How To Play Backgammon (with Pictures) - WikiHow

Backgammon is a 2-player board game that is played on a backgammon board, which is a board divided in the middle with 12 triangular spaces, called points, in each quadrant. Each player sits on opposite sides of the board and has 15 color-coded checker pieces to play with. The goal of the game is to be the first to remove all of your pieces off of the board, which is also called “bearing off.” To set the game up, the first player sets 3 pieces up in a vertical row at the base of the fifth point from their left, in the bottom half of the board, and 5 pieces in the first point directly to the bottom right of the board’s partition. Then, that player lines up 5 pieces at the left-most point at the top left, and 2 pieces in the last point on the top right. The opposing player sets their color’s pieces up to mirror their opponent’s pieces, so that each row of 2 has a mirror row of 2 on the opposite side, each row of 3 has a mirror row of 3, and so on. The first player’s pieces are only allowed to move counterclockwise, starting in the top right. The second player’s pieces are only allowed to move clockwise, starting at the top on their left. To start play, players take alternating turns rolling 2 6-sided dice. For each of the numbers that gets rolled, the rolling player moves 1 or 2 pieces based on the numbers rolled on the dice. So a roll of a 5 and 2 would allow the rolling player to move one piece 2 points and another piece 5 points. Alternatively, that player may move 1 piece 7 points. Rolling 2 of the same number allows that player to move 4 times. For example, a roll of 2 and 2 allows that player to move a total of 8 points, although each piece being moved must travel 2 points at a time. Players cannot move a piece to a point that is occupied by 2 or more of their opponent’s pieces, but may stack their own pieces on a single point. If a player moves a piece to a point with only 1 of their opponent’s pieces on it, that opposing player’s piece is removed from the board and placed on the middle partition. At the beginning of the next player’s turn, they must use at least 1 of their rolls to remove that piece from the partition and start it over from the beginning point on their side of the board. Once all of a player’s pieces are in the quadrant of the board closest to the end, that player may begin removing pieces off of the board. Once a player moves a piece 1 point past the edge of the board, it is removed from the game. A player wins once all of their pieces are removed from the board. If you want to learn how to get your pieces off of the board so you can win, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you?YesNo