How To Play Backgammon

Backgammon is one of the world’s most popular board games, tracing its origins to ancient Egypt. The game spread around the world to practically every corner of the earth, adapting to suit different nationalities, environments and other elements. The basic premise of backgammon, however, has stayed the same over thousands of years and today it is one of the most sought after games on and off the internet.

Players may feel that it is difficult to learn how to play backgammon, but the truth of the matter is that it is a simple enough game to play. Backgammon is essentially a game played between two players. The board consists of 24 narrow triangles that are called points in layman’s terms. These are grouped into four quadrants on the board – with each one known by a different term (player’s home board and outer board and the opponent’s home board and outer board). Running down the middle of the board in a vertical line is a raised ridge called the bar.

When starting to learn how to play backgammon, players will learn that the points are numbered from one to 24. The game begins with each player been given fifteen checkers – one of one color, and one of another. The checkers are placed in a unique way on the board as follows – two on each player’s 24th point, five on the 13th point, three on the 8th point and five on the 6th point.

The object when learning how to play backgammon is to move all your checkers first onto your home board and thereafter off the board (also known as bearing off). The player who manages to move all his or her checkers off the board first is declared the winner of the game.

The movement of the checkers in the right direction is very important when learning how to play backgammon. The dice determine how many points the checkers can moved.

There are several rules pertaining to checker movement. A checker can only be moved to an open point, ie. one that is not occupied by two or more checkers belonging to the opponent.

The player can choose to move the checkers in two ways – either by combining the two numbers on the dice and moving one checker that amount, or moving one checker one of the numbers that appeared on a die, and the other checker moves the second number on the other die.

There are many other rules in backgammon that affect the concept known as hitting and entering, and then bearing off the board. Some backgammon versions follow a rule called doubling, especially when stakes are played on the game.

Players start bearing off their checkers when they have brought them all onto their game board. The first player who manages to bear off all fifteen checkers off the board wins the game.

Playing backgammon both online and offline and getting enough practice means that that player will eventually learn how to play backgammon like a pro!