Backgammon for amateurs - easy and fun to learn

admin · Site Admin Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 862

If you're looking for a new online game to play, look no further than backgammon. This centuries-old game is easy to learn and a lot of fun. There are many websites that teach the rules of backgammon for amateurs and give you tips on how to play.

If you're playing online, you don't need to know how to set up the board, as the site will do it for you. Players each have fifteen checkers, that move round the board in a horseshoe shape, in opposite directions. The aim of the game is to get all your checkers safely into your home board (the first six spaces, or points on your side) and off the board, before your opponent catches any of them.

The key to backgammon for amateurs is not leaving any of your checkers open and unguarded. If you leave one checker on its own it becomes a 'blot', and can then be captured by the other player, and sent to the bar. To get off the bar, you must throw the dice, and only when you throw a number that corresponds to an empty point in your opponent's home board, are you allowed out.

There are certain combinations of numbers which are helpful for keeping your checkers safely paired up. At the start, two rows of your pieces will be two points apart, so rolling a 3 and a 5, or a 4 and a 6, means you can move one piece from each point, and form a new row with them.

You can find many more helpful hints on backgammon for amateurs online.