Introduction - GNU Backgammon Manual V0.16

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1 Introduction

This manual describes how to use GNU Backgammon to play and analyze backgammon games and matches. It corresponds to version 0.16-devel (updated in February, 2007).

GNU Backgammon (gnubg) plays and analyzes backgammon games and matches. It is able to play and analyze both money games and tournament matches, evaluate and roll out positions, and more. Driven by a command-line interface, it displays an ASCII rendering of a board on text-only terminals, but also allows the user to play games and manipulate positions with a graphical GTK+ interface. GNU Backgammon is extensible on platforms which support Python.

     
     (No game) new game
     gnubg rolls 3, anthon rolls 1.
     
     GNU Backgammon  Positions ID: 4HPwATDgc/ABMA
     Match ID   : MIEFAAAAAAAA
      +12-11-10--9--8--7-------6--5--4--3--2--1-+     O: gnubg
      | X           O    |   | O              X |     0 points
      | X           O    |   | O              X |     Rolled 31
      | X           O    |   | O                |
      | X                |   | O                |
      | X                |   | O                |
     ^|                  |BAR|                  |     (Cube: 1)
      | O                |   | X                |
      | O                |   | X                |
      | O           X    |   | X                |
      | O           X    |   | X              O |
      | O           X    |   | X              O |     0 points
      +13-14-15-16-17-18------19-20-21-22-23-24-+     X: anthon
     
     gnubg moves 8/5 6/5.

GNU Backgammon is a world class opponent and rates at around 2000 on FIBS, the First Internet Backgammon Server – at its best, it is in the top 5 of over 6000 rated players there). GNU Backgammon can be played on numerous other on-line backgammon servers.

The following features can be found in the current release of GNU Backgammon.

A command line interface (with full command editing features if GNU readline is available) that lets you play matches and sessions against GNU Backgammon with a rough ASCII representation of the board on text terminals.
Support for a GTK+ interface with a graphical board window. Both 2D and 3D graphics are available.
Tournament match and money session cube handling and cubeful play. All governed by an underlying cubeless money game based neuralnet.
Support for both 1-sided and 2-sided bearoff databases: 1-sided bearoff database for 15 checkers on the first 6 points and optional 2-sided database kept in memory. Optional larger 1-sided and 2-sided databases stored on disk.
Automated rollouts of positions, with lookahead and race variance reduction where appropriate. Rollouts may be extended.
Automatic and manual annotation (analysis and commentary) of games and matches.
Record keeping of statistics of players in games and matches (both native inside GNU Backgammon and externally using relational databases and Python).
Loading and saving analyzed games and matches as .sgf files (Smart Game Format).
Exporting positions, games and matches to: (.eps) Encapsulated Postscript, (.gam) Jellyfish Game, (.html) HTML, (.mat) Jellyfish Match, (.pdf) PDF, (.png) Portable Network Graphics, (.pos) Jellyfish Position, (.ps) PostScript, (.sgf) Gnu Backgammon File, (.tex) LaTeX, (.txt) Plain Text, (.txt) Snowie Text
Import of matches and positions from a number of file formats: (.bkg) Hans Berliner's BKG Format, (.gam) GammonEmpire Game, (.gam) PartyGammon Game, (.mat) Jellyfish Match, (.pos) Jellyfish Position, (.sgf) Gnu Backgammon File, (.sgg) GamesGrid Save Game, (.tmg) TrueMoneyGames, (.txt) Snowie Text
Python Scripting ability.
Native language support; 10 languages complete or in progress: (cs_CZ, da_DK, en_GB; en_US, fr_FR, de_DE, is_IS, it_IT, ja_JP, and tr_TR)

Note
Some language translations are not completed yet.