How to Study Backgammon with Software: A Practical Routine

On this page
  1. Step 1: save your games
  2. Step 2: run a full analysis
  3. Step 3: study the biggest mistakes first
  4. Step 4: check close decisions with rollouts
  5. Step 5: build a personal position file
  6. Step 6: drill the cube
  7. Step 7: test yourself in play
  8. Common pitfalls

For most of backgammon's history, players learned from books, from stronger friends and from experience. That changed in the early 1990s, when programs based on neural networks began to play at the level of top human players. Since then, software has become the main study tool of serious players. Free programs such as GNU Backgammon and commercial ones such as eXtreme Gammon can analyze every move you make. Used well, they are the best teacher you can have. Used badly, they produce long lists of numbers that nobody reads. Here is a routine that works.

Step 1: save your games

You cannot review what you did not record. Play against the program itself, or save the matches you play elsewhere in a format the analyzer can open. If you play over a real board, you can enter the moves by hand; it takes a few minutes and is good practice in notation.

Step 2: run a full analysis

Ask the program to analyze the whole match, checker plays and cube decisions alike. It will compare each of your moves with its own choice and mark the differences by size, typically as doubtful, errors or blunders. Most programs also give an overall error rate for the match, which is a useful way to track your progress over months.

Step 3: study the biggest mistakes first

Do not try to understand every small inaccuracy. Sort the errors by size and look at the three to five largest. For each one, set up the position, compare your play with the best one and try to say in plain words why the better move is better. Typical answers are short: "it made my 5 point," "it left 11 shots instead of 17," "it kept a builder for the bar point."

Step 4: check close decisions with rollouts

When two plays are close, a quick evaluation may not settle which is better. A rollout plays the position out hundreds or thousands of times, with different dice each time, and averages the results. It is much slower but much more reliable. Use rollouts sparingly, for the positions you most want to understand.

Step 5: build a personal position file

Save every instructive position in a file of your own, with a one-line note. After a few weeks you will see patterns: maybe you break your board too early, or pass doubles that you should take. Those patterns are your study plan. Review the file regularly, trying to find the right play before looking at the answer.

Step 6: drill the cube

Cube decisions are where many players lose the most. Most analyzers let you set up positions and ask whether they are a double and a take at a given match score. Practicing these decisions in short sessions sharpens your judgment far more than playing on. Our doubling cube page covers the basic concepts, such as the take point, that the program will be measuring you against.

Step 7: test yourself in play

Finally, play a few matches against the program at full strength with the hint feature off, then analyze them again. Watch the error rate over time rather than the results of single matches, which swing with the dice.

Common pitfalls

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