Getting Started
Import a match file, browse your library, review a game to find your blunders, and evaluate any decision with the built-in engine — all in the browser, where your matches stay.
BackgammonDB turns your backgammon match files into a searchable database of every match, game, and position you've played. Everything runs in your browser, so your matches never leave your device. The one thing that goes to our server is a position you ask the engine to evaluate — the board, the dice, the cube, the score, and the move played — or, when you choose to analyze a whole match, the moves of that match and both player names. See Engine analysis.
1. Import a match
Drag a match file onto the dashboard, or use the import button and select one or more files. BackgammonDB reads the full move-by-move analysis from two formats:
- eXtreme Gammon (
.xg) - GNU Backgammon (
.sgf)
Both formats carry the analyzer's evaluated candidates, equities, and per-roll luck, and BackgammonDB imports all of it. On import, every position is also tagged automatically by phase, structure, and the events of the turn — see Position Tagging.
Analyzed XG and GNU files bring their own numbers, and BackgammonDB never replaces them. A .mat or .txt file (the plain-text format Backgammon Galaxy, XG, and GNU all export) carries no analysis, so it imports as moves only. Open such a match in review and analyze it as a whole, or evaluate any single decision — see Engine analysis, "Analyzing the whole match".
2. What's imported (and what isn't)
BackgammonDB defers to the file for everything the analyzer computed. A decision the file already scored keeps the file's numbers, so your figures line up exactly with the source program; the engine is offered only where the file has none:
- Equity, luck, and decision counts are read straight from the file — XG's numbers for
.xg, GNU's for.sgf. Performance rating is computed from those stored figures the same way XG computes it. - Comments — XG's "flagged" moves are imported as BGDB's starred moves. XG comments on moves are imported as annotations. These can then be edited in BackgammonDB. However, there is no facility to save these notes back to XG files.
- Player metadata — Elo, experience, location, computer-play level, money/currency fields, and match configuration (like maximum cube, Jacoby rule, beaver rule) are read and displayed in match details.
If a file is already in your database, it will be updated. New analysis will overwrite the old, so if you have completed a more thorough rollout, added deeper ply, or expanded the move candidates, these will all import. New flagged positions will become new stars, new comments will become new notes. However, if you have existing notes in BGDB, these will not be overwritten by notes on the import, preserving any BGDB edits. If you want to overwrite them, delete the match and perform a clean import.
A few things are captured but not currently surfaced:
- Tutor mode (XG only) — the move you first reached for before the engine warned you is imported, but not yet displayed. GNU files never record it, so tutor data is XG-only. PR shown for a tutored match is XG's tutor-assisted PR.
- Clock / time-per-move (XG) — parsed but not exposed.
Only standard backgammon is supported; Nackgammon, Hypergammon, and position problem files are rejected at import.
3. Browse your library
Imported matches land in your library, where you can sort and filter by opponent, date, length, and performance rating. Set your profile so BackgammonDB knows which side is "you" — see Database Management. Open any match to start a review.
4. Review a game
The match-review screen shows the board, the analysis for each decision, and the engine's best moves. Filter the action list down to your mistakes, step between errors with the keyboard, read the performance graphs and stat sheets, share a position, and star or annotate anything worth revisiting. Game Review walks through all of it. To ask "what if" about any position, hand it to Create a Position, change the board, and keep the variants worth returning to in Notebooks.
5. Find patterns across every match
From the Positions Browser you can find every position for every match you have imported: by type, phase, or event; mistake level, cube decision type, match status, annotation type and more. "All my blunders in a back-game", "every missed close-out", "hits the engine disagreed with" are all discoverable, and BackgammonDB ships with dozens of presets to get you started. See Position Tagging for the full vocabulary.
6. Saved positions
Positions you star or annotate during review collect on the Saved page for focused study later. This page lets you update your notes and tags from one place.
Ready to dig in? Learn the review screen, understand how the tagging works, or see how your score is computed in Match Statistics.