Quick Backgammon Glossary

This glossary explains the backgammon words you will meet most often in articles, books and online play. Points are numbered from the player's own side, as described in Backgammon Notation.

A to C

• Ace point — your 1-point, the deepest point in your home board. Making it early is usually a poor use of checkers.
• Anchor — a point you hold with two or more checkers in your opponent's home board. An anchor on the opponent's 4-point or 5-point (your 21- or 20-point) is called an advanced anchor.
• Automatic double — an optional rule for single games: a tie on the starting roll turns the cube to 2. Not used in tournaments.
• Backgame — a defensive plan holding two or more points in the opponent's home board. See Introduction to the Backgame.
• Backgammon — a win in which the loser has borne off no checkers and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board. It counts three times the value of the game.
• Back checkers — the two checkers that start on your 24-point.
• Bar — the raised strip in the middle of the board, where hit checkers wait to enter.
• Bar point — each player's 7-point, the point next to the bar in the outer board.
• Bear off — to remove checkers from the board once all fifteen are in the home board.
• Beaver — an immediate redouble by the player who has just been doubled, made while keeping the cube. Never used in match play.
• Blitz — an all-out attack: hitting repeatedly and closing home points to shut the opponent out. See The Blitz.
• Blot — a single checker alone on a point, which can be hit.
• Builder — a checker placed within reach of a point you want to make on a later roll.
• Closed board — a home board with all six points made.
• Closeout — a closed board with one or more opposing checkers on the bar. The trapped player cannot move.
• Cover — to add a second checker to your own blot, turning it into a made point.
• Crawford rule — in match play, when one player first reaches one point short of victory, the next game is played without the cube. See the Crawford Rule.
• Cube — short for the doubling cube, which records the current value of the game.

D to L

• Double — to offer, before rolling, to play on at twice the current value.
• Drop (or pass) — to refuse a double and lose the game at its current value.
• Enter — to bring a checker from the bar back into the opponent's home board.
• Gammon — a win in which the loser has not borne off any checkers. It counts twice the value of the game.
• Gap — an open point inside a row of made points.
• Hit — to land on an opposing blot and send it to the bar.
• Holding game — a position in which one player keeps an anchor in the opponent's board and waits for a shot.
• Home board — the quadrant containing your 1- to 6-points.
• Jacoby rule — an optional rule for single games: gammons and backgammons count only as single wins unless the cube has been turned. Not used in match play. See the Jacoby Rule.
• Key points — the most valuable points early in the game, above all your 5-point, followed by your bar point and 4-point.
• Lover's Leap — the opening 6-5 played 24/13, running a back checker all the way to the midpoint.

M to R

• Match — a series of games played until one player reaches an agreed number of points.
• Midpoint — your 13-point, where five of your checkers start.
• Pick and pass — hitting a blot and continuing with the same checker to safety, also called hit and pass.
• Pip count — the total number of pips a player needs to bring all checkers home and off. At the start each side has 167. See Pip Count Basics.
• Point — one of the 24 triangles on the board; also a made point (two or more checkers); also a unit of score in a match.
• Prime — a row of consecutive made points that blocks the opponent. Six in a row is a full prime.
• Quadrant — one of the four sections of the board: each player's home board and outer board.
• Race (or running game) — a position where the two sides have passed each other and there is no contact left.
• Redouble — a further double by the player who owns the cube.

S to V

• Shot — a chance to hit an opposing blot.
• Slot — to place a single checker on a point you want to make, hoping to cover it before it is hit.
• Split — to separate two checkers that were together, most often the back checkers.
• Stack — to pile many checkers on one point, which wastes flexibility.
• Take — to accept a double and play on at the higher value.
• Timing — how long a player can keep a position before being forced to break it.
• Value — what a game is worth: one point times the cube, times two for a gammon or three for a backgammon.