DOUBLE ELIMINATION · MATCH PLAY TO 25LIVESEEDED
Monte Carlo World ChampionshipQuarterfinals in progress · Monte Carlo
The game's world championship, in the room where it has always been played.
- M. MochizukiQF
- M. NatanzonQF
- G. HansenQF
- J. JacobsQF
For you
Start with one idea today.
One lesson, one position on The Board, and the backgammon world's best content around it.
Continue learning
Board & Setup
Twenty-four points, four quadrants, fifteen checkers.
LEVEL 1 · FIRST ROLLS
OPEN THE LESSONPractice for you
A little more time on entering from the bar.
You re-enter through your opponent's home board — or not at all.
PRACTICE THISWhere you are
Your journey starts on the next position.
Nothing is tracked yet. Solve one position and GAMMON'D starts shaping what comes next around you — on this device, no account needed.
SEE THE FULL JOURNEYLive now
Backgammon, as it happens.
LIVESEEDED EVENT DATA
DOUBLE ELIMINATION · MATCH PLAY TO 25SEEDED
US Open Backgammon ChampionshipFinal rounds today · Las Vegas
America's flagship tournament crowns its champion this afternoon.
SEEDED
Nordic OpenStarts Thursday · Copenhagen
The friendliest major on the calendar — café backgammon at world-class level.
For you
Picked for where you are right now.
Because you have been working on entering from the bar.
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
TUTORIALBearing Off Without Giving Away Equity
Crossovers, wastage, and the contact bear-off — the endgame where small mistakes compound fastest.
GAMMON'D Studio · Beginner
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
INTERVIEWMochy on Study, Error Rates and Japan's Rise
A world champion explains how he practices, why he tracks his error rate, and what the club scene in Tokyo taught him.
The Long Game · All levels
TUTORIALCount Pips in Under Ten Seconds
Mental shifting, cluster counting and the mid-point trick — race arithmetic you'll actually use over the board.
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
TUTORIALAll Fifteen Opening Rolls, Settled
Every opening roll and its best play, explained with the reasons — why 3-1 makes the 5-point and why 6-5 runs.
GAMMON'D Studio · Beginner
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
Today in backgammon
What the backgammon world is talking about.
SEEDED EDITORIAL
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals set in Monte Carlo
Four matches to 25 points decide who plays for the title. The room is full, the side events are running, and every cube decision is being argued at the bar.
OPEN EVENTON THIS DAY
The Crawford rule turns 46
John Crawford's simple fix — no doubling for one game at match point — is the most elegant rule change in the game's history. Here's why it works.
PARLOR CULTURE
The weekly chouette is back
From New York to Istanbul, the Friday chouette — one player in the box, a table of partners, one very loud doubling cube — is drawing new players again.
ANALYSIS
Thirty years of the neural-net revolution
Since TD-Gammon taught itself to play in 1991, computers keep overturning what the books taught. The positions we got wrong for decades are the most instructive.
Learn something
Small ideas, five minutes each.
Great matches
Rabbit holes worth falling into.
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
Players to follow
Follow a player and their matches surface here.
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.
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.
Explore something new
An opening roll you have not studied yet.
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.
3 guided courses play out decision by decision on The Board.
Near you
Backgammon you can walk to.
GAMMON'D never reads your location unless you ask it to. These are parlors worth knowing about in the meantime.
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