Please Note That a Pip Does Not Include Gladys Knight

It comes with the territory: when you learn a new board game or sport you also have to learn that game's language or "lingo", the key names or identifiers of play or moves. In backgammon there are many unique words or labels (many of them are words starting with the letter "P" by the way). One of them is a "pip."

If you have a few decades to your age, don't think that backgammon was started by Gladys Knight and The Pips (a popular musical group from the 1960s-70s), please (although you score some musical trivia points if you did). No, the word "pip" is another common moniker for the exact position your checker or piece is on or moving on with your roll of the dice. Also often called a "point", this is the individual resting spot of your checker on the 24 points or pips on the backgammon board indicates how many points, or pips, the player is to move his checkers (as your progress, your checkers are always moved forward, to a lower-numbered point or pip).

  For example, let's say you rolled a dice combination of 5 and 3, and you wanted to move one or more of your two checkers from the home starting space/point/pip of position No. 24 (where these 2 are placed even before play begins) in your opponent's home side of the board. These are the 2 farthest positioned players on your board, the ones who need to travel across the most points or pips before bearing off. If you move ONE of your checkers first 3 and then 5 spaces, it would now be resting on the on the No. 16 pip location. Now, "pip, pip and Cheerio" you new backgammon chaps!