Traditional Backgammon Setup and Board

admin · Site Admin Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 860

If you want to learn how to play backgammon, the first thing you need to know is how to set up the backgammon board.

The points on the board determine backgammon setup, so before you can begin to set up you must understand the features of the board. A backgammon board is made up of four quadrants with a bar down the center. The quadrants are referred to as the players home boards and out boards. There are a total of twenty-four triangular points going around the board. These are the points along which each player moves his fifteen checkers along the course of the game. These points are also used to determine backgammon setup.

Before placing the checkers on the board, the points must be numbered from one to twenty-four in order to know which points to place the checkers on. The one point is the outermost point in your home board where you bear off your checkers to exit the game. The twenty-four point is the outermost point of your opponent's home board, where he bears off his checkers. Your opponent's points will be numbered the opposite of your own - your twenty-four point will be his one point and vice versa. Once you have numbered the points you are ready to embark on backgammon setup.

In order to set up a backgammon board each player places two checkers on his twenty-four point, five checkers each on his thirteen and six points, and three checkers on his eight point. The result is that the opposing checkers are a mirror image of each other.

Now that you understand backgammon setup you are ready to play!