UNITED STATESPaul Magriel
1946–2018 · Analytical clarity
The game's greatest teacher. His 1976 book 'Backgammon' turned folk wisdom into a framework of safe-vs-bold decisions still used today.
Explore
Every roll has a story.
Start anywhere — a player, an opening roll, a single match — and keep going. Every object in GAMMON'D links to the ones it belongs with.
Where do you want to start?
Eight ways in.
Players
Legends, world champions and the theorists who wrote the books.
Opening Rolls
All fifteen opening rolls and the replies that stand up.
Great Matches
The matches that changed how backgammon is played.
Strategy
Priming, blitzing, holding games, back games and timing.
The Doubling Cube
The invention that made backgammon a gambling game — and a science.
History
Five thousand years, from Ur to Monte Carlo.
Tournaments
The events the backgammon calendar revolves around.
Culture & Variants
Tavla, shesh besh, nardi, chouettes and café life.
The rabbit hole
One player, four hops, an entire era.
This is how GAMMON'D is wired: a player leads to a match, the match to its opening roll, the opening roll to the rival who answered it.
Players
Legends, champions and theorists.
UNITED STATES
UNITED STATESNack Ballard
1950– · Relentless aggression
A dominant force of the 1980s with a ferocious doubling cube, and the inventor of the Nackgammon variant played worldwide.
UNITED STATESBill Robertie
1952– · Technical precision
Two-time world champion and author of the Modern Backgammon series — the clearest technical writer the game has produced.
UNITED STATESKit Woolsey
1943– · Match-equity mastery
World champion and theorist of match play — his equity tables and cube framework made score-aware decisions a science.
JAPANMasayuki “Mochy” Mochizuki
1979– · Error-rate discipline
World champion and leader of Japan's modern school — meticulous preparation, ruthless self-review and the lowest error rates ever recorded.
ISRAEL / USAMatvey “Falafel” Natanzon
1968–2020 · Pure feel for the game
The most beloved player of the modern era — self-taught on a beach in Tel Aviv, world number one, and the heart of every room he entered.
DENMARKGus Hansen
1974– · Fearless aggression
World-class in two games. Brought poker courage to the backgammon cube and won where purists said his style couldn't survive.
UNITED STATESJake Jacobs
1955– · Probability made vivid
Champion, author and the game's great storyteller-analyst — explains complex positions with a mathematician's rigor and a raconteur's timing.
Opening rolls
Why each first roll exists.
Learn the best play, watch it explained, then practice the replies on the board.
3-13-1 — Point on Five
8/5 6/5
Make the 5-point immediately. It is the strongest single asset on your side of the board.
6-16-1 — The Bar Point
13/7 8/7
Two builders in one roll: slot nothing, make the bar point and start a prime.
4-24-2 — The Four Point
8/4 6/4
The 4-point is nearly as good as the 5. An inner point now pays for the whole game.
5-35-3 — The Three Point
8/3 6/3
Not glamorous, but an inner-board point is an inner-board point. Take it and move on.
6-56-5 — The Lover's Leap
24/13
The only opening roll that moves one checker the full distance. When ahead in the race, race.
6-46-4 — Split or Build
24/18 13/9 or 8/2 6/2
The first genuinely arguable opening. Split to the bar point, or start the 2-point early.
4-34-3 — Down or Split
13/9 13/10 or 24/20 13/10
Bring two down for contact, or split the back checkers for an advanced anchor.
2-12-1 — The Slotting Question
13/11 6/5 or 24/23 13/11
Slot the 5-point daringly, or split quietly. Money play and match play disagree here.
Great matches
The matches that changed how backgammon is played.
1982NACK BALLARD vs PAUL MAGRIEL · 25–22
The mathematician and the puristTwo of the game's great theorists trading 25-point match decisions for days. Ballard's willingness to redouble early unsettled even Magriel's famously sound cube play.
