A
- Anchor ¶
- A point made (2+ checkers) in the opponent’s home board. Defensive.
- Acey-Deucey ¶
- American military variant where rolling 1-2 unlocks bonus moves and an extra roll.
- Automatic double ¶
- Money play only: a tied opening roll doubles the cube to 2.
- Advanced anchor ¶
- An anchor on the 20-point (the "golden anchor") or the 18-point.
B
- Backgammon (win) ¶
- Winning before the opponent bears off any checker while they still have a checker on the bar or in your home board. Worth 3× the cube value.
- Back game ¶
- Strategy built on two or more anchors held deep in the opponent’s home board.
- Bar ¶
- The center ridge of the board; where hit checkers go.
- Bar point ¶
- The 7-point. After the 5-point, the second-most-valuable offensive point.
- Bear off ¶
- Remove a checker from the board, allowed once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board.
- Beaver ¶
- Money play only: an immediate redouble by the player who was just doubled, keeping cube ownership.
- Blitz ¶
- Aggressive attacking strategy aiming to close the opponent out on the bar.
- Block ¶
- A made point that prevents the opponent’s checkers from landing on it.
- Blot ¶
- A point occupied by exactly one checker — vulnerable to being hit.
- Builder ¶
- A spare checker positioned to help make a new point next roll.
C
- Cash ¶
- To double an opponent out of the game — offering a cube they must correctly pass, banking the current stakes.
- Checker ¶
- A playing piece; each player has 15.
- Chouette ¶
- Multi-player money backgammon: one player in "the box" versus a captained team, each teammate controlling their own cube.
- Closeout ¶
- All six home-board points made while the opponent sits on the bar — they cannot enter until a point opens.
- Cocked dice ¶
- Dice not lying flat after the roll; both must be re-rolled.
- Come-around ¶
- A checker’s journey from the opponent’s side of the board all the way around to your home board.
- Contact ¶
- A position where opposing checkers can still hit each other.
- Cover ¶
- To add a second checker to a blot of your own, making the point.
- Crawford rule ¶
- Universal in match play: when a player first reaches one point from victory, the next game is played without the doubling cube.
- Crossover ¶
- Moving a checker into a new quadrant of the board.
- Cube ¶
- Short for "doubling cube."
- Cubeful / cubeless equity ¶
- A position’s expected value with and without future cube actions accounted for.
- Cube life ¶
- The remaining value of cube ownership; quantified by Janowski’s live-cube calculations.
D
- DAU ¶
- Daily active users — how online platforms measure the size of a playing community day to day.
- Diversification ¶
- Spreading your good numbers so that many different rolls do useful work.
- DMP ¶
- "Double match point": both players one point from winning the match.
- Double ¶
- An offer to double the stakes via the doubling cube, made before rolling.
- Doubles ¶
- Rolling the same number on both dice (e.g. 4-4); the number is played four times.
- Doubling cube ¶
- The six-sided cube marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 used to raise the stakes.
- Doubling window ¶
- The range of winning chances where doubling is correct and the opponent should still take.
- Drop ¶
- Decline a double (also "pass"), conceding the current cube value.
- Duplication ¶
- Arranging your position so the opponent needs the same number for two different jobs — fewer rolls help them.
E
- EMG ¶
- "Equivalent to money game" — the normalized unit for expressing match-play equity.
- Entering ¶
- Moving a checker from the bar into the opponent’s home board.
- Equity ¶
- The expected value of a position, typically expressed in cube units or points.
- EPC ¶
- Effective pip count — the raw pip count plus expected wastage; the standard measure in bear-off positions.
F
G
H
I
J
K
- Keith count ¶
- A pip-count adjustment that accounts for checker distribution before race cube decisions.
L
M
- MAU ¶
- Monthly active users — the month-scale measure of a playing community’s size.
- Match ¶
- A multi-game contest played to N points (e.g. 7, 11, 13, 21).
- Match equity ¶
- The probability of winning the match from a given score.
- MET ¶
- Match equity table — the standard reference grid of match-winning chances by score.
- Midpoint ¶
- The 13-point.
N
O
P
- Pass ¶
- Decline a double (same as "drop"), conceding the current cube value.
- Pay now or pay later ¶
- The recurring choice to accept a small risk now to avoid a bigger one later. Often the right play.
- Pip ¶
- One unit of distance on the board — one point of travel.
- Pip count ¶
- The total pips all your checkers still need to travel to bear off. Both sides start at 167.
- Plakoto ¶
- Greek variant where blots are pinned (trapped in place) rather than hit.
- Point ¶
- One of the board’s 24 triangles. "To point on" a checker: make the point by landing two checkers on its blot.
- Pony / doubling pony ¶
- Slang for the doubling cube.
- Post-Crawford ¶
- The games after the Crawford game in a match, with the cube back in play.
- PR ¶
- Performance rating: average equity error per decision versus a neural-net analyzer. Lower is better; world class is under 2.
- Prime ¶
- Consecutive made points (a 4-prime, 5-prime, or the impassable 6-prime).
- Provably fair dice ¶
- Dice generated with a cryptographic commit-reveal scheme so every roll can be verified after the game.
R
- Race ¶
- A position with no remaining contact between the two sides.
- Raccoon ¶
- Money play only: a redouble in response to a beaver, again retaining cube ownership.
- Redouble ¶
- A subsequent double by the current cube owner.
- Roll ¶
- The two dice numbers thrown on a turn.
- Rollout ¶
- A computer simulation playing thousands of games from a position to estimate its equity.
- Running game ¶
- The plan of racing all checkers home without contact.
S
- Settlement ¶
- Money play only: agreeing to end a game mid-way at a negotiated value.
- Shot ¶
- A roll that hits an opponent’s blot.
- Slot ¶
- Deliberately leave a blot on a key point, intending to cover it next turn.
- Snake eyes ¶
- Rolling 1-1 — less destructive than it sounds, since it grants four moves of 1.
- Stack ¶
- Multiple checkers piled on one point; tall stacks waste material.
T
- Take ¶
- Accept a double, continuing the game at doubled stakes with cube ownership.
- Take point ¶
- The minimum winning probability at which taking a double breaks even — about 25% in money play; score-dependent in matches.
- Tabula ¶
- The Roman ancestor of modern backgammon.
- Tavla ¶
- The Turkish name and tradition of backgammon, played without the doubling cube.
- Tavli ¶
- Greek backgammon — the session triplet of Portes, Plakoto and Fevga.
- Timing ¶
- In holding and back games: how long you can wait before being forced to break a key point.
- Too good to double ¶
- A position so winning that doubling (and forcing a drop) earns less than playing on for the gammon.
U
- Underbuilt ¶
- A position lacking the builders needed to make new points.
V
- Volatility ¶
- How much a position’s equity can change per roll; high volatility opens the doubling window.
W
X
Z
- Zone ¶
- The region of the board where contact between the two sides remains possible.
No terms match that filter.
Want the terms in action? Read the complete rules, the five game plans, or what PR says about your level.