Online Backgammon – Some Basic Facts

General Rules and Strategy

Backgammon is a game where two players try to move their checkers around the board as fast as possible.  The rules in backgammon are the same as traditional board backgammon.  The game starts in the position shown in the figure below:

Starting Position in Backgammon

The black player moves counter-clockwise towards the bottom right corner (black’s home board) while white moves clockwise towards the upper right corner (white’s home board). Once a player has brought all checkers into his home board, they must be born off over the edge of the board as fast as possible. The player that bears off all his checkers first wins the game.

Using the dice roll

When it is your turn, you must roll the two dice and use the result to make a move. You can either use one die to move one checker and the other die to move another checker or both dice to move one single checker. For example, with a roll of 4-2 you can move one checker four steps and another checker two steps, or one checker six steps.

If the two dice show the same number, you must move as if you had rolled four dice with that same number. For example, with a roll of 3-3, you can make any of the following moves:

• 3-3-3-3 – (four checkers three steps)
• 6-3-3
• 6-6
• 9-3
• 12 – (one checker 12 steps)

Hitting each other’s checkers

That sounds pretty easy, right? There’s just one problem: If you leave one of your checkers alone on a point and your opponent manages to put a checker on that same point, your checker is hit. It is returned to the start and must move all the way back through the board again. (For practical reasons it is placed on the bar in the middle of the board.)

One checker has been hit

When one or more of your checkers have been hit, you must use your dice rolls to move them out in the board again before you can move any other checker.

Blocking each others movement

Actually there’s another problem as well. If your opponent has put more than one checker on a point, you are not allowed to use the point. Your opponent has blocked the point and you cannot put any of your checkers there. If this doesn’t make you sworried, imagine when he blocks several points in a row. Then your movement can get severely restricted. In the worst case scenario, if the opponent manages to block six consecutive points, there is no way you can pass it.

Six point blockade

Your checkers behind that blockade will be securely locked in. Sure, sooner or later, the opponent will have to brake up the blockade and move his checkers along, but at that time the game may very well be over for you.