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What is Happening to Backgammon?

Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer
Date: Friday, 3 December 2010, at 9:53 a.m.

In Response To: What is Happening to Backgammon? (Daniel Murphy)

I simply cannot see ratings being bad for backgammon.

It's not like chess or go where your rating (when active) is somewhat similar to your playing strength all the time, in backgammon it's much more volatile. You want quit the game because of a rating drop, rather try to win back what you lost.

And my experience from DBgF is that the ratings are not really doing anything bad. It's not published error rates, it's result based ratings. So your rating is more like an expression of your latest form or streaks. All your results are calculated in there, the latest weighing in the most.

Anyway in the DBgF we've rated all games since the birth of the federation - and I'd say that 20 years back it was more of an issue, because back then more players were in the game because of the money and less because of the challenge and love for mind sports. We had people who were at the top levels, winning big championships (such as the Danish Championship), who simply would not give out any single piece of advice or information about their game. They learned it the hard way, sponsoring the local chouettes, if other people wanted to become strong players, they had to earn their living as well. In an interview one of the Danish Champs from back then was asked about a crucial decision he made in the finals, if he had some reference position - he answered something like this: "Ohh I don't know why, I just move the checkers". Yeah right. This was before Jellyfish, so the strong players had a bunch of reference positions from chouettes, props, hand-roll-outs books, etc. And not all of them were willing to share. Those players were not all too happy to be singled out on a list as being strong. That could scare away the fish. But none of them would quit the game for that reason. On the other hand, the fish got some sort of reference list in order to avoid being overmatched - a sort of security.

But really, when the ratings are result driven (ELO-style) and not published ERs, then players will be "under-rated" most of the time. Backgammon is a game of your skill vs. your opponents luck, we all know this. I'd bet you that in the DBgF at least 2/3 of the members would say they are rated below their actual strenght (even though the bots have taken this number down!).

Now, what have the DBgF used his extensive rating system for? And what are we doing now?

First of all, ratings are used to limit players access to lower flights. In almost all tournaments. This is one big benefit in order for newcomers to start playing tournaments and not be eaten by sharks. Then we also use the rating to seed in some of the tournaments, and in the the Danish championships we're always trying to find a format where the top-rated players would typically be in the final stages but allowing everyone to enter with a fair chance. Previous that was done by reserving half the spots in the final cup (64 of 128) to the top rated players, and have the other members playing local qualifiers for the remaining 64 spots. It was good EV for the top players so they entered, and it was highly prestigious for the rest of the population so they played the qualifiers. An important thing here was that the Danish championships was a relatively low buy-in tournament (typically less than $50).

Now a days DBgF have competitions each year. Races. Most rating points gained in a year and most EXP (or Total Match Points as we call it) gained in a year. With prices to stimulate participation in the not so big tournaments and weekly café tournaments. These sorts of activities are fun, and they put some focus on the ratings in another perspective than just "who is #1". Something the USGF would be able to do as well.

In general, the DBgF rating system is a very big plus for the federation, no doubt about that. It has played a big part of the DBgF success. Currently you can see all matches, rating charts for players, avg. ratings, top ratings, streaks, statistics (% vs. other players, % in different match lengths, etc), so the system is very useful and fun for the members.

----

In regards to registering other things apart from ratings I'd like to mention the DBgF Results list. We track all results (where a result is clearly defined as reaching a certain spot in a tournament depending on the tournament flight, number of participants, etc.). All results are tracked and listed. Eg. on the player profiles it says "Stick Rice, rating 987, TMP 12554, 12 results" etc. You can then click on the results to see the details (eg. runner up at WC beginners. Winner in the Danish Team Tournament. Consolation Winner in Copenhagen Champs, and so on".

The DBgF sets out the guidelines for what will count as a result, and I think that tracking this is far better than "Master points" and other stuff... Especially when you combine with the ratings and EXP/TMP races I mentioned above.

Best regards, Henrik

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