When friends get together and there is only one backgammon board, Chouette is the game to play. You will also see this variant of Backgammon played in bars, clubs and in side action at live backgammon tournaments.

Chouette allows a group of players to play on a single backgammon board - there should be three or more players, and ideally five or six players, for a good and lively encounter. Chouettes are a lot of fun and a great learning experience for all.

The Box and the Team

The two opposing sides in a chouette are The Box and The Team. Note that Chouette rules vary depending on where you play, so remember to get those clear before beginning to play.

Once the stakes per point and specific rules of the local chouette are agreed upon, a draw is then performed to see who plays first. A roll of the dice by each player determines the order in which players’ names are put on a score sheet.  If two or more players tie in the draw the dice are rolled again.

The player who tosses the highest number gets to play alone as 'The Box' against the rest of the players. The next highest would be the first to play as The Captain, backed by the rest of the members who play as a team.

Chouette is played like regular ‘money game’ backgammon style except that you need extra doubling cubes, one for each participant, so if you have six players, you need six doubling cubes.

Helping the Captain

Usually, the Team cannot discuss moves and help the Captain until a cube has been offered and accepted. Members of the Team may then comment out loud. The learning experience comes from the players discussing reasons for playing this move or that move, however, the Captain has the ultimate decision on what move will be made.

If a player on the Team wishes to double the Box, he has to tell the Captain to wait before rolling. On any turn, one or more, and in fact, all of those on the Team can double the Box. Similarly, the Box can decide to double the Captain, or any or all of the members of the Team member.

Players must also establish other rules such as if Beavers, Raccoons, etc. are permitted. Will the Jacoby Rule in place? And how many Automatic Doubles (if any) – usually it is one and rarely more than two Auto Doubles allowed.

If the Box wins the game, the Box wins all the points wagered against the players of the Team and remains in the Box to play the next player (Captain) on the list.

If the Box loses the game, or surrenders by refusing a cube from the Captain, the Box loses the points to all the players and goes to the end of the list. The Captain then becomes the Box and must play against the new Captain of the Team.

Chouette produces all kinds of doubling scenarios. For example, if you are the Box, and you have a difficult cube offer by all the players, you could refuse the cube from a few of them, but must take at least the one from the Captain to continue playing in the current game.

Scoring in Chouette

Points won or lost are recorded on a sheet of paper; here is an example for a six-player chouette:

Playing as the Box, after John has won a game with a 2 cube against all players, John becomes plus 10 points and the other players are all minus 2 points.

If in the next game, John refuses a cube from Mike and Don, but takes the cube from Bill, Peter and Joe, and John goes on to win, the score sheet will have will be updated with these values:

John wins two points each from Bill, Peter and Joe, which equals plus 6, but then pays a point each to Mike and Don, to scores plus 4 points more to his 10 previous points on the score sheet.

If in the following game, John is cubed to 2 by all players, takes from all, and loses a gammon, John loses 20 points and the score sheet will now look like this:

Tips for Chouette Beginners

After each game, makes sure the scores are correct. The quick way to know if the scores are correct are to make sure the amount in minus is the same as the amount in plus, totalling zero.

Some chouettes have a rule that says players must settle their losses on the score sheet whenever they reach a specified number, example, minus 10 or minus 20 points. This is a good idea when you’re playing in a chouette in which there are players you do not know, just to keep everything in order, in case a player loses too much and does not have enough on hand to pay.

Manage your money in chouette, budget yourself and don’t go ballistic with the cube. Keep the stakes affordable and watch out for those big cubes – you do not want to get gammoned or backgammoned on a 32 or 64 cube.

Chouettes can be rowdy, especially when it’s a bunch pals getting together. Still one should be attentive and participate with opinions on moves as well as listen to the input of others, especially the more experienced players in the group.

Traditionally, chouette is played at home, a backgammon club, restaurant or bar or even on the beach! It is also part of side action at live backgammon tournaments.

Many a chouette go into the wee long hours of the night, even past the break of dawn. They say that eating chocolate gives you stamina for marathon chouettes.

Chouette's in action!

U.S. backgammon pros play chouette in the Dragons Bar at the Atlantis
Resort in January 2007. (L to R)  Frank Talbot, Ray Fogerlund,
Jake Jacobs and Carter Mattig.

In Costa Rica, there is a group that plays chouette once a week. (L to R)
author Antonio Ortega, Mario Lizano, Rodrigo Solera,
Rodrigo Apéstegui, Milton Gonzalez and Milton Jr.