A lot of people don’t realize this, but there are several variants of the backgammon game out there.  You’re probably used to the traditional style of play; that which is played on the pro tours, in which players start out with 15 checkers each starting at one side of the board, opposite sections, and racing to the other side and off to win.  However, if you want to spice up your backgammon game, you might want to consider trying out some of the different variants.

 

 

One variant of the backgammon game is acey-deucy where players start with no checkers on the board and have to bear them on at the start.  Another is hypergammon where players put only 3 checkers on the board each at the 23, 24, and 22 points and play.  There is also Russian backgammon where player start with no checkers on the board but also from the same section and side and race to the same home board to bear off.

Of course, these are just a few; there are other variants of backgammon as well.  Since the backgammon game has been played for over 1,000 years all over the world, there are lots of styles of play out there.  Some styles are dominate in different regions so that if you were to play traditional backgammon as we know it the people there would have no clue what you were playing.  But trying different backgammon game variants can be a lot of fun.  You can look up variants online or in backgammon books.  Have fun!