Snake

If you are new to the game of backgammon, you might benefit from first playing a few games of Snake. Snake is one of those crafted backgammon variants that serves a specific purpose. Simliar to the way that pool players will set their balls in a particular patern to practice running the table with particular strategies in place, Snake sets all of one color checkers up in a different fashion than the other, in essence setting up an offence and a defence, with the purpose of enhancing play against an extreme back game.

In Snake, white puts fifteen checkers in their normal position - so far so good. This is the player who will be learning how to beat that extreme back game, played by Red. Red, on the other hand, puts nine checkers on the bar, and the remaining checkers like this: two on the White's one-point, two on the White's two-point, and two on the White's three-point.

Now, the game of backgammon begins as normal. The rules are the same, the doubling cube can be used, and gammons and backgammons can pay double and triple as normal, as long as both players agree - but this is essentially a training game. While the rules are the same, strategy is very different. With Red's extreme set up, it has to be.

Snake can also be used for new players giving them practice on how to play - and they will learn defenses against that extreme backgammon at the same time.