Backgammon – The Crawford Rule - a description of it

The Crawford Rule was invented by Johnny Crawford in the 1930’s. Johnny Crawford was one of the greatest bridge players of all time. The rule states that when one player is within one point of winning the match, the other player may not double in the next game only.

Many players think this is an unfair rule because they cannot double when they are ahead. But consider the following:

Unlimited Doubling – You are winning the match 6 -1. Now your opponent can continue to double for the rest of the match with nothing to lose.

No Doubling: With no doubling, it would be very hard to come back to win where your opponent has such a large lead.

The Crawford Rule is a blending of the two because your opponent is going to double every chance they get when there is only one point to match for their opponent.

When your opponent needs an odd number of points to win then the rule does not matter that much. If the score was 6-4 and the match goes to 7 then on the next game it is only worth one point. If the person behind wins, then the match is 6-5 and he still double in the game, making the match 2 more games for the person behind to win. If doubles are allowed, it would still be 2 games (not counting a gammon).

If your opponent needs an even number of points to win, then it matters as the opponent will need to win an extra game to take the match. So if the score was 6-5 and the opponent could double in the next game, it would make whoever wins, the winner of the match. With the Crawford Rule, he wouldn’t be able to double making the trailing opponent need to win 2 games to win the match.