Backgammon Rules

Board Setup

The backgammon board has 24 points which are 24 narrow and long triangles. They usually use alternative colors to easily notice between even and odd. The points are grouped into 4 quadrants: player’s home board and outer board, and the opponent’s home board and outer board.

In the middle of the board separate the “bar”, that is where the checkers are placed ones they are hit. The checker will stay on the bar until it will reenter in the inner board again on the subsequent roll.

The checkers setup is the same for each one of the opponents from the opposite way.

• 2 checkers on 24pt
• 5 checkers on 13pt
• 3 checkers on 8pt
• 5 checkers on 6pt

Each player direction is from the opponent’s home board => opponent’s outer board => your outer board => your home board.

Opening the game

Each one of the players rolls a single die and the player with the higher number get to be the first one to move. In case both of the numbers are the same, then the players roll the dies again till one of them wins.

Playing the game

As we said before, the object of the game is for each player to bring all of his checkers to his home board.

Each player in its turn will roll the tow dice and then will make his move. For example: if a player roll 3 and 4 he can move one checker 7 spaces (in 2 moves 3 and 4), or one checker for 3 spaces and another one 4 spaces.

A checker can only be moved to a free space, meaning a point that is not occupied by the opponent checkers (tow or more).

Rolled a double! You got 4 moves of that dice number. For example: a player who rolls 5 and 5 has four 5 to use.

As long as it’s possible for a player to finish is turn he must do so. If only one number can be played then the player must play that dice number. If either of the numbers can be played but not both of them, the player will have to play the dice with the larger number. In case the player can’t play either of the numbers, he loses his turn.

When a player land 2 or more of his checkers on one point, He then “owns” it. As we said before, a player cannot rest or touch down a point with 2 or more checkers.

The maximum number possible for a single move is 6. That mean when a player gets 6 points in a row which called a prime, the opponent trapped on the other side can’t pass the prime.

Blot is a single checkers on a point. When a player moves his checker on an opponent’s blot whether it’s touch in one of the moves or at the end, the blot it hit. That mean it has to be moved to the bar.

Ones a player’s checker is on the bar the player can’t play any moves until its back into the board. The checker can go back to the opponent’s home table. Each point on the board is equivalent to the dice number. The player can re-enter as long as the point is not already taken by the opponent of course.

If all points of the opponent’s home table is taken, the player on the bar has no option to re-enter the board and so he pass his rolls until one of the point opened. A case like that is also called closed board.

Bearing Off

In order to start bearing off the player should finish moving all of his checkers to his own home board. A player will bears off his checker by rolling a number match to the point of the checker. That checker will be removed from the backgammon board. For example: if a player rolls 4 he may remove a checker from the 4th point of his home board.

In case there is no checker to move, the player must play a move (if possible) using a checker on a higher point. If there in no checkers to do so the player will remove from the table the checker on the highest point.

If a player has the option to play a move instead of bearing off, he can choose one of the tow.
A checker that was hit while in the bearing off process will have to be brought back to his home beard in order to continue the bear off.
The player who “clean” / bear off all of his checkers WINS!