How to Play Backgammon — Beginner Guide to Rules + Strategy
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games still played — archaeological evidence dates it to 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. It’s also one of the only games where pure skill and dice luck mix in a structurally meaningful way. If you’ve never played, here’s a complete beginner-to-intermediate guide.
The board
24 triangular points arranged in two halves (home board, outer board) on each side, divided by the bar. Each player has 15 checkers. White moves counterclockwise; Black moves clockwise. Each player’s home board is the 6 points to their right. Starting position:
White: 2 checkers on point 24, 5 on 13, 3 on 8, 5 on 6. Black mirrors: 2 on point 1, 5 on 12, 3 on 17, 5 on 19.
The basic move
Roll two dice. Move two of your checkers — one for each die. So if you roll 3-5, you might move one checker 3 spaces and another 5 spaces, or you can move one checker 3 spaces THEN that same checker 5 more spaces.
Doubles (e.g., 6-6) let you move four times. You can land on any point that’s empty, your own colour, or has only one opponent checker (you “hit” it). You cannot land on a point with 2+ opponent checkers — it’s blocked.
Hitting and the bar
If you land on a point with exactly one opponent checker, that checker is sent to the bar (the middle strip). The hit player must re-enter that checker into their opponent’s home board before any other move.
If both dice land on points blocked by opponent checkers, the hit player loses their turn. This is why building a 5- or 6-point block in your home board is so strong — it can shut your opponent out entirely.
Bearing off
Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you can start bearing off — removing checkers from the board. First to bear off all 15 wins.
You bear off by rolling the number of the point your checker is on. Roll a 4 and your checker on point 4 comes off. If you roll higher than your highest occupied point, you bear off your highest checker.
Strategy: the priming game
The strongest opening strategy is to build a prime — 6 consecutive blocked points — in your home board or outer board. A full prime makes it impossible for your opponent’s blot to move past.
Your opening goal: roll the dice and place checkers on the 5-point, 7-point, and 4-point of your home board. From there, build the bar point (7-point) and the 3-point. Six consecutive blocked points = full prime.
Strategy: race vs. block
Two macro strategies: race (move all checkers as fast as possible to your home board, no hits) or block (build primes, hit opponent’s stray checkers, force them to re-enter into a wall).
The choice depends on the pip count — total spaces each player still needs to bear off. If you’re ahead by 20+ pips, race. If you’re behind by 20+, block aggressively.
The doubling cube
Backgammon’s most distinctive feature. The cube starts at 1. Before your roll, you can offer to double the stakes. Your opponent either accepts (game continues at 2× stakes, they own the cube) or declines (concede the game at current stakes).
Once owned, only the cube owner can re-double. The cube can go 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64. Doubling at the wrong moment is the most expensive mistake in money games.
Practice
Play our Backgammon against the CPU. Includes proper bar, bear-off, and the doubling cube.
More
Backgammon is famously brutal at high levels. If you want to get serious, install XG (Extreme Gammon) — the dominant analysis engine — and work through opening positions one at a time.
