bearoff

Backgammon terms explained: blot, prime, anchor and the rest

Backgammon has its own vocabulary, and most of it sounds like something a sailor would shout. Here's the lot, in plain words and roughly in the order you'll meet them.

The board

Point: one of the 24 narrow triangles. Also, confusingly, a point you own: hold one with two or more checkers and your opponent can't land there.

Pip: one step. The numbers on the dice are pips, and so is the distance a checker travels.

Bar: the ridge down the middle of the board, and where your checker waits after it's been hit.

Home board: your last six points, where your checkers finish and where your opponent has to re-enter after being hit.

Outer board: the middle two quadrants, the long stretch everybody travels through.

A backgammon board: twenty-four numbered points, the bar down the middle, and the tray at the right where checkers come off.131214111510169178187196205214223232241the baroffopponent's home boardyour home boardyour outer board
The last six points - 1 to 6 - are your home board, and the tray beside them is where checkers go once they are off. The strip down the middle is the bar, where a checker waits after it has been hit.

Your checkers

Checker: one of your fifteen pieces.

Blot: a single checker sitting alone on a point. It can be hit, which is why leaving one matters.

Builder: a spare checker placed where it can help make a point next turn.

Anchor: two of your checkers holding a point inside your opponent's home board. It's a safe landing spot and the base for a comeback.

Four kinds of point: one with two opposing checkers is blocked, one with a single opposing checker is a blot you may hit, an empty point is open, and a point with your own checkers is yours.121110987654321blockeda blotopenyours
Point 10 has two opposing checkers, so it is closed to you. Point 8 has exactly one - a blot, which you may land on. Point 5 is empty and point 3 is yours; both are fine. Two of your own checkers on a point is called making it, and it stays yours until you move them.

Things that happen to checkers

Hit: landing on a blot and sending it to the bar.

Enter, or come in: moving a checker from the bar back onto the board, in your opponent's home board.

Dance: failing to enter, turn after turn, because every point is blocked. Nobody enjoys this.

Bear off: taking your checkers off the board at the end. Yes, that's where our name comes from.

Shapes and plans

Prime: several points in a row that you own. Six in a row is a full prime and nothing can jump it.

Block: any point you hold that gets in your opponent's way.

Race: the simple version of the game, where both sides are just running for home and nobody can be hit.

Slot: deliberately leaving a single checker somewhere useful, hoping to cover it next turn. A calculated risk.

Six of your points in a row: an opposing checker behind them cannot move at all, because every number is blocked.121110987654321six points in a row - nothing gets pasttrapped
Six consecutive points, called a full prime. The trapped checker cannot move - every number from one to six lands on a point you hold. It stays there until you break the wall, which you eventually have to.

Scores and the cube

Doubling cube: the block marked 2, 4, 8 and so on. Offering it doubles what the game is worth, and your opponent either accepts or gives up the game.

Beaver: in friendly money games, accepting a double and immediately doubling again. Optional, and slightly cheeky.

Gammon: winning before your opponent gets a single checker off. Worth double.

Backgammon: winning while your opponent still has a checker in your home board or on the bar, with none borne off. Worth triple, and rare enough to be worth mentioning afterwards.

Words you'll hear across the board

Tavla, Tavli, Nard: what the game is called in Turkey, Greece, Iran and much of Central Asia. Related games, same family.

Portes, Plakoto, Fevga: the three Greek games usually played one after the other.

The short version

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Angela

One of the top 10 sweetest people, probably. German by birth, delightfully unserious by nature. By day, she shapes stories; by night, she beats her boyfriend at backgammon and writes poetry.