Backgammon Dictionary

A event for players eliminated early in the main flight of an elimination tournament; sometimes called a sympathy flight.

To reduce the number of blots a player has, frequently as a precursor to offering a double.

Advice offered by the crew to the captain in a chouette.

A game where the opposing forces have not moved past each other and where it is still possible for one player to hit or block the other.   Compare: Pure Race.

To prevent an opposing checker from escaping to its own side of the board by blocking it or hitting it and sending it back.

A player controls a point (1) if he has two or more checkers on that point. Only the player who controls a point may move additional checkers to that point.

Own the cube.

The value approached by a rollout as more and more trials are performed. It is the result you would obtain if you could do a rollout an infinite number of times.

Games played by e-mail.

Pip count.

The relative standing of the players' pip counts. The player with the lower pip count is said to be ahead in the count.

Checker.

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

Possibilities for retaliation, switching from a defensive posture to an offensive posture.

To tabulate the players' pip counts to find out who is ahead in the race and by how much.

A win from the seemingly unwinnable position in which your opponent has borne off twelve checkers and has just three checkers remaining on his two-point. You bravely maintain contact with a single checker on his one-point and deploy your other fourteen checkers where they can contain his checkers if you are able to hit one or, preferably, two of them. Winning a coup classique is especially satisfying for you and maddening for your opponent.

To add a second checker to a blot, thereby making the point.

Cubeless probability of winning.

Having little or no mobility.

The first game in a match after either player comes to within one point (4) of winning. The rules of match play say that the doubling cube may not be used during the Crawford game.  See: Crawford Rule.

[Named for John R. Crawford.]  A standard rule of match play. When the leading player comes within one point (4) of winning the match, the following game is played without a doubling cube. This one game without doubling is called the Crawford Game. After the Crawford game, the doubling cube is back in play again. See posts by: Chuck Bower, Kit Woolsey, and Walter Trice.