dicepro: I mentioned the possible use of a doubling cube in dice chess back in August on one of our boards.  Back then I was playing a lot of both backgammon and dice chess.  I found that some of my dice chess endings could be analyzed in terms of probabilities very similar to those we see in backgammon bearoff positions.  Some of my dice chess positions could be viewed as legimitaly being a "double and take", or "double and drop".  Never reached the point of being "too good to double", though, as no (back-)gammon possibilities loom in dice chess.    :-)

I've gotten to the point that I can no longer bear to play backgammon without the use of the cube.  I've been told that it's "not really" part of backgammon, but I'd argue that it's essential to the game, and to what is best about it strategically.