Backgammon 6:1
A variant with its own conditions for gammon and backgammon: they are counted on stricter grounds than in classic short backgammon.
Rules in short
- Gammon — the opponent has borne off nothing
- Backgammon — nothing borne off AND a checker still in their own starting quarter
- A cleared head saves you from backgammon even with checkers in the winner’s home
- Everything else follows short backgammon
Why that matters here
The backgammon condition in 6:1 looks at the loser’s starting quarter, not at the winner’s home board. That changes the endgame: sometimes it pays to move one checker off the head instead of rushing home — a cleared starting quarter saves you from the triple price even when everything else has gone wrong.
The player who is winning counts more than their own checkers too: before the last checker comes off it is worth looking at whether the opponent still has anything in their starting quarter, because that is what decides whether the game is worth one point, two or three.
1,244 games of 6:1 have been played on BG Space.