online backgammon against a friend?

[Craig]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a good way to play backgammon online against my friend,
who lives on the other side of the planet. We tried the MSN backgammon, but
it seems to crash fairly often, and connection was difficult.

Any suggestions? I've googled it but keep getting sites where you play for
money in tournaments etc.

Thanks very much!

Craig

[DAnder...@gmail.com]

Most money sites have a free-play option. Once you've established
that, you can pick any of these that you like the look of. TMG/XG has
a nice looking client that was stable. At least whilst I played there
it was and I'm assuming it's still the case.

[Simon Woodhead]

Craig wrote:

FIBS is what you're looking for - http://www.fibs.com/
Start with the "Getting started" link :-)

[Craig]

Thanks for those suggestions! Cheers,

Craig

"Craig" <nos...@thanks.com> wrote in message
news:491a81f7$0$31801$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...

[neilkaz]

Ot try Safe Harbor Games, which I find to be a decent interface.

[hojatghe...@gmail.com]

HI

[hojatghe...@gmail.com]

HI

[eric.s...@gmail.com]

The best to play with friends and having great experience, play at Citygammon (facebook) or go to citygammon.com
Good luck

[jacob...@gmail.com]

Depending on how you'd like to play you have a couple of options. First, as someone already suggested, FIBS is a good site. It allows you to play in real time.

Safe Harbor Games is okay as far as the interface goes but be careful which rooms you join. They have rooms where the dice are not the normal distribution. Long story. It's a joke and really detracts me ever recommending anyone go there.

You may also like dailygammon.com which is a turn based site. It means that you and a friend can play however many matches you want against each other all day every day. It's free of course too.

Stick
http://www.bgonline.org/forums/

[lamya...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 10:12:26 AM UTC+3, Craig wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Hi Craig.
I would like to play with you but I dont know how.

[Paul]

Around 1994, I think Fibs may have been the only way of playing world
class players online and not-for-money.
I've played Kent Goulding and Bill Robertie on Fibs at that time.
I also played Sally-Sue Woolsey who was better than me. I think Kit Woolsey, Sally-Sue Woolsey and their son (Phil I think but I'm not sure) were the strongest backgammon family in the world but I'm not sure.

Paul

[Tim Chow]

Note that Craig posted this request more than eight years ago.

---
Tim Chow

[Paul]

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

[rajima...@gmail.com]

[ro.es...@gmail.com]

This was posted 10 years ago.

[vasili...@gmail.com]

Hi,

iTavli is the best backgammon app. Not only it has a large collection of games, but it is also available for iOS / Android devices, and for web.
Here are all the links
http://www.i-smartsolutions.com/itavli/

On Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 9:12:26 AM UTC+2, Craig wrote:

[Michael]

On Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 9:33:10 PM UTC+3, vasili...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> iTavli is the best backgammon app. Not only it has a large collection of games, but it is also available for iOS / Android devices, and for web.
> Here are all the links
> http://www.i-smartsolutions.com/itavli/

Looks good, I will try it.
Do you have a rating system?

[sarino...@gmail.com]

[amelia.s...@gmail.com]

I know this is an old thread - but does anyone have any recent suggestions for clean and easy-to-use online backgammon games that you can play against a friend?

I'm hoping to play with my aging dad across the country while we're all hunkered down for COVID-19. He's in his 70s so needs to be simple (no coins, complicate forms, Flash, heavy ads, Facebook integration, etc). He also doesn't have a tablet or smartphone - so must be a web browser game.

We tried iTavali but the "Start Game" button kept freezing for the person being invited. FIBS is too technically complicated and SafeHarborGames won't open on my computer because "Apple can't check it for Malicious software." I've been testing BackgammonGalaxy with my brother, but it currently won't let you invite a friend to a game so you have to hang around declining people until your friend finds you in the log of games.

Happy to pay for software if needed, within reason. Biggest thing is a simple browser interface and being able to play with a friend in another location.

Let me know if anyone has any recommendations! Thank you in advance!!

[vasili...@gmail.com]

Hi Amelia,

Could you please tell me what the problem with the iTavli site is? I was able to invite my self to a game and I did not have any issue.
Can your dad play a game against the computer? In order to play an online game your dad needs to register, did he do this?
Did you follow the instructions from this page? https://www.itavli.com/how-to-play-an-online-backgammon-game/

[Michael]

On Friday, March 20, 2020 at 3:04:10 AM UTC+2, amelia....@gmail.com wrote:

The only option left seems to be playOK.com
You add each other to your "contacts" so you know when any of you is online. You can invite each other on a table and play a match or 1 pointer game, or just join a table and just chat.It's all browser based.

