Backgammon Glossary Dictionary: T

An entire backgammon board.
One of the four quadrants of a backgammon board; for example, your inner table or outer table.

Tables

The English name for the Roman game Tabula.
A generic term for any game played on a backgammon board.

A system of betting where the players’ stake in a game is limited to an agreed fixed amount. The idea is to protect the players from losing more money than they have at hand. It also evens the playing field when one player has more money at his disposal than the other.

Tabula

A Roman game similar to backgammon in which players use three dice instead of two, and move around the board in the same direction. The game was also popular in England where it was known as Tables. See: How to Play Tabula.

Tactics

Short-term, calculable aspects of the game, as opposed to strategic considerations. Tactics in backgammon include: hitting blots, making points, clearing points, and avoiding unnecessary risks.

Tailgate

To start to throw your dice before the opponent has picked up his own dice to finish his turn; to roll prematurely.

Take

Accept a double.

Take/Drop Proposition

A way to settle a difference of opinion about whether a position is a take or a drop by playing a series of games starting with the position in question. The player who believes the position is a take plays the taking side owning a 2-cube and gets one point added to his score for each game played.

Take Off

Bear off.

Take Point

The minimum game winning chances at which it is correct for a player to accept a double; the point at which a player is equally well off accepting a double or refusing a double; a player’s drop point.

Take Up

Hit a blot.

Takhteh

A Persian game similar to Western backgammon. See: How to Play Takhteh.

Tapa

A game popular in Bulgaria in which players pin opposing blots rather than hit them. See: How to Play Tapa.

Tavla

A Turkish game similar to Western backgammon. See: How to Play Tavla.

Tavli

The Greek name for games played on a backgammon board. These typically include Portes, Plakoto, and Fevga. See: How to Play Tavli.

TD

Tournament director.

TD-Gammon

The first strong neural-net backgammon program (1991), written by Gerald Tesauro. See: Temporal Difference Learning and TD-Gammon and Learning from the Machine.

Team

In a chouette, the players lead by the captain who play against the box; the captain and his crew.

Technical Play

A checker-play decision which primarily depends on tactical considerations. See post by Adam Stocks. Compare: Positional Play.

Tell

An inadvertent clue as to whether you will be taking or dropping if offered a double. See post by: Tad Bright.

Temperature Map

A plot showing how a position’s equity is distributed among each of the 6 x 6 upcoming rolls. It provides a way to visualize aspects of a position such as volatility and duplication. See: Equity Temperature Map: Introduction.

