How to Play Backgammon (Beginners Guide)
To have a better understanding of the game, we’re gonna explain the basics of backgammon in different sections:
Components
Setup
Objective
Moving Checkers
Anchors & Primes
Hitting Checkers
Pip Count
Doubling Cube
Bear Off
Point System
Game Types
We also added some strategy tips to the tutorial which are gonna be explained at some of the sections.
Components
Backgammon is a game for two players, each player has 2 dice and 15 checkers and there’s one doubling cube.
The board is divided into four quadrants: Two outer boards and two home boards. Each quadrant is divided into six points making a total of 24 points.
The vertical divider in the middle of the board is called the bar, and the bear off trays are located on the side of the board.
Backgammon Setup
As you can see in the following image, White player has two checkers on the 24 (the backmost checkers)
Five checkers on 13 (the midpoint).
Three checkers on 8 and five checkers on 6.
Blue’s checkers are placed opposite of White’s
White moves counterclockwise and Blue moves clockwise.
Objective
The objective of backgammon is to move all your checkers into your home board and then bear them off. It’s only possible to bear off checkers when all of your checkers are in your home board. The first player to bear off all their checkers wins the game.
Moving Checkers
Both players start the game by rolling one die each, this is called the opening roll. If the same number rolled in the opening, both players must make a re-roll.
The highest number wins the opening roll and they can either choose to combine the two numbers on the dice and move one checker, or play the numbers separately and move two checkers.
Now the next roll is on the other player. If you roll two identical number, it’s called a double. Rolling a double will give you twice the numbers and just like a regular roll you can choose to move one checker, or separate checkers, as long as four numbers are used.
Also know that there’s no limit to how many checkers you can place on a point.
Anchors & Primes
Two or more checkers on a point is called an anchor. An opponents checkers cannot move to your anchors as you’re occupying these the points. When anchors are placed next to each other it’s called prime.
In the preciding position shown in the image, White rolls 53. As you can see White is unable to move any of his backmost checkers as Blue is occupying the points with 4-prime.
Hitting Checkers
A single checker is called a blot, which can be hit if your opponent lands on it.
As we shown in the last position, Blue has one blot on White’s 3-point board and two blots in her outer board.
Now with White’s 53 roll, White hits Blue checker on 3-point while at the same time making a valuable anchor in his home board. When a checker is hitter must be placed on the bar.
Blue must now use her roll to enter her checker into White's home board before moving any other checkers. Now if Blue rolls 1-3, since White is occupying the 3-point Blue is forced to enter on the 1-point. A checker is entered by moving it to an open point in your opponent's home board. If Blue rolled 6-3 and was unable to enter (often referred to as "dancing") it would automatically end her turn.
The more anchors you make in your home board the more difficult it is for your opponent to enter from the bar. The closer to home a checker is the longer it has to travel if it's hit.
Pip Count
In the beginning of the game both players have 167 pips.
Pips is the number of points you need to move your checkers in order to bear off all of them. Two checkers on the 24-point: Each checker on this point needs to move 24 pips to be borne off, 2 times 24 equals 48 pips, five checkers on 13: 5 times 13 equals 65 pips, three checkers on 8: 3 times 8 equals 24 pips and five checkers on 6: 5 times 6 equals 30 pips.
This makes the total of 167 pips.
When a checker moves forward the pip count decreases, when a checker is hit the pip count increases.
The player with the lowest pip count is ahead in the race. The pip count determines the optimal strategy to use in the game—If you're ahead in the race you want to avoid getting hit and bring your checkers home. If you're behind in the race you want to try and hit a checker since a pure race will leave you in a losing position.
Doubling Cube
Look at the screenshot below, the game has reached a point where Blue has an advantage over White. She's ahead in the race as you can tell by the lower pip count and she's trapped White behind a prime.
When you have an advantage in the game you usually want to double your opponent. The cube must must be offered when it's your turn and before rolling the dice.
The points won in the game are multiplied by the level of the doubling cube. When the cube is first offered and taken the level is raised from 1 to 2, the levels can only double up one step at a time.
Winning a single game with the cube level on 2 will give you 2 points, winning a gammon (which is 2 points) with a cube level of 4 will give you 8 points.
Blue doubles White, and White now has two options: Pass or Take
If he passes the game ends and his opponent wins the number of points of the cube level. Passing an initial cube wins the opponent 1 point, passing a redouble from 2 to 4 wins the opponent 2 points, and so on and so forth.
White takes thereby becoming the owner of the cube.
The game continues and both players now play on for the new higher stakes and blue makes her roll.
Bear Off
Once a player has moved all of their checkers to their home board, they can start bearing off.
To bear off, a player must roll a number that corresponds to a point with a checker on it that is higher than the rolled number. For example, if a player rolls a 3, they must have a checker on the 5th point or higher to bear off that checker.
Point System
There are three ways of winning a game of backgammon:
Single, gammon and backgammon.
A single (1 point) is when you have borne off all your checkers and your opponent has borne off 1 to 14 checkers, as illustrated in the following image.
A gammon (2 points) is when you have borne off all your checkers and your opponent hasn't borne off any checkers, as illustrated in the following image.
A backgammon (3 points) is when you have borne off all of your checkers and your opponent hasn't borne off any checkers and still has one or more checkers on the bar or in your home board, as illustrated in the following image.
Now you know how to play backgammon!
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