You’re looking at a board with 24 narrow triangles, two colors of checkers, and a pair of dice that seem to have a personal vendetta against you. It looks ancient. It is. Backgammon has been around for about 5,000 years, traces of it appearing in the Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia. But honestly, the reason it’s still played in cafes from Athens to New York isn't just history. It’s the tension. One minute you’re winning, and the next, a single "cocked" die ruins your entire afternoon.
So, how do you play backgammon without getting overwhelmed by the terminology? Basically, it’s a race. You want to get all your pieces into your "home board" and then off the table entirely. If you do it before your opponent, you win. Simple, right? Well, sort of.
The Setup: Getting the Board Ready
First thing's first. You need to know where the pieces go. Each player has 15 checkers. You’ll see the board is split into four quadrants. Two are yours (home and outer), and two belong to your opponent.
Imagine the board is a horseshoe. You move your pieces in one direction, they move theirs in the opposite. You’re trying to reach the "inner table" or home board, which is the quadrant closest to you on your side.
The standard setup is specific. You put five checkers on your 6-point, three on your 8-point, five on your 13-point, and two on your 24-point. That 24-point is way back in your opponent's home territory. Those two checkers are your "runners," and they’re usually the biggest pain to deal with.
Moving the Checkers
To start, each player rolls one die. Higher number goes first. You use those two numbers as your first move. After that, you roll two dice every turn.
Here’s the thing people get wrong: if you roll a 5 and a 3, you don’t just move one piece 8 spaces. You move one piece 5 spaces and then 3 spaces. Or you move one piece 5 and another piece 3. You can only land on an "open" point. An open point is any spot that doesn't have two or more of your opponent's checkers on it.
The Power of Doubles
Doubles are the "lottery win" of backgammon. If you roll two 4s, you don't just get 8 points of movement. You get four 4s. That’s 16 spaces of movement. It can completely flip a losing game into a winning one in ten seconds. It’s the most satisfying feeling in the world, unless you’re the one watching it happen.
Hitting and Re-entering: The Drama
This is where the game gets mean. If your opponent has a single checker on a point—we call that a "blot"—you can land on it. This is called a "hit."
When you hit a blot, that checker gets kicked off the board and placed on the "bar." That’s the wooden strip dividing the board in half. The player with a piece on the bar can’t move anything else until they bring that piece back into play.
How do you get off the bar? You have to roll the dice and land on an open point in your opponent’s home board. If they’ve "closed" their home board by having two or more checkers on every point, you’re stuck. You just sit there. You lose your turn. It’s frustrating, and it’s why controlling the home board is the most common expert strategy.
Bearing Off
Once you’ve successfully navigated the gauntlet and all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you can start "bearing off." This means taking them off the board.
If you roll a 4, you can remove a checker from the 4-point. If you roll a 6 and you have no checkers on the 6-point, you can use that roll to take a piece off the next highest point.
But wait. If you get hit while you’re bearing off, that piece goes all the way back to the bar. You have to bring it back in, move it all the way around the board again, and get it back into your home board before you can resume bearing off. It’s a nightmare scenario.
The Doubling Cube: Not Just for Pros
You might see a big die with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on it. That’s the doubling cube. It’s not for rolling. It’s for betting—or at least increasing the stakes.
If you feel like you’re definitely going to win, you can offer the cube to your opponent before you roll. You’re saying, "Hey, want to double the points this game is worth?"
They have two choices:
- Refuse. They immediately concede the game and lose the current point value.
- Accept. The game continues at double the stakes, and they now "own" the cube, meaning only they can offer the next double.
Common Mistakes Beginners Make
Most people starting out focus too much on just moving forward. They leave blots (single checkers) everywhere. Expert players like Bill Robertie or Magriel emphasize "making points." When you have two checkers on a spot, it’s a "made point." Your opponent can’t land there, and they can’t hit you.
Another mistake? Playing too safe. If you just huddle all your pieces together, you'll never win the race. Sometimes you have to take a risk and leave a blot to gain a better position later.
Strategy 101: The Three Ways to Win
There isn't just one way to play. Depending on the dice, you usually fall into one of these styles:
- The Running Game: You roll high numbers early and just try to sprint home. You avoid contact. You don't try to hit them; you just try to outrun them.
- The Priming Game: You try to build a "prime"—six made points in a row. Since a die only goes up to 6, your opponent literally cannot jump over a six-point prime. They are trapped until you decide to break it.
- The Back Game: This is for when you're losing badly. You purposely leave pieces back in your opponent's home board to hit them late in the game when they think they've already won. It’s high-risk, high-reward.
A Word on Gammons and Backgammons
Winning isn't always just one point.
If you bear off all your pieces before your opponent has taken off even one, that’s a Gammon. It’s worth double points.
If you finish and your opponent still has a piece in your home board or on the bar, and hasn't born off any pieces, that’s a Backgammon. That’s triple points.
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Actionable Steps to Improve
If you want to actually get good at this, stop playing against your uncle who uses "house rules."
- Download an App with an Equity Engine: Use something like BGNJ or Extreme Gammon (XG). These apps use neural networks to tell you exactly how "wrong" your move was. It's humbling, but it's the fastest way to learn.
- Learn the "Opening Replies": Just like chess, the first few moves have mathematically "best" responses. For example, if you roll a 3-1 to start, you should almost always take the 5-point. It's the most important spot on the board.
- Watch the Pros: Search for the Backgammon World Championship matches on YouTube. Listen to the commentators explain why a pro didn't take a hit even when it was available.
- Master the Probability of 6: Remember that 7 is the most common number rolled with two dice, but 6 is the magic number for distance. Always assume your opponent can reach 6 or 7 spaces away.
Backgammon is a game of managing bad luck. You can't control the dice, but you can control the probability of those dice hurting you. Start by focusing on making your 5-point and 4-point early. Those are the "golden points" for a reason. Once you control those, you control the board.