Backgammon Variants

Backgammon variants change where the 15 checkers start or what happens when checkers meet. Standard backgammon starts 2 on the 24-point, 5 on the 13, 3 on the 8, and 5 on the 6, hits blots to the bar and uses the doubling cube. That is the game our board plays; the variants below are for a physical board. Point numbers count from the mover's side, so your 24-point is your opponent's 1-point.

Nackgammon

Nackgammon moves two checkers back. Each player starts with 2 on the 24-point, 2 on the 23, 4 on the 13, 3 on the 8, and 4 on the 6: one checker leaves the midpoint and one leaves the 6-point to make a second anchor on the 23. The cube, gammons and backgammons are unchanged.

Nack Ballard devised it. The extra back checkers make longer, more positional games, with more priming battles and back games and fewer blitzes.

Hypergammon

Hypergammon cuts each side to three checkers, one each on the 24, 23, and 22-points: a pip count of 69 against the standard 167. Hitting, bearing off, and the cube work as usual, and the Jacoby rule is common. In the early 1990s Hugh Sconyers solved the game by computer, calculating exact equities for every position, about 32 million counting cube states.

LongGammon

LongGammon puts all 15 checkers on the 24-point, a pip count of 360, and keeps every other standard rule, hitting and the cube included. It began as a proposal on the rec.games.backgammon newsgroup and few sources describe it, so agree the rules first. The start matches Plakoto's, but here you hit.

Acey-Deucey

Acey-deucey starts with all 15 checkers off the board. You enter them in your opponent's home board as if from the bar, and an entered checker may move on before the rest are in. There is no cube. It has been a favourite of the US Navy, Marine Corps and Merchant Marine since the First World War.

The roll that matters is 1-2, the ace and deuce. Play the 1 and the 2, name any double from 1-1 to 6-6 and play it four times, then roll again. You get the bonus only if you can play the whole 1-2. In many versions, any double also earns another roll. Most written rules score a point for each checker the loser has not borne off; some score a flat point a game.

Dutch backgammon also enters all 15 from off the board, but you may not hit until one of your checkers has reached your own home board.

Greek Tavli: Portes, Plakoto, and Fevga

Greek tavli is a match of three games played in rotation, usually Portes, then Plakoto, then Fevga, to 5 or 7 points. None of the three uses a doubling cube.

Portes

Portes keeps the standard layout and hitting. The winner of the opening roll rerolls both dice, so the first move can be a double. A win scores 1 and a gammon 2, with no triple for a backgammon.

Plakoto

Plakoto stacks all 15 checkers on each player's own 24-point, and the players move in opposite directions. Nobody hits. A checker that lands on a lone enemy checker pins it: the trapped checker cannot move until every checker on top has left, and the pinner blocks the point as two of your own would.

The last checker on your starting point is the mother (mana). If it is pinned there, you lose at once, for 2 points in most rule sets, unless the pinner still has checkers on their own starting point. Two pinned mothers make a draw. Otherwise a win scores 1, or 2 if the loser has borne off nothing. Turkey plays Plakoto too, and the Middle East plays it as mahbusa.

Fevga

Fevga has no hitting and no pinning; a single checker holds a point. Each player stacks all 15 on the rightmost point of the far side, in diagonally opposite corners, and both move anticlockwise. You move one checker alone until it has passed the opponent's starting point. You may never leave the opponent without a legal move, and local rules add further blocking limits. A win scores 1, or 2 if the loser has borne off nothing.

Turkish Tavla

Tavla is the Turkish name for backgammon. The traditional game keeps the standard layout, but the opening winner rerolls and there is no cube. A gammon, called mars, scores 2 and a plain win 1, with no triple. A checker that hits in your own home board may not move on that turn: no hit-and-run at home. Matches usually go to 5 points. Some modern clubs add the cube, the Crawford rule and a triple, katmerli mars.

The standard layout travels under other names too. Israel and Arabic-speaking countries say shesh besh, "six-five": shesh is six in Hebrew and Persian, besh five in Turkish. Iranians say takhteh, and Russians and Armenians say short nardy.

Long Nardy (Narde)

Long nardy, played in Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, has no hitting. Each player stacks all 15 checkers on one point, the head, in diagonally opposite corners, and both move anticlockwise. You may not land on a point holding an enemy checker, so one checker blocks a point.

Only one checker may leave the head each turn. The exception is a first roll of 6-6, 4-4 or 3-3, which one checker cannot play in full, so two leave. A six-point prime is legal only if an enemy checker is already past it. A win (oyn) scores 1; a mars, where the loser has borne off nothing, scores 2.

Greece's Fevga shares the no-hitting idea but is a separate game with its own opening and blocking rules. And "Russian backgammon" names several unrelated games, some with hitting and some without, so the name alone does not tell you the rules.

Gul Bara, Tapa, and Moultezim

Gul Bara ("rosespring backgammon" or crazy narde) uses long nardy's layout and no-hitting rule but cascades doubles. After the first three rolls, a double is played four times and so is every higher number up to 6: 3-3 gives four 3s, four 4s, four 5s, and four 6s. It is played in Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Greece, Turkey, and North Macedonia, without a cube, for 1 point, or 2 if the loser has borne off nothing.

Tapa ("bottle cap") is Plakoto as played in Bulgaria and North Macedonia: all 15 on the 24-point, opposite directions and pinning, with no cube. A win before the loser bears off any checker scores 2, called mars. It is usually the third game of a Bulgarian tabla match. Accounts differ on whether it has a mother rule.

Moultezim is the Turkish game on Fevga's layout and contact rules: the first checker must pass the opponent's start before any other moves. Accounts differ on its blocking limits.

Tabula, the Oldest Known Rules

Tabula, a late Roman game, is the oldest member of backgammon's family whose rules can be reconstructed: 24 points, 15 men a side, three dice, and no doubling cube. The history of backgammon covers the Emperor Zeno's famous throw and traces the line from tabula to the modern game.

Formats: Chouette, Match, and Money Play

These change how games are organised and scored, not how checkers move. A chouette puts three or more players on one board: a lone box plays a team led by a captain, who rolls and decides. Team members usually hold their own cubes, and players rotate each game.

A match is a series of games to a set score, the tournament format. Under the Crawford rule, named for John R. Crawford, the game after a player first comes within one point of winning is played without the cube.

Money play settles each game at an agreed stake. Only money play uses the Jacoby rule, where gammons and backgammons count as single games until the cube is turned, and the beaver, where a player who takes a double redoubles at once and keeps the cube.

Our board plays single games with the cube and keeps no match score. The backgammon glossary defines match play, money play, and the Crawford and Jacoby rules.

Variant Comparison

Starting points are per player, counted from the mover's own side.