Las Vegas
2005GUS HANSEN vs THE FIELD · Champion
The gambler takes MonacoHansen brought poker aggression to the doubling cube and ran through the most glamorous draw in the game, playing a loose, fearless style purists said couldn't survive. It won.
Monte Carlo World Championship
2009MASAYUKI MOCHIZUKI vs THE FIELD · Champion
Japan's first world championMochy's win announced the modern era: meticulous study, error-rate discipline and a generation of Japanese players who treated backgammon like a science.
Monte Carlo World Championship
2017MATVEY “FALAFEL” NATANZON vs CHAMPIONSHIP OPPONENT · 11–10
Down 0–8, not outThe most beloved player in the modern game, eight points down in a match to 11, grinding back game by game — including a Crawford-game gammon — to the most popular title in years.
World Championship, Monte Carlo
1994KIT WOOLSEY vs BILLY HORAN · 17–13
The cube textbook, played liveWoolsey wrote the book on match-equity cube decisions — then demonstrated it over the board, passing cubes the crowd would have taken and taking cubes the crowd would have passed.
World Cup, Dallas
History
Backgammon with the room around it.
From the royal game of Ur to the Monte Carlo Salle des Étoiles — five thousand years of dice, told with the crowd and the aftermath intact.
DOCUMENTARYMonte Carlo: The Room Where It Happens
Fifty years of the world championship at the Sporting Club — the legends, the chouettes and the biggest cubes ever turned.
Parlor Films · All levels
HISTORIC MATCHMagriel Annotates: The 1982 Las Vegas Epic
The most influential teacher the game has had walks through the match that made his reputation — decision by decision.
Archive Analysis · Intermediate
Strategy
The structures behind every winning play.
TUTORIALWhen the Game Becomes a Pure Race
No contact, no excuses — how to play a running game, when to double one, and when to pass.
Match Room · Intermediate
TUTORIALWhy Everyone Fights for the 5-Point
Golden point, golden anchor — the geometry that makes one triangle the most contested real estate in the game.
The Cube Room · Beginner
TUTORIALAnchors: When to Make Them, When to Break Them
The advanced anchor is life insurance; the deep anchor is a bet on timing. Learn to tell which you hold.
Match Room · Intermediate
TUTORIALBuilding a Prime That Actually Holds
Six points in a row is a wall. Learn which points to make, in what order, and when to break them.
GAMMON'D Studio · Intermediate
TUTORIALThe Blitz: Close Them Out or Bust
Attacking everything when your opponent is on the bar — the most fun you can have legally at a backgammon board.
Match Room · Intermediate
TUTORIALBack Games: Desperation or Design?
Two anchors deep in your opponent's board can be a trap or a plan. Timing decides which.
Match Room · Advanced
The doubling cube
One cube, a thousand arguments.
TUTORIALThe Doubling Cube, Taught From First Principles
Why you double, when you double, and the match-score math that changes everything — the cube lesson most players never got.
The Cube Room · Intermediate
TUTORIALThe Crawford Rule and the Gammon That Follows
One game without the cube changes the entire match — the most dramatic single-game dynamic in backgammon.
The Cube Room · Intermediate
TUTORIALThe Price of Gammons
When winning twice as much matters more than winning at all — gammon value in money games and matches.
The Cube Room · Advanced
Tournaments
The events the calendar revolves around.
MATCH ANALYSISSplit or Slot: The Opening's Oldest Argument
Fifty years of debate over 4-3 and 2-1 — what the bots settled and what they didn't.
Archive Analysis · Advanced
Culture & variants
Tavla, shesh besh, nardi and the chouette.
The same fifteen checkers, a dozen traditions. Parlor culture from Istanbul to Beirut to the Friday chouette in New York.
BACKGAMMON CULTURETavla Mornings: Inside Istanbul's Café Game
Dice cups on marble, tea on brass trays — the daily tavla ritual that never left, and what it teaches about playing fast.
Parlor Films · All levels