Backgammon Glossary

Baffle Box - A small box through which dice are dropped to randomize a roll.
Banana Split - To hit loose by breaking a point in your home board, thereby leaving two blots.
Bankroll - The maximum amount of money you are willing to lose in a session.
Bar - The raised ridge down the center of a backgammon board dividing the home board from the outer board.
Battle of Primes - A position in which both players have checkers trapped behind an opponent's prime.
Bear Off - Removing a checker from the board according to a roll of the dice after all of your checkers have been brought into your home board.
Block - A point occupied by two or more checkers held for the purpose of blocking the opponent's progress.



Blot - A single checker sitting alone on a point where it is vulnerable to being hit.
Checker - One of the fifteen markers, all of one color, that a player moves around the board according to rolls of the dice
Close Out - To make all six of your home board points while the opponent has one or more checkers on the bar.
Counterclockwise - The direction your checkers move around the board.
Dice - Two small cubes, each with faces marked with spots representing the numbers 1 to 6.
Dice Combination - One of the 36 possible rolls using two dice.
Double - the same number using two dice. like: 4 and 4.
Finalist - One of the two players competing in the finals of an elimination tournament.
Forced Play - A roll of the dice for which there is only one legal play.
Gammon - A completed game of backgammon in which the losing player has not borne off any checkers.
Skill Games - games that depence on your skill and not on your luck. Today you can play online skill games.
Split - To separate two checkers which are together on a point and leave them as blots.
Swing - The difference in score between winning a game and losing it.
WBA - World Backgammon Association.
WBF - Worldwide Backgammon Federation.