What is Nackgammon?

Nackgammon is a variation on the traditional backgammon game that you know and love. It uses the same backgammon board and accessories, its aims and rules are the same, the only difference between it and traditional backgammon is the set up of the backgammon board.

This variation was invented by backgammon legend Nack Ballard. It essentially follows traditional backgammon in everything other than the set up of the backgammon board. In regular backgammon, each player starts with a stack of 2 on their opponent’s one-point, 5 on their opponent’s twelve-point, three on their own eight-point, and 5 on their own six-point. In Nackgammon, however, each of the stacks of 5 become stacks of four and the spare two pieces are put on your opponent’s two-point. This means that instead of starting with 2 checkers in your opponents ‘home’, in Nackgammon you have four!

This slight variation in set up has a number of effects on the game. Because you have to get four pieces out from your opponent’s ‘home’ a Nackgammon game is often considerably longer than a traditional backgammon game. The fact that this game was invented by a world champion is no coincidence. This backgammon variation takes more skill than traditional backgammon; it involves more strategizing and a heightened ability for ‘back-gamming’. This game is less attack based, and more defense based. The winning and losing of this game is in positioning, there isn’t the type of ‘blitzing’ that appears in traditional backgammon.