Backgammon Touch-Move Rule

Stack · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

I was recently at a backgammon tournament and I noticed that some participants shuffled their checkers around the board and then back again in an undecided way, before actually making their move. Is there such a thing as a touch-move rule in backgammon (as there is in chess, for example) where you cannot move once you’ve taken your hand off the checkers?

DeadCube · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 18

To the best of my knowledge, no there isn’t. There are a number of reasons why touch-move rules don’t work in backgammon.
Firstly, backgammon pieces simply call to be ‘touched’ on the board. Players are forever straightening out their checkers on their board, for example. Initiating the rule might result in a serious punch to the visually aesthetic element of backgammon. Secondly, most backgammon players simply enjoy the game as it is, without the need for a touch-move rule.
Having said that, it’s my personal opinion that in time tournaments will need to enforce some of kind of rule as an alternative to the current one that you can change your move until you have picked up the dice.