Counting Pips

A pip count is the total number of points that a player needs to move his checkers before he can bear them off (remove them) from his home board. Backgammon counting pips is a strategy used by players to help them assess their position on the board and make important decisions regarding what further action to take in the game.

There has been much information written about counting pips and there are various ways to go about it. Players may feel a little intimidated initially when considering this strategy, however there are several methods that make pip counting simpler than others and we cover some of them.

The Comparison Method

Using this method, players compare the opponent's pips to their own and calculate who is further behind in the game. This is the ideal strategy to use when gamblers are playing at an online backgammon site when time is an important factor in the game and players do not have the luxury of counting all the pips. Beginning at point number one, the player removes (subtracts) the number of checkers that he has on his side of the board from the number that the opponent has on the other side, for each point that is occupied by checkers.  Thereafter, the subtraction is multiplied by the position of the point that the checker occupied. By adding the results of this equation, players can determine the difference between his and the opponent's pip count.

Opposing Checkers

A basic principle of backgammon is that when checkers are lined up above each other on a board, the pip count for both of them will be 25.

Blocks of Checkers

When trying to calculate pips using this method, some simple facts should be remembered. Firstly, a block of ten checkers beginning at point number one has a pip count of 30. A block of eight checkers beginning at point number one has a pip count of 20 and a block of six checkers beginning at point number one, has a pip count of 12.  What happens, however, it the block does not start at point number one? In this case, we create an addition to the equation by looking at the space between the first point and the block. For example, a ten-checker block that starts at point number three needs to have the two vacant points added to the equation. The sum, therefore will read as follows: 2 vacant points x 10 checkers = 20 pips.

Center Block Points

Players should first note whether the block is sitting on an odd or an even number of points. Let us take as an example, a six-checker block sitting on point number three (odd number). The center point in this case is the fourth point. Players should multiply the number of checkers (6) by the center point (4) and the total will give them the number of pips (24).  Another example would be an 8-checker block sitting on point number two (even number). The center point is thus 3.5. Players therefore multiply the number of checkers (8) by the center point (3.5) to get the number of pips (28).