All About Backgammon

October 1, 2021

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Figure 1. A board with the checkers in their initial position.

An alternate arrangement is the reverse of the one shown here, with the home board on the left and the outer board on the right.

The points are numbered for each player, starting on that player’s home board. The outermost point is the twenty-four point, which is also the opponent’s one point. Each player has fifteen checkers of their own color.

The initial arrangement of checkers is: two on each player’s twenty-four point, five on each player’s thirteen point, three on each player’s eight point, and five on each player’s six point.

Both players have their own pair of dice and a dice cup used for shaking. A doubling cube, with the numerals 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its faces, is used to keep track of the current state of the game.

The Object Of The Game

The object of the game is to move all your checkers into your own home board and then bear them off. The first player to bear off all of their checkers wins the game.

Figure 2. Direction of movement of White’s checkers. Red’s checkers move in the opposite direction.

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games still enjoyed today. This game is believed to have been in existence since the time of the Pharaohs! Withstanding the test of time, backgammon is a fast-paced game that requires analytical thinking to master, while the elements of strategy and luck make this game unpredictably fun for all ages.