The Egyptian rule, or applying a five cheekers limit, adds to both strategy and vertigo.

Let's take a look.

The most obvious scenario where this rule changes drastically the game is in the bearing off.

For instance, in this scenario, a roll would be catastrophic, forcing two blots, while without the rule its produces none.

Initial

5 Limit

No Limit

In back games, where a player's home is invaded by the adversary's soldiers (this is not as common in Backgammon as it is in Abak), this rule changes heavily the way the game unfolds.

Initial

5 Limit

No Limit

For the vast majority of cases, you will get more chances of a blot while enforcing this rule.

Another interesting situation to address is when a player is trying to get out of the bar. He is blocking himself if he already has five checkers in one of the adversary's home points.

5 Limit

Plan from the start

Many people complain about the consequences of these rules from the perspective of an imposed rule at midgame, where you have nothing to do about it.

But, of course, when you play with this rule from the start, you plan for it, you avoid situations that will lead you to wrong positions, and because of luck, sometimes you fall, and sometimes your opponent does.

On average, the game will be way more surprising, and that just adds to Backgammon's spirit, giving away nothing in exchange.

So give it a try!

For Abak Evolution, it is a must.

In Abak, there is a practical reason to use this rule: Checkers visibility. If I hadn't known it, these new rules might never have occurred to me because they just wouldn't work.

It was all coming together

So, the chain of events that led me to such an important seed in the Abak idea, in case you are interested, were the following:

In 1992, I was lying in the sand off Cayo Norte, a very remote island on Venezuela, while my older brother was nagging me to put on a mask and take a look at the reef. To make him stop, I reluctantly put the damn thing on, shoved my head in the water, and instantly fell in love.

A couple of hours later, his screams of hate were too loud to overlook, and I finally had to return the mask. Later that day, I already had a mask of my own, fins, and I officially became a diver.

In the following years, back in Chile, I spent many weekends traveling in pursuit of a good dive, and always with my backgammon board at hand. Because a diving session is about a couple of hours in total, and you get to kill the rest of the day, often in isolated places, Backgammon was a firm companion. I taught dozens of friends how to play and played for thousands of hours.

One of those friends went to Mexico for a couple of years to train as a diving instructor, and when he returned, he told me about this five checkers limit in the game. He refused to play without it, and I refused to play with it. Keep in mind that Backgammon is the signature game of the Palestinian descendant people in Chile, so I felt it was my game, the one I had taught him, and found his behavior outraging.

But boredom made its thing, and we agreed to play five games with this alien rule, and then figure out what to do with it.

I never played without that rule again, and many years passed until I invented Abak.

Oh, life

Samy Garib.