coan.net & playBunny: i agree: a resignation at this point would give my opponent 2 points, but my timeout gives him 3 point ? what is the difference between a timeout and a resignation ?

the only reason i can think of is that it is meant as a punishment against timing out ?

another example:

Racegammon (Hrqls - Universal Eyes)

in this case it clearly is a backgammon timeout :)

i rarely timeout, so i dont know what a timeout does do for the match score in other game types

(i am trying to find the limits for my time control to cover my 3day-busy-reallife-weekens, and 3days to start seems ok, 10 days max seems ok, but 3 hours bonus per move seems too little compared with different timezones :))

Is a timeout always counted as a backgammon ?

I lost the following game due to a timeout over the weekend :

Racegammon (Hrqls - Varazslo)

I had nothing on the bar or in my opponents home, but still my opponent got 3 points?
(resigning the game at that point would have given him 2 points i think?)

Resher: thanks!

the opening roll can be used to predict your opponents roll in case your won or lost the first roll (i dont remember which)

Thom27: i always am fond of your second reason :) ... but you probably also know that humans tend to remember bad things more than good things .. therefore there always seem to be more bad rolls than good rolls

your third reason: i think i was the one who came up with that, and i did come up with it by counting all games and record in which the bug happened and also in which games it didnt seem to happen, after that i let some friends on here know about it to verify my thoughts, and after that i posted it on the board to ask for more statistics ...

to claim any random number generator is bad you need to collect statistics, without statistics you will only have your second reason and that one doesnt really count

so, could you please write down your games and keep the statistics (all games on this site remain here forever, so you can show it at any point in the future to everyone) .. once your have the right statistics we can discuss it for real

CurrentRiver:


you are referring to this game : Backgammon (WHY - CurrentRiver)

i think you missed your back piece at 24 ... as Vikings says your only possible move is to move that back piece forward

normally ongoing games wont be discusses, but as there is only 1 possible move here i think there is no problem :)

playBunny: i am not sure wether i like the extra doubles ... it seems to me that it favors luck more than just the normal doubles play?

what do you mean by 'for pairs' ?

playBunny: ah yes .. i forgot .. its not the first time i fell in that trap :)

Pedro Martínez: eh?

Pedro Martínez: really ?why ?

(and how come flake won at that position?)

Pedro Martínez: did you resign?

playBunny: speed it up ... off a double at the first move! ;)

using names is not prohibited per definition (i think) ... but in some cases it could lead to a witch hunt which has happened too many times in the past

sometimes a witch hunt can be justified, but sometimes not and it might be quite subjective or due to lack of all information

therefore a witch hunt is prohibited and the gms will try to prevent it from happening

of course if you have a problem with a specific player there are many ways to handle it :
- contact him directly
- pm a mod / gm / fencer
- use a fellowship
- <and probably some more>

since the brainking.com seems to be more easy going (and more quiet) the last couple of years we are (at least i am) losening control a bit, as long as it doesnt get out of hand

happyjuggler0: lol :)

pgt: you wont let the youngsters win would you ? it will just give them something to brag about ... you should know them the real power of age!

rod03801: lol! i will (there, and retired i guess ;))

happyjuggler0: most tournaments are a lot quicker .. less players, shorter matches, faster time control ...

in the 8 years that i am here i won 32 backgammon tournaments, and lots a lot more ... so its quite doable to play a nice quick tournament :)

rod03801: i'm still here .. and also in the next round ... :)

Czuch: i think his double was a good one to offer .. and you were good to decline

he is trailing, and you only need 1 point .. so he could have offered the double on the first move in that game, but he could also wait for a position like this and hope you might accept where you should not have ..

he can hit you, and he has 1 single in his home, but so you do .. i think he is slightly the favorite ..

but dont put too much value into what i write .. i am just a beginner who plays by feeling, and not by any real analysis :)

Czuch: accept or decline, and after that we can discuss his and your reasoning :)

discussing wether it was a good double to offer or not also gives a hint wether it's good to accept or decline it

Walter Montego: maybe they can now laugh about your foolish moves (not talking dancing here) ;)

i don't know if it has been posted yet, but i think i like the rules of No Chance Backgammon

read the explanation here : http://www.bkgm.com/variants/NoChanceBG/index.html

has anyone ever played it ?

