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OMG! BGBuzzt can play TD-Gammon variant :)

Posted By: MK
Date: Thursday, 9 July 2026, at 7:42 a.m.

However few people may have bought BGBuzzt or tried the crippleware version and the people who have read discussions about it would know that Frank has been making false claims about his bot playing more backgammon variants than other bots, apparently in trying to create extra value for it.

I don't want to repeat my past harsh criticisms but instead I want to even soften some of them about playing all variants with the same gamblegammon AI, especially about the ones misnamed as "variant" while they are merely "play from position" versions of the same game.

Frank previously acknowledged that a specially trainded AI would play "snake' and "nackgammon" better. I think the same applies to "longgammon" also. The fact that BGBuzzt may not be very good at playing those games should not prevent Frank from rightfully claiming that his bot can play those games. So, I partially retract some of my criticisms about those.

However, I still think that claiming BGBuzzt can play "tables" and "Egyptian" amounts to fraud. Again, I'll skip arguing the details but those true "variants", (because not just the strategies but also the rules are different), definitely need separately trained AI's.

While trying to see how BGBuzzt plays all the listed variants, I noticed that you can select many of the boxes in various combinations, with some of them not making sense. But what a nice surprize it was when I realized that I could select to play "tables" and then start a "money game"... :)

Holy cow! That's TD-Gammon v1. Playing single games against itself, without the cube and without backgammons was how TD-Gammon v1 was originally trained.

BGBuzzt was probably trained including backgammons but, hey, it's close enough for me. I think Frank should add TD-Gammon v1 to the list of "variants" that his bots can play. It sure won't be any more fraudulent than his other claims. I, for one, won't object to it and actually I think it would justify raising the price of BGBuzzt from $23 to $24.

MK

Messages In This Thread

• OMG! BGBuzzt can play TD-Gammon variant :)
  MK -- Thursday, 9 July 2026, at 7:42 a.m.
  • OMG! BGBuzzt can play TD-Gammon variant :)
    Frank Berger -- Thursday, 9 July 2026, at 8:06 p.m.
    • OMG! BGBuzzt can play TD-Gammon variant :)
      MK -- Friday, 10 July 2026, at 9:06 p.m.