How to play backgammon

Backgammon is a two player game with a combination of strategy, risk taking and luck. Both players try to move their checkers to their home boards and then remove them from the board. Player who first manages to remove all his checkers from the board wins.

Surely luck playes a part in the game, but with good strategy a good player will win most of his games. However, the element of luck also means that a novice player can beat the best of players every now and then - and that’s one of the beauties of backgammon.

The basics

Each player has 15 checkers and moves them around the board according to the roll of two dice. The goal is to remove all 15 checkers from the board. The one who removes the checkers wins.

The backgammon board is marked with 24 spiked playing segments known as points. The board is divided into four quadrants by vertical and horizontal dividers, the vertical divider is called the bar. Each quadrant contains six points and both players have a quadrant where he needs to move all checkers before he can start removing them from the board. This quadrant is called the home board. The quadrant next to the other player’s home board is the other player’s outer board.

In the beginning both players roll one dice, the one rolling a higher numbers starts the game. The two rolled numbers are also the opening moves for the player going first. If both players roll the same number, the dice are rolled again.

Moving the checkers and hitting

After the first roll the players take turns in rolling two dice at a time. The rolled numbers dictate how many points the checkers are allowed to be moved. The checkers are moved from one point to another and only towards the player’s own home board. The player can move one checker totalling the sum of the rolled numbers or move two checkers, one for each rolled number. A checker may not move onto a point occupied by two or more of the opponent’s checkers. If the same checker is used for both parts of the move, then the first part of the move must also be to a point not occupied by two or more of the opponent’s checkers. There is no limit how many own checkers a player can move to one point.

A checker can be also moved to a point with one opponent’s checker, in which case the opponent’s checker is removed from the point and put to the bar. This is called hitting. When a player has a checker on the bar, he must use one of his rolls to enter the board on the opponent’s home board. Entering is allowed only to a free point or to a point that is vacated by one or more of his own checkers or to a point where he can hit the opponent’s checker.

Doubles

When the numbers rolled on the two dice are the same, the player is said to have rolled a double. In that case the player makes four separate moves of the same number shown, one or more of which can be with the same checker.

Bearing off

When a player has moved all his 15 checkers in his home board he can begin removing them from the board. He may remove a checker from the point corresponding to a number shown on a die. When a number is rolled that is higher than the highest occupied point, you may use it to bear a checker off the highest occupied point. If, however, the rolled number corresponds to an unoccupied point but at the same time the player has a checker on a higher-numbered point, a move must be made within the player’s home board without bearing off. For example if the player rolled a 4 but the point is unoccupied and he has checkers on the 5 and 6-points, he must must choose to move a checker forward from either of the two points.

Please note that you are not obliged to remove checkers with the numbers rolled and sometimes it plays an important role not to remove your checkers but only move them forward.

The doubling cube and scoring

Obviously the first player to remove all his checkers is the winner. If the opponent has managed to remove at least one checker, the winner scores 1 point. If the loser didn’t remove any checkers the winner scores a gammon, worth 2 points. Finally, if the loser still has a checker in the winner’s home board or on the bar and hasn’t removed any checkers, the winner scores a backgammon. A backgammon is worth 3 points.

During the game a player might offer his opponent to double the points, or money, at stake. This is done with the doubling cube. The doubling cube is a die with number 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 on it. If the doubling is accepted by the opponent by the first time, the points at stake are doubled. The victory is now worth 2 points, a gammon 4 and a backgammon 6 points. The same way if the doubling cube is used again later in the game the next higher number on the die is used as the multiplier, in this case 4. This means that the victory is now worth 4 points, a gammon 8 and a backgammon 12 points! If the player two whom the doubling was offered to declines it, he loses. Points are then counted by the value on the doubling cube before the doubling was declined.

The concept and the use of the doubling cube is explained in more detail in article The Doubling Cube.