Backgammon Starting Positions

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

Since backgammon is one of the oldest games, originating thousands of years ago, there are many different variations. These games all use the same board so the main source of the difference between them is the backgammon starting positions.

In order to determine backgammon starting positions, you must number all of the points on the board. Starting with the outermost point of your home board, number the points from one to twenty-four. Your twenty-four point is the same point as your opponent’s one point.

In traditional backgammon, each player puts two checkers on the twenty-four point, five on the thirteen point, three on the eight point and five on the six point. However, there are many other games with different backgammon starting positions.

The game of nackgammon is played with four checkers back (in the opposing home board), rather than only two. Two checkers each are placed on the opposing one and two points. Nackgammon set-up generally makes for longer and tougher games and is great for strengthening your skills.

Long-gammon begins with all fifteen checkers on the opposing one point, as far as possible from your home board.

Other backgammon starting positions include using a different amount of checkers. Hyper-Backgammon is played with the same rules as traditional backgammon, but each player starts with only three checkers, one each on the opposing one, two and three points. Still other starting positions in backgammon games start with all the checkers off the board!

All of these versions are a blast. Try them out and find your favorite!