three points onward. In the event of his throwing the same points with both dice (known as "doublets"), he is entitled to play the throw twice over. Suppose, for example, that he throws two aces; he may move one or more men forward to an aggregate extent of four points. If he throw double deuces, he may move to an aggregate extent of eight points; if double threes, twelve points, and so on.
The right to move is subject to a certain qualification—viz., that a man can only be played to a point which is either vacant or occupied by one or more men of the player, or by one man only of the adversary. A player getting two men on a given point is said to "make" such point, and as he thereby secures such men from capture, and at the same time impedes the onward march of the enemy, it is always an object to do this. A single man on a given point is known as a "blot," and not only does not prevent the enemy playing to that point, but in the event of its being "hit"—i.e., reached by an adverse throw, it is "taken up" (placed on the bar between the two tables), and, however far advanced it may have been, has to begin its journey anew from the inner table of the adversary. Nor can such man again start on its journey until its owner is fortunate enough to make a throw corresponding with a vacant point or blot in such table. Until he does this, the play of his other men is suspended. If the adverse player's home table is completely full—i.e., each point occupied by two or more men, his play is altogether suspended, the adversary continuing to throw and move until the course of play again throws open one or more points in his table.
Any part of a throw which cannot be played is lost to the thrower, but every player is compelled to play the whole of his throw if it is possible to do so.
Bearing off the Men.
When either player has succeeded in getting all his men into his home table, he proceeds to "bear them off"—i.e., to remove them from the board. When the game has reached this stage, each throw entitles the player either to move forward a man or men (to the extent indicated by the throw) within the limits of his own table, or to remove men from the corresponding points. Thus, suppose that the player's men are thus distributed in his table: five men on the cinque point, three on the quatre point, three on the deuce, and four on the ace point, the trois and six points being unoccupied (see Fig. 2). Suppose that the player throws "quatre trois." For the quatre, he may either remove a man from the quatre point or advance a man from the "cinque"
to the "ace" point. In the case of the trois, he has no man on that point, and therefore must play forward, either by advancing a man from the cinque to the deuce, or from the quatre to the ace point. If, however, he throws a number which he cannot deal with after either of these fashions—e.g., a six, he is entitled to bear off a man from his highest occupied point, in this case the cinque.
Doublets have, as in the earlier stage of the game, a twofold value, and may be played either wholly by moving men forward, wholly by bearing off, or partly by the one method and partly by the other, as may be desirable. Suppose, for instance, that the player, having his men as shown in the figure, throws deuces; having only three men on the deuce point, he can only bear off that number; the fourth man must be played forward, either from the cinque or quatre point.
The player who first succeeds in removing all his men from the board wins the game, but the value of the game depends upon the stage reached by the adverse player, as follows:—