IBA has basically shut down ever since Netgammon unexpectedly closed it’s servers on very short notice in May 2017.
There have been discussions on how to continue but those discussion have not resulted in any solid plans.
As of now, I will give some space on this site (mainly this page), in case it is needed for IBA purposes, simply communicating in case something actually happens.
May 14th, 2020 update
Piranha updated the software so Windows 10 does not break things anymore (was updated beginning of May, just forgot to post here).
April 17th, 2020 update
On the positive side, quite a lot of IBA people have come in and have a look. Unfortunately, since the active group is (mostly) only in during 1600-1900 CET, coming in and looking at no players is discouraging. But still, we are rediscovering some old hosts and having a bit of a blast remembering…
Also on the negative side, the latest Windows 10 update (2020 March? April? Build 17763.1098) apparently breaks something in PiranhaZone so only the Eskgammon room works currently. Which is really unfortunate as I know some people come in to play backgammon again and get shocked by Eskgammon (don’t, it only takes a few games to get intrigued).
Anyway, Piranha is working hard on figuring out what to do (5-10 years without problems and now this). If you are using Windows 7 or 8 things should work normally (unverified but seems so).
March 31st, 2020 update
Although what we thought was the last mail went out a few ago, considering so many people are sitting at home these days, we decided to send off one more mail. Maybe some people rediscover backgammon, maybe you think it would be nice to see old faces like Harmony, DBLxTRBL or gv_eskimo.
Please note, the old gang is mainly only there 1600-1900 CET. So you need to appear once and find us. In case you still have our Skype address, you can try to find us there first.
April 6th, 2018 update
Since we have some regulars there most evenings I haven’t even thought about updating for a long time. Still, to have any regular tournaments we would need more people. But in the CET evenings you can find some old friends there, mostly. However, many of them check for other players in Skype so it can well be empty at times.
Remember, you can always check matches played during the current month by looking at:
http://moonconnect.eu/mrc/viewleague.aspx?prefix=ESK&div=0&month=&passthrough=1
And just to show there are active players all days of the month, look at March for instance:
http://moonconnect.eu/mrc/viewleague.aspx?prefix=ESK&div=0&month=201803&passthrough=1
November 23rd update
Since all IBA members had access to the Member Record Center it will now become the official place where updates about IBA will be posted. This means you will miss out on things if you only look here. You can login to the forum using your MRC username as described here : Forum
November 7th update:
Since we had a successful Swing test tournament we will do another one live on the 17th of November, 2017, 19:30 CET.
We hope to get enough players so we can start a “slower” 1 game/week or something similar swing tournament after that.
So welcome, and tell your friends as well if you have been in and enjoyed Eskgammon. Word of mouth is important to us.
October 21th update:
Best time to find people online is roughly 1700-2200 CET. Or send us a mail and we’ll gladly schedule something.
What is even more exiting is that PiranhaZone gets an update this weekend which will allow us to finally play online Swing tournaments. A bit of testing, a bit of programming and we will announce a tournament in early November. Just a 2h short one, later on we will play 7-14 days/game online ones if all goes well.
October 11th update:
Some people now pop in regularly during the evenings (CET) and Papagena is always there…
Great to see old friends, maybe, just maybe, we will get something good going here.
October 2nd update:
Since we could run a very simple League (or Winner Points) here is how it would look for Eskgammon.
Informal Winner Points/League
October 1st update:
We have had some players show up. Although I don’t see anyone making it to the October Eurogammon International league, Papagena has been doing a great job in the evenings welcoming people at PiranhaZone. Remember, PiranhaZone might be quite empty normally, people mostly only show up maybe 1600-2400 CET.
On the sunny side, Papagena (and me) have been playing some Eskgammon matches (and people have liked it, fun is the word used most commonly). You might recognize some familiar names from the statistics below. If we get enough players I promise to do a tournament, at best even a regular tournament (we are talking once per week or month here).
On September 27th, 2017 the following mail was sent out to the IBA users:
———————
Dear fellow IBA players,
this mail goes out to everyone that has been active in the past year and might well be the final IBA mail you see.
I would love for this to be more official but that apparently will not happen.
IBA has basically shut down ever since Netgammon unexpectedly closed it’s servers on very short notice in May 2017.
There have been discussions on how to continue but those discussion have not resulted in any solid plans.
As of now, I will give some space on one of my sites, in case it is needed for IBA purposes, simply communicating any basic information in case something actually happens. You can find that information here (don’t worry about the Eskgammon parts):
However, personally, I would love to see some of the familiar IBA players somewhere else. Players I have met on and off for the past almost 20 years. So I will present a way to do that which involves the following (pick whatever suits you).
- Play somewhere
- Write somewhere
- Maybe see IBA resurrect in one form or another
For playing purposes, this link contains information on how to play at PiranhaZone:
The user interface is fairly simple and clean. If IBA arranges any weekend tournaments or anything we will likely play here.
The same link also contains information on how to find the IBA forum. This would be the main place to communicate. Although it is possible to get a private reply anytime you have a question it simply take too much time from anyone volunteering. Using a forum makes sense. However, you do not have to join the forum, looking at the IBA page mentioned first might be enough.
The forum also gives you a chance to tell everyone else what you miss about IBA. The league? The tournaments? The friendly players? The chatting? Whatever is missed most, maybe can be resurrected first.
Finally, if the league is what you miss most, a very similar league exists at
If we all play there, we would at least see friendly faces. You can play using PiranhaZone or Safeharbourgames. In case you use SHG, using a username as recommended for IBA players on PiranhaZone would be a great idea (basically IBA_old_netgammon_name). If nothing else works, Eurogammon at least has players so it does not matter if we have 5 or 50 former IBA players joining there.
You can mail iba@moonconnect.eu if you run into problems. However, my time is limited so please try to follow the instructions on joining the forum (which would mean mailing me only once 😉 ), so that I can tell people things once in one place only and then everyone can benefit.
A former host sent this:
I will be online in Piranha Zone almost each evening around 18.00 to 22:00 CET
and can answer questions there and be willing to play first games with new users so that they can test the site.
Hope to see some IBA players at Piranha Eurogammon or Eskgammon 😉
I wish you all the best and I hope I can see some friends again, either this way or by some other means,
Eskimo (the Member Record Center guy)