Backgammon Variants

Standard backgammon is only one member of a large family of "tables" games played on the same 24-point board. Some variants change the starting position, some change how checkers enter, and some remove hitting altogether. Trying a few is a good way to see which parts of your play rest on real understanding and which are just habits from the standard setup. If you need a refresher first, see the standard rules.

Nackgammon

Nackgammon keeps every rule of backgammon but changes the starting position. Each player has two checkers on the 24-point, two on the 23-point, four on the midpoint, three on the 8-point and four on the 6-point. The extra back checkers make games longer and more complex, with more contact and fewer quick races. Strong players often use it to practice middle-game positions.

Hypergammon

In Hypergammon each player has only three checkers, placed on the 24-, 23- and 22-points. All other rules, including gammons and the doubling cube, stay the same. Games are very short, but decisions are surprisingly sharp, because every checker counts.

Acey-Deucy

Acey-Deucy starts with an empty board: all fifteen checkers enter from off the board, and players may move other checkers before every one has entered. Its trademark is the roll of 1-2, the "acey-deucy". The player moves the 1 and the 2, then chooses any double to play, and then rolls again. The game has a long history as a favorite in the US Navy and other armed forces. We cover it in more detail in our article on Acey-Deucy.

Dutch backgammon

In this variant, described in older game books, all checkers begin on the bar. A player must enter all fifteen before moving any checker further, and no one may hit a blot until he has brought at least one checker around into his own home board. A practical plan is to hold several of the high points in the opponent's home board for as long as possible, so that the opponent is forced to stack checkers on low points where they do little work.

Plakoto

Plakoto is one of the three games that make up Greek tavli. The setup is different (all fifteen checkers start on the opponent's 1-point) and there is no hitting. Instead, a checker that lands on a lone enemy checker pins it: the pinned checker cannot move until the pinning checker leaves. Pinning the opponent's last checker on its starting point is a major goal, because it can decide the game.

Long Nardy

Long Nardy is the most popular tables game in Russia, the Caucasus and much of Central Asia. Each player starts with all fifteen checkers on a single point called the head, and both players move in the same direction around the board. There is no hitting: one checker on a point already blocks it from the opponent. Usually only one checker may leave the head per turn, with an exception for certain doubles on the first roll. You may not build six blocked points in a row unless at least one enemy checker is already in front of them. The game rewards planning and patience rather than tactics.

Russian backgammon

Older English game books also describe a "Russian" version in which both players enter all their checkers in the same quarter of the board and move in the same direction toward the same home. It is a relative of the long game described above, although rules vary from source to source.

Whichever variant you try, the core skills carry over: counting pips, judging risk with dice probability and building points in the right order.