Online Backgammon History

Computers, which were invented in the mid twentieth century as tools to aid scientific research and which became ever present by the end of that century, especially in the home, introduced a couple of new wrinkles into the game. For one thing, programs were written that pitted the computer against human opponents. The first of these was published in 1977 by a company called Personal Software. The program itself was called Gammon Gambler. Personal Software went on to become Visicorp, when they published the very first spreadsheet Visicalc.

The spread of computers also made the Internet possible. It originated in December of 1969, again as an aid to scientific research, as ARPANET. In the early nineties, the World Wide Web was born as a way for individual users to take part in the computer revolution. Gerald Tesauro of IBM wrote software using neural networking technology which actually learned…it taught itself… how to play backgammon. This software now plays a world-class game of backgammon. It is called TD-Gammon.

how to play FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Server) was created in 1993 by Andreas Schneider in Sweden. About 100 players who had Internet connections could play online at any one time. They had the ability to save matches, kibitz other people playing and used a rating system to compare playing strengths.

Frederic Dahl, a Norwegian, created the first commercial neural net backgammon software with a program called Jellyfish which could assign values to any position and rollout positions like nothing seen before. Bot players…computer players mimicking humans…appeared on FIBS followed by a backgammon newsgroup where players could go and discuss all things concerning backgammon.

Olivier Egger then introduced Snowie. This is more commercially popular computer backgammon software. It has a very user-friendly interface and, with its ability to import and analyze matches, it is considered today’s standard. The latest development in backgammon software is GNU Backgammon. Since it is based on Open Source, the source code for it can be downloaded and improved by anyone with the programming skills to try. With that kind of backing, it will almost certainly eventually surpass all these others. Several serious backgammon books appeared by the likes of Magriel, Kleinman, Robertie and Woolsey, so the total body of knowledge and use of backgammon software has become very advanced. Most recent books describe concepts and positions backed up by computer rollouts such as those by Bagai…who actually corrected errors made in previous books…and Wiggins. Tournaments held throughout the US and Europe are well attended and the participation world wide is steadily growing. The World Wide Web laid the groundwork for establishing a truly worldwide constituency and spawned numerous “support” sites this like the one you are viewing at this very moment.

In the twenty first century, online backgammon gaming sites have sprung up all over the world to promote various contests between and among enthusiasts, building on the software of the forerunners mentioned above. A number of these sites allow a individual person to play against the computer. Others allow people to play against one another or to compete in backgammon tournaments which include players from all over the world. They allow people to play for “fun money”…where the stakes are not real…or “real money backgammon” using the US dollar as the standard, but allowing currency from most modern countries.

Most prominent among these is Play65, the foremost backgammon gambling site, where at any given time, up to 10,000 players may be observed competing at once, spread over many virtual game rooms. This site has the most extensive servers and some of the most user friendly software in existence. Playing backgammon for money is becoming increasingly popular all over the world and Play65 is leading the way.