Backgammon: Words of the Board

Seasoned players at backgammon use several terms for this and that. When they use these terms and are you are not familiar with them, you can lose your concentration on the game. You cannot understand what they are saying and so generate different ideas - ideas that maybe contrary to what they mean.

Avoid those mistakes.

In next paragraphs are terms any player in backgammon should know. There are a lot of them and these are just a few of them included here.

Upon glancing at the board, you will notice the triangles. They alternate in color and is called points. There are 24 numbered triangles and that makes it 24 points. The raised center is called the bar. Those triangles near the bar are called bar points. When a point is not occupied by even one opponent checker, it is called a one point. When no checker belonging to any player stays on a certain point, that point is said to be a free space. The point nearest to you or your opponent's home is called the ace point.

Checkers are those play things you move. There are 30 of them and they come in dark and light colors - usually black and white. Half of the checkers are dark-colored and the other half is light-colored.

Your checker's movement is determined by a roll of the dice, when the result of the roll is not favorable to you such roll is called an awkward number. Sometimes this kind of roll is destructive. When your roll misses the possible moves for you, that roll is called an air ball. The term is borrowed from basketball. An example of an air ball is when the result is a double four when you have your checkers at points 2, 3 and 5. Rolling a double 1 is called cat's eye.

In backgammon, there is a term back man. This refers to your furthest checker on the board. A checker alone on a point is called a blot. When you move over your checker to this point holding a single opponent checker and force that blot to move to the bar is called hitting. The checkers on the bar may move back to the board by occupying free spaces. To successfully move these checkers back, the roll must total to the point where there is a free space. When it cannot be done because all points on the board are occupied, such situation is called closed out.

While there are many more terms to know, these will get you started and let you enjoy this grand classic game.