Backgammon terminology

Backgammon Glossary

What makes a checker a blot? Where is the bar point? Find the terms used in the rules, strategy and history of backgammon, grouped by when you’ll encounter them.

The board and checkers

Point: One of the 24 long triangles on the board. Each player numbers them from 1 to 24 from their own side, with the 1 point at the end of their route.
Checker: One of the fifteen pieces each player moves around the board. On LarkSpark the two sides are Dark and Light. Older books call checkers men.
Home board: The last six points on your route, your 1 point through your 6 point. All fifteen of your checkers have to be here before you can start bearing off.
Outer board: The six points next to your home board, your 7 point through your 12 point. Checkers pass through it on the way home.
Bar: The strip down the middle of the board where hit checkers wait. A checker on the bar has to enter before you can move anything else.
Bar point: Your 7 point, the first point outside your home board, right next to the bar. An opening 6-1 makes it.
Five-point: Your 5 point, in the middle of your home board. Many players consider it the best point to make early, and an opening 3-1 makes it.
Mid-point: Your 13 point, where five of your checkers start. It is a safe landing spot for checkers coming around from your opponent’s side.

Moving and hitting

Doubles: A roll with the same number on both dice. You play that number four times instead of two.
Making a point: Putting two or more of your checkers on the same point. Your opponent can’t land there, and your checkers there can’t be hit.
Blot: A single checker alone on a point. An opposing checker that lands on it will hit it.
Shot: A chance to hit a blot. A blot within six points of an opposing checker can be hit by a single die, which is called a direct shot.
Hit: To land on an opposing blot. The blot goes to the bar and has to start its trip over.
Enter: To bring a checker back from the bar. It comes in on your opponent’s home board, on the point matching one of your dice, as long as that point isn’t blocked.
Dance: To roll numbers that don’t let your checker enter from the bar. You can’t move anything else, so your turn ends.

Bearing off and winning

Bearing off: Taking your checkers off the board once all fifteen are in your home board. A die takes a checker off the point with that number, and a roll higher than your farthest checker takes that farthest checker off.
Single game: An ordinary win, where the loser has borne off at least one checker. Every win on LarkSpark counts as a single game.
Gammon: A win in which the loser hasn’t borne off a single checker. In traditional scoring it counts double. LarkSpark doesn’t score gammons.
Backgammon (the result): A gammon in which the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner’s home board. In traditional scoring it counts triple. LarkSpark doesn’t score backgammons.

Strategy

Pip count: The total distance your checkers still have to travel to bear off. One pip is one point of movement, and each side starts with 167.
Race: A position in which the two sides have passed each other and nobody can be hit. The dice and the pip count decide it.
Contact: A position in which checkers still have to get past opposing checkers, so hitting and blocking are possible. Breaking contact turns the game into a race.
Running: Moving your back checkers out toward home to escape and start a race. It works best when you’re ahead in the pip count.
Back checkers: The two checkers that start on your 24 point, deep in your opponent’s home board. They have the longest trip and are the easiest to trap.
Anchor: A point you hold with two or more checkers in your opponent’s home board. It gives you a safe place to enter and a base for hitting a blot later.
Prime: A wall of made points in a row. Six in a row is a full prime, which no roll can cross.
Closed board: A home board with all six points made. An opposing checker on the bar can’t enter until one of those points opens.
Builder: A spare checker placed where it can help make a point on a later roll.
Slot: To put a single checker on a point you want, hoping to cover it next turn. Until then it is a blot and can be hit.
Split: To separate two checkers that share a point, most often your back checkers. It gives up a made point for more ways to move or to anchor.
Back game: A plan for a player far behind in the race. You hold two anchors in your opponent’s home board and wait for a late shot.

Match play and the cube

Doubling cube: A die marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 that tracks the stake of a game. A player can offer to double before rolling, and the opponent accepts or gives up the game. LarkSpark doesn’t use the cube.
Take and drop: The two answers to a double. Taking accepts it and plays on at twice the stake. Dropping, also called passing, ends the game at the stake before the double.
Redouble: A second or later double in the same game. Only the player who accepted the last double may offer it.
Match play: A series of games played to a set number of points, as in tournaments. Gammons and the cube decide how many points each game is worth. On LarkSpark each room is one game.
Chouette: A way for three or more people to play one game with the doubling cube. One player takes on a team led by a captain. LarkSpark games are for two players.