PR stands for performance rating, and it is the modern standard for measuring backgammon skill. In one number, it answers the question that win-loss records cannot: how well did you actually play? Because dice decide individual games, you can play brilliantly and lose, or play poorly and win. PR cuts through the luck and grades your decisions. Here is exactly what it means and how to bring yours down.
A backgammon engine knows the best available play in any position. After a game, it compares every decision you made, each checker play and each cube decision, to that best play, and measures how much equity (your expected outcome) you gave up by choosing differently. It adds up all that lost equity, divides by the number of decisions, and scales the result. That average error, per decision, is your PR.
Two things follow from this. First, lower is better: a PR of 0 would be perfect, computer-level play. Second, PR is about consistency: a single huge blunder hurts, but so does a steady trickle of small ones, because it is an average across every move you made.
PR is a continuous scale, but these rough bands are a useful guide:
| PR | Level |
|---|---|
| Under 5 | Expert to world-class |
| 5 to 8 | Advanced |
| 8 to 12 | Solid intermediate |
| 12 to 18 | Developing player |
| Above 18 | Casual or beginner |
Do not be discouraged if your early numbers are high. Most strong club players live in the 6 to 10 range, and the very best players in the world rarely average below 3 or 4 over a long match. The point of PR is not to hit a magic number; it is to give you a trustworthy measure that goes down as you improve.
Win rate is noisy. Over a handful of games, the dice dominate, and a beginner can beat an expert. PR is far more stable because it grades the quality of your choices rather than the outcome. That makes it the honest mirror: it will not flatter you after a lucky win, and it will not punish you for a well-played loss. If you want to know whether you are genuinely getting better, watch your PR trend over many games, not your last result.
Because PR is an average error, the fastest way down is to cut your biggest and most frequent mistakes first, not to polish moves that are already good. For most players that means:
Fix one leak at a time, and watch the number fall.
You cannot improve a number you never see. On Backgammon Battles, every completed match is analyzed move by move and given a skill score, so your PR is right there after each game, alongside the specific moves where you lost the most equity. It is the same kind of feedback strong players have used for years to climb, built into normal play. Track it, work your leaks, and watch yourself improve game over game.
Play ranked matches and see exactly how well you played, move by move, with a performance rating on each. Free to play.
Play backgammon freePerformance rating: your average error per decision versus the computer's best play. Lower is better. It measures how well you played, independent of whether the dice won you the game.
Roughly: under 5 is expert, 5 to 8 advanced, 8 to 12 solid intermediate, 12 to 18 developing, above 18 casual. Most strong club players sit around 6 to 10.
Fix your largest, most frequent errors first, usually cube decisions, then loose blots and missed key points. Eliminating a few big blunders per game lowers your number fastest.
Cube errors hurt PR most, start here →
Why backgammon is a game of skill →
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