Backgammon articles

Swedish Tables Backgammon Variant

Swedish Tables is a Backgammon variant that is quite similar to regular Backgammon. The main differences between the 2 variants are as follows:

Both players make the same counterclockwise course across the board.
Bearing off isn't the only action you can take in order to win at Swedish Tables. You can also have a handsome win or a jan, both of which are explained below.

Every participant begins with 15 checkers on the point that is farthest to the right. The players both make the same counterclockwise course across the board. As with all Backgammon variants, the goal in this game is to get every one of your checkers to move all the way around the Backgammon board and bear the checkers off. However, in Swedish Tables there is an alternative way to win – you can win jan, or a handsome game.

To begin play, every player rolls a single die and the player with the smaller number gets to play first. Following the initial game, the defeated player of the preceding game gets to play first.

Players need to move their checkers in accordance with the points that correspond to the numbers that come up when they roll the dice. The rules of checker movement in Swedish Tables are as follows:

A checker can only be placed on a point that isn't held by at least 2 of the opponent's checkers.
There are 2 dice in Swedish Tables and the numbers on each of them signify 2 independent moves.
Doubles have to be played 2 times.
A player has to use both of the numbers that come up on a dice roll whenever it is possible, and all 4 numbers if doubles are rolled.

A blot is a single checker that occupies a point. If your opponent's checker winds up on your blot, your blot gets hit and is put on the bar. In this Backgammon variant, whenever you have at least 1 checker on the bar, your number 1 priority should be to get those checkers in your opponent's home board. The way to do this includes moving a checker to an available point that matches 1 of the numbers you've rolled. In the case that you succeed in bringing some, but not every one of your checkers, then you have to bring in as many as you possibly can and forsake the rest of your turn.

Limitations

Every Swedish Tables player is prohibited from stacking more than 1 checker on a single point from the opponent's side of the table. This applies to your starting point as well. Despite the fact that you begin the game with at least 1 checker on this point, you are prohibited from stacking more checkers on that point throughout the game.

This means that bringing in your checkers is more challenging than in traditional Backgammon since in Swedish Tables, besides the points your opponent closes, you make blocks with your very own men. There is only 1 situation where this limitation does not apply - you are allowed to stack an unlimited number of checkers on the point that is the farthest to the left on the opponent's side of the table, which is called the head.

A point that has at least 2 checkers on it is called a closed point. Such a point usually can't be hit, but there are 2 exceptions:

In the case that you've constructed a prime, those points are all vulnerable to the opponent's hit.
If the number of open points in the other player's beginning table is lower than the number of checkers your opponent has on the bar, then your closed points are all vulnerable to the opponent's hit.

Once a closed point gets hit, every one of the checkers on that point goes straight to the bar, except in the case that you have just 1 remaining checker on the Backgammon board, then you can't hit closed points anymore.

When every one of your checkers is in your finishing board, you can start to bear off. In order to bear off, you need to roll a number that at least reflects the number of your point with the back-most checker, or is even bigger than that number. In the case that the number you've rolled isn't large enough to bear off your back-most checker, you have to use that number to shift the checker up if you can.

You can not waste pips unless you absolutely have to when you bear off, meaning that between bearing off and moving a checker up, bearing off is the preferable choice.

When a checker gets hit in the midst of the bearoff, then it has to be brought into your starting board again in order to complete the course of the entire board once more before bearing off.

The other way to win at Swedish Tables which makes this Backgammon variant so unique, is called the handsome win. This is achieved by positioning every one of your checkers in the ending table in any of the following ways:

Single Crown Game - 3 checkers on every one of the 5 final points.
Double Crown Game - 5 checkers on every one of the 3 final points.
Staircase - 7 checkers on the final point, 5 checkers placed 1 point before the final point, and 3 checkers placed 2 points before the final point.
Tower - Every one of the 15 checkers on the final point.

Once a player bears a checker off, he relinquishes his opportunity to achieve a handsome win.

In the case that a participant wins at Swedish Tables while his opponent still has at least 1 checker on the bar, he gets an additional point, or as they say in this Backgammon variant, he “wins the monk”. In addition, monk is the name given to the checkers on the bar, as well as the player that lost.

Jan is the name of the type of win where the number of checkers that you have sent to the bar is so high that there is no way that your opponent can bring them all in again. Hence, jan is a win where the number of the opponent's checkers on the bar is higher than the amount of open points in his starting table.

Winning forced jan is when you win by hitting a closed point and direct at least 2 checkers to the bar. Winning forced jan also gets you additional points.

Swedish Tables ends the moment one of the participants bears off his final checker, gets a handsome win, or a jan. Completing a game isn't required if you can make a different permissible move. Nonetheless, the game has to come to a close with one of the aforementioned final arrangements.

There are 7 possible endings to a Swedish Tables Backgammon game, 5 of which you can win with monk as well. The following table reveals the point system for the different ways of winning.

Game	Points	With Monk
Forced Jan	6
Jan	4
Single Crown	2	3
Double Crown	2	3
Staircase	2	3
Tower	2	3
Bearing Off	1	2

In general, a Swedish Tables Backgammon competition is comprised of either 3, 5, or 7 games. In cases where there's a tie following the set number of games, the participant that won the game with the greatest value is the one that wins the competition, and if a tie remains, the player that won the game with the second highest value is the one that wins, and so on.

David Carnegy - Managing Editor