Backgammon Variants
This page is taken from information in the FAQ which used to be edited
by Mark Damish. It in turn was compiled from newsgroup postings.
Backgammon Variants
What other games can be played on a backgammon board?
- Acey-Deucy
- One-point matches
- Hyper-Backgammon
- Nackgammon
- Tapa
- Narde
- Gul Bara
- Feuga
- Diceless backgammon
- On some boards, you can flip it over, and play checkers or chess. :-)
Acey-deucy
From: Peter Nickless
In this game all the men start off the board. They enter and move around the board in the same way as men sent home in regular backgammon. In other words, the white men enter in black's home board and move around through black's outer board and white's outer board until all are gathered in white's home board; then white can start to bear them off. Black enters his men in the white home board and moves around in the same manner.
Rules are the same as for backgammon, except that you can move any man you want to at any time, whether or not you have men to bring in. In addition, the roll of 1-2 -- acey-deucy -- is an especially valuable roll. You begin by playing your ace-deuce. Then you play any number four times (in other words, you pick any double you wish). Then you get an extra roll, and if this extra roll is also 1-2 you get the same extras with it.
Early game strategy in acey-deucy is to try to establish advanced points as quickly as you can, and if possible also establish adjacent points as base for a prime. If both sides develop primes right smack up against one another, the advantage lies with the prime that is farther advanced. Even if the man with the farther-advanced prime has to break his first, he will probably win the game; if he can hold his prime longer, he almost surely will win.
Credit: The Backgammon Book, Oswald Jacoby/John Crawford
[Acey-deucy is a fun game, with a much greater element of luck or chance than regular backgammon. 1-2 rolls are deadly. You are never out-of-it right to the end. The pace is fast and furious (at least compared to regular backgammon -- which, incidentally, I still prefer, but Acey-deucy makes a nice change of pace once in a while). One key point of strategy -- block your opponent from a play of 1 or 2 if you can. This opportunity only occasionally presents itself, but watch for it. If you can't play your lowly 1-2, you lose the bonus double and extra roll. ...Mark Damish]
One Point Matches
This variant is played the same as `regular' backgammon with two exceptions; the cube is not used, and gammons/backgammon don't exist. This often leads to very strategicaly played games, where a back-game is more of an option than in the regular version since staying back forever never leads to losing more than one point. Since all games are played to to completion, `slime vigorish' to turn a game around suddenly occurs more frequently since you cannot cube your opponent out.
Why play `one point matches'? Well, similar games occur all of the time in tournament play. Double match point, and crawford to an even score are examples.
One point matches have been labled the `Crack' of backgammon at the New England Backgammon Club, and the opium of the game by others.
Hyper-Backgammon
From: Michael Urban Date: 14 Oct 1993
Each side starts with 3 checkers on their respective 24, 23, and 22 points. The cube is in play. Jacoby rule in effect. Matches will start at 7 points and work their way up in later rounds. All other normal backgammon rules apply.
Nackgammon
From: Rolf Kleef Date: 15 Oct 1993
Nackgammon: The same as backgammon, but with a different starting position: instead of five men on both your midpoint and 6-point, you just put four there. The remaining two men end up at the 23-point:
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
+------------------------------------------+ X:
| O X | | X O O |
| O X | | X O O |
| O X | | X |
| O | | X |
| | | |
v| |BAR| |
| | | |
| X | | O |
| X O | | O |
| X O | | O X X |
| X O | | O X X |
+------------------------------------------+ O:
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This was invented by Nack Ballard (hence the name), to force his bg students to practice positional play. Games tend to be much longer, since you can't easily start a race with a 65 or 66 opening-phase roll.
Tapa
From: vladimir@cs.ualberta.ca Date: 24 Jan 1995
The word "tapa" means "bottle cap" and it's an apt name because one seeks to block out the opponent's pieces. The starting position is as shown below
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
+------------------------------------------+
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
O v| |BAR| |
moves | | | XXX|
this | | | XXX|
way | | | XXX|
| | | XXX|
| | | XXX|
+------------------------------------------+
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The move direction and game objective are the same as in BG. There is
one important difference:
Blots (single men) are not taken out when hit.
Rather, the opponent's man rests on top of the blot and thus forms a point.
Points can also be formed in the usual way, by placing two or more of your men
at the same slot.
If you leave a blot at your home slot (1 or 24) and it gets covered, you certainly lose a backgammon (unless your opponent has done the same, in which case it's a tie).
A long doublet (5 and 5 or 6 and 6) in the initial stage of the game can be very useful because usually the opponent would have some blots in their home quadrant and you may cover them. The closer this happens to their home slot, the better, because the later you will free the blot when you are bearing off.
