By Karsten Nielsen

The most popular way to determine who is the better player, is to use a neural network. This is usually either Snowie or Gnu. In GamesGrid it is possible to watch and record matches. For years GamesGrid was the chosen place to play for most of the top players in the world. The online backgammon servers offer their players the right for anonymity. We keep all usernames and account information confidential. We will only refer to players using their real names.

Many years ago Harald Johanni made a Snowie Ranking list. Unfortunately this list was not kept and updated. About 2005-2006 Iancho Hristov from Bulgaria made a list from watching people on GamesGrid. It was a very strong top10 with a lot of the world strongest players. Many thanks to Iancho for kindly giving me permission to use his data. Since then a lot of top players in the world have showed kindness and send me lots of more matches.

• The  ranking is based on snowie 4 error rate 3 ply precise
• Minimum matches required is 10 matches
• Ranking will be for the players latest 50 matches
• Minimum match length is 5 points
• Both live and online matches
• ER is error rate
• CP is checker play error rate
• * = Live matches has been used
  

Ranking	Name	Error rate	Checker Play	Country	Matches
1	Francois Tardieu *	3.156	2.246	France	50
2	Karsten Nielsen	3.226	2.492	Denmark	50
3	Mike "Falafel" Natanzon	3.301	2.389	Israel	50
4	Bob Watchel	3.465	2.896	USA	29
5	Lars Bonding *	3.479	2.774	Denmark	18
6	Mochy Mochiko *	3.483	2.441	Japan	38
7	Serguy Kurilenko	3.500	2.649	Rusia	24
8	Christian Munk-Christensen	3.552	3.050	Denmark	15
9	Serge Rived *	3.615	2.818	France	29
10	Lars Trabolt	3.636	2.724	Denmark	19
11	Paul Weaver	3.650	2.600	USA	50
12	David Wells	3.755	2.831	USA	50
13	Petko Kostadinov	3.759	2.968	Bulgaria	50
14	Peter Jes Thomsen	3.762	3.227	Denmark	20
15	Kageyama Michihito	3.763	3.043	Japan	37
16	Maria Kruncheva	3.789	3.108	Bulgaria	50
17	Jorgen Granstedt	3.907	3.209	Sweden	19
18	Dana Nazarian	3.987	3.244	USA	50
19	Brian Elgaard	3.989	3.100	Denmark	50
20	Steve Sax	4.036	2.647	USA	34
21	Mike Senkiewicz	4.075	3.475	USA	50
22	Morten Lassen (Holm) *	4.128	2.962	Denmark	50
23	Kit Woolsey	4.146	3.531	USA	44
24	Marc Olsen	4.169	3.202	Denmark	12
25	John Clark	4.262	2.786	England	50
26	Robert B. Eberlein	4.289	3.038	USA	39
27	Hugh Sconyers	4.330	3.607	USA	50
28	Didier Assaraf	4.389	3.654	France	50
29	Arkadiy Tsinis	4.493	3.286	USA	44
30	Andreas Humke	4.556	3.206	Germany	39
31	Ray Fogerlund	4.776	3.847	USA	50
32	Mike Svobodny	4.813	3.782	USA	50

To the average player online often plays at a higher level. This is because of the instant pip count. Top players don’t spend much energy counting pips. I believe top players play better live and average players play better online.

Feel free to compare this list with the giants of backgammon http://www.flintbg.com/giants.html. I would like to make the ranking list even better. I encourage “local champions” from all over the world to send in their matches (zipped please and with the same nickname playing). I also encourage people to send in matches regardless of having played well or bad. Currently I request matches from the following players. With out people sending in their matches, the list will never become complete.

Mads Andersen
Nack Ballard
Rick Barabino
Mike Corbett
Malcolm Davis
Jasques Elbilia
Leo Fernandez
Jake Jacobs
Jerry Grandell
Steen Groenbech
Gustav Hansen (Jacobsen)
Tobias Hellwag
Peter Heitmuller
Thomas Holm
Ralf Jonas
Arild Ildsoe
Neil Kazaross
Johannes Levermann
Mika Lidov
Sander Lylloff
Paul Magriel
Michael Meyburg
Abe Mosseri
Morris Mosseri
Morten Nielsen
John O’Hagan
Ed O’Laughlin
Bill Robertie
Jon Royset
Sven Rumcker
Najib Salamzy
Dirk Schiemann
Michel Serrero
Volger Sonnabend
Katja Spillum
Frank Talbot
Walter Trice
James Vogl

For suggestions, ideas or sending matches please email me.