Hi and hello.

This idea came to me recently and I haven't found this 'variation' of backgammon at bkgm.com, so I'm wondering if it officially exists.

Goes like this - it's a regular backgammon but with a sole modification - when a player throws the dice, both players get same points for the next two moves. With that, players throw the dice once per two moves.

If such a variant does not exist, I say we call it Fairgammon.

You would need a way to altern who's playing the same roll first, otherwise the first player would have a major advantage, knowing in advance what his opponent will have to play the very next move.

As a matter of fact, this would make the game very interesting when there is a big skill gap. It might give an advantageous opportunity to get into the mind of the adversary. To make it simpler, one player throws the one game, the other player throws the other game.

I would object to the name, since it would imply that there's something unfair about normal backgammon, which is clearly false.

A variation on your idea was tried in a 1973 team match between the U.S. and the U.K. There were two players on each team, and they played two series of games in separate rooms. Barclay Cooke (USA) played Joe Dwek (UK) in one room, and Walter Cooke (USA) played Philip Martyn (UK) in another room. A referee rolled the dice and called out the rolls, which were then played on each board. The idea was to "eliminate the luck of the dice" and test only the skill of the players.

The experiment failed because playing a non-forced roll in a slightly different way created completely different positions, where a roll that was strong on one board was a disaster on another board.

You can read an account of the first 8 games of the match in Barclay Cooke's book "Championship BG" (1980)