Glossary of backgammon.

Foreword Speaking backgammon means knowing the words that matter and what they mean for the game. Many of the terms name a particular behaviour in play that can widen your strategic toolbox and your feel for the game.

Many of the terms come from English and do not always have an equivalent in other languages.

Accept a Double (Take): Accepting your opponent's offer of the doubling cube, and playing on.
Ace: A die showing 1.
Ace Point: The first point (before the off tray) in each home board. In the starting position it holds your opponent's last two checkers.
Ace-Point Game: Trying, from an anchor on the ace point, to hit single checkers of your opponent while they play into their home board or bear off from it. As a late strategy, often the last hope.
Acey-Deucey: A roll showing 1 and 2; also a variant of classic backgammon popular in the U.S. Navy.
Active Builder: A spare checker (a runner) free to be used to close another point where one of your own checkers already sits.
Air Ball: A roll so bad it defies all probability (bad luck), stopping you from hitting an opposing checker or closing a point of your own.
Ammunition: Enough checkers for an attack on opposing checkers in the zone (points 1 to 11 on your own side). As a rule 10 of your own checkers are enough to try a blitz (see Strategy: Blitz).
Anchor: A point held by at least two of your checkers in your opponent's home board.
Awkward Number: A roll that forces you to expose a shot to your opponent (a blot) or to leave a valuable point.

Back Game: A strategy in which you hold two or three points in your opponent's home board and wait to hit them as they move home or bear off (see Strategy: Back game).
Backgammon: The oldest and best game in the world; also the name for the result in which your opponent still has a checker on the bar or in your home board and your win counts triple.
Baffle Box: A device the two dice are thrown into to produce genuine randomness and to rule out illegal manipulation of the roll by hand or out of the cup.
Bar: The ridge in the middle of the board that separates the outer board from the home board. Hit checkers go on the bar and have to be entered from there before anything else.
Bar-Point: The point directly in front of the bar: the 7-point in your own outer board, or the 18-point in your opponent's. Good for blocking your opponent's big jumps.
Beaver: An immediate redouble right after an offered double has been accepted. If the original offerer takes the beaver, play goes on. The cube stays with the player who was doubled first, though. (See Rules: the doubling cube.) Usual in the money game. Has to be agreed before the game starts.
Blitz: An attacking game against single opposing checkers in your home board, aiming to hold your opponent up or shut them out of the game with a closed board.
Block: Block [noun] A point held by at least two checkers, making it harder for your opponent to move cleanly. (See Prime) [verb] To stop your opponent moving their checkers forward by occupying points with at least two checkers.
Blot: A single checker on a point, at risk of being hit.
Blunder: A gross mistake or a particularly unwise move (doubling included).
Board: A backgammon board; one of the four quadrants the playing surface is made of: home board, outer board, and your opponent's home board and outer board; a "strong board" also means a home board built up with several points and nearly closed (see Closed Board).
Boys (The Boys) (also Boxes; Boxcars): A roll of 6-6 (double 6).
Builder: One or more checkers played into your outer board in order to close important key points (the bar point or the 5-point, say) on the next move.

Checker: One of the 15 checkers each side plays with. Whoever bears all 15 off first wins.
Chouette: A variant for three or more players: one player, the box, plays alone against a whole team with a shared captain. Whoever loses goes to the back of the queue.
Closed Board: A home board with all six points made. Your opponent's hit checkers cannot enter. They sit out until your board opens again.
Crawford Rule: When a player is one point short of winning the match, the following game is played without the doubling cube (see Rules: Crawford rule).

Dance: Failing to enter a hit checker from the bar because the rolled points in your opponent's home board are closed. You sit the turn out and dance.
Doubling Cube: The big die carrying 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. It counts no pips, only the stakes: before rolling, the player on turn may offer to double the value of the game (see Rules: the doubling cube).

Fevga: The Greek game in which a single checker holds a point. All 15 checkers start in one corner, both sides move the same way, and there is no hitting: you may only land on points with no opposing checker. Your first checker must get past your opponent's starting point before another may move. One of the three games of Tavli.

