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A player who rolls doubles plays the numbers shown on the dice
twice. A roll of 6 and 6 means that the player has four sixes to use,
and he may move any combination of checkers he feels appropriate to
complete this requirement.
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A player must use both numbers of a roll if this is legally possible
(or all four numbers of a double). When only one number can be played,
the player must play that number. Or if either number can be played but
not both, the player must play the bigger one. When neither number can
be used, the player loses his turn. In the case of doubles, when all
four numbers cannot be played, the player must play as many numbers as
he can.
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When a player
has
brought all the checkers in its home board, he may begin bearing them
off. If a die shows a number and in this point there is at least one
checker, it can be borne off. If the biggest checker's point is lower
than the number, the checker can be also borne off. If these conditions
are not met, the player may try to move a checker to a
lower point. Anyway, both dice have to be played if it is possible.
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The Jacoby
rule is used in money games. It states that a gammon or backgammon may
not be scored as such, unless the cube has been passed and accepted. The
purpose is to speed up play by eliminating long not doubled games. The
Jacoby rule is never used in match play.
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The Crawford
rule tells that if you are playing an n-point match and your opponent
is ahead of you and he gets to n-1 points you are not allowed to use
the doubling cube in the next game to come. The Crawford rule is
universally used in backgammon match play.
Glossary of
backgammon terms
A
Anchor:
A point where you have
two or more checkers, placed in the opponent's home board.
Automatic Doubles:
A rule which states that if the first roll
of a game has the same numbers for both players, the stakes will be
doubled.
B
Backgammon:
The game we are talking about. Also the
name of a backgammon game where a player borne off all the checkers, while
the opponent still has a checker on a bar or in the winner's home. The
player who wins receives three times the stake of the game.
Bar:
The space in the center of a backgammon board, where the checkers are placed after they have been
hit. If a player has checkers on the bar, he must enter them in the
opponent's home before any other move.
Bear Off:
Operation a player must do by removing the checkers from his home board,
after all of them have been brought in there.
Black:
A convention for naming the player with
the darker checkers.
Block:
A point with two or more checkers.
Blot:
A single checker on a point, which can be hit.
C
Cube (doubling cube):
Offered by a player to double the stake of
the game. If the opponent accepts a double, he becomes the owner of the
cube, and only he may offer the next double.
Checker (man, stone, piece):
One of the fifteen (white or black) 'soldiers' of your 'army' moving
around the board according to rolls of the dice.
Closed Board: A home board where all six points are blocked.
Contact:
A board position where the players still attack each other.
D
Double:
The offer made by a player to double the stake of the game.
Doubles (doublets): The name of two dice
having the same value on their upper face, allows you to move four times
the die's value.
E
Enter: Operation made with a checker from the bar
which has to be placed in the opponent's home board
according to the roll of the dice.
Equity: A number that globally
reflects the chances of a player in a backgammon game position to win
comparing the chances to lose. There is also a cube equity, showing the winning
chances affected by the ownership of the cube.
F
Forced Play: The situation when the current dice roll can be played in only one
legal way.
G
Gammon:
A backgammon game where a player has borne off all the checkers and won
the game, while the losing player has not borne
off any of his checkers. The winner gets twice the value of the single
game.
H
Hit: Move to a point where there is an
opponent blot and put the checker on the
bar.
Home Board:
The opposite of the outer board, the
place where players bear in their checkers.
I
Inner Table: the board side with
the player's homes.
J
Jacoby Rule:
A rule used in money games which says that
the game counts as a single one if the cube has not been passed and
accepted till the end of game.
K
Kibitzer: A person watching
your backgammon game.
L
Lead:
The pip count
difference.
M
Match:
A suite of games played until one player
accumulates a certain number of points.
Move (movement): Process of moving
your checker according to the value of a die, which may be entered,
moved or borne off.
N
Nackgammon:
A game variation, where a player has four checkers in opponent's home in
start position.
O
Opening Roll: Each player throws one
die to establish who starts the game.
Open Point:
A board position occupied at most by an opponent's blot.
Outer Board:
The complementary side of the home board.
P
Pip:
A measurement unit for the distance between the
board's points.
Pip Count:
A total number of pips that a player must move
his checkers, including bearing them off (167 at the beginning of a game).
Point:
One of the twenty-four triangles on the board with alternate colors, where
the checkers stay.
Prime:
Six consecutive blocks belonging to a player, which stops the
opponent's checkers.
Q
Quads: A
roll of double four.
R
Race:
A board position where neither player can hit or block
the other.
S
Single Game:
A finished game in
which the losing player has borne off at least one checker or a game that
ends when a double is refused.
Stake:
The wager in a game of backgammon, doubled when the cube is passed
and accepted.
T
Tric-trac: The French name for backgammon.
Triple Game: see
Backgammon.
W
White: The color (light) for a player's
checkers, or the opposite for
black.
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