International Backgammon Federation

👨‍⚖️ IBF is conducting a survey to form referee teams for future tournaments If you speak English or several foreign languages and would like to join the IBF refereeing team. 📥 This is your chance to apply, please complete the form by September 21: https://forms.yandex.ru/u/6a87e22f49af472be3dff260 *This survey is not an application for a specific tournament. It is being conducted to create a database of international referees who may be available to travel to IBF tournaments.

BACKGAMMON IN CINEMA Backgammon has appeared on screen in very different ways — sometimes as a quiet domestic detail, sometimes as part of a character’s world, and sometimes as a genuine dramatic device. In The 400 Blows (1959), the game appears in an intimate everyday moment, giving the scene a brief sense of normality. In Modesty Blaise (1966), backgammon becomes part of the film’s stylish, playful visual language. In The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (2008), it carries much more weight: the game connects generations and becomes tied to memory, identity and the relationship between chance and choice. And in Octopussy (1983), the board turns into a psychological battlefield — a contest of nerve, deception and control. Four films. Four very different uses of the same game. Backgammon on screen is rarely just background. It can reveal character, shape atmosphere and even carry part of the story itself. Which of these scenes do you remember? #Backgammon #IBF #InternationalBackgammonFederation #BackgammonCulture #Cinema #FilmHistory #BackgammonInCinema

Dushanbe Tour for Asian Grand Prix participants 🇹🇯 📆 October, 4 🕙 10:00 📍 Meeting point: 10:00 Hyatt Regency Dushanbe, 26/1 Ismoili Somoni Avenue ❗️Registration will be opened soon Don’t miss the opportunity to discover Tajikistan together with IBF!

From official registration to a growing international stage — in less than two years. The International Backgammon Federation was officially registered on 19 July 2024. Since then, IBF has steadily expanded its international activity, bringing together players and national communities across a growing series of events. The first major milestones followed quickly: Armenian Grand Prix 2025 — Yerevan 16 countries • 150+ participants • $50K added prize fund Arabian Grand Prix 2025 — Dubai 36 countries • 200+ participants • $70K added prize fund In December 2025, the IBF Congress in Dubai marked another important stage in the Federation’s development with the election of Umar Kremlev as President of the IBF. In 2026, the international calendar continued to grow. The Asian Grand Prix brought together 500+ participants representing 52 countries, while the World Longgammon Championship & Georgian Grand Prix gathered 500+ players from 60 countries across 12 disciplines. The World Longgammon Championship became a particularly important milestone — the first championship of its kind within the IBF program and another step toward bringing longgammon onto a truly international competitive stage. Today, IBF continues to expand its global presence, develop international competition and build a broader sporting system around backgammon. A short history — and only the beginning.

A match can end — but the learning doesn’t have to. One of the most useful things you can do after playing is return to the decisions that were difficult, unclear or costly. Modern analysis tools can help turn those moments into focused study. eXtreme Gammon and GNU Backgammon can be used to review checker play and cube decisions, compare alternatives and return to positions that deserve another look. For more difficult decisions, rollouts can provide a deeper comparison of the available options. But analysis is only part of the process. Backgammon Studio can help turn specific types of positions into structured practice, allowing you to focus on the areas of the game that give you the most trouble. The goal is not simply to memorize which move an engine prefers. It is to understand why one decision is stronger than another — and to recognize the same type of situation when it appears again. Play. Analyze. Revisit. Investigate. Practice. A difficult position from your last match can become the starting point of your next training session. #Backgammon #IBF #BackgammonTraining #BackgammonAnalysis #InternationalBackgammonFederation

WHY DOES IBF USE A BAFFLE BOX? A baffle box is a simple piece of equipment, but it plays an important role in live backgammon. At IBF tournaments, the use of a baffle box is mandatory. Both dice are dropped together from the hand directly into the box. They pass through the internal baffles and then come to rest on the playing surface. The purpose is not simply convenience. The baffle box helps make every roll more consistent and transparent, reduces the possibility of dice manipulation and supports fair play for both players. For this reason, baffle boxes are part of the standard equipment used at IBF tournaments. One simple device. One clear principle: every roll should be fair. #Backgammon #IBF #InternationalBackgammonFederation #BackgammonTournament #BackgammonRules #FairPlay #BackgammonEducation

LEARNING FROM SCRATCH: HOW TD-GAMMON LEARNED BACKGAMMON In the early 1990s, IBM researcher Gerald Tesauro developed TD-Gammon — a neural network that learned to play backgammon through self-play. Rather than being given a complete expert strategy, the program repeatedly played against itself and improved through temporal-difference learning, or TD learning. In its basic version, TD-Gammon received only a raw representation of the board position, with no built-in expert strategy. Starting from that limited information, it learned from experience and reached a fairly strong intermediate level of play, outperforming conventional commercial backgammon programs of the time. Tesauro also observed that some of the network’s hidden units appeared to discover useful features of the game on their own. When hand-crafted backgammon features were later added to the input representation, the program improved further. By 1993, TD-Gammon was estimated to be playing at a strong master level, extremely close to the world’s best human players. Later versions became even stronger. In Tesauro’s 2002 paper, he reported that TD-Gammon’s positional judgment without lookahead rivalled that of human experts, while adding shallow lookahead allowed the program to surpass even the strongest human players. What began with a raw board description and self-play became one of the most remarkable demonstrations of how neural networks can learn complex strategy from experience. Gerald Tesauro, IBM Research — 1992, 1993, 2002. #Backgammon #IBF #InternationalBackgammonFederation #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning

Which board do you like better?

