Names hold the key.
Train that tongue.
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.
Most of the terms come from English and do not always have an equivalent in other languages. Where German players have a word of their own, you will find it in brackets.
- 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 the last two checkers of your opponent.
- Ace-Point Game (1-Punkt-Spiel)
- 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 (Munition)
- 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 (Anker)
- 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).
- Backgame
- 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 (Bar-Punkt)
- The point directly in front of the bar — the 7-point in your own outer board, 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 (Blockade)
- 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) ( auch Boxes; Boxcars)
- A roll of 6-6 (double 6).
- Builder (laufender Stein)
- 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 (Spielstein)
- One of the 15 men each side plays with. Bear all 15 off first and the game is yours.
- Chouette
- A variant for three or more players: one – the box – plays alone against a whole team with a shared captain. Lose, and you join the back of the queue.
- Closed Board (geschlossenes Heimfeld)
- 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 (Crawford-Regel)
- 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 (tanzen)
- 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 (Dopplerwürfel)
- 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).
- Gammon
- A win that counts double: your opponent has not borne off a single checker when your last one leaves the board.
- Hit (schlagen)
- 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).
- Pip Count (Augenzahl)
- The total of pips your checkers still have to travel to bear every one off. The quickest read on who leads the race – from the starting position it is 167.
- Prime (Blockade)
- 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).
- Running Game (Laufspiel)
- 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).
Rules of survival.
Learn how to play Backgammon like a pro – from basic rules to the magic of the Doubling Cube.
Tell me moreFrom beginner to winner.
First: Play often! Next, improve your strategy skills with the BIG FIVE: Blitz, Running, Holding, Priming and the mighty Back Game.
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