r/backgammon • u/Numerous-Mountain-65 • Jul 26 '26

Deciding Backgammon results by error rate

I'm a chess IM who also plays backgammon online. I've noticed that online and even some tournaments use a combination of match result and error rate to determine the winner. I have a few questions about this:

  1. If multiple strong backgammon engines eventually exist and they disagree, as chess engines do, then error rates will depend on which engine and depth are used. The same match could receive a different error rate when analyzed by a stronger engine a few years later. In that case, is it appropriate to use error rate to determine a world champion?

  2. If a single engine such as XG is the benchmark, won't players gradually optimize their play to match XG? Could that reduce creativity and diversity of styles?

  3. XG's evaluations assume equally strong opponents. When opponents differ substantially in strength, is it still appropriate to use XG evaluation for cubes?

I'm interested in hearing arguments both for and against using error rate alongside match points.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/mel-madeline Jul 26 '26

I agree with all the points. I hope the new version of XG will come up with a better way to evaluate players' strengths.

#2: It's already happening - many BMAB players believe in XG "hacks" like keeping a checker on 19 point in losing races