🌟 ASIAN GRAND PRIX 2026 VENUE Asian Grand Prix 2026 will take place at one of Dushanbe’s most impressive venues, the Kohi Navruz Cultural and Entertainment Complex. 📅 October 5–11, 2026 📍 Kohi Navruz Cultural and Entertainment Complex 14/2 Ismoili Somoni Avenue, Dushanbe, Tajikistan Located in the heart of the capital, Kohi Navruz is one of Tajikistan’s landmark attractions. The five-story complex covers approximately 40,000 m² and showcases traditional national architecture. Its halls feature wood and stone carving, mosaics, painted ceilings, mirrorwork, and the craftsmanship of Tajik masters. The venue regularly hosts major international and state events. In 2021, Kohi Navruz hosted a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and the complex was included in the “8 Wonders of the SCO” project. Very soon, players from around the world will meet here. A new country, a new venue, and a new chapter in IBF tournament history.

One of these statements is wrong — can you spot it? Three are correct. One is not. Swipe to check the answer and test your backgammon basics.

🏨 ACCOMMODATION For Asian Grand Prix 2026 participants, we recommend Hyatt Regency Dushanbe, one of the most convenient accommodation options with excellent accessibility. 📅 October 5–11, 2026 📍 Hyatt Regency Dushanbe, 26/1 Ismoili Somoni Avenue IBF has arranged a special accommodation rate at Hyatt Regency Dushanbe exclusively for tournament participants: Single Room — USD 160 Twin Room — USD 180 The payment to be made in cash at the reservation desk. To book your stay at the special rate, fill the form below: https://forms.gle/HEWj2Emi9BoaC4ND6 *If you are sharing a Twin Room with another participant, only one person should submit the hotel reservation form and indicate the roommate’s full name. Once we receive your request, we will contact you to confirm your booking. The number of rooms available at the special rate is limited. We recommend booking your accommodation in advance!

POSITIONAL FLEXIBILITY: KEEPING YOUR OPTIONS OPEN In backgammon, flexibility is not simply about having many legal plays after the current roll. It is about how effectively a position can handle a wide range of future rolls. A flexible position usually has useful spare checkers, sound distribution and enough connectivity for the checkers to support one another. This gives the player several constructive possibilities: making a useful point, improving the distribution, escaping a back checker, creating attacking chances or preserving key points. An inflexible position is more vulnerable to awkward rolls. A single number may force the player to break a valuable point, leave a shot, bury a checker or damage the overall distribution. Flexibility does not mean avoiding commitment or keeping every option open forever. It must still support the correct game plan. Its value lies in preserving several viable continuations rather than depending on one specific roll. A flexible position gives you more ways to respond as the game changes. How often do you evaluate flexibility before choosing your play? #Backgammon #IBF #BackgammonStrategy #PositionalFlexibility #BackgammonTheory StrategicThinking MindSport

ONE BOARD. TWO NUMBERING PERSPECTIVES. In backgammon, point numbers are always relative to the player. Your 1-point is your opponent’s 24-point. Your 6-point is their 19-point. Your 12-point is their 13-point. The physical board does not change — only the perspective does. Understanding this makes it easier to read move notation such as 13/8 or 24/18, follow match analysis, and discuss positions more clearly. A simple way to remember it: The two point numbers always add up to 25. 1 ↔ 24 2 ↔ 23 6 ↔ 19 12 ↔ 13 One board. Two perspectives. Clearer understanding. #Backgammon #BackgammonEducation #BackgammonTips #BackgammonStrategy #IBF InternationalBackgammonFederation

Why does 7 stand out? With two dice, not every total is equally likely. Some totals can be made in more combinations than others. That is why the probability spectrum rises toward the middle and falls toward the edges. 7 is the most likely total because it can be rolled in 6 different ways: 1+6, 2+5, 3+4, 4+3, 5+2, 6+1 By contrast, 2 and 12 can each be rolled in only 1 way: 1+1 and 6+6 That is why: 2 and 12 = 1 out of 36 7 = 6 out of 36 But probability is not a promise. A more likely outcome is not a guaranteed outcome. Probability describes patterns across many rolls — not what must happen next. Likely ≠ certain. And that is exactly what makes probability so important in backgammon. #Backgammon #Probability #BackgammonEducation #IBF #InternationalBackgammonFederation #DiceProbability #BackgammonStrategy

BACKGAMMON IN NUMBERS 🎲 Three official Guinness World Records show just how global this game has become. According to Guinness World Records, backgammon is linked to three remarkable achievements: 1. Longest marathon playing backgammon More than 25 hours Agstafa, Azerbaijan 8 July 2018 2. Most simultaneous games of backgammon 322 games played at the same time 644 participants played for one hour Albena Resort, Bulgaria 16 July 2016 3. Largest online backgammon tournament 21,940 participants Türkiye 16 August 2020 From a marathon lasting over 25 hours to an online tournament with 21,940 players, these records show the scale, reach, and community of backgammon around the world. Source: Guinness World Records #Backgammon #InternationalBackgammonFederation #IBF #GuinnessWorldRecords #BoardGames #MindSport #BackgammonCommunity

One match can become more than a result — it can become a lesson. In 1978, Paul Magriel and Bill Robertie played a seven-point match. Four years later, Robertie turned that game into “Test Your Backgammon”, published in Backgammon Times. Readers were invited to study each position, choose the next play, reveal the actual decision, read the explanation, and keep their own score. It transformed a real match into an interactive masterclass in strategy, risk and decision-making. A game ends. The lesson remains. #Backgammon #IBF #InternationalBackgammonFederation #BackgammonHistory #BackgammonStrategy #MindSport