Glossary
A word underlined with dots in the tutorials is here; point at it, or tap it, to see its meaning where you read.
- Aardvark
In a chouette or money game, the answer to a raccoon: redoubling once more and keeping the cube. Allowed only where the settings allow it.
- Algebraic notation
Chess's standard way of writing down moves. The squares are named by a letter for the column (a to h, from White's left) and a number for the row (1 to 8, from White's side), and a move by the piece's letter and the square it goes to: Be5 is a bishop moving to e5. Backgammon notation does the same for backgammon.
- Anchor
A point you hold in your opponent's home board, with two or more checkers. It gives your back checkers a safe landing spot.
- Backgammon
Winning while the loser still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, and has borne none off. It counts three times the cube's value.
- Backgammon notation
The standard way of writing down a backgammon game, introduced by Paul Magriel in the 1970s. The points are numbered from the side of the player on roll, 24 the farthest from home and 1 the deepest point of their home board, and a move is the roll followed by each checker's move, from/to: 42: 8/4 6/4. An asterisk marks a hit (13/7*), bar and off stand for entering and bearing off, and a number in brackets repeats a move (6/4(3) with double 2s).
- Bar
The middle of the board, where a hit checker waits until it enters again in the opponent's home board.
- Bear off
Taking checkers off the board once all of yours are in your home board. The first to bear off all fifteen wins.
- Beaver
Taking a double and at once redoubling, keeping the cube. Allowed only where the settings allow it.
- Blitz
An all-out attack on checkers in your home board, hitting them and making points to close them out.
- Blot
A single checker on a point. It can be hit.
- Box
In a chouette, the player who plays against the whole team.
- Builder
A checker within reach of a point you want to make.
- Captain
In a chouette, the team member who moves the team's checkers.
- Chouette
Backgammon for three or more players: the box plays against a team, each team member with a cube of their own.
- Colorless count
Urquhart's pip count that ignores whose checker is whose and gives only the difference between the two sides. Counting from one side's bear-off tray, the first fifteen checkers, of either colour, count as that side's. Three quick counts add up to the difference: the difference in crossovers (checkers that still need a 6 to reach the home board) times 6; the checkers on points 1-3, 7-9, 13-15 and 19-21, 3 pips for each above or below 15; and, in each group of three points, the checkers on the near point minus those on the far point, one pip each.
- Crawford rule
In a match, the game after a player first comes within one point of winning is played without the cube.
- Crew
In a chouette, the team members other than the captain. Each has a cube against the box.
- Cube
The doubling cube. A player may double before rolling; the opponent takes, and the game is worth twice as much, or drops and loses it at its current value.
- Delegate
In a chouette, handing your cube to another player while you step away; they decide for you until you take it back or the game ends.
- Equity
What a position is worth to you, as the points you win or lose on average from it. An error is the equity a move loses against the best one.
- Extras
In a chouette, players who dropped the box's double pay the one who took to take their cubes too, and switch to the box's side.
- Gammon
Winning before the loser has borne off a checker. It counts twice the cube's value.
- Half-crossover count
Zare's pip count in steps of three points. Each checker counts the groups of three it still has to cross to reach points 4-6: 0 on points 4-6, 1 on 7-9, 2 on 10-12, and so on, -1 on 1-3. A side's total times 3, plus 75 (fifteen checkers on the 5-point), is about its pip count; then add 1 for each checker on the far point of its group and take 1 off for each on the near point. Comparing the two sides' counts shows who leads the race.
- Hit
- Home board
A player's last six points, 1 to 6, where all checkers must be before bearing off.
- Jacoby rule
In money play, gammons and backgammons count only once the cube has been turned.
- Partner
In a large chouette, a player who shares the box with the box player, and its wins and losses.
- Pip count
How far a side still has to move all its checkers to bear them off, in points. The board shows both sides'.
- Point
One of the board's 24 triangles. A point is made when two or more of your checkers are on it; your opponent cannot land there.
- PR
Performance rating, how well a player played: the equity lost through errors per decision, times 500. Lower is better.
- Prime
Several points in a row, made. Six in a row cannot be passed.
- Raccoon
The answer to a beaver: redoubling once more and keeping the cube. Allowed only where the settings allow it.
- Shuffle
In a chouette, drawing the order of play: the box, the captain and the crew.
- Too good and not good enough
At some match scores, a position can be too good to double and not yet good enough to double at the same time: playing on for a gammon wins more than a double would, while the winning chances are still too low for a double to be right. Leading 4-away against 8-away with the 2-cube, for example, you are too good from about 83% winning chances (counting gammons) but good enough only from about 89%, so with real gammon chances you never double at that score.
- XGID
A position written as text, as eXtreme Gammon and other programs export it. Setup reads it.