Backgammon lingo has some strange terms of its own as well with names borrowed from zoology (beavers, raccoons and otters on one hand and fish, sharks and pigeons on the other), metallurgy (the desirable golden point and its secondary, the silver point) and more predictable, military (bullet-proof).

There are nicknames to the double rolls:

A roll of double 1′s is called cat’s eyes or snake eyes

Double 2s – quacks, ducks or double ducks

Double 4s are quads2

Double 5s – the girls

Double 6s – the boys or boxcars

A roll of 1-2 is called acey deucey and the opening roll of 6-5 where a player jumps from his 24 point to his 13 point,  is called, for some reason, the lover’s leap.

Take chess for example, where women are not forbidden to take part in the regular events (they are never called men’s competition), yet most players prefer to play the women’s events, where the requirements are less demanding – a performance rating of 2600 and a published overall rating of 2500.to earn the highest title of a chess grandmaster (GM), and 2400 and 2300 for a Woman grandmaster (WGM) title. Still, in rare occasions a woman leaps over these hurdles and get between the elite of the (men) players.

In backgammon, there are not any official women’s tournaments (one would argue on whether there are official tournaments at all) and more than once, a female player has won the (unofficial) world backgammon championship (Carol Crawford in 1973 and Lee Genud in 1981). Women’s only competitions are a common side event in major backgammon tournaments (in Europe more than in the US, the country from which the two former world champions come), same as there are seniors and minors’ events, with shorter matches and lower prizes. Many women players are surely pleased with these arrangements; for some of them, these special, protective events were used as a springboard for more serious events, for others – a double opportunity to win prizes. Others might find them less challenging or almost as insulting as Playboy’s backgammon bunny contest.

Creating an all-women event is only one the enticements given to women by tournament organizers are willing to do in order to draw more of them to the game. Others may include removing the entry fees from a tournament, as in Play65 €500 Ladies First event, where women are entered free while men pay €6 entry fees. Here, one can look at it as a fair reverse discrimination; another can be offended from the not so hidden insinuation that women are necessarily inferior backgammon players, thus men are penalized for taking their money so easily, same as players with high rating get to play an extra rake for playing, and usually winning, much lower ranked players. And the argument goes on…

Backgammon is anyway less organized than chess, so the blitz rules are more flexible; still, the idea is similar; blitz backgammon leaves less time (or no time at all) for pondering and can reveal a true talent. Or it could turn the game into a heads-on race. One thing for sure, when playing backgammon online, no one can use his computerized friend in such short notice.

This entire introduction came to tell you that Play65 has released a new blitz game in its backgammon platform, where each move is limited to 10 seconds and every game to 30 seconds. More about Play65 new speed modes and other novelties can be found in the new backgammon features page.

In online backgammon, your gender and sexual orientation are concealed (unless your username is susan, or dorothy), but your nation is displayed publicly. Thus, racist expressions are probably more common than misogynic or homophobic ones.

But how common? And how harsh? How do you react to them? Did you ever complaint to the online backgammon room‘s support, and if so, what did you think about their response? What do you think would be the best response to these kinds of behavior? Do you have anything else to say about this subject?

The same goes with eBay, where you are most likely to find any backgammon board/accessory or related item you have ever fantasized about (or never dared to) from double six shower curtain (59.97$) to blue inlaid backgammon checkers (120.00$) and other treasures: handmade board from Bali with engraved lion one side of the cover and bull on the other; a 67 x 57 cm wooden backgammon board designed as a coffin with a death angel engraving on the cover, and many others.

But what today seems so basic was not so usual in the early days of internet backgammon. Back then, players could not post their games’ preferences out in the open. To find a game partner, they had to negotiate with other players via chat or instant messaging, and face a lot of rejections and non acceptances. Later it developed to the invitational model used by today’s backgammon servers, where players can display the type of game (single or series) and the amount of stake they are willing to play, along with their rating points, so every player will have a general idea on what to expect.