Hrqls: it might be not wise to hit later one if i get sent back all the time and my opponent has moved a bit further

or it might be wiser to hit just then

ah well ... since i started playing hypergammon i hit most of the time :)

alanback: ok thanks :)
now that you know gnu's rollout .. how would you personally move ?

(i sometimes wonder why some experts advice a certain course .. and when i try to play that way i will fail because i dont make the correct followup moves .. so its not always wise for me to follow gnu's advice :))

playBunny & alanback & czuch: thanks! after reading your comments you had me convinced that i should have jumped over instead of hit .. i wasnt sure what to do when i made the move but i hit the checked just because i like to hit and to go for gammon although it might make no sense .. and even if i hit the checker and was hit back again later .. it might just prolong the game a little more ... i thought

so that was my reasoning for hitting .. quite impressive eh .. very well thought and analyzed ;)

but gnu proved me right!!!!!!!!
(ok gnu would have made the same more ;) ... i wouldnt expect that after your comments .. its something i will keep in mind ..)

can we also find in the roll out of gnu why hitting was better ?
(i am not used to reading gnu roll outs)

i am bearing off already, 1 piece of me is on the bar, my opponent isnt bearing off yet but has some pieces back to send me to the bar

i can send one of the pieces of my opponent to the bar .. but i can also leap over it

what should i have done ?
(i sent his piece to the bar)

the position can be found here : Backgammon (Hrqls - incognito)

playBunny and Nabla: thanks!
from experience i already dont worry that much about a hole on 3 .. i dont like holes on 2 though .. but i now understand that a hole on 4 (or 5) is even worse :)

another nice example which was posted yesterday on dailygammon is the position discussed in this thread :
http://www.dailygammon.com/bg/forum2/main/read/22269#19

playBunny: thanks :)

although it seems like a waste of pips it might win me a move which is important

are there also positions in which its better to move only 1 piece into you home because it covers an empty spot (and leaving 1 outside your home) than moving 2 pieces into your home (and leaving that spot empty ?)

for example you all your pieces in your home except 2 .. those 2 are both on 8 while 2 is empty .. you 4+2 .. would you move 1 piece to 2 and leave the other at 8 .. or would you move 8/6 and 8/4 leaving 2 empty ?

nabla: thanks ... i always move my pieces off as fast as possible (using as many pips as possible) .. but that doesnt seem to be the best way sometmimes

in this case it wont matter much though ;)

i rolled 5+2 in this position

what would be the best way to move ?

i moved 6 to 1 and 2 off

but i think it would have been better to move 6 to 4 and then 4 off .. that way i would have 1 piece off as well but i would have spread my remaining pieces more evenly (i would still have a piece on 2)

any opinions ?

Fencer: would it be possible to change triple gammon tournaments so that if a person times out that all his/her games in that tournament wont count for the tournament outcome ? (for example by setting all the scores of his/her games in that tournament to n/a ?)

would it be possible to also disable the resign button in triple gammon tournaments ? ;)

playBunny: ah thanks!!!!
thats true .. i forgot about 0 and double or 1 and double which is also sufficient :)

thad and abigailll thanks as well! when i tought it over last night (in my head wihle lying in bed) the chance of 1/3 + 1/3 sounded very nice .. but i knew i was wrong .. in my head i also came to 17/162 by pure match .. but it had big numbers in it so i could easily have mistaken myself :)

btw i forgot about a double 6 being ok as well as tric trac will also make you move double 1 on that roll .. or 1+2 on a roll which also gives double 1 .. hmm the double 6 doesnt work as i would have to move the 6 first .. but 1+2 does work .. ok i am a bit confusing today .. i am suffering from it myself as well :)

thanks!!

what is the chance of rolling a 1 ?
i think its 11/36 ?

what is the chance of rolling a 1 in 2 moves after another ? (rolling 2 1s in total)
is that 11/36 * 11/36 ?

