Eureika

Eureika is not a game for backgammon purists - in fact, it is primarily thought to children in order for them to get the feel and understanding of the backgammon board, but not to develop much in the way of strategy. This game is one of pure luck.

Each player starts off all fifteen checkers on the home board, with three men on his one point, three men on his two point, and three men three point, and two men on his four point, two men on his five point, and two men on his six point. The game beings with a single die roll - highest roller goes first. Then, as in many variants, the winner rolls both dice to start their first turn. Here is where the game really changes from backgammon - there is no movement (and thus no hitting, no use of the bar, etc.) The game is all about bearing off checkers. In fact, that is all the game is about.

Each turn the player rolls the dice, and then bears off their checkers according to the dice roll. This means that only luck is involved, as players can not move checkers forward to their one point to take advantage of future low rolls, for example. The game only bears off checkers until they are all gone, with the first one bearing off all fifteen checks declared the "winner" of the game. In reality this is less of a game and more of an example of play, and shouldn't be needed more than once or twice to illustrate how to bear off checkers, after which a regular backgammon session could be set up to explain the rest of the rules.