GNU Backgammon version 1.*


GNU Backgammon is developed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
and is part of the GNU project. If you want to know more about GPL
and the Free Software Foundation you can visit the FSF website. The
conditions for copying may be found in the FILE `COPYING`

Look for news and releases of GNU Backgammon at
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnubg/.
There you will also find ways to report bugs and give suggestions.

For instructions on how to build gnubg, please read the file `INSTALL'
and the other sections in this file; for other information, please see
the GNU Backgammon manual in the `doc' directory.


GNU Backgammon (gnubg) plays and analyzes backgammon games and matches.
It is able to play and analyze both money games and tournament matches,
evaluate and roll out positions, and more.
Driven by a command-line interface, it displays an ASCII rendering of
a board on text-only terminals, but also allows the user to play games
and manipulate positions with a graphical GTK+ interface.
GNU Backgammon is extensible on platforms which support Python.

GNU Backgammon is a world class opponent and rates at around 2200 on
FIBS, the First Internet Backgammon Server - at its best, it is in the
top 5 of over 6000 rated players there). GNU Backgammon can be played
on numerous other on-line backgammon servers.

The following features can be found in the current release of GNU
Backgammon.

* A command line interface (with full command editing features if GNU
  readline is available) that lets you play matches and sessions
  against GNU Backgammon with a rough ASCII representation of the
  board on text terminals.

* Support for a GTK+ interface with a graphical board window. Both 2D
  and 3D graphics are available.

* Tournament match and money session cube handling and cubeful
  play. All governed by an underlying cubeless money game based
  neuralnet.

* Support for both 1-sided and 2-sided bearoff databases: 1-sided
  bearoff database for 15 checkers on the first 6 points and optional
  2-sided database kept in memory. Optional larger 1-sided and 2-sided
  databases stored on disk.

* Automated rollouts of positions, with lookahead and race variance
  reduction where appropriate. Rollouts may be extended.

* Automatic and manual annotation (analysis and commentary) of games
  and matches.

* Record keeping of statistics of players in games and matches (both
  native inside GNU Backgammon and externally using relational
  databases and Python).

* Loading and saving analyzed games and matches as .sgf files (Smart
  Game Format).

* Exporting positions, games and matches to: (.gam) Jellyfish Game,
  (.html) HTML, (.mat) Jellyfish Match, (.pdf) PDF, (.png) Portable
  Network Graphics, (.pos) Jellyfish Position, (.ps) PostScript,
  (.sgf) GNU Backgammon File, (.svg) Scalable Vector Graphics,
  (.tex) LaTeX, (.txt) Plain Text, (.txt) Snowie Text

* Import of matches and positions from a number of file formats:
  (.gam) GammonEmpire Game, (.gam) PartyGammon Game, (.mat) Jellyfish
  Match, (.pos) Jellyfish Position, (.sgf) GNU Backgammon File, (.sgg)
  GridGammon Save Game, (.tmg) TrueMoneyGames, (.txt) Snowie Text

* Python Scripting ability.

* Native language support; 15 languages complete or in progress:
  cs_CZ, da_DK, en_GB, en_US, fi_FI, fr_FR, de_DE, el_GR, is_IS,
  it_IT, ja_JP, ro_RO, ru_RU, es_ES and tr_TR

