Common Backgammon Terminology for New Players

Sit down at a backgammon club and you may hear someone groan about a joker, praise an anchor or ask for the pip count. The vocabulary can feel like a wall at first, but most of it describes simple ideas. This page covers the handful of terms you will hear in your very first games, explained through how they are used at the board. For a complete A-to-Z list, see our backgammon glossary.

Talking About the Board

Point. One of the 24 triangles on the board. The word has a second meaning in scoring, which is why you will hear "I made my 5 point" and "I won two points" in the same evening. Context tells you which is meant.

Making a point. Putting two or more of your checkers on the same point. A made point cannot be landed on by your opponent, so it is both safe for you and a block for him.

Blot. A single checker alone on a point. It can be hit. "Don't leave a blot" is the first piece of advice most beginners get.

Anchor. A point you have made in your opponent's home board. An anchor gives your back checkers a safe place to wait and something to land on when you are hit. Anchors on your opponent's 4 or 5 point are especially useful.

Bar. The strip in the middle of the board. Hit checkers are placed there and must re-enter before their owner can move anything else.

Talking About Moves

Hit. Landing on an opponent's blot and sending it to the bar.

Hit and cover. Hitting with one checker and then, in the same turn, bringing a second checker to the same point. Your hitting checker no longer stands alone, so it cannot be hit back.

Bear off. Removing checkers from the board once all fifteen are in your home board. The first player to bear off everything wins.

Talking About Luck and Counting

Joker. An unusually good roll at a key moment, the kind that turns the game around. The opposite, a roll that ruins your position, is often just called a bad roll or a "dance" if it fails to enter from the bar.

Pip count. The total number of pips (single steps) you need to move all your checkers home and off the board. Both players start at 167:

The player with the lower count is ahead in the race. Since an average roll is worth about 8.17 pips, a lead of eight or nine pips is roughly one roll ahead. More on this in backgammon probability.

Talking About Results

Single game. A normal win, worth one point. The loser has borne off at least one checker.

Gammon. A win worth two points, scored when the loser has not borne off any checkers yet.

Backgammon. Besides being the name of the game, this is the biggest win, worth three points. The loser has borne off nothing and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board.

With the doubling cube in play, each of these results is multiplied by the cube's value.

Learning the Rest

There are many more terms, from primes and builders to the Crawford game. You will pick them up naturally as you play, the same way you picked up these. When a new word comes up, look it up in the glossary and then watch for the situation it describes on your own board.