Backgammon Variations

Backgammon does not have to be played in one way. You change the direction of the checkers' movement, add/subtract checkers or change the number of participants and you've got an entirely different game. So, which backgammon variations can you play? 

Acey Deucey
Hyper Backgammon
Nackgammon
LongGammon
Chouette

Acey Deucey is one of the most familiar backgammon variations worldwide, and probably the backgammon variant that has the largest number of variations. Named after the roll of 1-2, the main differences between this backgammon variant and the parent game are that when an Acey Deucey player rolls 1 and 2, he or she are awarded with an additional roll. Plus they can play any double after rolling 1-2 and before re-rolling. In European backgammon, a player gets to re-roll after rolling a double. 

Hyper Backgammon

As you can realize from the name of the game, Hyper Backgammon is a fast paced action of the standard game. In this variation of backgammon, each player gets only 3 checkers, placed on the players' 1-point, 2-point and 3-point. Besides this minor modification, the game is played exactly like standard backgammon, with the doubling cube and all. Nevertheless, the absence of most of the checkers guarantees a speedier, sometimes even more intensive game.

Named after its inventor, American backgammon player Nack Ballard, this version of the backgammon game is played with a different arrangement of the backgammon board; with 2 checkers on each player's 1 point and 2, 3 checkers on the 8-point and 4 checkers on the 6 and 12 points, to be exact.

This relatively new backgammon variation is played according to same old backgammon rules, with one exception: on the opening position, each player's checkers are placed on the other player's 1-point. From now on, the players still strive to get to their home board and then to bear off their checkers.

Chouette is a multiplayer variation of backgammon played competitively with minimum of 3 players. One player, the box, is played against the team led by the captain. Chouette begins like ordinary backgammon with each player rolls one die. The player who'd rolled the highest outcome plays the box, and his/her runner up plays the captain. Chouette is played according to standard backgammon rules. When played for money (which happens very often), each member of the team pays off the box if the latter wins and if the box loses, he/she are required to play each and every member of the team.