling cube before he rolls his dice, and offers it to his opponent with the side labelled 2 facing up. If the opponent accepts the double, he "owns" the cube and places it on his side of the board. The owner of the cube can choose to double at any later time when it is his turn, before he rolls the dice. He would offer it to his opponent with the "4" facing up. The original doubler then owns the cube, and can double again on his turn, and so on.

Here is an explanation of the doubling cube and of gammon and backgammon from Backgammon Galore!

I forgot to mention in an earlier post that multipoint matches would require the system to recognize gammon and backgammon as well.


Doubling
Backgammon is played for an agreed stake per point. Each game starts at one point. During the course of the game, a player who feels he has a sufficient advantage may propose doubling the stakes. He may do this only at the start of his own turn and before he has rolled the dice.
A player who is offered a double may refuse, in which case he concedes the game and pays one point. Otherwise, he must accept the double and play on for the new higher stakes. A player who accepts a double becomes the owner of the cube and only he may make the next double.

Subsequent doubles in the same game are called redoubles. If a player refuses a redouble, he must pay the number of points that were at stake prior to the redouble. Otherwise, he becomes the new owner of the cube and the game continues at twice the previous stakes. There is no limit to the number of redoubles in a game.



Gammons and Backgammons
At the end of the game, if the losing player has borne off at least one checker, he loses only the value showing on the doubling cube (one point, if there have been no doubles). However, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers, he is gammoned and loses twice the value of the doubling cube. Or, worse, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, he is backgammoned and loses three times the value of the doubling cube.

You notice there are several chess variants here. Many of them (such as Atomic Chess, Dark Chess, etc) are completely different from regular chess. But there hasn't been any chess players complaining abou them - if they don't like the game, they don't play the game. It could be the same here - if these games are created, you don't have to play them! But you shouldn't stop others from enjoying it because you don't appreciate it!

jason: No, you could still take back your moves - it just wouldn't show you your pieces would go back to the bar until you submit, kind of like in dark chess...it doesn't show you the new spaces until you submit the move.

Yes, or it would be even easier if you give the game numbers, found in the list below the game board. You can just go to any of the games you're playing, and i the address where it says "g=#####" just replace that number with the game number that you want to view :-)

The fact that you said that was not rude. Even though you have not made it clear why it would be cheating - you say "rules are made for a purpose". So i ask, what is the purpose of this rule? No one has answered me yet, and many people have made rude posts (such as yourself) telling me to stop whining and trying to cheat, and to just accept it's a rule. I never once said i was against the rule, nor did i ever say i did not want to follow the rule, nor did i say the rule is not legitimate. I was simply questioning the rule.

Thank you for replying, except i specifically said i don't expect this rule to be not used, and i have used it in real life games many times. You know what? I'm not out the door, am i?
And also, it has been 10 days since anyone has mentioned it. If you would read my post entitled "A general note to everyone..." dated March 21, you will see that there really is no need to reply at all, let alone be rude. So grow up please.

But even if there was a cube, the game you're playing is a single game anyways.

Nope, there is no doubling cube yet.

First off, if you care to read my posts again, I never claimed the rule is bad, nor did i claim the rule shouldn't be used. I simply questioned it. Many of you put words in my mouth and claimed that i thought the rule was bad and shouldn't be used.

Also, I would appreciated if anyone who cares to reply do it in a friendly manner. As you can tell, there certainly isn't many people who agree with me here, and there are a lot who disagree with me here. So even if i keep my view, what do you figure the chances are that i will get my way? Very slim, and i know that. So there is really no reason to yell or be rude. Thank you.

Yes, it was very well said, RsBaby. But how does changing how a piece moves in chess the same as how a move can be made only in certain situations the same? If the rule in chess was changed so that knights could moved 3-1 and/or 2-1 it would change the whole game, it's strategy, everything. If this rule in backgammon is not used, it is still very close to backgammon. In comparison, very few moves are changed. So if you are going to give an example as comparison, please come up with an example so that the rule only affects considerably few moves of the game, not every one. Thank you.

