Backgammon defined

[Rich Wales]

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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