Talk:Backgammon

"Murphy" Rule

Until recently, this article described the automatic doubles rule as the "Murhphy Rule"

I was unable to find any reliable source that called it that, although there were plenty of hits citing this page. Lacking success, I removed the material.

So, who was "Murphy" and when did that rule come into effect? The second question is fairly easy, sometime around 1930, shortly after the concept of doubling was introduced. this article has probably more than you wanted to know about it.

As for "Murphy", the best hypotheses I've heard is that at the FAQ on doubling at bkgm.com, automatic doubles is followed immediately by a section on the Jacoby Rule. And that section has a pointer to a post on usenet by Daniel Murphy in 1997. Looks like somebody got confused; it made it into Wikipeda and then AI, reddit, et al ran with it. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 00:47, 25 September 2025 (UTC)

Movement

The first sentence is hard to understand: "To start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first using the numbers shown on both dice."

It says to roll *one* dice, then to move using: "the numbers shown on both dice".

This should be clarified to make it clearer whether you are also using the dice value that was rolled by the other player, or, if you first roll both dice again? — Preceding unsigned comment added by GregZoneNZ (talk • contribs) 19:37, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

The source says this:

To start the game, each player throws a single die. This determines both the player to go first and the numbers to be played. If equal numbers come up, then both players roll again until they roll different numbers. The player throwing the higher number now moves his checkers according to the numbers showing on both dice. After the first roll, the players throw two dice and alternate turns.

Is that any clearer? Mr. Swordfish (talk) 21:54, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

Bearing off

The following text was recently removed:

When bearing off, a player may also move a lower die roll before the higher even if that means the full value of the higher die is not fully utilized. For example, if a player has exactly one piece remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and a 1, the player may move the 6-point piece one place to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear that piece off the 5-point using the die roll of 6. As before, if there is a way to use all moves showing on the dice by moving pieces within the home board or by bearing them off, the player must do so. If a player's piece is hit while in the process of bearing off, that player may not bear off any others until it has been re-entered into the game and moved into the player's home board, according to the normal movement rules.

This is the correct interpretation of the standard rules, but it's not stated quite like this anywhere as far as I can tell - the usual rules simply state that you have to use both dice if you can and the above follows from that. My take is that we don't need to go into this level of detail here, but others may disagree. I'm in favor of leaving it out. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 17:56, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Earliest Reference incorrect

The earliest reference seems incorrect, listing Howell 1635. (The source entry for Howell lists the date as 1835, which is likely a typo.) The note supporting the 1635 date is Fiske, from 1905, in a book on chess published by The Florentine Typographical Society.

A more authoritative citation would be the Oxford English Dictionary, whose earliest entry for "backgammon" is James Howell from 1647: "Though you have learnt to play at Baggammon, you must not forget Irish, which is a more serious and solid game." J. Howell, New Volume of Letters 216 James Howell • A new volume of letters • 1st edition, 1647 (1 vol.) Klferguson (talk) 14:26, 1 June 2026 (UTC)