backgamon Rules - Crawford Rule
The Crawford Rule makes match play much more fair for the player in the lead. If a player is one point away from winning a match, his opponent has no reason not to double; after all, a win in the game by the player in the lead would cause him to win the match regardless of the doubled stakes, while a win by the opponent would benefit twice as much if the stakes are double. Thus there is no advantage towards winning the match to being one point shy of winning, if one's opponent is two points shy!
To remedy this situation, the Crawford Rule requires that when a player becomes one single point short of winning the match, neither player may use the doubling cube for a single game, called the Crawford Game. As soon as the Crawford Game is over, any further games use the doubling cube normally.
Not quite as universal as the Jacoby Rule, the Crawford Rule is widely used and generally assumed to be in effect for match play.
If you want to learn more about backgamon rules, you can read more articles about backgamon :
- backgamon Rules - The doubling cube
- backgamon Rules - Beavers
- backgamon Rules - Raccoons
- backgamon Rules - Jacoby Rule
- backgamon Rules - Crawford Rule
- backgamon Rules - Automatic doubles