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The Basics
Before we delve into the details of more complex backgammon
rules and strategies, we first need to examine the basics. Lets
examine what game equipment is needed, how the board is laid
out and the starting position for all the checkers.
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Game Equipment
Backgammon Board - This means any surface
with 24 acute angle triangles of alternating colors. The triangles
are referred to as points, the middle of the board is referred to
as a bar and on the right side of the board is the checker storage.
Sometimes the board is referred to as the field.
Checkers - 30 checkers, 15 in each color
for each player. Checkers are referred to as men.
Dice - A pair of standard rolling dice,
numbered from 1 to 6. For convenience purposes there could be two
sets of dice, one for each player. If this is the case, they should
be in different colors, most likely the same color as the checkers.
Dice are also referred to as die.
Doubling Cube - This is a special die
with the following numbered faces: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.
Dice Cups - These are some kind
of containers, usually made of leather or plastic, they are used for
shaking and rolling dice. This optional equipment was originally created
to make cheating or dice manipulation harder and help ensure that
rolls are completely random.
Board layout
The empty board consists of 24 alternately colored triangles. In order
to conveniently explain backgammon rules we have numbered the triangles
from 1 to 24, starting from the bottom right hand side of the board.
Points 1 through 6 are considered your home board.
Points 18-24 are your opponents home. Although normally the board
is rarely numbered in actual physical boards, you may see it numbered
on a variety of online backgammon software clients. For example, Play65.com
has their boards numbered. The primary object of the game is simple,
move all your checkers or men into your home board and then remove
them off the board completely. First person without any men on the
board wins.
The starting position
Each player must place their men or checkers in to a starting position on the board before the game can begin. This position for each player is as follows:
5 men on your own 6-point,
3 men on the 8-point
5 men on the 13-point
2 men on the 24-point these are also know as runners since they must travel the longest distance to get the home board.
This position is the same for each player, depending on the kind of game you play. Because backgammon rules are different some backgammon variants such as LongGammon have different starting positions. For example, in LongGammon, all 15 men start at the opponents 1-point. We will discuss backgammon rules variants in more detail later on.
Rules for beginners |
Advanced Backgammon rules |
Money rules |
Strategy & Variations |
Glossary
Backgammon Resources
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