or can i determine it this way :
(lets assume the chance of rolling a 1 in 1 move is 1/3 to make the calculation a bit easier, and ignore the rule of big numbers)
so i roll a 1 in 3 rolls, for the next move i roll a 1 in 3 rolls as well giving me 2 1's in 6 rolls .. which would lead to a chance of 1/6 to roll a 1 in 2 moves directly after another ? .. hmm .. this doesnt feel right in a lot of aspects .. but i can put my finger on it exactly :)

i am asking this because i am playing tric trac on another site and want to know what my chance is to bear off 2 pieces on the 1 position .. i think its 10/36 * 10/36 + 1/36 = 17/162 ?

is a backgame the way to win a game of cloning gammon ?
in normal backgammon i only go for a backgame when i am in serious trouble already ... but i see some high ranked players on here aim for a backgame from the start

in the first games against these players i didnt notice and lost .. now i notice it from the start but i am still playing it as i normally would to see what would happen

what does everyone think of a backgame in cloning gammon ?

Andersp: only if its against me .. ;)

Andersp: reaching 2100+ can be done by luck, and with little games .. the more games you play and the higher the bkr .. the more skill should be involved .. i think ?

joshi tm: they already did so ? hmm :(
but the same could be done in any tournament

(although in triple gammon you can do something more sophisticated, and very unsportsmanlike!, with 3 people, each player losing a backgammon to another player, giving each player 5 points for 2 games ... but lets suppose most people are fair and sporsmanlike enough so that not 3 players would conspire ? and if they did it could be caught easily ?)

alanback: i thought i would post the link to your tournament :)

Unrated Triple Gammon -- all players (up to 20)

alanback: you are right .. i didnt think of that earlier .. the TTT i played before were always unrated (although i didnt like that then, but now i see a TTT will probably decrease the bkr more than normal single games would do .. at least if someone would want to win the TTT)

joining your TTT now .. although i dont mind if it would be rated .. i like to be in a TTT with 1 big section :)

lovelysharon: there is a green text underneath the gameboard now telling you that its a triple gammon tournament

sorry .. it seems i posted the dutch link to the tournament

here is the english one : Triple Gammon

alanback: thanks!!! a real sportsman!

would it better or worse when there are more players per section ?

Andersp: yes .. its meant to be that way .. but unfortunaly thats not supported at the moment on brainking .. although fencer seems to have increased the possible maximum size of the sections

should i ask him to increase the number of players per sections ?

alanback: i know what you mean .. i mostly play tournaments without paying too much attention to my opponents ratings .. and i sometimes curse myself when i lose to a lower rated player .. i like the ratings :)

but i also like the game .. and to play against different opponents .. so everytime i still join new tournaments with new players instead of only the top players
(i do join the 2200+ tournaments as well though :))

i guess its even worse when you are 2400+ :)


but! to try a new tournament type on this site must be something special .. isnt it ? .. shouldnt that be worth a small risk in bkr ? ;)
(your win/loss ratio shows you win twice as many as you lose .. so thats more than 55% :))

come on ... join us for once .. : Triple Gammon

The new backgammon tournament type!!!

lets try it all! .. it would be great if we could get 64 players in it to have a second round of 8 players as well :)

please tell your friends to join as well :

Triple Gammon

Fencer: ok ... hmm .. does anyone know another solution to prevent a second round with only 2 or 3 players ?

Fencer: ah ok .. hmm .. 8 players per section is the maximum now ? is it possible to set it to 10 players per section for this section for once ? ;)

(and to set the maximum players to 10 as well ?)

Fencer: the total tournament should be 1 section ..

in this tournament it shows a maximum of 8 players per section .. could that line be removed and the total tournament be 1 section ?

Fencer: will the games in a triple gammon tourmanent have a different color or something to show it to the players that they should go for gammons and should care too much about losing a game ? ;)

GREAT!!!! thanks :)

i created a tournament .. at least 8 players should join .. and a maximum of 20 .. so join fast! :)

Triple Gammon

i thought i would be first .. but AbigailII beat me to it