The attractions of the nackgammon

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Although the backgammon board game has a very high popular profile with thousands of years of gaming history behind it, a number of variants of the game have developed in the course of time and the game of nackgammon is one of the most popular of these variations. Although it is not well known to the general public, nackgammon has been gaining a strong foothold amongst the backgammon enthusiasts who value the longer and thus even more challenging game that it offers them. The enhanced level of skill of nackgammon is in part due to the smaller number of blots or lone checkers found in this game, and this leaves more checkers available for strategic use, for example, making primes.

The strange sounding name of Nackgammon is actually formed of a combination of the name of the game's inventor, Nack Ballard with the "gammon" of backgammon. The rules followed in nackgammon are exactly the same as those in backgammon, and the objective to be the first player to bear off all their checkers is also the same. However, there is a major difference in the starting positions. Whereas in the traditional backgammon game the game opens with two checkers positioned on the opponent's first point, five on the central point, three on the eighth point and five on the sixth point, nackgammon starts with each player laying down two checkers on the other player's first and second points, with four checkers on the central point, three on the eighth point and the remaining four checkers on the sixth point.