You Are Seeing Double When You Roll Doubles

Have you ever stopped to ponder what non-backgammon people think when they stop and take their first look at our game in action? It makes perfect sense to us, but to those first-time onlookers our game can look rather strange - and we are not just talking about the layout of the board.

Take, for example, the roll of doubles. Now, to begin with, it isn't that hard to figure out for the newbies or strangers to backgammon that each die constitutes a move for ONE of our pieces or checkers. Thus, 2 die rolled, 2 checkers may move - or (and they catch onto this rather quickly, too) that we may move ONE checker the total number of both dice.

But now think what it looks like to these onlookers when we roll doubles. Let's say you rolled double 3's. The stranger watches as you move one checker, then a second checker (both with moves of 3) - but then their jaw drops in confusion as you continue to move a 3rd checker and then a 4th checker!

Yes, the concept of rolling doubles with 2 die actually equating to moving a maximum of 4 pieces can be a bit baffling the first time it is witnessed. But it's something even novice players don't think twice about. Maybe that's why the "there's more to this than meets the eye" cliche applies to even our great game.

We've seen at least one computer version of backgammon that visually portrays this by rolling a second pair of dice matching the numbers rolled with the first pair of doubles - just to make the point.