Position Tagging
How BackgammonDB automatically classifies every position by phase, structure, and the events of the turn — the engine behind position search and presets.
When you import a match, BackgammonDB looks at every position and tags it automatically. Those tags are what let you ask questions like "show me all my blunders during a back-game" or "every position where I missed a close-out" on the positions browser — without you ever labeling anything by hand.
Every position is described on three independent axes. They answer different questions and don't fold into each other, so you can filter on any one of them or combine them.
The different tag types
| Axis | Scope | What it answers | Carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Phases | Whole board (shared) | Where the game is in its arc | One phase, no modifiers |
| Position Types | Each player, separately | What kind of game each side is playing | One type per player + optional modifiers |
| Events | The turn | What discrete things happened this roll | Any number of events, each with a type (did / missed / wrong / …) |
The shape of each axis is different, and it's worth holding the distinction: position types carry modifiers; events carry a "type" that says how your move related to the best one. The sections below go into each.
1. Phase — where the game is in its arc
The phase is a property of the whole board, the same for both players: are we still in the opening, deep in a contact-heavy middle game, racing, or bearing off? It's a coarse narrative clock for the game.
→ See Game Phases for the five phases and what triggers each.
2. Position type — each player's structural game
Each side gets its own structural label — a primary type (holding game, blitz, back-game, prime, race, and so on) plus optional modifiers that add nuance (a golden-point anchor, a deep back-game, running out of timing). Your structure and your opponent's are classified separately, so you can filter on either side.
→ See Position Types for all 14 types, the order they're decided in, and the modifiers that attach to them.
3. Events — what happened on the turn
Events are the discrete things that occurred this turn: a hit, a double hit, an anchor made or broken, a point slotted, a close-out completed, the race beginning. Most positions have none; some have several.
→ See Events for the full list and how hits stack.
How the tags are used
The three axes are stored on every action and power the Positions Browser: presets, saved presets, and the player-state filters all read these tags. Tags are computed once on import and re-computed automatically when the classifier is improved.
New to the backgammon vocabulary the tags use — anchor, prime, blot, pip count, traps opp? The Glossary defines every term the other pages lean on.