What is a backgammon bot?

Kleinman · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 14

I am relatively new to playing backgammon online and am noticing a lot of talk about backgammon bots. What exactly is a backgammon bot? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

NulloPlay · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 11

An online backgammon bot is a computerized program that plays backgammon. Popular backgammon “bots” include GnuBg, Jellyfish and Snowie. These are programs that are intended to help you improve your backgammon game. You can play against these programs and they will analyze your game as you play along and give you suggestions on what you can do to improve and tell you what the best move would be in any given situation. You can also use these programs to analyze games that you play against other people as well to see what you could have done better.

Wipeout · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

Obviously, bots are a great thing when used in this context—they can help you improve your game more than you ever thought possible. However, you have probably also heard people talk about bots in a negative sense as well. The reason that some people see bots as a bad thing is because it is possible to use them to cheat in online backgammon games. You cannot cheat with backgammon bots in the same sense as you can with poker bots, which can be hooked up to play your game for you when you aren’t even in the room. Some players, however, use backgammon bots at the same time they are playing their games and analyze the game while they play in order to choose the best move every time. In other words, when you are playing against these people it is like you are playing against Snowie, GnuBg or Jellyfish on an expert setting and these people will win almost every time.

Luckily most online backgammon servers analyze your games as well in order to expose cheaters, so people don’t easily get away with cheating in this fashion. However, if you are worried about someone using a backgammon bot against you you can look for signs of bot cheating. If the person you are playing against is taking a lot of time to think about their moves and making perfect moves every time it is likely that they are taking the time to check with a bot program. If you suspect someone of cheating, simply don’t play against them again in the future.