You know, i don't appreciate being told to shut up, even if it is sugar coated.

The thing that is not so good about that comparison is that placing one piece at a time in Pente is THE WHOLE GAME, while this rule in Backgammon is to say the least not very common. And the other thing about this backgammon rule is that it restricts what would otherwise be legal moves - only in those specific situations is it illegal, why?

(sorry, i keep lying about being done)

Yes, often it is to my advantage to only use the 2 instead of all 8. No one has yet given me an answer as to why not that hasn't simply been "it's the rule", or "it's to my advantage" which is closely related to "it's the rule".

RsBaby: Checkmate in chess is checkmate in chess. It is how you win. It can be proven with any checkmate that you cannot resolve the check, ending the game. Playing a move that's against a rule in backgammon isn't the same. It would be a better analogy to say "move your piece to capture my king on the first move because you can". And even that is not the same. Pieces in chess move a certain way through the whole game. It would be fine if every piece could move like that through the whole game, although it wouldn't be chess.

Sorry, i said i wouldn't argue any more. I have one more thing to say.

Everyone wants this problemfixed because it is against "the official rule". That's all well and good, but why is it the rule? If I use my 2, preventing me from using my 6 when i otherwise could have, why shouldn't i be able to? I know, it might be an unfair advantage against "the rule", but so what? If I want to move 2 pips when i could move 8, why not let me?

How do you know it wouldn't slow down the server, Mike? The other sites (especially IYT) almost guaranteed have much faster servers than here. So their servers can tolerate the added members and calculations required for this. Maybe it wouldn't be very much slower if this was done. I don't know what kind of server Fencer has, and it would also depend on the number of backgammon moves (which seems to be quite a bit - quite a popular game).

I am not going to argue about it anymore, however. I believe i have made my points, and do not need to make them again.

dream: Being familiar with programming, i am familiar with what would be required to ensure the rules are implememented correctly. It may not be too terribly difficult to program, but if implemented, it would require the server to check EVERY move a player has to see if it is legal (if both dice have been used, and if not, if the higher dice has been used). Without a quite fast server, this would slow down the whole site considerably. Like i said before, i am not against fixing this. But don't you think there are other and more important things that Fencer could be doing?

RsBaby: Who called it an "odd rule"? I never once questioned it, or why it exists. MY point was that it is a lot of work for Fencer, and a considerably small result. If i were him, i would fix the games manually where that was a problem, but it really is up to him.

dream: Just for your info, there are chess rules that Fencer has not implemented here. And no one has complained about it! First, if there is a three-time repitition of the board, it is supposed to be an automatic draw according to the rules. Also, if 50 moves have elapsed without a capture or the movement of a pawn is to be a draw. The ONLY place i have ever seen thes is on zillions of games software (located at http://www.zillions-of-games.com/). But like this rule in backgammon, these are quite rare circumstances. And i have not heard anyone even mention them as a complaint.
At the very worst, let Fencer know if your opponent performs an illegal move of this sort, and he will fix it.

Even with that bug, it comes up very rarely (i seem to recall hearing 3% of games). At goldtoken, if that happens in one of your games, you can message Chad and he will put it back and ask the player performing the illegal move to move again. I guess that depends if Fencer is willing to fix these games manually, or if he would rather have the server do it :-)

game #57884
White has 31
Black has 14

You can't delete it, but you can hide it so it doesn't appear at the bottom of the page. There is a link just above the chat archive that allows you to do this.

Your game with Athesa was not rated because it was deleted with fewer than 4 moves.

If your opponents' ratings are much below yours it will not change your rating, because actually applying the formula will cause your rating to go down. If your opponent's rating was not a lot below yours it should have gone up.

If you click on "My profile" on the left (or top, if you're using row layout) and click the blue (edit) beside "My Profile". There are option buttons there that allow you to select the appropriate selection :-)