Shesh Besh

Whopper · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 14

I have been surprised to find that you can find hardly any information at all on the internet in regards to the Shesh Besh variation on the game of backgammon. I used to live in Israel and remember that the game was very popular there but I don’t really remember how to play. I think it was almost the same as regular backgammon, but there were some differences. If anyone can re-enlighten me I would be grateful!

Wipeout · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

You are right, Shesh Besh is very similar to the backgammon that most of us are familiar with. In fact, there are very few differences. These differences are as follows:

1) Shesh Besh is not played with a doubling cube (if you buy a shesh besh board it doesn’t even come with one and if you ask any Shesh Besh player, they probably can’t even tell you what a doubling cube is)

2) Shesh besh is played with one set of dice and each player grabs the dice quite quickly after his opponent has rolled in order to prepare for his own roll.

3) As in regular backgammon you score one point for a normal win and two points for a gammon. Winning a three point backgammon, on the other hand, is quite rare as in Shesh Besh in order to achieve this kind of win you must not only bear off all of your checkers before your opponent has borne off a single checker but your opponent must also have at least one checker remaining on the bar, not just in your home board.

Hopfully this has helped refresh your memory about how to play the game of Shesh Besh! Enjoy!