Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: wales@cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Backgammon defined
Message-ID: <881117.195224z.22064.wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu>
Date: 1 Dec 88 07:18:41 GMT
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Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
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Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: Thu, 17 Nov 88 11:52:24 PST
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 30, message 7 of 12
X-Issue-Reference: v7n7

In V7N7 of the Sun-Spots Digest, Craig Chase describes a scenario in
"gammontool" in which he had borne off two pieces, then had a blot hit.
When the computer won, it claimed a backgammon (presumably because Craig
had a piece on the bar).  Craig goes on to ask if one can be backgammoned
even after bearing one or more pieces off.

As far as I am aware, the answer is "no".  According to _The Backgammon
Book_ by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford (Bantam Books, 1976; ISBN
0-553-10366-0):

	A backgammon (triple game) is won if the adversary has
	not borne off a single man and has one or more men in
	the winner's inner table or upon the bar.  (pp. 212-213)

Jacoby, of course, is a long-standing backgammon authority.

-- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 (213) 825-5683
   3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024-1596 // USA
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