Card and board games

Backgammon

What the game is

Backgammon is a two-player race game. Each player has 15 checkers on a board of 24 narrow triangles called points. Players move in opposite directions according to the roll of two dice, and the first to bring all their checkers home and remove them from the board wins.

Moving

• Each die is a separate move. A roll of 5 and 2 lets you move one checker five points and another two, or one checker seven points if the stop in between is open.
• Doubles are played twice: a roll of double 3 gives four moves of three.
• You may land on any point that is empty, holds your own checkers, or holds a single opposing checker.
• You may not land on a point held by two or more opposing checkers.

Hitting

Landing on a single opposing checker (a blot) hits it. The hit checker goes to the bar in the middle of the board and must re-enter in the opponent's home board before that player can move anything else.

Bearing off

When all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, the last quarter of your route, you can start removing them with your dice rolls.

The doubling cube

In money and match play a cube marked 2, 4, 8 and so on lets a player propose doubling the stakes. The opponent either accepts and takes control of the cube, or concedes the game at the current value.

Editor's notes

Two checkers together on a point cannot be hit. Beginners lose most often by leaving single checkers exposed when they did not need to.

Entry last checked: October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Use the contact page.