Learn
backgammon

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games in the world and still takes about ten minutes to learn. There are no complicated pieces, no opening theory you have to memorise, and no game that drags on for hours. Two players, thirty checkers, two dice. Learn the basics and you can play a real game the same evening — and with a decent run of dice, beat someone who has played for twenty years.

The object of the game

Each player has fifteen checkers. The two of you move in opposite directions around the board, each towards your own home board — the quarter where all your checkers need to end up. The first player to bring all fifteen home and then bear them off wins.

That is where the club's name comes from. The home board is the place everything runs towards.

Board and setup

The board has twenty-four narrow triangles called points, in four groups of six: your home board, your outer board, and the same two on your opponent's side. A ridge down the middle separates the halves — the bar.

The starting position never changes. Counting from your home board: two checkers on point 24, five on point 13, three on point 8, and five on point 6. Your opponent mirrors it exactly. Nobody memorises this — after three games your hands do it for you.

Moving

You roll two dice. The numbers are two separate moves: a 5 and a 3 means moving one checker five points and another three — or the same checker five and then three, as long as each landing point is legal.

A point is legal if it is empty, if your own checkers are on it, or if exactly one enemy checker is on it. Two or more enemy checkers and the point is blocked.

Doubles: roll the same number twice and you play it four times. Double 4s means four moves of four. That is the moment games turn around.

Hitting and the bar

A lone enemy checker on a point is a blot. Move onto it and that checker is hit and goes to the bar in the middle.

A player with a checker on the bar can do nothing else until it re-enters. It comes back in the opponent's home board, on the point matching the number rolled. If that point is blocked, the turn is lost. This is where backgammon is decided: close your home board while your opponent sits on the bar and the game often finishes itself.

Bearing off

Once all fifteen of your checkers are home, you start taking them off. A 6 removes a checker from the six point, a 3 from the three point. If that point is empty you move within the home board instead — or, if nothing is higher, bear off from the next point down.

One rule surprises everyone: get hit during this phase and that checker goes all the way back round. It is not over until it is over.

The doubling cube

The cube marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 is not decoration — it is the heart of the modern game. If you think you are ahead, you may double before your roll: offer to double the value of the game. Your opponent either takes and plays on, or drops and pays the current value.

It sounds like a small thing and it is the whole difference between a children's game and one adults take seriously. The cube forces you to judge your own position, and it punishes over-confidence immediately.

Never drop a double and you are taking too many. Never take one and nobody offers you any.

Five tips for your first game

1. Leave as few blots as you can. Lone checkers are targets.
2. Build points in front of your home board. Two checkers on a point is a wall, not an accident.
3. The five point is the most valuable on the board. Hold it and your opponent's life gets hard.
4. Don't just run for home. Pure forward thinking runs straight into a blockade.
5. Take a double if you'd still win about a quarter of the time. People give up far too early.

And then?

Reading the rules is one half; playing is the other. There is always someone at our tables who will walk you through the first games — the place and the practicalities are here. If you want to know why the cube changes so much, we wrote a piece about it.

Common questions