Manchester Backgammon Club
Tuesdays
at the Moor Club
35 Heaton Moor Rd, Heaton Moor, Stockport, SK4 4PB
(next door to the Elizabethan pub)
Held every week except the last Tuesday of the year (30th December in 2025). Join us for a sociable evening playing backgammon in pleasant surroundings. New players are always welcome (no membership fee), from beginners to champions. We meet from 7.00 pm onwards, tournament starts at 7.30 pm prompt and we aim to finish by 11 pm. On knock out evenings it is possible to join in secondary tournaments even if you arrive late (up to about 10 pm). Please bring your own board if you have one.
Tournament format is usually a 3 round KO format (brackets of 8), starting with 5pt matches (using the doubling cube) and reducing to 3pts then 1pt depending on time and number of players left. Once you lose you can enter the next available bracket. You will usually get at least 2 x 5pt matches plus some shorter matches. On the first Tuesday of the month we play a cubeless format (either 1pt round robin or 2pt KO) which is more suited to beginners. There are optional small pools (£3,£2, £1), default is winner takes all but finalists may agree a split. Clocks are not generally used but may be imposed on very slow players if they are holding up a bracket. All tournaments count towards the Club Champion Trophy awarded to the player with the most points at the end of the year. 5pt and 3pt match results are input to the UKBGF ratings, you can see the here. There is also an 11 point Knock Out competition, which runs throughout the year.
We play to . The main ones you need to know are: Legal moves - if a player makes an illegal move which is noticed by either player before the opponent makes a valid roll, it must be corrected. Dice on checkers - if a die comes to rest on a checker then both dice must be rerolled. Premature rolls - if a player rolls before the opponent has picked up the dice or hit the clock, the opponent may change the move made and either accept the premature roll or require a reroll.
Historical records going back to the founding of the club by Kevin Stebbing in 1999 are available here:
