Backgammon Objective

The object of the backgammon game is to “bear off” all of your pieces from the backgammon board before your opponent manages to bear off his or her pieces. Each player tries to prevent the other from achieving this goal.

Setting Up the Backgammon Board

Open your backgammon set. Make sure that you have 15 checkers of each color of backgammon checkers (a checker is a backgammon piece). You should also have four dice, two cups, and a doubling cube. The color of the dice usually matches the color of the checkers. Choose who will play with each of the colors by rolling the dice; highest roll chooses his color.

To describe the points on the backgammon board, it is common to use a numbering system. Each of the points is represented by a number; the first point in your home board is point # 1, and the last point, counting in a clockwise direction, is # 24 in your opponent’s home board.

Set up your checkers as follows;

• Two checkers on point #24


• Five checkers on point #13


• Three checkers on point #8


• Five checkers on point # 6

To decide who throws first, each player throws one die. The dice must land inside the board and to the right of the bar. They must land flat and not on the bar or on a checker. A die that lands badly is said to be “cocked” and both of the dice must be thrown again. This is true at all stages of the game. If the two dice are the same on the first roll, then the doubling cube is moved to two, and both players roll a single die again. The player who throws the higher number goes first, using the numbers shown on the two dice to make his first move.The direction of play is from point #24 to point #1.

At the opening stage of the game, the value of the game is one point (for example $1.00). Either player can offer to double the stake, by turning the doubling cube, which starts by showing the number 64, to the side showing the number 2. The other player can either accept the double, or forfeit the game. After accepting an offer to double, your opponent now “owns” the doubling cube, and only he can offer to double. The act of doubling can dramatically raise the stakes of the game, since in a $1 game, after the second double, the game is worth $4, and after the third, it's worth $8.

Each player takes a turn to throw the dice and move checkers towards his home board, so that he can bear off all of his checkers. The checkers are moved according to the exact numbers shown on the dice. Players must use all of the pips shown on each die. If a player can only move using one of the dice, he must use the higher number. Doubles, or two dice of the same number, are counted as twice the value of the roll, meaning that the

• an empty point,
  
  
• a point occupied by a player's own men,
  
  
• or a point occupied by a single checker (a blot) owned by the opponent.
  
  

Landing on a blot, an unprotected checker, sends the opponent’s blot to the bar. When you land on a blot, put your opponent’s checker on the bar. The checker remains on the bar until its owner succeeds in reentering it into the game in his home board. This is achieved when the roll of the dice shows a number that corresponds to a point in the home board. The point must either be empty, occupied by the player's own men, or occupied by a blot, as explained above. If the numbers on the dice do not correspond to one of these options, the player can not move and must wait for his next turn. Any number of checkers may occupy a point. Your turn is over when you pick up your dice form the board.

When all of your checkers are in your home board, you can start bearing off. The first player to bear off all of his checkers wins the game. If you are hit while you are bearing off, you must reenter your checker from the bar to your home board before you can resume bearing off. If you bear off all of your checkers before your opponent begins to bear off, you have “gammoned.” A gammon earns you double the stake of the game.

If all of your checkers have been removed from the board and your opponent has not removed any and still has a checker in your home board, then the stakes are tripled. This is known as backgammon.

• Automatic Doubles is an optional rule in which players agree to double the stakes if the first roll is a double. In this case, turn the doubling cube to the number two.
  
  
• Beaver: If a player immediately redoubles on a double, he retains ownership of the cube. His opponent may accept or refuse the redouble. If the opponent refuses the redouble, then the opponent loses.
  
  
• The Jacoby Rule states that gammons and backgammons count only as single points if neither player has offered the double during the game.