Setting Up the Backgammon Checkers

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The game of backgammon is played with a backgammon board, a pair of dice, and thirty checkers, fifteen each of two colors. Each player moves his fifteen checkers around the board and tries to bear them off before his opponent. In essence, the backgammon checkers are the key to the game of backgammon.

At the beginning of the game the checkers must be set up in a specific way. In order to determine where to place the backgammon checkers, you must number the triangular points on the board. Number the points from one to twenty-four starting from the outermost point of your home board (that's the point from which you bear off all of your checkers to end the game) and moving to the outermost point of your opponent's home board. Your opponent numbers the points in the opposite way as you - your one point will be his twenty-four point and vice versa.

You are now ready to set up your backgammon checkers. Each opponent places two checkers on their twenty-four point, five checkers on their thirteen point, three checkers on their eight point and five checkers on their six point. Your opponent's backgammon checkers should be laid out in a mirror image of your own. You are now ready to start playing!

This is the setup for regular backgammon, which is the most common version. There are many variations on the game in which the checkers have an entirely different set up. You can play these, or even invent your own!