I was thinking about this the other day, I wonder how many people actually play the game in real life versus online. Obviously it's a lot easier to play online, since you can play 24/7 and always have a match. Plus the automation of things makes games quicker (no random dice rolls that fall off the table, no setup time, etc). Plus with online you don't need to track pip count yourself, the computer does it all for you (depending on the platform).

I separated each online versus in person because some people might be forced to play online for a myriad of reasons or vice versa, even though they might prefer the other method.

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I won the match, but I think I got extremely lucky during the end game. Could someone point out the blunders that I made?

I added the link Match Record

Just a quick rant:

I know how to lose, and I can accept a fair defeat (I am a chess player). But playing this game online? It feels like a total waste of time. I completely get the appeal of playing on a real board by the beach with a friend, just having fun. But the online experience is just awful.

I’m not claiming to be the absolute best player out there. But seriously, either Backgammon Galaxy is rigged (which I doubt, since everyone says it’s fair), or the game itself is just fundamentally flawed. It feels like my opponents magically roll the perfect dice every single time. In my last game, they rolled a 3-1, followed by a 6-6, and then a 2-2 back-to-back, while I was stuck with ridiculous rolls like 2-1.

Look, I get that the thrill is supposed to come from playing the hand that fate deals you. But honestly, I’d much rather play poker than deal with this ridiculous game.

Hi all,
Long time player looking to get a *good* set. I have a handful of smaller “travel size” sets but I’ve always wanted a set like my grandfather has.
He has a cork set with marble chips but can’t tell me the brand and has no idea where he got it as it was over 30 years ago.
To the point, where do you guys shop to get boards, especially ones like described above?
Cheers!

Found the passion and just started learning. Saw that the premium star said unlimited vs AI, but I'm still paying the 50c per AI match. Something else? or am I missing something.

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Hi everyone,

We've been working on improving analysis in Backgammon Galaxy and have just released an enhanced Analysis Level. To showcase it, we also put together a report comparing the major backgammon engines and how they perform.

https://www.backgammongalaxy.com/backgammon-galaxy-engine-analysis/

Best regards, Marc Olsen, CEO of Backgammon Galaxy

i can't see a weaker poker player beating a super skilled player 7 games in a row.

One or 2 every 10 games sure. In backgammon you can literally play grandmaster level and lose 6-7 matches of 7 points each.

It often seems people compared the luck factor with those 2 practices but it doesn't seems accurate to me.

TL;DR: If 1-ply is now “2-ply,” and “rollouts” are still 20 to 26 mP away from the rollout you’re comparing to, and that still somehow ends at “strongest analysis on the market,” then we’ve left science and entered branding. At that point just bring the engines back to the Computer Olympiad, plug them togeather and let Galaxy, GNU, and BGBlitz (and maybe XG and Sage) settle it the only way the universe respects... RNG dice and no marketing department in sight.

I got a chance to skim the Backgammon Galaxy Engine Analysis article, and it seems like there is a bit of false advertising:

1. The article states:"Free Members: Get access to Gnu 1-ply (called 2-ply on Galaxy)."

"Ply" is a standard term in game-tree search, so it already has a clear meaning. Calling GNU 1-ply "2-ply" is misleading because it suggests a deeper search than is actually happening. It also makes comparisons with engines like GNU, XG, and BGBlitz harder, since it breaks the standard terminology and can give the impression of extra strength that isn’t really there.

2. "Galaxy Gnu Rollout" and "Galaxy Gnu Deep Rollout." are not really rollouts

These names suggest they're comparable to full rollout analysis, yet they're still 26.5 mP and 20.2 mP away from the GNU Target Rollout benchmark. The article doesn't explain why a product called a "Rollout" is so different from its own rollout reference...

3. "Increased evaluation speed by more than 7x, enabling significantly deeper and stronger rollouts."

Without knowing what's under the hood, I would be skeptical of snake oil which makes something faster and more powerful, especially in the computing world. A faster engine doesn't automatically produce deeper rollouts. Unless the rollout parameters (trials, search depth, etc.) were actually increased, speed alone doesn't make the analysis stronger. The article never quantifies what became "deeper" (other than maybe their pockets after memberships).

4. "New and improved 4-ply eval."

From the table, the difference is 0.0005 of a difference (36.8 mP for GNU 4 ply and Galaxy GNU 36.3 mP). Small enough to be a statistical error... without doing a T test (assuming normal distribution, or another test) it's a joke to make such a claim.

