Variations

Forum Archive : Variations

 
Slot backgammon

From:   Fabrice Liardet
Date:   7 August 2008
Subject:   Slot Backgammon
Forum:   GammOnLine

In a 2005 Gammonvillage article, Nack Ballard advocated the variant of
"Slot Backgammon", whose idea seems to be Jake Jacobs'. The idea is that
the first roll must be a slot, i.e. leaving a blot in direct range of the
opponent's rear point. For instance, the best move with an opening 65
becomes 13/8 13/7.

Like in the more famous Nackgammon, the idea is to give rise to more
interesting positions, but some play testing I did seems to indicate that
it does much better than Nackgammon in that respect. While Nackgammon most
often results in a moderately complex double holding game, Slot Backgammon
favours all of the most interesting types of positions. In comparison to
usual backgammon, I have seen slightly more blitzes, many more priming
games, more backgames, less holding games and almost no races. I enjoyed
it!

Two minor advantages of Slot Backgammon are that difficult decisions come
earlier in the game (the non-hitting responses are pretty difficult IMHO),
and that the average equity after the first roll is very close to 0 (no
advantage to playing first).

The article gave rise to a hefty discussion, with a majority of people
telling Nack to leave backgammon as it was. Nack agreed that backgammon
should indeed be left as it is, because there was no need to make the game
more difficult for beginners. But he insisted that Slot Backgammon would be
a great variant to be played in top-notch tournaments, making the games
much more attractive to onlookers. I think he is right. What do you think?

Casper van der Tak  writes:

I think it would be fun to try. And it does not change the game in any
fundametal way. Sounds like a better option than Nackgammon, which I
actually do not find more interesting at all than normal BG.

Gregg Cattanach  writes:

I think Nack's idea was in 'response' to Phil Simborg's 'Simborg Rule,
which states that you can't make a new point with the opening roll. This
rule has been used in quite a few side-events at ABT tournaments, usually
in a blitz format.

I think Nack's idea is far superior to Phil's. The Simborg Rule generally
leads to a splitting play on the opening roll, leading to far more holding
games. Nack's rule leads to a lot more hitting, priming and back games,
thus more interesting backgammon.

I haven't seen Nack's rule used in a side event yet, but I think it would
be quite interesting.
 
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Variations

Acey-deucy  (J. Nagel, Dec 2004) 
Acey-deucy  (Steve Ewert, June 1998) 
Acey-deucy  (Lee+, Jan 1997) 
Acey-deucy  (John David Galt+, Dec 1995) 
Acey-deucy  (James Eibisch, Apr 1995) 
Backwards play  (Colin Bell+, Feb 1996) 
Bad advice  (Jason Lee+, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Best-of-n variant of match play  (Tim Chow+, Feb 2009) 
Bluff Cube  (Timothy Chow+, Dec 2012) 
BluffGammon  (Christian Munk-Christensen, June 2009) 
Cancelgammon  (Ilia Guzei+, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Domino backgammon  (Laury Chizlett, Sept 1999) 
Duodecagammon  (David Moeser, Dec 2000) 
Duplicate backgammon  (Dean Gay+, Jan 1997) 
Duplicate backgammon  (Albert Steg, Feb 1996) 
Exact bearoff  (Chris Moellering+, Dec 2002) 
Fevga  (George, Sept 2004) 
Fevga (or Moultezim)  (Igor Sheyn+, May 1995) 
Freeze-out match  (Dave Brotherton, July 1998) 
Gabgammon  (jckz, Oct 2005) 
Greek backgammon  (Alexandre Charitopoulos, Aug 2003) 
Greek backgammon  (Alexandros Chatzipetros, June 1997) 
Greek backgammon  (Marc Jacobs+, Feb 1994) 
Hit man  (Matt Reklaitis, Jan 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Hyper backgammon  (Gregg Cattanach+, Dec 2000) 
Hyper backgammon  (Michael A Urban, Oct 1993) 
International backgammon  (Bob Lancaster+, Oct 2002) 
Jacquet  (Mark Driver, June 2001) 
Joker cube  (Joe Russell+, May 2011) 
Khachapuri  (Michael Petch+, Sept 2010) 
Kleinman's tandem backgammon  (Fabrice Liardet+, May 2010) 
LongRun  (Bill Hickey, Mar 2010) 
Longgammon  (Michael Strato, Dec 2000) 
Low number first, fixed dice, others.  (Walter Trice, Jan 1997) 
Mexican  (Tom Henry, Apr 1997) 
Middle Eastern backgammon  (Alan Cairns, Mar 2002) 
Misere (backgammon to lose)  (Jason Lee+, July 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Misere (backgammon to lose)  (Jason Lee+, Apr 1995) 
Misere, Chase, Skewed dice  (Stein Kulseth, Jan 1997) 
Nackgammon  (Ken Arnold, July 1996) 
Nackgammon Shuffle  (Stick, Sept 2011) 
Nackgammon opening moves  (Warwick+, Feb 2002) 
Narde  (narde, Nov 2006)  [Long message]
Nardi  (KL Gerber+, Nov 2002) 
No hit  (RedTop+, May 2004) 
Nuclear backgammon  (Walt Swan, Apr 1997) 
Old English  (Nick Wedd+, Feb 1996) 
One roll lookahead  (Stephen Turner, Mar 1997) 
Opening slot rule  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2006) 
Other variations  (Douglas Zare, Feb 2000) 
Plakoto  (Ed Dengler+, May 1995) 
Plakoto  (Pasteel M., Feb 1994) 
Plakoto express  (Athansios Vagias, Feb 2005) 
Portes  (George, Sept 2004) 
Roll-over  (Edward D. Collins, Oct 1997) 
Russian backgammon  (Daavid Turnbull, Aug 1991) 
SassanGammon  (Chiva Tafazzoli+, June 2009) 
Shesh Besh  (G.S., May 2003) 
Simborg Rule  (Scott+, Feb 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Slot backgammon  (Fabrice Liardet+, Aug 2008)  [GammOnLine forum]
Sudden death, Woodpecker, Gerhardsen  (Fredrik Dahl, Jan 1997) 
Tablestakes betting  (TrueMoneygames, June 2002) 
Takhteh  (Bruce Scott+, Mar 2003) 
Tandem Backgammon  (Mislav Kovacic, Feb 2012) 
Tavla  (Arda Findikoglu, Nov 2004) 
Tavla  (ucc02cx+, Feb 1997) 
Tavli (Portes, Plakoto, and Fevga)  (Jens Larsen, July 1997) 
Tavli question  (Brus+, Apr 2011) 
Tracy turn around  (Michael J. Zehr, Feb 1996) 
Tri-gammon  (Gregg Cattanach, Sept 2000) 
Trictrac  (David Levy+, May 1998) 
Trigammon  (James Eibisch, Jan 1997) 

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