Kids love backgammon too

evilari · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 17

Last week I started teaching my eleven year old daughter how to play backgammon. I taught her the basic rules and strategies. In the past I have taught her quite a few games, but she figured out that I was letting her win and got upset with me so I haven’t let her win yet. In fact, I’ve been beating her pretty badly, as she doesn’t want me to dumb down my game because she wants to see the best strategies possible. I’ve been trying to figure out if there is anything I can do to even up the game like giving her some extra turns throughout the game or changing up the rules a bit. Does anyone know of any common methods for evening up a backgammon game for two players with very different ability levels? Just keep in mind that I don’t want too much of a distortion—I want my daughter to learn the real game of backgammon.

GammonGo · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 14

If you daughter felt bad when you let her win, then she probably won’t enjoy playing a game that is handicapped to her advantage either. What your daughter needs is to win a real game, with normal rules. My advice is to allow her to ask you for help whenever she wants and you can tell her the best move to make and why. You will find that in a short time she will stop asking as she begins to learn and understand the game. You should also try to find someone closer to your daughter’s age and skill level to play with her. Ask her, maybe one of her friends wants to learn how to play too. They will have a great time learning together.

Deuce · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 38

I suggest that you don’t give your daughter any help with her moves but explain to her the reasoning behind each and every single move that you make. She will then begin to understand strategy and use the same moves in her own game. Also give her plenty of time to figure out what she would like to do on her turns. Tell her to look at every possible move she can make and have her talk through the reasons why she is choosing a particular move. This will make her really think about strategy and understand the game.

Pigeon · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

A good method that I have used with my children is the “roll-over” method. In each game your daughter gets a certain number of times that she can re-roll the dice if she isn’t happy with the outcome of her roll. I like to give 5 roll-overs in a game, but you can decide what you think works best for you and your daughter. I like this method because it lets you adjust the amount of handicap you would like to give you your opponent based on the number of roll-overs you give. It also doesn’t really effect the outcome of the game. Also, I found that it made my children think more about the different options they had with every turn because they didn’t want to waste their precious roll-overs.