Types of Backgammon Games

Acey Deucy

• In normal backgammon, every man is placed on the board in a fixed starting position. In Acey Deucey, all the men start off of the board. Roll the dice to send your men onto the game board in your opponent's home quarter. Once you have one man on the board, you can take him around the board or roll in more men. Rolling a one and a two (or acey deucey) means you must move a piece one spot and another piece two spots. However, after moving these you can choose a dice number to move four times. For example, after making your initial acey deucey move, you could choose three and then move four pieces three spots. You then receive an extra roll. Two or more men on one spot is a block which cannot be landed on by an opponent and landing on a single man removes him from the board. He is then replaced on your opponent's side. Get all of your men to your quarter and remove them by rolling them off, like in basic backgammon.

Tapa

• Tapa is set up like regular backgammon and features the same basic rules. However, in Tapa you cannot remove your opponent's pieces from game play. In regular backgammon, when you land on a singular piece, he is removed. In Tapa, you rest your piece on top of a singular piece. Your opponent can't move this piece until you move the top piece. This slight change alters the basic strategy of backgammon significantly. For example, if you place two pieces on a single opponent piece, you can move one of your pieces off while still pinning your opponent. You can also block enough of your opponent's men to force him to make bad moves or to even prevent him from moving all together. Game play proceeds like regular backgammon until one player removes all of his men.

Diceless Backgammon

• Normal backgammon centers on rolling dice, which brings an element of randomness to the game. If you would rather focus on pure strategy, diceless backgammon may be the game for you. Start with your men off of the board. No pieces can be removed nor can you rest on top of them, making any space taken up by a backgammon piece blocked. Instead of using dice to decide your movements, you call your moves out. You can choose two numbers between one and six. Removing the luck element focuses the game more on planning, careful movement and long-term strategy. Game play ends when a player removes all of his pieces from the board after moving them all to his home quarter.