The standards expected for backgammon equipment

Many backgammon board buyers become a little confused when trying to invest in the right type of backgammon board and pieces. Backgammon sellers tend to advertise boards and pieces as being suitable for tournaments, but there is often inconsistency between the sizes of a tournament board seen in one place as compared to another. There are a few important points to know that will allow you to buy the correct backgammon equipment for you.

It is good to know that there are actually few written standards regarding backgammon equipment. Even when there are written rules regarding tournament sizes, these can vary between country to country. However, although it is recommended that you check what your local tournament rules are, there are a few preferences to be aware of.

Almost all rules will require the backgammon set to have precision die and lipped cups rather to ensure fair play. Furthermore, there are some rules that will actually ban backgammon sets that are too small or too large. However, take note that generally speaking, the bigger the board the better.

With backgammon equipment standards, there is no set size required for backgammon checkers, however it is useful to know that although 1.5 inch checkers are acceptable, the 1.75 inch checkers tend to be well-liked by many players.

When participating in backgammon tournaments it is generally known that wooden boards are not a popular piece of backgammon equipment, as they tend to cause game playing to be rather noisy and some complain that the dice don’t roll as well as on other surfaces. The more standard types of boards for tournaments consist of leather, cork, felt, denim and vinyl.