How to play Backgammon

by Patricia Bos on May 16, 2022

How to Play Backgammon?

As a two-player game, backgammon is both entertaining and strategic. To win, you must clear the board of all of your checkers before your opponent does so.

The game of backgammon may be picked up quickly but requires dedication to become an expert player.

Terminology

Checker: Game pieces that are moved around the board.

Point: A place on the board. There are 24 individual points on the board.

Middle Bar: A bar in the middle of the game board.

Home Board: The six points located in the lower right corner of the board for each player.

Setup

The participants will face each other while they play. If one player moves his or her pieces clockwise, the other player will move counterclockwise.

 

Five checkers on the six, three on the eight, five on the thirteen, and two on the twenty-four. It's likely that your opponent will arrange his or her pieces in a way that's symmetrical to yours.

set up backgammon game 

 Objective

 To play Backgammon, you roll dice to choose where your checkers go on the board. The checker can advance a number of spaces equal to the number rolled. Get your checkers back to your home board first. Your second step is to remove all of your checkers off the board.

How to Play Backgammon?

Each participant will start the game by rolling a single die. The player that rolled a higher number gets to make the opening move using both dice.

 

Each die can be relocated independently to an unblocked location. A point is blocked if your opponent has two or more checkers on it. Points are considered open when either your own checkers or no checkers at all are present.

 

When both dice show the same value, the player's forward progress is doubled. If a player rolls two threes, for instance, that player will advance three spaces four times.

 

When a checker is moved to a spot where there is only one opponent checker, that opponent's checker is moved to the middle bar.

 

If a checker is on the center bar, it must be moved back into play before any additional actions may be taken. At your furthest point, a checker will come back to the board (i.e., the 24th point).

Win

A player may start taking pieces from the board after all of his or her checkers are within his or her home board. The winner is the person who clears the board of all of their checkers first.

Rules

If you are removing checkers from the board and a number is rolled that is higher than the number you have, the furthest checker must be eliminated.

 

When a player fails to make a valid move with either dice, they lose the roll.

 

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