Backgammon rules: how to play backgammon

Aim of the game

You and your opponent move your checkers in opposite directions around the board. Your goal is to bring all 15 of your checkers into your home board and then take them off. Taking checkers off is called bearing off.

On the way, you can block your opponent and send their lone checkers back to the start. The first player to bear off all 15 wins.

The board

The board has 24 long triangles called points, 12 on your side and 12 on the far side. A raised strip down the middle, the bar, splits the board into four quarters of six points each.

Number the points from your own side. The quarter nearest your right hand is your home board, points 1 to 6. Point 1 is in the corner and point 6 is next to the bar. Across the bar on your side is your outer board, points 7 to 12.

The numbers carry on along the far side. Points 13 to 18 are your opponent's outer board, and points 19 to 24 are their home board. So point 24 lies straight across from your point 1.

Your checkers travel round the board in a horseshoe: from point 24 down to point 1, then off the board. Your opponent's checkers go the opposite way. They count the points from their own side, so your point 1 is their point 24.

Some boards are set up as a mirror image, with both home boards on the left. The rules stay the same.

Setting up

Each player sets up 15 checkers on four points, counted from their own side.

Your opponent sets up the same shape from their side. Their two back checkers sit on your point 1, and their five on your point 12. Their three are on your point 17, and their other five on your point 19.

Put the doubling cube on the bar between you, with 64 on top. See The doubling cube for how it works.

Who starts

1. Each player rolls one die.
2. If the numbers are the same, both roll again.
3. The higher number goes first. That player moves using both numbers on the table: their own die and the opponent's.
4. After that, you take turns. On each turn, roll your two dice and move.

Moving your checkers

Each die is a separate move. Move one checker forward as many points as one die shows. Then move a checker by the other number. It can be the same checker or another one. Checkers never move backwards.

• Start counting from the next point. With a 3, a checker on point 13 moves to point 10.
• You may land on an empty point or on a point with your own checkers.
• You may land on a point with one opposing checker. That hits it (see Hitting and the bar).
• You may not land on a point with two or more opposing checkers. That point is blocked.
• You may pass over blocked points. Only the point where you land counts.

If one checker uses both numbers, it makes two separate moves. It stops on a point after the first number, so that point must be open too. You can choose which number to play first.

A double gives you four moves instead of two. With 5 and 5, you move 5 points four times. You can split the four moves between your checkers in any way.

Using both dice

You must use both numbers if there is any legal way to do it. You can't pass or skip a number while a legal move exists, even when every move looks bad.

• If you can play both numbers, you must play both.
• If only one of the numbers can be played, play that one.
• If you could play either number, but not both, you must play the larger one.
• If neither number can be played, you lose your turn.
• With a double, play as many of the four moves as you can.

Example: you roll 6 and 2. Each number alone has a legal move, but there is no way to play both. So you must play the 6.

Hitting and the bar

A checker alone on a point is called a blot. If an opposing checker lands on it, the blot is hit. It goes onto the bar in the middle of the board. Hitting is never compulsory.

You may hit with one number and then keep going with the same checker using the other number.

While you have a checker on the bar, you can't move any other checker. First you must bring it back into play. This is called entering.

• A checker enters in your opponent's home board, points 19 to 24 from your side.
• A 1 enters on point 24, a 2 on point 23, and so on up to a 6 on point 19.
• The entry point must be open. If it holds a single opposing checker, you hit it as you enter.
• With two or more checkers on the bar, enter one per number, as many as you can. A number that can't enter is lost. Once all are in, play any number left as usual.
• If no number lets a checker enter, you lose your whole turn.

If your opponent holds all six points of their home board, you can't enter at all. You lose every turn until a point opens. A checker that enters starts its whole journey again.

Bearing off

You may start bearing off only when all 15 of your checkers are in your home board. A checker on the bar or outside your home board stops you.

• Each number takes off a checker from the matching point. A 4 takes one off point 4.
• If that point is empty but you have checkers on higher points, you must move one of them.
• If no checker is on that point or higher, take one off your highest occupied point.
• You may use a number to move inside your home board instead of bearing off. Bearing off is never compulsory.

Example: your last checkers are on points 3 and 1, and you roll 6 and 2. Play the 6 first, and both come off. The 6 takes off the checker on point 3. Then the 2 has nothing on point 2 or higher, so it takes off the checker on point 1.

Your opponent can still hit you while you bear off. If they do, stop bearing off. The hit checker must enter and come all the way back to your home board. Then you carry on.

Winning: gammon and backgammon

How much a win is worth depends on how far the loser got.

The points are multiplied by the number on the doubling cube. A gammon with the cube on 4 is worth 8 points. You can play single games and add up the points. Or play a match to an agreed score (see the variant Match play and the Crawford rule).

The doubling cube

The doubling cube is a large die with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 on its faces. It shows how much the game is worth. It starts on the bar with 64 on top, which here means 1, because the cube has no 1.

• At the start of your turn, before you roll, you may offer to double the stakes. Turn the cube to the next number and offer it.
• While the cube is on the bar, either player may make the first double.
• Your opponent can refuse. The game ends at once, and they lose the points the game was worth before your offer.
• Or your opponent can accept. The game goes on at twice the stakes. They put the cube on their side and now own it.
• Only the owner of the cube may double next. If the other player accepts that redouble, the cube changes sides again.
• There is no limit. After 64, keep counting: 128, 256 and so on.

Example: you double to 2 and your opponent accepts. Later they redouble to 4. If you refuse, you lose 2 points. If you accept, the game is worth 4, and the cube is yours.