This page describes the contents of the "board:....." messages that contain a board position when using boardstyle 3. This information is not necessary to use MacFIBS or play backgammon, it is provided simply as material for those who may be interested in this.

The tokens are separated by colon ':' characters.

Token	Description
"board"	first token is always "board"
name	the player's name (either you, or if you are watching someone else, that person)
name	the opponent's name
match length	match length or 9999 for unlimited matches
player got	player's points in the match so far
opponent got	opponent's points in the match so far
board	26 numbers giving the board. Positions 0 and 25 represent the bars for the players (see below). Positive numbers represent O's pieces negative numbers represent X's pieces
turn	-1 if it's X's turn, +1 if it's O's turn 0 if the game is over
dice	2 numbers giving the player's dice. If it's the players turn and she or he hasn't rolled, yet both numbers are 0
dice	the opponent's dice (2 numbers)
cube	the number on the doubling cube
may double	1 if player is allowed to double, 0 otherwise
may double	the same for the opponent
was doubled	1 if your opponent has just doubled, 0 otherwise
color	-1 if you are X, +1 if you are O
direction	-1 if you play from position 24 to position 1 +1 if you play from position 1 to position 24
home	0 or 25 depending on direction (obsolete but included anyway)
bar	25 or 0 (see home)
on home	number of pieces already removed from the board by player
on home	same for opponent
on bar	number of player's pieces on the bar
on bar	same for opponent
can move	a number between 0 and 4. This is the number of pieces you can move. This token is valid if it's your turn and you have already rolled.
forced move	don't use this token
did crawford	don't use this token
redoubles	maximum number of instant redoubles in unlimited matches

Related topics

	The board command
	The boardstyle setting