Dutch Backgammon Variant

The Dutch Backgammon variant is basically played very much like regular Backgammon. The main differences are as follows:

1. The starting point of all of the checkers is outside of the board.
2. The player that wins the opening roll gets to roll again for his initial turn.
3. No player can hit until he reaches the point where he holds one or more checkers in his home board.
4. There is no doubling cube in Dutch Backgammon.

In Dutch Backgammon, every player begins with 15 checkers on the outside of the Backgammon board. Participants in this Backgammon variant put their checkers in the home board of their opponents. Then they move them all the way around the board, just like in regular Backgammon. In order to begin play, every player rolls a single die and the one with the higher roll gets to go first. The same player also rolls both dice once more in order to start his initial turn.

Furthermore, if you bear off every one of your checkers before your opponent, you win the Dutch Backgammon game and earn 1 point. If you manage to do so before your opponent has been able to bear off any of his checkers, then you gain a gammon as well as 2 points.

David Carnegy - Managing Editor