Backgammon Board game |
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How Backgammon Played |
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In backgammon players are trying to get all of
their pieces past their opponent's pieces. This is difficult because the
pieces are scattered at first, and may be blocked or captured by the
opponent's pieces. Each side of the board has a track of twelve adjacent spaces, called points and usually represented by long triangles of alternating (but meaningless) color. The tracks are imagined to be connected across the break in the middle and on just one edge of the board, making a continuous line (but not a circle) of twenty-four points. The points are numbered from 1 to 24, with checkers always moving from higher-numbered points to lower-numbered points. The two players move their checkers in opposite directions, so the 1-point for one player is the 24-point for the other. Some recorded games, however, keep the numbering of the points constant from the perspective of one player. Each player begins with two checkers on his 24-point, three checkers on his 8-point, and five checkers each on his 13-point and his 6-point.
Note that the board as shown can be flipped
horizontally, with starting positions and direction of play likewise
flipped but with no changes to the mechanics of backgammon game play. The two
orientations are equally common and backgammon game boards are all designed to be
played both ways. |
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At the start of the game, each player rolls one die.
Whoever rolls higher starts his first turn using the numbers on the
already-rolled dice. In case of a tie, the players roll again. The players
alternate turns and roll two dice at the beginning of each turn after the
first.
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A checker may land on any point occupied by no checkers or by friendly checkers. Also it may land on a point occupied by exactly one enemy checker (a lone piece is called a blot). In the latter case the blot has been hit, and is temporarily placed in the middle of the backgammon board on the bar, i.e., the divider between the home boards and the outfields. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more enemy checkers. Thus no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players at the same time. | ||
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Points one to six, where the player wants to get his
pieces to, are called the home board or inner backgammon board. A player may not bear
off any checkers unless all of his checkers are in his home board. Points
seven to twelve are called the outer backgammon board, points thirteen to eighteen
are the opponent's outer board, and points nineteen to twenty-four are the
opponent's home board. The 7-point is often referred to as the bar point
and the 13-point as the mid point. After rolling the backgammon dice a player must, if possible, move checkers the number of points showing on each die. For example, if he rolls a 6 and a 3, he must move one checker six points forward and another one three points forward. The dice may be played in either order. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six, but not nine all at once. If a player has no legal moves after rolling the dice, because all of the points to which he might move are occupied by two or more enemy checkers, he forfeits his turn. However, a player must play both dice if it is possible. If he has a legal move for one die only, he must make that move and then forfeit the use of the other die. (If he has a legal move for either die, but not both, he must play the higher number.) If a player rolls two of the same number (doubles) he must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5 and a 5, he must play four checkers forward five spaces each. As before, a checker may be moved multiple times as long as the moves are distinct. Checkers on the bar re-enter the backgammon game through the opponent's home field. A roll of 1 allows the checker to enter on the 24-point, a roll of 2 on the 23-point, etc. A player with one or more checkers on the bar may not move any other checkers until all of the checkers on the bar have re-entered the opponent's home field. |
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When all of a player's checkers are in his home
board, he may remove them from the board, or bear them off. A roll of 1
may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point,
etc. A number may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower point
unless there are no checkers on any higher points. For example, a 4 may be
used to bear off a checker from the 3-point only if there are no checkers
on the 4-, 5-, and 6-points. A checker
borne off from a lower point than indicated on the die still counts as the
full die. For instance, suppose a player has only one checker on his
2-point and two checkers on his 1-point. Then on rolling 1-2, he may move
the checker from the 2-point to the 1-point (using the 1 rolled), and then
bear off from the 1-point (using the 2 rolled). He is not required to
maximize the use of his rolled 2 by bearing off from the 2-point. |
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