Backgammon

Backgammon has many rules, which makes them a little blurry in some people's eyes.
That is also why every tournament played has to have directors to oversee the plays. They
are there to help you sort out the problems as they arise and prevent an argument in a
tournament play.

One of the rules in the game is called the Jacoby rule. This rule makes gammons and
backgammons count for their respective double and triple points only if there has been at
least one use of the doubling cube in the game. This makes a player that has a large lead
in the game to double and by doing so is very likely to end the game rather than see the
game to the end. This rule is widely used for those players that play for real money and
adds excitement to the game. You will find that this rule is not used in match play.

The Crawford Rule makes the match play a much more fair game for the player that's in
the lead. For example, if a player is one point away from a winning match, his opponent
has no reason not to double. A win in the game with the player in the lead would cause
him to win regardless of the double stakes. A win by the opponent would make it much
more beneficial as the stakes are doubled. To make this a little clearer, the Crawford Rule
requires that when a player becomes one point short of winning the match neither one of
the players are allowed to use the doubling cube for a single game. This is called the
Crawford Game and as soon as it's over the players can go back to using the doubling
cube as usual. This rule is not as widely used as the Jacoby Rule but is generally accepted
to be in effect for a match play.