How to Play Backgammon

Backgammon is a game for two players that mixes planning, risk and luck. Each side races its checkers around the board into its home board and then takes them off. Whoever removes all of their checkers first wins.

The dice matter, and a beginner can beat a champion in a single game. Over many games, though, the better player wins far more often than not. That balance between skill and chance is a large part of the game's appeal.

The board and the goal

Each player has fifteen checkers, moved according to the roll of two dice. The board has 24 long triangles called points. A vertical strip in the middle, the bar, splits it into halves, and each half is divided again into a home side and an outer side, giving four quadrants of six points each.

Your home board is the quadrant where all of your checkers must gather before you can take any of them off. The quadrant next to it is your outer board. Your opponent has a home board and outer board on the other side of the bar. You move your checkers toward your home board, and your opponent moves the opposite way toward theirs.

The first roll

To decide who starts, each player rolls a single die. The higher number moves first and plays both numbers showing as the opening move. A tie means both players roll again. This is why the opening move can never be a double. After the first move, players take turns rolling both of their dice.

Moving and hitting

Each number rolled moves one checker that many points forward. You can split the roll between two checkers or use both numbers on the same checker. If you move one checker with both numbers, it stops on the point in between, and that point must be open too. You can stack as many of your own checkers on one point as you like.

A point with two or more of your opponent's checkers is blocked: you cannot land there. A point with only one opposing checker, called a blot, is open to you. Landing there is a hit, and the opposing checker goes to the bar.

A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back before making any other move. It enters in the opponent's home board on a point that matches one of the numbers rolled, as long as that point is not held by two or more of the opponent's checkers. Entering on a blot hits it. A hit checker has to travel the whole way around again, so each hit costs the victim time in the race.

Doubles

When both dice show the same number, you have rolled a double and you play that number four times instead of twice. A roll of 3-3 gives four moves of three points, which you can share among several checkers or give to just one.

Bearing off

When all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, you can start removing them. Each number lets you take a checker off the matching point. If you roll a number higher than your highest occupied point, you take a checker off that highest point. If you roll a number for an empty point while you still have checkers on higher points, you must move one of those higher checkers forward instead.

You are never forced to bear off when a legal move inside the home board is available, and sometimes moving instead of removing is the safer choice, for example when your opponent still has a checker that could hit you.

Scoring

The winner is the first player to bear off all fifteen checkers. A normal win is worth one point, provided the loser has taken off at least one checker. If the loser has taken off none, the win is a gammon and counts double. If the loser has taken off none and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, it is a backgammon and counts triple.

The doubling cube

The doubling cube is a large die marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. At the start of your turn, before you roll, you may offer to double the stakes. Your opponent either accepts, in which case the game continues at twice its value and they take the cube, or refuses, in which case they lose at once at the value before the offer.

Only the player who owns the cube may make the next double. After a first double and a redouble, the game is worth four points, a gammon eight and a backgammon twelve. The cube is what makes backgammon a test of judgment as well as checker play; read The Doubling Cube to learn how to use it.

For the formal wording of every rule, see Backgammon Rules. When you are ready to choose your first moves, continue with Opening Moves.