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Backgammon in the 21st Century and the Merit of Nonhuman Opponents

Could the 21st century finally be the century of backgammon? Ian Luke Kane, a system analyst who writes a personal blog called Logic Nest, thinks it already is, in the same metaphorical sense that made chess the game of the 20th century (although both games are far older than 110). Let us elaborate.

Chess, in its best player wins promise, suits the idea of the modern era. Deep Blue victory over World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov in 1997, which captured the attention of more than the expected crowds of chess freaks and computer geeks, was never seen as the triumph of the (massive) machine over the human spirit; it was rather looked at as the triumph of man made technology over the brightest human mind in its field.

Backgammon, on the other hand, brings additional data to the equation; it brings randomness and the probability that despite all the rightness, things might go wrong, the desired numbers will not be rolled in the right time or by the right hand, and once again, a champion level player will be defeated by a first time rookie.

Play Backgammon against Bots

And speaking of man vs. machine battles. Martin Smith of GameAccount is an artificial intelligent expert who developed a family of bots in varying skill levels to compete, and on the way train, their human opponents in variety of skill games - in the broad sense of the phrase, including backgammon, gin rummy, as well as poker and blackjack, who also developed a system designed to track bots that pretend to be normal human being players. As someone who is familiar with both the useful side of bots and the bots abuse, Mr. Smith has only warm recommendations on them, (of course, providing you are not hustled to play against bots unknowingly):

"There’s none of those annoying human frailties." He said about playing backgammon and other games against bots in an interview to the Financial Times:

"When you’re beating them they’re not bitching or moaning, when they’re beating you, they’re not boasting. They’ll never stop playing when they’re in front or stop paying when they’re behind and they’ll play fast".