Terminology

Eskgammon specific terminology:

Long hit (also called long long hit)

The direct hit in backgammon where one of the dice hits has resulted in a similar nickname for a two dice hit in Eskgammon (where one dice is high i.e. 7-10). Difficult but oh so common.

Short bear off

Rolling one dice too low and one one too high (7-10) when getting your last man into your home. Common beginner mistakes are having your men too close to home so that a roll like 1-9 only advances your last man one and the high roll is wasted. Bluntly put, in Eskgammon your 11 point is very important. Short bear off problems thus happen before actually bearing off.

High bear off

Leaving 3 or 4 men on your top most point during bear off is quite different from normal backgammon. Doubles are more rare but rolls like 6-high are so common 3 men on your top point is quite dangerous often resulting in a high bear off problem.

Yellow split

The banana split (splitting creating two blots in your home while your opponent is or will end up on the bar) is so often a valid tactic in Eskgammon we had to name it differently. Yellow is good replacement for banana and the double meaning certainly does not hurt.

Swinggammon

A direct hit at a 1 is 15/60 instead of 11/36. With all the pretty much forced Long Hits you leave, hitting happens more often, not to mention it’s a great strategy. Lots of possibilities + lots of occurrences ends up as crazy swings at times. Great for knowledgeable cubing (does not exist as of today yet 😀 ). Great for money play. Less great for your nerves. Hence the nickname Swinggammon is used as a bit of a curse.

Crawford Split

The only time you feel safe splitting your back men in Eskgammon is when you are playing a match and you sit on the Crawford chair and your opponent is 3-away or more. The Crawford split illustrates how good things can turn bad, far too fast. It is also one part of the game that is quite unexplored. Few people split aggressively so the correct time to split is yet unknown. Even a starting roll of 6-5 is played by most as two down from the midpoint… which should tell you something. I think I inadvertently have deleted the pic explaining this one.

If you thought Eskgammon is easy the terminology alone should give you a hint you should reconsider…