Backgammon Rules:The Key to Success

Reading and understanding the backgammon rules can give you a full grasp of this game. The actual and online backgammon game have the same rules.

In Backgammon, there are two players involved. Both are playing against each other. Their main objective is to move their checkers to their territory on board and then take them out. The winner of the backgammon game is the first player to remove all his checkers off the board.

ARRANGING THE BOARD

There are 24 triangles in a backgammon boards being term as "Points". There are only two colors of the points that help the players to visualize their moves. These colors of these points don't have any meaning behind it. There are 4 smaller divisions inside the board. They are the "Home boards" and "Outer boards".

On the other hand, the one thing that separates the board in the middle is called "Bar".

There are 15 checkers designated to each player. And the checkers colors are only red and white.

There are different numbers assigned for each player on each point on the backgammon board. From each home the backgammon players starts to number their points. The first point of the white player is can be found on the lower right side of the board. There are 2 regular dice with 6 sides and a "Doubling cube". The "Doubling cube" has the numbers 2, 4, 8,16,32,64 that are only used for higher stakes.

STARTING THE GAME

To begin the game, each player throws a dice. The player with the higher results starts the game. If both players have the same outcome, they need to toss again. After the first turn, each player throws two dice alternately.

MOVING THE CHECKERS

The roll of the dice determines the movement of the checkers. The roll shows how many pips or points the checker is allowed to be move. According to the backgammon rules the movement of the checkers on the board is counter clockwise.

BACKGAMMON RULES OF MOVEMENT

First rule, in a Free/ Open point the point is not occupied with more than one opponent's checker. And it is forbidden to move a checker to a point which is not free or open.

Second rule, as per backgammon rules the moves are dependent on the result of the dice. For the same roll of dice alone there are so many possibilities of movements.

If both dice show the same number, this is known as "Double". The player will play the number on the dice double in total of four times.

The only time that a player is allowed to move his own pieces is whenever there is actually a place to move into, and use all the moves determined by the dice (even if it is a double). All the moves determine by the dice even if it is double must be move by the players through the checker. If each number can be played separately, the higher number must be played. The player losses its turn if all the number cannot be played at all.

HITTING

A "Blot" is a point that is occupied only by one checker.

The opponent's checker is moved to the bar, if the player lands on the opponent' blot.

ENTERING

The player must enter the checker on the bar to the opponents' home board before he makes any other moves. This is being done whenever a player has checkers on the bar his first move.

The role of the dice will be followed in entering a checker if the point is open.

If both numbers are not open, the player drops his turn. The player could only start moving the other checker around the bar only when all checkers are off the bar. The player could enter one checker if he has more than one checker on the bar.

This game is surely exciting to play once you get familiar with the backgammon rules. Remember that the fun in winning came from the fun of playing the game.