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Backgammon Variants

Tourne-case

Setup: Each player has just three checkers, which start off the board. Players play only on their own side of the board, moving their checkers from left-to-right across the board.

Object: The object of the game is to move all of your checkers across the board and pile them up on your home point. The first player with all three checkers on their own home point wins the game.

To start: Each player rolls one die and the higher number goes first. That player then rolls the dice again to begin their first turn.

Entering: You enter a checker into your starting table by rolling a number corresponding to an open point within that table. You may not enter a checker onto a point that is already occupied.

Movement: The roll of the dice indicates how many points, or pips, the player is to move his checkers. The following rules apply:

• A checker may be moved only to an open point, one that is not already occupied by a checker. Exception: More than one checker may be piled onto a player's home point, the last point in its journey across the board.
• Checkers must remain in their order of entry. No checker may pass over another checker when it moves.
• The numbers on the two dice constitute separate moves. For example, if a player rolls 5 and 3, he may move one checker five spaces to an open point and another checker three spaces to an open point, or he may move the one checker a total of eight spaces to an open point, but only if the intermediate point (either three or five spaces from the starting point) is also open.
• Doubles are played just once. For example, if you roll 3-3, you move one checker three pips.

If you are unable to play all of the numbers of a roll, you must play as many as you can and any unplayable numbers are lost.

Hitting: In Tourne-case, you hit an opponent's checker by moving to an open point directly across the board from it. You cannot hit a checker from your home point. The hit checker is placed on the bar and must be reentered on the opponent's next turn if possible. If the opponent is unable to enter a checker sitting on the bar, he loses his turn.

Scoring: The first player to move all three of their checkers to their own home point wins the game. If the losing player has entered all of their checkers, and has no checkers sitting on the board, he loses one point; otherwise he loses two points.

References

Books

• H. J. R. Murray: A History of Board-Games other than Chess; Oxford University Press, Oxford, England; 1951 (page 121).
• R. C. Bell: Discovering Backgammon (page 32).

World Wide Web

• Philippe Lalanne: The Game of Tourne-Case