How to play backgammon

Backgammon is a race between two players whose 15 checkers move around the board in opposite directions. The first player to bring all 15 checkers home and take them off the board, called bearing off, wins. This page covers the full rules. For a short summary, see the rules cheat sheet.

The board and the setup

The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, in four quarters of six. A raised strip in the middle, the bar, divides it into halves. Your home board and your opponent's home board face each other; the other two quarters are the outer boards.

Each player numbers the points from their own side: your 1-point is the deepest point in your home board, and your 24-point is the deepest point in your opponent's home board. Your opponent counts the same points the other way, so your 24-point is their 1-point. At the start, each player has:

• 2 checkers on the 24-point;
• 5 checkers on the 13-point (the midpoint);
• 3 checkers on the 8-point;
• 5 checkers on the 6-point.

You always move from higher numbers to lower ones, from your 24-point toward your 1-point. Details on orientation and mirrored boards are on the board setup page.

The opening roll

Each player rolls one die. The higher number moves first and plays the two numbers just rolled as their first move. If both dice show the same number, both players roll again, so the first move is never a double. After that, players take turns rolling both dice.

Dice are rolled into the right-hand half of the board. If a die lands outside it, on a checker, or tilted, both dice are rolled again.

Moving checkers

The two numbers on the dice are two separate moves. With a 5-3 you can move one checker 5 and another 3, or one checker 8 in total if the point where it stops in between is open.

• A point is open if it is empty, holds your own checkers, or holds exactly one opposing checker.
• A point with two or more opposing checkers is closed (blocked). You cannot land on it.
• If you roll a double, you play the number four times. A 4-4 gives four moves of 4.
• You must use both numbers if any legal way exists. If only one number can be played, you must play it; if either one could be played but not both, you must play the larger one.
• If no legal move exists, you lose the turn.

Hitting and the bar

A single checker on a point is a blot. If your checker lands on an opponent's blot, the blot is hit and placed on the bar. A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back in before moving anything else. It enters in the opponent's home board: a roll of 3 enters on your 22-point, a roll of 6 on your 19-point, and so on. If the entry point is closed, that number cannot be used. If both numbers are blocked, the turn is lost.

Bearing off

Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you can start bearing off. A roll of 4 removes a checker from the 4-point. You may also use a number to move a checker inside the home board instead. If the number is higher than your highest occupied point, you remove a checker from the highest point. If one of your checkers is hit while you are bearing off, it must re-enter and come all the way home before you can bear off again.

Winning and scoring

• Single game: the loser has borne off at least one checker. Worth 1 point.
• Gammon: the loser has not borne off any checkers. Worth 2 points.
• Backgammon: the loser has not borne off any checkers and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board. Worth 3 points.

The doubling cube in match play

Serious backgammon is usually played as a match to a set number of points, such as 5, 7 or 11. The doubling cube, with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64, raises the value of the current game. It starts in the middle at 1. Before rolling, a player may offer a double. The opponent either drops, conceding the game at its current value, or takes, and the game goes on at twice the value. The taker now owns the cube and alone may redouble later.

In match play the Crawford rule applies: when one player gets within one point of winning the match, no doubling is allowed in the next game. Outside matches, many players use the Jacoby rule, under which gammons and backgammons count only if the cube has been turned.