The Rules of Backgammon: learning how to play

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

Backgammon is a board game, which is played with two opponents. The game instructions require a board with 24 black triangles called "points". To understand the rules of backgammon, you must first know how to set up the board.

To set up a game of backgammon you have to place the checkers on the appropriate points. The points are numbered 1 to 24. Point 1 starts at the outer right corner of the board closest to the player. Point 1 for the opposite player starts at the outer left corner. The points are numbered consecutively in a rectangle ending in point 24. Point 1 for one player is point 24 for his opponent. The rules of backgammon call for the board to be set up as follows…Each player places his or her checkers on these numbered points, point 24 gets 2 checkers, point 13 gets 5 checkers, point 8 gets 3 checkers and point 6 gets five checkers.

The rules of backgammon are not complicated if you keep in mind the object of the game. This is to move all your checkers, 15 per player, onto points on the board 1 through 6 and then after to bear them off the board totally. The movement of checkers is determined by what # is rolled on the dice. Each player rolls the dice 1 time per turn and moves the checkers according to what the roll of the dice was.

The rules of backgammon also require that checkers can only be moved to an open point. This means that the point is open when it does not have 2 or more checkers from the opposing player. Backgammon is easy when you learn how to play, but winning still requires lots of strategy so the game never gets tiring.