The rules to Backgammon Rules

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

There are many backgammon rules that a player needs to remember, this article will only focus on the general backgammon rules to get you started.

Firstly, Backgammon is a game between two players and it makes no difference who has the white or the black pieces, either player has the opportunity to make the first move.

The aim of backgammon is that each player needs to move their pieces according to the numbers on the dice that are thrown in each turn. These pieces are moved around the board by players into their home boards. Once this has been achieved the player can begin to bear off. It is simple – the player to bear off all his pieces first wins the game!

At the beginning of the game, each player rolls a single die, the one with the higher number (also known as pips) moves his pieces first using both the number from his die and the number from his opponent's die. If the same number is rolled, the players re-roll until the numbers are different. The rest of the game continues in alternating turns of rolling the dice.

There are three main backgammon rules regarding the movement of pieces:

1- The pieces may be moved to any point occupied by pieces of the same player, or to a point where only one piece is occupied by the opponent. A piece may not be moved to a point where there are two or more pieces beloning to the opponent on it. Instead the may jomp over it and move beyond. When a piece lands on a point with less than two pieces belonging to that opponent, the original piece is placed on the bar and replaced with the new piece on the point.

2- The numbers on the dice represent two separate moves. Once piece may be moved the full amount and two separate pieces can be moved with each number.

3- If a player rolls doubles (same number on both dice) they move double the amount rolled. For example if a player rolls a double two the move may be equivalent to four times in a variety of combinations
The bear off is the last stage of the game. This is where a player removes pieces out of the game from the home board. This process can only start when all of the 15 pieces have made it there.