Q 01/05

In which TV drama's pilot does John Locke explain backgammon to a boy as two sides, light and dark?

A) Heroes

B) Lost

C) Fringe

D) Twin Peaks

Answer · why

B) Lost

Lost: Locke calls backgammon 'the oldest game in the world', five thousand years old, an age that fits the game boards dug up in Mesopotamia far bette...

Q 02/05

How many points, the triangular spaces, does a backgammon board have in total?

A) 6

B) 12

C) 24

D) 48

Answer · why

C) 24

24: twelve narrow triangles line each side, six to a quadrant, and a piece that is hit has to start the whole track again from the far end.

Q 03/05

In backgammon, what is removing your pieces from the board at the end of the game called?

A) Homing

B) Cashing out

C) Bearing off

D) Casting off

Answer · why

C) Bearing off

Bearing off can start only once all fifteen of your pieces are home, and if one is hit along the way it must travel right round the board before you m...

Q 04/05

In backgammon, what is a piece sitting alone on a point called?

A) A stray

B) A runner

C) A pip

D) A blot

Answer · why

D) A blot

A blot is exposed: an opposing piece that lands on it sends it to the bar, and its owner can move nothing else until it has re-entered through the opp...

Q 05/05

How do the two players' pieces travel around a backgammon board?

A) Both clockwise

B) In opposite directions

C) Both anticlockwise

D) Each within its own half

Answer · why

B) In opposite directions

In opposite directions: each player's home is where the other's journey begins, so the two sides must pass through each other, and that contact is wha...