Backgammon Rating

- What is a player rating in backgammon?
- Rating systems in chess
- Online backgammon rating

What is a player rating in backgammon?

A player's rating in backgammon is the 4-digits figure that expresses his/her level of expertise. The players' rating points are determined by their record of achievements in backgammon games and/or tournaments played against rated players.

Obviously, players' rating is not a unique backgammon characteristic. Different rating systems are applied to calculate sports teams and athletes rankings; chess has its well known advanced rating system as well, often adapted to variety of two-player and multi-player games, backgammon among them.

Yet unlike chess, backgammon does not have one, unified rating system; each online backgammon website (FIBS, Play65) has a similar but not an identical rating system, and the multitude of backgammon associations (WBA, WSOB) with the absence of a single international organization, do not contribute to an equable players' rating calculation method.

Rating systems in chess

The Elo rating system, created by the physics professor and chess player Arpad Elo in 1960 for the United States Chess Federation, provided a statistical method of calculating the chess players' skill level and to measure their progress after every formal tournament. In addition, the Elo system tried to predict the players' performance in future events, based on their rating and in comparison with the rating of their opponents. The number that indicates the rating, then, marks their relative level of expertise and their chances to win, lose or draw in the next chess match or tournament. A player's rating would increase or decease according to the player's meeting or failing to meet the expectation.

Online backgammon rating

Elo rating system has been modified and adopted by the international chess federation (FIDE) as well as by other games including go and scrabble, multi-player games as World or Warcraft and even sports games such as football and baseball.

Backgammon serves have adopted a modified version of Elo rating system as well. The first internet backgammon server (FIBS), which was the first website to offer real-time multi-player backgammon games, was obviously the first one to include a rating system, and by that broke the ground for the next backgammon websites to come.

The online backgammon rating system is a simplified version of the formula used in chess. The player's rating range is 1000-2000. A new player, whose record of achievement is still clean, is automatically assigned an average number, usually 1500 rating points, and from there, the only way is up or down, depending on three major factors: the length of the match (a single 1-point match – a series of games played until the first player wins a set number of points), the player's experience (as based on his rating points, for example 1500 marks an average experience), and the gap between the two player's rating points (thus if one beats a significantly lower skill leveled player, his/her rating points will not be measured similarly as winning a player of similar or higher skill level player).

To summarize, by winning games a player gains rating points and by losing them, he/she reduces rating points; by winning better players you will gain more points than by winning worse players. And since the two opponents abilities are dissimilar, they will not be rewarded the same for winning/losing an individual game. 

Links

Online Backgammon on Play65