Backgammon Rules

Backgammon is a game for two players, and its rules fit on a page. Once you know them you can sit down at a real board or play on a screen. This article covers everything you need for a complete game: the equipment, the starting position, how checkers move, hitting, the bar and bearing off.

Equipment

• The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, grouped into four quarters of six points each. The quarter where you collect your checkers at the end is your home board; the quarter next to it is your outer board. A raised strip in the middle, the bar, divides the board into two halves.
• Checkers: each player has 15 checkers of one colour, usually light and dark.
• Dice: two ordinary six-sided dice for each player (or one shared pair) and a cup to shake them.

The points are numbered from 1 to 24 from each player's own point of view. Your 1-point is the deepest point of your home board, and your 24-point is the deepest point of your opponent's home board. The lower the number, the closer a checker is to home.

Starting position

Each player places checkers as follows, counting from his own side:

• 2 checkers on the 24-point;
• 5 checkers on the 13-point (the mid-point);
• 3 checkers on the 8-point;
• 5 checkers on the 6-point.

The two armies face each other, and each one travels around the board in the opposite direction.

Who moves first

Each player rolls a single die. If the numbers are equal, both roll again. The player with the higher number moves first and plays the two numbers that were just rolled. Because of this, the first move of a game is never a double. After that, players take turns rolling both dice. Good replies to each of the fifteen possible opening rolls are listed in our recommended first moves.

Moving the checkers

1. Checkers always move forward, from higher-numbered points to lower ones, towards your home board.
2. Each die is a separate move. With a roll of 6 and 4 you may move one checker 6 and another 4, or one checker 10 in total, as long as the point it touches after the first number is open.
3. A point is open if it is empty, holds your own checkers, or holds just one opposing checker. A point with two or more opposing checkers is blocked; you may jump over it but not land on it.
4. A double is played four times. A roll of 3-3 lets you move 3 four times, with one checker or several.
5. You must use both numbers if the position allows it. If only one number can be played, you play that one; if either one could be played but not both, you must play the larger. If no move is legal, your turn is lost.

Hitting and the bar

A single checker on a point is called a blot. If your checker lands on an opposing blot, that checker is hit and placed on the bar.

A player with a checker on the bar may not move anything else until it has come back into play. It re-enters in the opponent's home board: a roll of 4 enters it on the opponent's 4-point (your 21-point), a 6 on the 6-point, and so on, provided that point is open. If neither number gives an open point, the whole turn is lost. If several checkers are on the bar, all of them must enter before any other checker moves.

Hitting is one of the main tactics of the game: it sends an opposing checker back to the start of its journey and costs your opponent time.

Bearing off

Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, you may start removing them, which is called bearing off.

• A roll of 5 removes a checker from the 5-point, a roll of 2 from the 2-point, and so on.
• If there is no checker on the point shown by the die, you must make a legal move with a checker on a higher point.
• If there are no checkers on higher points, you may remove a checker from the highest occupied point.
• You may also choose to move a checker inside your home board instead of bearing off, if that move is legal.
• If one of your checkers is hit during bearing off, it must re-enter and come all the way home before you continue bearing off.

Winning

The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins the game. The size of the win depends on the loser's position:

• Single game (1 point): the loser has borne off at least one checker.
• Gammon (2 points): the loser has not borne off any checker.
• Backgammon (3 points): the loser has not borne off any checker and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board.

In match play these points are added up until one player reaches the agreed total, and the doubling cube can multiply the value of a game.

Ready to play

That is the whole rulebook. If you plan to play your first games on a computer, our online guide walks you through the first game step by step.