[amelia.s...@gmail.com]

Thanks, Michael! Do you know if there is anyway to turn off the clock or dramatically slow it down?

I was test driving playOK.com between two different browsers before trying it out with my dad, and one player kept winning because the other would run out of time after only 3-4 rolls each.

Other than that, the system looks like it would work well for us, but the clock seems like it will be a deal breaker. I tried to put the time setting to the number all the way at the bottom of the list (I'm not sure what the numbers mean) but unfortunately it still till timed out after a few rolls of casual play. If you have any advise on this, please let me know!

[bgbl...@googlemail.com]

what about DailyGammon.com. It's a bit turn based but easy to use, pretty straightforward HTML

[Michael]

You first set the match length. Suppose you set it to 11.
1X/12 which is the number at the bottom sets the time to to 1*11=11 minutes/12
seconds per move for each player. Every time you spend more time than 12 seconds to move that gets deducted from your 11 minutes.
Just don't join tables that set the time too low.
Make your own table and just wait for people to join.

[vasili...@gmail.com]

Too complicated. Try the iTavli (https://itavli.com)
Pick your opponent then pick the game, and you are set.
iTavli has more than 10 different backgammon games

[Michael]

tried it, only 6 online players who as you say play upto 10 different variants, all designated with numbers say player_502 etc.
The interface is terribly slow and tiring, needs a lot of improvement.
Played with just one player who resigned the match at score 1-1 to 7!
Also the interface errs e.g at game 1 I rolled 11 from bar and after playing only 3 of them,it passed the dice to opponent. In another occassion the opponent was running with 44 at a similar position to this:


GNU Backgammon Position ID: t4UAAHx3BwAAAQ
Match ID : MAHyAAAAAAAA
+12-11-10--9--8--7-------6--5--4--3--2--1-+ O: O
| | O | O O O O | 0 points
| | | O O O O | Rolled 44
| | | O O O O |
| | | O |
| | | O |
^| |BAR| | 7 point match (Cube: 1)
| | | | X
| | | | X
| | | X | X
| | | X X X | X
| X | | X X X X | XX 0 points
+13-14-15-16-17-18------19-20-21-22-23-24-+ X: X
Pip counts : O 57, X 25


He played b/21/9 and the interface did not put the checker on 17 on bar!!

[vasili...@gmail.com]

Which game did you play? Did you play on the web or on the mobile?

[amelia.s...@gmail.com]

I’d love to - but until it’s fixed so the “Start Game” button doesn’t freeze for the invited player, we can’t use it. I really like how simple the platform is for older players, I hope it’s fixed soon.

If you log in under two separate accounts on two separate browsers on your computer, you will find that the “Start Game” button always freezes for the person who has been invited to play. Once this is fixed, please let me know as I’d love to use the platform to play with my dad! We both want to play from our computers so the mobile platform is not a viable option for us. Thank you!

[amelia.s...@gmail.com]

I never had any issues playing against the computer. The issue happens when two friends try to play, both on web browsers. The “Start Game” button freezes every time for the player who has been invited. My dad was having this issue, so I tested it by logging into two separate browsers with our two accounts and found that the button froze every time. Bummed as otherwise it seemed like a good play form for us, giving our hope for a very clean and simple option. My understanding is that the issue is tricky and will take some time to fix. Happy to provide additional clarify as needed!

[vasili...@gmail.com]

Hi Amalie,

Did you try to play an online game today? I did fix this issue!!
Thank you

[ame...@novusselect.com]

Thank you for letting me know!!! I'll give it a try now!

[Terje Pedersen]

Hi!

There are a few stone age alternatives out there and then there is Heroes:

https://heroes.backgammonstudio.com/

As one happy user said the other day:

Dahue_senestre: "it's fantastic!"

It can be reasonably crowded in the evenings (european time):

https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/68.png

especially if some big tournament is running.

As for connection issues Heroes handles disconnects/reconnects and if reconnect fails the match is saved and you can resume the match when both players are connected again. Some sites has automatic match resolving on disconnects but I don't think that is fair as you can win a match even from the most improbable of situations.

It is difficult to please everyone so if you will like it or not I don't know. You just have to give it a try! :-)

Best regards,
TP

[Michael]

Not bad albeit too complicated with a million buttons and options.