Tapa is very much a game of strategy. Even if you get caught very close to your home row, you may be able to force the opponent to free it by blocking enough of his men, so that he doesn't have any other move. During most of the game it better to move SLOWER rather than faster. Primes are not necessarily useful, eg when the opponent has enough space for short moves behind the prime.
If nobody gets caught in the early stage, the two players try to advance their men in "almost primed" formations. Then the passing-through of the two armies can be a rather dramatic clash.
Tapa is quite popular in Bulgaria. In fact people play three games --BG, Gul Bara, and Tapa-- in a row. The cube isn't used and there are no backgammons (although there are gammons, called "mars"). I think these games (or at least the names) have come to Bulgaria from Turkey. Some people (esp. the older ones) use Turkish names for the rolls, eg "shesh-besh" is "6 and 5". I'd say backgammon is the favorite recreation of Bulgarian pensioners.
Narde
From: Vincent Zweije
In Kazachstan, and probably Russia too, people play a game called "Narde" on a backgammon board. It is also played with 15 checkers each, in the following starting position (point numbering is taken from backgammon).
O's side
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
+------------------------------------------+
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
| | | OOO|
v| |BAR| |^
|XXX | | |
|XXX | | |
|XXX | | |
|XXX | | |
|XXX | | |
+------------------------------------------+
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
X's side
Do to language problems I never got a formal introduction to the game. I'll have to write down the rules out of my head. It is played like backgammon, with the following exceptions:
1: Both players move in the same direction. X moves from 12 down to
1, then to 24 and down to 13, and finally off; O moves from 24 down
to 13, then to 12 and down to 1, and finally off.
2: A point is already made with one checker on it. There is no
hitting in the game.
3: Doublets are not special. If you roll 3-3, you get to move a
checker three pips twice. Possibly the same checker.
Bearing off is like backgammon. Moving is mandatory when possible. I don't know whether, like in backgammon, you have to move the higher of the dice if you have to choose. It never happened during actual play.
The game is almost fully one of chance. The main thing is to take care not to get blocked by a six-point prime (already made with six checkers in a row!).
Gul Bara
From: vladimir@cs.ualberta.ca Date: 24 Jan 1995
Gul Bara is similar to Narde, but double rolls are very powerful, eg if you roll 1 and 1 then you get to move 4 ones, 4 twos, 4 threes, ..., 4 sixes.
Feuga
From: Igor Sheyn Date: 4 May 1995
OK, here's the attempt to put down a complete set of rule for the game called feuga in Greek.
Equipment: Backgammon board, 15 checkers for each player, 2 pairs of dice (we play it with 1 pair, but let's keep it to bg as close to possible).
Initial checkers setup: Each player has all of his checker on the same point.
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
X
X
X
X
15
15
O
O
O
O
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Direction: Both players move counter clock-wise. Using numeration above, O moves from 1 to 19-24 quater, which is his home. X moves from 13 to 24 and then continues 1 to 7-12 quater, which is his home.
Goal: Bring your men home and bear them off as in backgammon.
Main difference from backgammon: Hitting is not a part of a game, hence the point is considered made when there's only 1 checker on it (no blots and slotting in this game).
Various aspects: the initial point for each player (13 for X, 1 for O in the setup above) is called "head". A player is allowed to move only 1 checker from his head per roll. If he can't obey this rule on any given roll, he can't play his roll fully. Exception: if your 1st roll of the game is 6-6 or 4-4, you're allowed to play 2 checkers off your head, 1/7(2) with 6-6 and 1/9(2) with 4-4.
Priming: there's one restriction on building a 6prime. You can build a 6prime only provided there's at least one opposing checker ahead of your prime. E.g., if you want to build your prime from 1 to 6 as O, X has to have at least 1 checker anywhere from 7 to 12. This rule is to prevent trivial strategy of building 6prime right in the beginning and then just rolling it home.
Gammon: Gammon is counted in same way as in BG. Backgammons do not count (as far as I know).
Cube: No cube is used (this can be easily fixed though).
Diceless Backgammon
From: Igor Date: 27 Mar 1992
In fact, there's a version of backgammon, which is much more popular
than regular bg in USSR, especially in Azerbajdzhan and Uzbekistan.
Main
features are following:
- both players go same direction ( namely counterclockwise )
- starting position is different
- you're not allowed to hit ( which changes strategy a lot).
And, as far as I know, there are tournaments, where people play this version without dices, i.e. calling their rolls. Consequently, there exist time control in this tournaments.