Hola!

As a backgammon buff, depending on the throw of just one die has always worried me slightly.

This is why I have come up with the following variation:

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“EinStein Turbo”

On their turn, the players always throw TWO dice and make TWO moves.

They can choose the order in which to use the two numbers.

At the beginning of a game, both players throw ONE die simultaneously.

The player with the higher number (repeat if necessary) starts the game.

He choses ONE of the two numbers and makes the corresponding move.

From then on, it is TWO moves per turn, as stated above.

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The game, quite surprisingly, plays almost as fast as the original. Deciding the order of numbers requires a good deal of additional thought, but this seems to be largely compensated by the speed gained by halving the number of dice throws and turn changes.

What I particularly like is the elimination of a hypothetical 1st-player advantage: After each turn, a player has made one more move than his opponent.

Give it a whirl for an occasional change of pace; I am looking forward to your comments.

Ulrich Roth

(conillet)