Learn to Play Backgammon in 6 Easy Steps

1. The Set Up

The board is divided into four quadrants: the player's home board and outer board, and opposite each, respectively, the opponent's home board and outer board.

There are 24 triangles on the backgammon board, the first one being the furthest triangle to the player's right, and counting upwards in a clockwise direction.

Each player will set up 15 checkers on the board. 2 checkers on their 24th point, 3 checkers on the 8th point, 5 checkers on the 13th point, and 5 more on the 16th point.

Each player will roll a die to determine who goes first. The player with the highest number goes first, playing the value shown on the dice.

After their first turn, either player can double the stakes as they like, using the betting die.

2. Roll The Dice, And Get Started!

Each player will have 2 dice and a shaker cup. 

The two numbers you get from rolling the dice represent the number of moves you can make. You can make two separate moves with two separate checkers, or combine the numbers you get and move one checker.

You can move your checker to any open point as long as there are less than 2 of the opponent's checkers on that point. 

If you roll doubles, you've earned yourself twice the number of moves on the dice.

If you can't find an open point with the numbers you've rolled, you lose your turn.

3. Tips So Far...

While you can start moving with any checker you choose, it's always best to get your checkers out of your opponent's home board first.

Try to avoid having only one checker on a point as you could get hit by your opponent's checkers.

Try to spread out your checkers in twos and threes to block your opponent, rather than congregating them on fewer points.

4. Hitting And Entering

If you hit a blot—which is a point occupied by only one of the opponent's checkers—their checker gets moved to the middle bar. The opponent cannot move any of their other checkers until they manage to get the checker on the middle bar back onto their starting board (namely, the opponent’s home board).

If you end up with checkers in the middle bar, the only way to get out is to roll a number that will land your checker onto an open point. When you are in the middle bar, you cannot use the sum of the numbers on your dice.

5. Winning The Game

To win the game, you must be the first to bear off all of your checkers from the board into your tray. In order to do this, you need to roll the dice so the number is exact or higher than the spaces needed to remove each checker.

You can only start bearing off once all 15 of your checkers have made it to your home board. If you bear off all your checkers before your opponent even has started, congratulations, you’ve done a ‘gammon’ and won double the value shown on the betting die.

6. Play Again!

Backgammon is a game meant to be played more than once. Decide before how much each game is worth until a player loses a certain amount of points.

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