Gammon: A win that counts double: your opponent has not borne off a single checker when your last one leaves the board.

Hit: Landing on a lone opposing checker (a blot) with your move. The hit checker goes to the bar and starts over.
Holding Game: A strategy of holding out on an anchor in your opponent's half, waiting to hit them on their way home (see Strategy: Holding game).
Hypergammon: Backgammon with three checkers a side, one each on the opponent's 1-point, 2-point and 3-point (also written Hyper-backgammon). The rules are those of regular backgammon, with the doubling cube and the Jacoby rule.

Mars: The Turkish word for a gammon in Tavla: a win that counts two, because the loser has not borne off a single checker.
Mother: In Plakoto, the last checker left on your starting point. If your opponent pins it there, you lose two points on the spot, unless he still has checkers on his own starting point, since his mother is then in danger too. If both mothers are pinned, the game is a tie.

Nackgammon: A variant by Nack Ballard. One checker from each side's 6-point and mid-point moves to the opponent's 2-point, so everyone starts with four back checkers instead of two. The rest is regular backgammon, with the doubling cube and the Jacoby rule. Games run longer, and priming and back games count for more than blitzing.

Pin: In Plakoto, landing on a point that holds a single opposing checker. It does not hit the checker. It traps it, and it cannot move until your checker leaves the point.
Pip Count: The total of pips your checkers still have to travel to bear every one off. The quickest way to see who leads the race. At the start of the game it is 167.
Plakoto: The Greek game in which one checker traps another on the same point. All 15 checkers start on the opponent's 1-point and the two sides move in opposite directions. There is no hitting (see Pin), and a lost mother ends the game early (see Mother). It is played in Bulgaria as well, under the name Tapa. One of the three games of Tavli.
Portes: The Greek game closest to regular backgammon. The setup is the same, but there is no doubling cube. A win counts 1 point and a gammon 2, with no backgammon. One of the three games of Tavli.
Prime: Several of your points in a row, ideally six (a full prime). No opposing checker trapped behind it gets over the wall (see Strategy: Prime game).

Roll-over: A variant rule: once per game, each player may cancel a roll and have it rolled again. You can cancel your own roll before picking up the dice, or wait until your opponent has finished his turn and make him roll again. Checkers already moved go back. You may not double in a turn in which you rolled, a re-roll included.
Running Game: The simplest strategy of all: don't fight, run. As soon as you lead the race, bring your checkers home as fast as the dice allow and bear off (see Strategy: Running game).

Tavla: The Turkish name for backgammon, and the same game as Takhteh in Iran. The start is the same as backgammon's, but there is no doubling cube. A win counts 1 point and a gammon (Turkish: mars) 2, with no triple game. For the first game each player rolls one die and the higher starts, then the winner of the last game starts the next. After a hit in your home board you may not run for cover with the hitting checker, and you may not waste pips when bearing off.
Tavli: The Greek family of three games, Portes, Plakoto and Fevga, played one after another in a match of three, five or seven points. There is no doubling cube. A game counts 1 point, or 2 if the winner finishes before the loser has borne off a checker. The name means "board" in Greek.
Tawula: Turkish backgammon, played in Asia Minor and Egypt. Each side starts with two checkers in one corner and 13 off the board, and enters them with the dice. Both sides move the same way. On the opponent's half only one checker may stand on a point, except on your head, the first point. There is no doubling cube.

The rules of backgammon.

Learn how to play Backgammon like a pro – from basic rules to the magic of the Doubling Cube.

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Strategy for beginners and up.

First: Play often! Next, improve your strategy skills with the BIG FIVE: Blitz, Running, Holding, Priming and the mighty Back Game.

Read the strategy guide

The history of the game.

From the dark age to the golden era – the game of thrones and plebs like us has loads of gems and gossip to tell.

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The rules of backgammon.

Strategy for beginners and up.

The history of the game.