Tempo: A unit of time in positional development equal to half a roll.
Tempo Move: A hit designed to forestall the opponent by depriving him of half a roll when the opponent threatens to hit a blot or make an important point, or needs to consolidate a disorganized position.
Tempt: To intentionally place a blot in a position where it can be hit with the idea of enticing the opponent to give up a strategic point.
The T.P.: A player’s two-point.
Thorp Count: A formula devised by Edward O. Thorp for making doubling decisions in pure race games. It is a modification of the basic pip count which takes into account some elements of checker distribution. Each player’s Thorp count is his pip count, plus 2 for each of his checkers still on the board, minus 1 for each of his occupied home board points, plus 1 for each checker on his one-point. Then the player on roll increases his count by 10 percent if it is more than 30. Thorp advises: Double any time your count does not exceed the opponent’s by more than 2; redouble any time your count does not exceed opponent’s by more than 1; accept the double if your count does not exceed doubler’s by more than 2. See post by Simon Woodhead. For a comparison with other methods, see article by Tom Keith.
Three-Point: The third point in a player’s home board, counting from the edge of the board toward the bar.
Throw: To shake a pair of dice in a dice cup and release them onto a backgammon board. If the dice are cocked, they must be rethrown.
Throw Off: Bear off.
Time: The average number of rolls or pips that can be played without having to make a major concession, such as leaving a blot, breaking a key point, or burying a checker. See post by Marty Storer.
Time Delay: A feature of digital chess clocks which gives each player a specified number of seconds at the start of each turn before that player’s clock begins running. Typical time delays in backgammon range from 8 to 15 seconds per move. The idea is that players are charged only for “thinking time” and not for the time required to roll the dice, wait for them to settle, read the numbers and move the checkers.
Timing: How long you expect to retain the desirable features of a position compared to your opponent. Good timing means your opponent will be forced to make a major concession, such as leaving a blot, breaking a key point, or burying a checker, before you. You can sometimes help preserve your timing by killing large numbers or recirculating checkers.
TMP: Too many points.
Too Good (to Double): A position which you should not double, even though your opponent has a clear drop, because your equity is higher by playing on for a gammon.
Too Many Points: An inflexible position with many made points and few spare checkers. Seven is usually “too many.”
Touch Down: To temporarily land on an intermediate open point after playing one of two numbers with the same checker.
Touch Move Rule: An rule rarely used today in Western backgammon, though it is common in the Middle East. The rule requires that once you touch a checker (other than to adjust it) you must move that checker, and once you remove your hand from a properly played checker, that checker must remain where it was played. See this thread and this thread.
Tournament: A formal competition among multiple entrants in which a winner is decided.
Tournament Director: The person who organizes and oversees a tournament.
Tourne-Case: A game popular in seventeenth-century France in which players have just three checkers each and play only on their own side of the board. See: How to Play Tourne-case.
Trailer: The player who is behind in a match or behind in the race. Compare: Leader.
Transposition: Reaching the same position by different means.
Trap Play: A deliberate attempt to squeeze the opponent off of his anchor so that the trapper can close out any blots thereby exposed and win a gammon.
Trey-Point: Traditional name for the three-point.
Trial (of a Rollout): Playing a position out to the end of the game once (or to the point of truncation). A rollout consists of multiple trials, the results of which are averaged together to yield an estimate of the equity of the position.
Trice Triangle: [Named for Walter Trice.] The ideal position to aim for during bear-in, consisting of: 7 checkers on your six-point, 5 checkers on your five-point, and 3 checkers on your four-point. It has the lowest wastage of any position with all 15 checkers still on the board.

Trictrac

A game popular in French high society prior to the Revolution. Players score points for making specific plays or moving their checkers into certain configurations. See: How to Play Trictrac.
The French name for “backgammon.”

Triple Game

Backgammon.

Trois-Point

Traditional name for the three-point.

Truncated Rollout

A rollout which is not played to the end of the game. Instead, the position is rolled out a given number of plies (the horizon of the rollout) and estimates of the equities of the resulting positions are averaged together. A truncated rollout has more systematic error than a full rollout but is faster because each trial is shorter, and a truncated rollout has less variance so fewer trials are required to converge on a result. See post by Gregg Cattanach.

Turn

The sequence of actions that each player takes in alternation. One turn consists of: (a) possibly offering a double; (b) rolling the dice; (c) playing the roll; and (d) picking up the dice.

Turner’s Formula

A simple formula devised by Stephen Turner for estimating the match equity at a given score. Expressed as a percent, the leader’s match equity E = 50 + (24/T + 3) * D, where T is the number of points the trailer still needs and D is the difference in scores. See post by Stephen Turner. Compare: Janowski’s Formula and Neil’s Numbers.

Turn the Corner

Move from the opponent’s outer board to your own outer board.

Turn the Crank

To offer a double.

Turn the Cube

To offer a double.

Tutor Mode

A mode available in some backgammon-playing programs which allows the computer to evaluate your moves as you make them and alert you to any errors it thinks you made.

Twist the Cube

To offer a double.

Two-Point

The second point in a player’s home board, adjacent to the one-point; also called the deuce-point.

Two-Sided Bearoff Database

A bearoff database with the correct equity for each possible combination of two opposing bearoff positions. Four separate equities are recorded for each position: three cubeful equities (one for each state of the doubling cube), and one cubeless equity. A two-sided database is more accurate than a one-sided database, but requires considerably more room.

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