Backgammon Online

08-Dec-2014
13:10 PDT

Did anyone know that in so called "Top Rated Players" - none of the first 10 players won a tournament ??? or at least a2nd or a 3rd place ????
...and if we dig deeper- form first 15 players only 3 (three !!) were able to win a 2nd and a 3rd position ??????
...and from first 30 players only 7 had occupied a podium place, with NO winner !!!???

31-Jan-2015
17:26 PDT

That's because they are bloody hard to win!! That's why you gotta admirer players like lilwarrior and CharmedOnes who seem to do it with ease. The best I've done is getting to the fourth round !

06-Apr-2015
03:30 PDT

yes, I only 2 or 3 times got 4-th round but no trophey  
Looks like smb has lucky dice despite of his rating... Someday I win!  

06-Jul-2015
17:01 PDT

I don't think the top rated players enter the tournaments - they don't want to lose points to lower rated players. If a player rated 2000 enters a tournament and ends up playing against a 1500 player - then they could lose close to 30pts!

It's different to chess - where a 2000 player will almost always win 3 games against a 1500 player. In BG, the short term variability is much higher - the dice could be very unkind.

22-Sep-2019
15:01 PDT

I do think it is very hard to get top rank and play at the same time tournaments and ladders. I got once up to 1998 points, but fall back quicky. I retired now from ladder games to see if I can get over the 2.000.

for the tournaments you will always need skill in combination with some luck, there is no way around it. A bad player will never make it to a place and an unlucky good player neither.

06-Jul-2020
13:44 PDT

Sure, backgammon is different from chess. Chess is a deterministic game. The outcome of a chess match depends solely on how you play in compare to your opponent. The factor of luck is zero. Tactical and strategic blunders are not luck; they are mistakes. The one who plays better wins the game. Backgammon on the other hand is a nondetermistic game with randomness playing a significant role in its outcome. The outcome of a game depends on both how you play comparing to your opponent and what both of you roll. You may even play the perfect game, yet lose the game against your opponent, if he rolls much better combinations and makes not too many mistakes.

Players with high scores may avoid playing against low score players in ladders and tournaments in order to prevent losing too many points in unlucky games. According to the website the ranking system is based on the Elo furmula, which does not work so well for nondeterministic games as it does for deterministic ones.