At least it doesn't manipulate the dice like PlayOK does.Therefore one can double and play normally without having to worry of upcoming tons of Jokers or antijokers. That's a big plus.

However I am terribly disappointed of the fact that your rating system malfunctions big time.
For a start it doesn't count experience correctly and as a result the vast majority of players show up as "low experience".
I checked my own statisrics and my experience sumed up at both BG studio and competition format shows up only half of what it actually is.

Secondly I was surprised to notice that after 6 match wins and 2 losses my rating was only 1527. Before accepting a new invitation I pressed the "more" button to check what my rating would be in case I 'd win or lose the match. It said +-15 points. I lost the first 7 pt match and then won the rematch.
My new rating should still be 1527, no?

Yet BG studio currently shows me at 1507!!

I then thought maybe some matches were unrated.
I downloaded all the matches I played, and all of them are marked [Unrated "Off"]

[vasili...@gmail.com]

Hi,

Why do I have to login? Can I play a local game?

[Terje Pedersen]

Hi!

Thank you for your feedback and for the testcase of your own rating.

A couple of weeks ago I made some changes to improve the server performance where one change was to move rating calculation to the background. Unfortunately it wasn't properly tested and had a couple of bugs.

Hopefully I have located the last one where your experience would become wrong after the first match so you no longer went up/down at a faster rate when your experience was less than 400. For old users with already a lot of experience there wouldn't be any difference.

I have recalculated all rating now and your corrected rating is 1554.

Best regards,
TP

[Michael]

Thanks Terje.
I thought there was a bug regarding rematches because although I played 10 matches so far, my opponents were only 5.
Just curious if you checked that, as I am still afraid to play a rematch

[Michael]

Btw just for the information of the forum, imo "BG studio heroes" has the pottential to replace the snobish gridgammon.
a)I noticed one of the known Giants is already playing there.
b)It has unlimited games for the gamblers just like Gridgammon has.
c)the dice seems fair (so far)
d)The average level of play is superior to any other BG site including gridgammon. Lots of players at PR around 4.
e)There are a lot of tournaments every night, so you may spend the whole evening playing by just signing up to those tourneys.

Again in my opinion.
a)Many players (including myself) won't like the presence of bots either as opponents or as consultants.
b)There are many types of matches in which the player/s actually receives assistance from bots. Typical examples: With BG studio type you get a voice message saying "Awsome" every time you play the bot's move. The consultation type:Haven't tried it but it looks that you get a window with your game history where moves are marked with various colors according to the equity loss.

As a newbie most of the invitations I receved were for BG studio mode and just accepted without knowing what it was.I then switched the speakers off the get rid of that "awsome" voice all the time even for the obvious moves. After chatting a bit with Terje he adviced me to use "competition mode", and that's what I use now.

[Kimberly Abraham]

How long does registration at BG Heroes take? I wanted to play a game tonight, but the system hasn't verified my email yet . . . ???

[Vasilis Gkanis]

Hi,
I do not know about Heroes, but have you tried the iTavli, https://www.itavli.com? You can play on your computer or you smartphone (both iOS and Android). You can play against the computer or other online players. But, most importantly it supports 15 different variations of the backgammon game.

Vasilis

[Владислав Борисов]

среда, 3 февраля 2021 г. в 11:14:47 UTC+3, vasili...@gmail.com:

Personally, I like the online backgammon portal NardGammon.com they have cubes there that fall out adequately and the portal itself is beautiful. I don't know how you came to me, come in if you want to play and see.

[Frank Koenen]

On Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 11:12:26 PM UTC-8, Craig wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm trying to find a good way to play backgammon online against my friend,
> who lives on the other side of the planet. We tried the MSN backgammon, but
> it seems to crash fairly often, and connection was difficult.
> Any suggestions? I've googled it but keep getting sites where you play for
> money in tournaments etc.
> Thanks very much!
> Craig

SimplyBG.com is a great site to play against other real players. Works on any device with no install.
Play one on one, tournaments. SimplyBG is a full features online backgammon playing venue.

[Frank Koenen]

You should look into https://www.simplybg.com for great online backgammon play with regularly running tournaments and individual play.

[Trevor Slocum]

At https://bgammon.org you can play backgammon, acey-deucey and tabula online for free without any advertisements. Registration is also optional.

Chat with other players and stay up to date on the latest changes at https://bgammon.org/community