No Bots, No Droppers

Bots that pose as human players and human players that pretend the internet connection fell off just as they are about to lose, are two of the most common cheats in online backgammon. But their presence is not a good enough reason to avoid playing backgammon online, especially not to stay away from Play65.

To extinguish backgammon bots of its platform, Play65 has established an anti bot committee with three of the top backgammon players in the world (including Masayuki Mochizuki, the world champion for 2009). What they do is check every complaint about suspicious behavior and judge on whether a bot was involved or just an exceptionally lucky/skilled player.

When a player is found guilty of using a computer program during an online game, his account is closed and the money he won as a bot, is returned to the opponent. By now, Play65 has closed dozens of accounts and about $40,000 was returned to their righteous owners. Of course, a player who thinks he was wrongly accused of using a bot, can file an appeal and demand reexamination of his case.

An online game that ends prematurely is not necessarily one of the opponents’ fault; however, when real money is involved, the allocation of the funds has to be decided. In such cases, Play65 has been using BGBlitz, professional backgammon software that can anticipate the expected end of the game and the assumed outcome. To improve BGBlitz functioning and provide more accurate results, Play65 has updated the software to its latest version and adjusted it independently.

New Features and Shortcuts

- three backgammon boards: wood, leather and felt
- 20 different languages, recently added Georgian and Rumanian
- Community shortcuts – view your last game partners with a right click on your username, and view each player’s details (rating, country, etc) by right clicking their username.
- Tournament shortcut – simply right click on a tournament name opens the tournament lobby.
- Automated moves – why bother moving the checkers yourself when there is only one possible function when the computer can do it for you? Note that automated move option comes instead of the automatic bear off checkbox, but if you choose to activate automated moves, automatic bear off is included.
- 1,000 is the limit – Play65 has recently raised the highest possible stakes to $1,000, and lowered the commission rates for those high rollers to 2.45%!

On the 1st of November, Sunday 21:00 (GMT), the Knockout Weekend will be finished with its biggest tournament so far – offering €5000 in money prizes.

On November 3rd, the first Ladies First event will take place, where women can enter with zero entry fees! Total prize €500.

On November 4th, the first in the series of Lucky Wednesday tournaments will take place; starting on 19:00 GMT and again on 20:00 and 21:00, with prizes ranging from $100 to $200 and entry fees stand on a single dollar!

Cyprus Backgammon Open qualifiers will take place on November 11th, 12th and 13th, and will offer three free entries (plus flight and hotel) to the WBA tournament in Nikosia, Cyprus, which is scheduled to November 26-29 and expected to be attended by the top backgammon players in the world (or at least in Europe).

Time:  online backgammon tournaments take place on a daily basis, through out the whole day. Major events, those that offer big money prizes, are usually held in the evening (universal time) or during weekends, making them available for everyone, without having to make a special exception of your regular schedule.

Money:  entry fees to major backgammon tournaments are very expensive, though the first prizes can pay off, the chances of being integrated among the top finalists are not big. In online backgammon, the prizes are relatively smaller, but so are the entry fees. Plus the allocation of the pool is different, and sometimes all of the participant can get some of their share.

Diversity: if you live in a small town with one backgammon club, you would probably run out of competitors after a short time, while in online backgammon you get range of contestants of all skill levels, ages and locations all the time. There is hardly a chance you’ll be paired against the same opponents in two successive tournaments online. On the downside, you can never know who you are playing against.

• Not having to dress up for the occasion
• Not having to set up the backgammon board before each game
• Having the option of muting the sound of the dice hitting the board
• Online tournaments!
• Not having to see my opponent’s face as he/she roll a 6-6

5 things I don’t like that make me wish I was playing backgammon live:

• Not being able to see who you are playing backgammon with
• Not knowing if you are playing a human or a bot
• Players who take too long breaks between every move
• Players who disconnect before the end of the game
• Not having to see my opponent’s face as I roll a 6-6

What are your likes and dislikes about playing backgammon online vs. playing live backgammon/playing chess/poker etc.?