5. Claiming to be the strongest and deepest analysis of any playform on the marke

Making this claim goes beyond what the methodology they used can support. The evaluation is based on equity prediction error against internal rollout benchmarks, but those benchmarks are not a single ground truth. Combined with a dataset built from user blunders and category sampling, the results are inherently skewed toward difficult, high-disagreement positions rather than a neutral cross-section of play.

More importantly, this still isn’t a direct comparison of engines under identical conditions. It’s an indirect proxy based on internal rollouts and calibration error.

If the goal is a definitive ranking of engine strength, the most convincing method remains head-to-head evaluation, seeing which engine wins after millions or billions of matches. The Computer Olympiad is a good setup, where engines like GNU, BGBlitz, and others were historically compared directly... maybe it's time for GB Galaxy, Sage and new XG to step up to the plate and face off.

I’m not trying to start an argument or a flame war, I’m truly curious.

So much talk here about Backgammon Galaxy I tried it a few times, and came away genuinely puzzled as to why it appears to be the most popular joint on the block here.

It doesn’t seem to offer anything that can’t be found at numerous other backgammon sites, forces you to use coins which I loath, forces you to use avatars which I also find less than compelling, and has very few options for editing the board.

I know there’s lots of opportunities to find an opponent there, but the same can be said for pretty much every backgammon site.

So again, seriously, what is the attraction?, because frankly, I’m stumped.

To start off, I DO NOT CLAIM DICE IS RIGGED, or that it's against me in any way.
I know it's open source.

I have a different sort of question, please take it seriously and don't come at me.

I've been ( about entire last week, around 60-70 game ) been constantly losing, sometimes with better PR sometimes with worse, so that my wr% dropped 2% and my rating dropped about 220 points. ( currently rated about 2060 )

Almost every single game, there's a pattern of impossible antijoker/joker sequences happening. Too ridiculously often. Even the games I win follow the similar pattern.

1. exact flyshot from 5/6 board
2. exact doublets when enemy has 2+ men on bar
3. 66 for me the moment enemy is safe during bear off while Im on bar
4. sequences of forced blot/getting hit/rolling that exact thing that he has closed in

To be fair, sometimes its the opposite, and can happen to enemy as well.

Is there any way for dice to be skewed towards more dynamism? Not to show favoritism towards any player, but to give to both jokers and anitjokers a bit more? say 20-30% more?
What purpose this serves - would be more dynamism and chance for both players to swing easily and not feel too stomped, so they keep on playing.

Also, I understand probability and basic math, and know how our brains aren't good judges for dice rolls.

However, and please trust me on this ( I can provide hundreds of screenshots that I've sent to my friend as a joke/to complain ) and I haven't manually done check ups like letting XG see the statistical rate over about a hundred game and compare it after. ( galaxy removed download match or its glitching, it was there and it isn't for last few days )

Tl'dr -

joker rolls and antijoker rolls are just way too much. few dozen times every single game. every single game that 1/36 roll, every time 99% won game crunches, enemy hits, I miss.
I cannot comprehend how this can go on for well above 60-70 games nonstop with same pattern every game. seems like jokers and anti jokers come way, way more often than they don't.

There's always a 5-10% rough swing that you might drastically lose equity in any given roll sequence, but always? like every single time? this feels way too out of hand and if I could stake my life on it, I would.

I've often noticed sequences of some bad days/rating swings in the 100-200s but this is too much.

How can this be? how can they deny the extremely obvious pattern? I am not stupid and I play elsewhere too. This is way too unfair and unreal.

I will die on this hill that somethings not right.

P.S - I still love the interface, player base, analysis and so on.
its a great website. Just seems to be ''tuned'' in some sense to increase the odds ( proportionally probably for both players, but nonetheless )

Sorry for the Long rant

I've been locked out of their platform since the update. They've been responsive, but haven't done anything to actually fix anything. Last I checked they said a fix would be out last Friday.

They also refuse to answer more targeted questions about how I can SIMPLY LOG OUT (maybe hitting a logout route?) because at this point I'm fine just creating a new account, but I can't because I'm always logged in.

I pay for a membership, and now I have no access. Nothing has changed for two+ weeks now. Getting close to initiating a chargeback with my credit card.

Anyone have any advice?

cc: u/backgammongalaxy

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How can I find the correct play? Analysis in the comment