“C” Backgammon Terms

A good general strategy to use when bearing in or bearing off against opposition. You clear your highest point (1) first and avoid creating gaps.

Software that runs on a user's computer and communicates with a backgammon server to allow the user to play backgammon (1) with others on the Internet. The client software displays the board and interacts with the user as he rolls the dice and moves the checkers.

Chess clock.

The direction your checkers move around the board when they are set up to bear off to the left. When your checkers move clockwise, your opponent's checkers move counterclockwise.

Make a point; place two or more of your checkers on a point (1), and thereby prevent your opponent from landing there.

A player's home board when all six points (1) are blocked.

A point (1) containing two or more checkers; a block or an anchor.

To make all six of your home board points while the opponent has one or more checkers on the bar. The opponent is then prevented from entering his checker or making any other move until one of the closed home-board points is opened.

A pip counting technique devised by Jack Kissane that involves the mental shifting of checkers to form patterns of reference positions whose pip totals often end in zero for quick and easy addition.   See: "Cluster Count" by Jack Kissane.

Thrown dice which do not both land flat on the surface of the half of the board to the player's right. The roll is disqualified and both dice must be rethrown.

Entering from the bar with a roll of 6-2 and hitting a blot on the eight-point when the only open point is the two-point.

Misleading talk to confuse opponent. For example, in a chouette, when a team player advises the captain not to double knowing full well that the captain will double, he tempts the box to unwisely accept (ethically borderline, at best). (From Backgammon, by Paul Magriel, p 396.)

The two numbers on a pair of rolled dice taken together; see combinations of the dice.

The play of a single checker that uses both numbers of a roll, such as a combination shot.

An opportunity to hit an opposing blot that requires using the numbers on both dice taken together; an indirect shot.   Compare: Direct Shot.

The number of possible rolls out of 36 that accomplish a specific objective.

An opportunity to hit an opponent's blot immediately after being hit yourself; in particular, an opportunity to hit from the bar.

Enter.

Mid-point.

A position from which there is only one reasonable game plan for winning, as opposed to a noncommitted position.

To keep checkers within six pips (2) of one another for mutual support; see connectivity.