LongGammon

If you walked passed a backgammon board set up with all the checkers lined up on one line, you would likely think the people playing were either in on some private joke, or a bit out of touch with the way backgammon is supposed to be played, but it could be that they are trying out one of the many challenging variants of backgammon called LongGammon. In LongGammon, the play is the same as backgammon except for the starting position.

With LongGammon you use all fifteen of your checkers, but they are not spread out across the board, with some on your points and some on your challenger's points - instead, all fifteen of your checkers will start on the opponent's one-point.

What else is different? Well, as far as the rules and game play, nothing - the entire difference is the way the game is set up. However, when it comes to strategy, things get very different. Talk about a backgame - all your checkers are in one spot, and you have to pass by all of your opponent's checkers on the way out.

Doubling cubes can be used in LongGammon, and gammons and backgammons work the same way, doubling and tripling the face of the doubling cube. The trick in LongGammon is managing a gammon at all, much less a backgammon. This is a great game for tripping up established protocol and challenging your noggin to think differently.