Backagmmon rules | Backgammon Tournaments Rules

Backgammon Rules

Backgammon Tournaments Rules

Types of tournament

A tournament may be local, national or even international. It also may be open - which means that everyone may apply to participate - or invitational. In invitational tournaments you undertake to invite players who are good enough to participate in it. In all cases, there should be a clear summary of the prevailing rules. Unlike chess and bridge, the rules for backgammon tournaments vary from club to club and from area to area. If there are a large number of participants, you should explain how and when the eliminating rounds will take place in order to reach the last eight or sixteen players. If more than sixteen players participate in the finals a tournament becomes chaotic.

When you advertise your tournament, you should ask the interested players to send a large self addressed envelope for the rules, the venue and the dates.

Prizes
There should not be money prizes, unless professionals participate. Between amateurs, book tokens or small gifts, like a small backgammon set, make the most popular awards.

Systems

If fewer than eight players participate, the best system is for each player to meet all the others in a series of prearranged contests. The winner is credited with one point. There are no points for the loser. When all the matches arecompleted, the player with the most points is the winner, or champion. If there are sixteen players or more - the best system is the "knock out". The losers are out of the tournament and the winners play each other until a single champion is arrived at. However, if the number of players is between eight and fourteen, the "Swiss System" is both fair and highly competitive. Its only disadvantage is that it may take some time. In the Swiss System, a player who loses once is not out of the tournament. A player has to lose twice before being eliminated.

Under the Swiss System there is no need to seed the best two players. No matter how unfair the draw might be, the best two players will meet in the final. The organisers write down the names of the participants in the initial column. The winners go on to the right; the losers to the left. On the left-hand side you will find the same letters. These indicate the place to which the losers of the above contests are transferred. To decide the champion, the winner of the winners' side (right-hand) meets the winner of the losers' side To decide the champion, the winner of the winners' side (right-hand) meets the winner of the losers' side.
This is the fairest "knock out" system that has been invented so far. But if more than sixteen players participate, it tends to become protracted and it is not recommended. The rules must stipulate the number of points required for a player to win a match. In some tournaments, the winner is the player who first wins nine points, that is best of seventeen. But this is too much. Best of nine is a reasonable number to decide a match. Whoever first takes five, wins. Of course, the rules may stipulate that the final is best of fifteen. The organisers must clarify whether the doubling cube will be allowed, and, if so, whether its use will be limited or unlimited. With an unlimited doubling cube, a whole match may be won in a single game! Another point that must be clarified is whether gammons or backgammons (triple games) are acceptable. Many master players feel that if the cube is allowed, then neither double nor triple games should be counted as such; all the games should be considered as single ones, unless a player has used his cube. This rule allows the loser to reject the double game and thus lose only a single point. In my judgment, the doubling cube is not compatible with the idea of a tournament and should be banned. A tournament should b e conducted on traditional lines. Gammon and backgammon should count two and three points respectively. If today's luck favours one player scandalously, tomorrow's may smile upon his opponent. We cannot possibly ban chance from backgammon. The doubling cube confuses things in tournaments. Extra rules are required to accommodate it. The doubling cube is ideal for individual matches, where winning money is paramount. But from tournaments it should be excluded. This, though, is a personal opinion.

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