With all this talk about the cube, I have not given enough attention to another important feature, which is the ability to earn multiple points with gammons and backgammons. (Some folks have discovered this painfully by resigning too early.) The possibility of gammon adds another strategic dimension to the game.

It's not necessary to use the cube in order to allow gammons; in multiple point matches, it would be possible to award multiple wins for gammon and backgammon. Then we could also have separate rankings for gammonish and nongammonish checker play!