Backgammon equipment standards

Helerike · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 10

I have been trying to find out if there are any sort of standards for backgammon equipment used in backgammon tournaments such as the size of the board, weight of the checkers… that sort of thing. I am currently considering purchasing a new backgammon board but want to make sure that I can use it in backgammon groups and to prepare for tournaments in the future.

Rail · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

As far as tournaments go, there isn’t really a standard size that is acceptable or unacceptable. Some sets ban boards that are too small or too large, but if you stick with an average sized board you should be fine.

The material that the board is made from is more important in tournaments. You will never see an all-wood board at a tournament. Dice have a hard time tumbling on a completely wooden board and these boards can also be pretty noisy. In a tournament setting, the noise of checkers moving around the board can be quite distracting. Because of this, other materials are generally used in backgammon tournament boards. Materials such as leather, felt, cork, vinyl and denim are more widely used in tournaments because checkers slide easily on them and dice make a much more quiet sound when they hit these surfaces. Personally I like a felt surface the most in a backgammon board because I think that checkers slide the best on felt.

As far as the checkers go, just make sure that you get checkers that fit on your board. There are a lot of different materials that checkers are made out of as well, so just pick one that you like.